Radio Station: Z100 WHTZ New York (Newark)
Frequency: 100.3 MHZ
Format: CHR
Courtesy: Charles Menut.
On the morning of August 2 1983, Z100 signed on with Scott Shannon, & JR Nelson and the brand new Top Forty format! This was the first time New York had a true Top 40 station on FM in years. Transmitting from First Mountain in West Orange, the tower was also the home of WSOU and WFME. Scott Shannon Always referred to that transmitter as the Pea Shooter The station was on that tower in Jersey for the first few days until Aug 4, when they were finally broadcasting from the Empire State Building. Scott Shannon Always referred to that transmitter as the Flamethrower! They could be heard clearly across all of Metro New York. The rest was history, Shannon & his crew on Z100 went from “Worst, to first” in only 74 days!
This aircheck, from Z100’s Third day on air, now broadcasting from the new transmitter at the Empire State building. Scott & JR are back for day 3 of Z100. -Ellis
***To Play Aircheck, Click The Video Below***
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I was living in Jackson, N.J., home of Great Adventure Amusement Park, when Z100 signed on. My signal meter DROPPED from 4.5 to a 3 when they went from West Orange to ESB, due to a drop in power and terrain.
Interestingly enough, that’s not the only example – there are plenty! I’ll take the Boston market for example. When WAAF decided they wanted to be a Boston station, they moved from a tall tower on Abumskit Hill in Paxton, Mass, just ouside of Worcester, to a place called the FM-128 tower in Framingham, close to Rte. 128, they took a signal that was literally heard in 5 states and cut it into a third or less of what it was, just so they could serve the downtown Boston area. WAAF was so well known, it had listeners in Central Vermont, New Hampshire and even parts of Maine before the move. After… it became just another Boston station – one which really never could compete against it’s own competition – which at the time was heritage WBCN and WZLX. A few years later and Rock was dead in Boston… WBCN taken off the air to make room for WBMX’s move from 98.5 and ZLX just never in the same league anyway. I’ve got plenty more examples, but I’d defer to radio historian Scott Fybush to show better examples of moves that never did quite do what they wanted (and with a little foresight, the owners would have understood the stupidity.. but oh well, that’s radio!)