WABC, WLIR, WCBS-FM and 7 more format flips that shocked LI radio listeners
Radio's Cousin Brucie (real name Bruce Morrow) chats up The Beatles on his WABC show, during the station's heyday in 1964. Credit: 77 WABC Radio
It has been a little more than a week since all-news WCBS/880 AM, a staple of New York radio for 57 years, went dark, transforming itself into all-sports WHSQ. WCBS' demise was just the latest instance in which loyal listeners felt shock and disappointment. Here are 10 other memorable New York radio format flips of the past:
1965: WINS (1010 AM) Once New York's premier rock and roll station (where the legendary Murray the K reigned), it switched to the then-revolutionary format of "all news, all the time," which it still features today (on FM as well at 92.3).
1970: WMCA (570 AM) The Top 40 station (always in the shadow of WABC), home of radio's "Good Guys" (Jack Spector, Joe O'Brien, Harry Harrison) went all-talk.
1974: WNCN (104.3 FM) Classical music station flipped to rock as WQIV (its first song played: ELO's "Roll Over Beethoven"). But less than a year later, after protests from listeners, the station brought Beethoven back until 1993 anyway — when it went rock again. (It's now classic rock WAXQ, "Q-104.")
1982: WABC (770 AM) Arguably, America's most famous and influential Top 40 station ("W-A-Beatle-C") — the home of Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy, Chuck Leonard and Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow — flipped to all-talk after years of declining ratings and competition from FM. (In 2020, Cousin Brucie returned to host a weekly Saturday-night show.)
1993: WNEW (1130 AM) Legendary pop standards station — featuring hosts such as Martin Block and William B. Williams ("The Make Believe Ballroom") — became all-business/talk WBBR (Bloomberg radio).
2004: WLIB (1190 AM) The radio outlet for New York's Caribbean community became the New York outlet for the liberal-leaning Air America.
2004: WLIR/WDRE (92.7 FM) The cutting-edge station that "dares to be different," home to Larry "The Duck" Dunn and Malibu Sue, helped usher in New Wave for Long Island listeners. But on Jan. 9, 2004, Univision bought the 92.7 frequency and other assets for $60 million and began simulcasting the Spanish radio format of its Newark station. WLIR retained its call letters, but moved to Eastern Suffolk's 107.1 FM, where reception was spotty for many of the station's regular listeners in Queens, Nassau and Western Suffolk.
2005: WCBS (101.1 FM) Without warning, late on a Friday afternoon in June, the venerable oldies station ditched its format in favor of an oddity known as JACK-FM. Longtime listeners were puzzled and angered by the new format, which featured no DJs and a mix of more contemporary music. But, two years later, the most appropriate song would be a true oldie: "Hit the Road, Jack," as the oldies format and DJs returned (although these oldies skewed to a younger audience than the original CBS-FM incarnation).
2012: WRKS/"KISS-FM" (98.7 FM). The home for R&B and classic soul abandoned 98.7, merging with longtime rival WBLS/107.5-FM to make way for ESPN Radio (which 12 years later would supplant WCBS/880).
2019: WPLJ (95.5 FM) "Power 95," which brought rock and pop to the metropolitan area for 48 years with such on-air stars as Jim Kerr, Scott Shannon and Tony Pigg, became "K-Love", with a contemporary Christian music format. (Oddly, the station has retained the WPLJ call letters.)
Andy Edelstein, Newsday's entertainment editor, supervises coverage of TV, celebrities, movies and pop music. He has written three books on popular culture, including "The Brady Bunch Book."
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