104.3 WNCN flips from Classical to Active Rock WAXQ “Q104.3″
Being one of three Classical Music stations in the New York market in a time when radio is more and more reliant on being a revenue generator for the owner spelled doom for WNCN. Once the flagship for the Concert Network, which distributed classic programming to station throughout the Northeast ( including WBCN Boston, WRCN Riverhead, and WHCN Hartford), the station had actually made the same flip 20 years earlier. Among protest from its former listeners, “Q104″ WQIV dropped its Progressive Rock format in 1974 after just a few weeks to return to the WNCN Classical programming. This time the change was made to a very Hard leaning Rock format with the WAXQ call letters.
From what I know about WQIV, there marketing strategy was to present Rock music in quadrophonic stereo. The format actually lasted about ten months and featured such jocks as Carol Miller.
As for the 2nd incarnation, WAXQ began with a weekend of the band ACDC profeiled from the letters A to Z. In 1996 the switched to a “Classic” Rock format which followed some interesting stunting. On the last night June 30th the station featured everything from Led Zeppelin albums, to Hip-hop to a sports interview conducted by Eddie Trunk. The first song under the new Classic Rock format was Fore-play, Long Time. It was interesting that they didn’t start the format Jockless. In fact their previous morning show host Donna Donna was the first jock. The format stands to this day.
WAXQ had a pretty week signal out in Western NJ where I used to live, but it was such a great station for a while that my friends and I would endure the static just to hear the music. I do remember that toward the beginning, the jocks hardly said a word. In fact I remember a slogan that said something like, “Play more music and shut up.”
The progressive rock/free form sound of WQIV began on November 7, 1974 at 11 A.M. It lasted until August 19 at 2 P.M. The first song was Roll Over Beethoven by ELO. The last song was Funeral for a Friend by Elton John.
At 2 P.M. on the 19th and for a week, the carrier remained on the air with an ID being heard twice an hour. This was because they were leasing out the subcarrier to supermarkets to provide background music and they were also concerned that if they shut the transmitter off, a pirate might go on 104.3 for a few days.
At 8 P.M. on the 25th, WNCN returned to the air under Star broadcasting whose board chairman was William F. Buckly, Jr. The station would be sold to the GAF Corporation. They were the company that changed the format to modern rock and the call letters to WAXQ in 1993.
Hearing this aircheck brought back many memories of the night in 93 whan that happened. Thanks for the aircheck.