Bridget
01-28-2003, 02:18 AM
WNEW PLAYING NAME THAT TUNE
By DON KAPLAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 28, 2003 --
WNEW-FM suddenly dropped its crippled talk format yesterday and brought back music. But it's not known what kind of music the former home of Opie & Anthony will ultimately settle on.
Yesterday, the station began playing everything from Top 40 to rock to rap starting at 1 a.m., while promising listeners "a new station coming soon."
WNEW is doing what the radio biz calls "stunting" - airing a bizarre interim format to distance the station from the previous one while creating buzz and suspense prior to the launch of the new format.
"We will be announcing a new format in the near future," said an Infinity spokesman, adding that WNEW's only remaining talk stars, Ron & Fez, will now be heard exclusively on their Washington, DC, affiliate.
The industry website All Access.com says "the smart money" is on a music format that will straddle a line between Lite FM/106.7 and WPLJ/95.5 FM.
WNEW's sudden flip from talk back to music surprised even station staffers, including weekend host Eddie Trunk.
"Airstaff are the last to know when change is happening at your radio station! " Trunk wrote on his website.
"I went to set my alarm clock and was made aware of the change to 'NEW . . . I still know NOTHING and was as surprised as anybody."
With one big exception, WNEW never made a splash as a talk station, seldom rising above 20th place since its legendary album rock format was shut down in September of 1999.
The exception was Opie & Anthony, the radio bad boys who dominated male listening in afternoon drive until their show ended in a blaze of bad publicity last August after contestants in their sex-in-public-places contest allegedly tried to score points inside St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The station has been limping along since the summer scandal with a mixture of reruns and imported network shows.
It is currently ranked 29th out of 40 rated stations.
<div align="center"><FONT color="#ffffff"
size="+1"><MARQUEE bgcolor="#000080" direction="right" loop="20" ><STRONG>01-27-03.The day the laughter died.</STRONG></MARQUEE></FONT></DIV>
http://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/kissmyass.gif INFINITY
By DON KAPLAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 28, 2003 --
WNEW-FM suddenly dropped its crippled talk format yesterday and brought back music. But it's not known what kind of music the former home of Opie & Anthony will ultimately settle on.
Yesterday, the station began playing everything from Top 40 to rock to rap starting at 1 a.m., while promising listeners "a new station coming soon."
WNEW is doing what the radio biz calls "stunting" - airing a bizarre interim format to distance the station from the previous one while creating buzz and suspense prior to the launch of the new format.
"We will be announcing a new format in the near future," said an Infinity spokesman, adding that WNEW's only remaining talk stars, Ron & Fez, will now be heard exclusively on their Washington, DC, affiliate.
The industry website All Access.com says "the smart money" is on a music format that will straddle a line between Lite FM/106.7 and WPLJ/95.5 FM.
WNEW's sudden flip from talk back to music surprised even station staffers, including weekend host Eddie Trunk.
"Airstaff are the last to know when change is happening at your radio station! " Trunk wrote on his website.
"I went to set my alarm clock and was made aware of the change to 'NEW . . . I still know NOTHING and was as surprised as anybody."
With one big exception, WNEW never made a splash as a talk station, seldom rising above 20th place since its legendary album rock format was shut down in September of 1999.
The exception was Opie & Anthony, the radio bad boys who dominated male listening in afternoon drive until their show ended in a blaze of bad publicity last August after contestants in their sex-in-public-places contest allegedly tried to score points inside St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The station has been limping along since the summer scandal with a mixture of reruns and imported network shows.
It is currently ranked 29th out of 40 rated stations.
<div align="center"><FONT color="#ffffff"
size="+1"><MARQUEE bgcolor="#000080" direction="right" loop="20" ><STRONG>01-27-03.The day the laughter died.</STRONG></MARQUEE></FONT></DIV>
http://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/kissmyass.gif INFINITY