Alan Beebe on 103.5 WAPP “The Apple” Lake Success (NYC) | September 16, 1985
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.