“Maybe we can get a job on WPLJesus”
Highlights
Here in this second hour of Todd & Jayde, in the second talk break just a few minutes into this scoped recording, Todd Pettingil tries (successfully) to explain why they were going off the air and did explain the four different sales of WPLJ to another entity during the time he was at the station. There is a lot more to his explanation and you need to listen (below) to get the full story straight from his lips.
Later in the program, listen for Todd & Jayde’s “Blown Off” feature. You get treated to TWO phoners…. Man. Live radio. This is truly where it’s at.
Before we add in the additional descriptions, let me just comment, that WPLJ likely did its best work in many years just before the end. Why? Well, once everyone knew they were getting bounced but had the opportunity to work through it, it was like unleashing the creativity bottled up in these personalities for many years. They, as the professionals that they are, kept with the format and the music and only rarely until Reunion Day, broke format and played a song just because they liked it. The production values on this station at the end were top notch. Everyone did their best. Todd & Jayde, the whole morning show cast, and in fact, the entire on-air staff at WPLJ that got to stick it out until the end… my hat is off to you! You are the best, and THAT’s why you’re all in New York City.
Original Comments:
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The end of 95.5 WPLJ as a commercial station, prior to Educational Media Foundation’s taking control and changing the format to non-commercial Christian music K-love was probably the most covered format change in the history of modern broadcasting. The only exception perhaps was the format change of 77 WABC on May 10, 1982. This was covered on other radio stations, WABC-TV Channel 7, newspapers and even on the CBS radio network. CBS covered the event as a news item. This is likely no coincidence, as, while Entercom never owned WPLJ, nor did CBS, locally, WCBS-FM‘s morning team was the morning show on WPLJ. Scott Shannon teamed up with Todd Pettingill for 22 years, prior to his departure for WCBS-FM. He spoke of the format change on his morning show. And in something that would have been unheard of in years past, WCBS News Radio 880 ran a story on the end of WPLJ.
The recording you are about to hear (above) was captured in its entirety off the air. This was not an internet feed. The WCBS 880 aircheck was recorded using an HD receiver. I get an HD lock here in Connecticut for WCBS. The WPLJ recordings were all captured by Contributor Matt Seinberg, founder of Big Apple Airchecks. Many thanks to Matt for spending an entire day recording the programming of WPLJ, then a few more days in front of his machine splitting up the recordings into one-hour segments.
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