Just how many format changes happened at 103.5 in the New York Metro area? WAPP (like WYNY & WKTU now) was licensed to Lake Success, with a big city signal covering all of NY and the suburbs.
What really happened here, is that by late 1985, the year-old CHR format adopted at WAPP wasn’t doing so well, so in an attempt to bolster ratings, management skewed the format in a more rock-oriented direction. But, there were so many changes afoot here…. Beebe is heard calling this station “The Apple”, “New York’s Rock Station” and, ironically, “Hot 103″. The Hot 103 slogan would come into its own the following year as the station went rhythmic, before the big switcheroo came in 1988, sending THIS station under the WQHT calls to 97.1. Wow, its all so confusing, and its no wonder listeners never did seem to be able to write WAPP in their diaries.
All that said, this station cooks and Alan Beebe is SO on top of his game here. This is a short, but great aircheck to listen to – and we sure wish this format had survived, had it succeeded, I think Z-100 woulda had serious competition.
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Yep, WAPP was unfortunately all over the place and never gave any format a chance to succeed. For me, and I’m sure many other people who grew up in the NY/NJ area at the time, My fondest memory of WAPP was the commercial-free Summer of 1982. WAPP was definitely the soundtrack to the Summer of ‘82 for me. Being the rocker that I was by that point, i didn’t hang around for the CHR years, but this aircheck and other airchecks I have heard do confirm that they hired top-rate talent to execute the format, and they did sound great. I just think that Z100 had already anchored themselves as the home of high-energy hits in NY by that point so WAPP didn’t really have a shot. neither did WKTU which was also playing CHr at the time.
Allen BeeBe still sounds the same 25 years later as he does on this aircheck. Today BeeBe is in afternoon drive on WMJY-FM/Magic 93.7 in Biloxi, MS. http://www.magic937.com has a live stream so you can listen to him every afternoon.
I really like the energy and overall HOT sound of WAPP, playing the hits when the where brand new. Does anyone know what jingle company/package the talk up ramp and sweeper heard in this aricheck come from?
Brady,
It was JAM’s Creative Productions’s “Hot KIIS” package. They’ve used it as well as the weather cut from “Music Now” during the short-lived CHR days.
WAPP was too-late into getting into CHR. They’ve debuted the CHR format in the Fall of 1984, well after Z-100 and WPLJ had established themselves. Had they’ve flipped to CHR in 1982 around the time that WABC flipped to News/Talk and before Z-100 was born and WPLJ’s conversion from AOR to CHR, they’ve probably would have done much better. One other thing that you have to factor in is that WAPP had signal problems in some parts of NYC, most notably in the northern New Jersey suburbs.
Robyn
Man I miss old radio. The jocks who actually sounded like they liked their jobs. The music that was all genres! Commercial radio is soooo boring now. Voice tracked jocks from the other side of the country…there is no community feeling to the stations anymore. I hope it will come back. Thanks for sharing these great air checks!