105.1 WRFM flips from Beautiful Music to AC WNSR
As we proceeded through the 1980’s the older targeting music formats weren’t cutting it anymore. The baby boomers were approaching their thirties and wouldn’t tolerate “Elevator Music” at work. WRFM’s ratings had taken a tumble from Adult Contemporary stations WYNY and WLTW along with fellow Easy Listening WPAT. In order to compensate, on April 15, 1986, WRFM gave way to “New York’s Soft Rock” WNSR. Achieving a solid niche in the AC marketplace, WNSR was partly responsible for driving WPIX and WYNY out of the format. As the 80’s turned into the 90’s, WNSR continued to evolve into a more contemporary station eventually changing its name to “Mix 105″.
Is it really 20 years since this happened? It does not seem like it.
I heard the format change in 86. The next morning when I woke up, they were playing the Doors and Light My Fire with the processing of WRFM still in tact. That was strange.
Dick Bartley did mornings for a couple of weeks after the change to WNSR.
I remember the early days of WNSR, the super summer of 1986:
The first full time air staff: June 1986 ( Great station!)
Dick Bartley, Bill Neil, Bob Worthington, Steve Kamer, Paulette Bolan and Jim Douglas.
News department: Ted David, Cathy Carpin and later in 1986 -Debbie Gross.
One of the saddest days in New York radio.WRFM was legendary. The music was absolutely beautiful. Isn’t it amazing that Bluer than Blue from the Frank Chacksfield Orchestra played. At least it was a Beautiful Instrumental ! WNSR and how many formats since then ? We need Beautiful Music back in NY on FM radio ! How we miss WRFM !
We really miss it. God Bless WRFM and the people who made it come alive ! You made history and created a legacy that will be forever cherished,loved and respected. God Bless You All !
WRFM WAS THE BEST GROWING UP IN NY NJ WE ALLWAYS LISTENED TO BEAUTIFUL MUSIC WRFM ! JIM BRANCH, JIM ALWAYRD ,ELWOOD THOMSAN ,BEVERLY PARPELL, WES RICHARDS, BOB JONES ,AL TURK ,KEN LAMB,JOE ROBERTS ,LARRY YONT , MITCH LEBE ,DICK LONDON ,RON ALEXANDER ,CHRIS EDWARDS , BILL BUCHNER THE BEST STATION OVER WTFM WVNJ WPAT WHOM WWYD WHUD . I MISS WRFM THE DIFFERENCE IS THE MUSIC.
Dear Sir. I am writing to you to see if you can assist me. During the 70s and 80s I regularly listened to WRFM. Many times I was not aware of the artist of the songs that were playing such as a piano and strings instrumental of \”All By Myself\” and \”Paper Mache.\” Can you identify who the artists were for these 2 instrumentals? If so, I would appreciate hearing back from you. In addition, is there a phone number I can call to speak with someone. Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I sure do miss this \”soft\” music station and wish it would return!
When I was in high school, I listened only to WRFM and recorded about 75 reel-to-reel tapes of Marlin Taylor’s programming dating back to 1969 & 1970. Earlier this year, I started transcribing them onto CD when my Akai reel deck developed preamp problems. So far I have about 40 80-minute CDs, and hope to finish the rest by mid-09.
Please contact me at joedoestaxes@hotmail.com, if you are interested in this music. I’ll do what I can to share it, as it is a timeless and priceless gift. To John who inquired about “Paper Mache,” I have a Frank Chacksfield recording of that song [instrumental] which may be what you’re looking for. To Marlin, God Bless you for all the great Percy Faith, Living Strings, Chet Atkins, Bert Kaempfert and Norman Luboff Choir music you shared with us/ not to mention all the others!
How about an aircheck from the morning man, Jim Aylward?? He used to have a pretty good am gig. And what about the commercial that Henry Mancini did while ‘Two For the Road’ played in the background. RFM’s tag was: THE DIFFERENCE IS THE MUSIC. . . WRFM.
Great stuff.
Hi John! In my 200 or so hours of reel-to-reel tapes of WRFM, I have either 3 or 4 of Jim Aylward’s “Today’s World-at-Large” commentaries. I’ve been in touch with Steve Farrell, who wrote 2 entries above. Steve is 42 I believe, whereas I’m 56, so my memories of WRFM and Jim Aylward are from a considerably earlier time frame. My tapes were recorded in 69 and 70, after which I left NYC to attend school in Washington, D.C., where I routinely listened to WGAY for beautiful music and WASH for adult contemporary sounds. Nothing could compare with WRFM’s music segments. To this day I am searching for: “Baubles, Bangles and Beads” and “Moody River” by John Barry; “Do I Hear a Waltz?” by Percy Faith; “Two Different Worlds” by Ernie Heckscher;
“Forever” by the Anita Kerr Singers; “Green Tambourine” by Les Brown, and “Diane” by Art van Damme. This is an abbreviated listing of my supreme want-list. If anyone has any of these songs, I’d ever forever grateful if I could add them to my collection and include them in my music mixes. On the other hand, if you’d like a copy of Jim Aylward’s commentaries, just drop me a line at joedoestaxes@hotmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
I remember WRFM very well, my favorite radio station of all time challenged only by the original Oldies Station, WCBS-FM in New York City.
My favorite DJ was Al Turk. Anyone know what happened to him after the transition?
There were just so many wonderful instrumentals and songs not heard anywhere else. And it was not, I repeat, not elevator music. I know elevator music and WRFM was not elevator music.
One Summer, every weekend, they played the theme music from The Big Country, the famous western movie starring Gregory Peck and many other stars of the period. It took me ove 30 years to find the soundtrack album, just last year. And the way I found it is weird. I was walking along the streets in the Village and came across a pile of vinyl albums on the stoop of a building. They were for the taking. One of them was that soundtrack album. I almost fell over!
I forgot 2 more DJ’S Charles Garrett and Bob Garity .WRFM STEREO 105 485 Madison Av. New York .I spoke with Larry Yont on WRFM 1981 and Larry had told me that Al Turk passed away from cancer .Al Turk was my favorite dj on WRFM.
I forgot 1 more great D.J. on WRFM STEREO 105 ……..Les Marshack.My area with WRFM was from 1974 to 1986 .WRFM allways had a weak signal to the north but with my Probe 9 Channel Master Antenna with a Roder I had no problem picking up WRFM in beautiful Lake Mahopac,N.Y. And me being from NY and NYC WRFM had the best D.J.’S .Other Bonneville Music Programmed Stations I use to list to WWOM 100.9 Albany,NY WWEL 107.9 Boston ,Mass. WHOM 94.9 Mt. Washington , N.H. WFPG 96.9 FM Atlantic City,N.J. and there was other stations in the area that played beautiful music WRFM WAS THE BEST ! AND SO WERE THE D.J.’s.
Is it just me imagination, or does Larry Yount’s voice catch just a bit as he’s wrapping up the weather report just prior to signing off?
I miss the beautiful music format. At least there’s Marlin Taylor’s “Escape” channel on Sirius XM to remind me of what once was; just the other morning, in fact, I flipped it on and heard…you guessed it…Frank Chacksfield’s “Bluer Than Blue”.
Hello from the Netherlands!
Yes, I sure do remember WRFM stereo 105!
During my visits to the USA it was so nice to listen to the radio!
You named a format, and it was available.
No doubt about it, in New York I only listened to WRFM, the difference was the music.
Dring some of my visits to the USA, I brought a small fm tuner with me, plus a portable cassettedeck, with Dolby stereo, the whole stuff.
In New York I taped about 10 cassettes of WRFM, just 15 hours of music.
In other cities I listened to WHOO (Orlando), KSFI (Salt Lake City), KMYT (Merced), and many others.
But WRFM was really outstanding, and it is very unfortunate it does not exist any more!
Now I listen to whatever I can grab on from the internet.
Sometimes you can find some good stations, like KJUL (Las Vegas), streaming on internet, but I stil hope, may be some good day, a station like WRFM used to be, will emerge again, and also on the internet.
In Holland there never was anything like WRFM.
For all those music lovers, greetings from Almere, a city East of Amsterdam.