WLEV FM 96.1 Easton PA 1975

[stevations]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9pIMDC86a4

 

[dieruff]

Very kewl. I remember John Price; we covered news when I was at WEEX and he was at WEST in the early 70s. John later worked for the governor of West Virginia. Excellent audio check. Thanks for posting.
NS

 

[Seltzer]

Thanks for posting this. After WEEX FOOLISHLY took their programming off FM to try to compete with FMZ in 73, WLEV at least put some form of contemporary music on FM. Other things I picked up: The late great Gene Bethman on the bank commercial. Gene. of course, the long time WEST morning host for many years.

I know around 78, the staff of the BIG X tried to talk the Easton Express owners to move their Top 40 format back to FM. The owners refused. Had that happened, WLEV's success as an automated A/C radio station could have been short lived.

The success of WLEV in those days led to changes in Bethlehem. WGPA-FM stopped being a half MOR/Half Beautiful Music station and put automated CHR music on before being sold to Holt and the arrival of the AOR format on WZZO.

That little progressive AM station,,WSAN...that all the guys in high school listened to..ultimately went away with the arrival of ZZO.

Great memories.

 

[John1]

I didn't remember that WLEV ran the syndicated "Hit Parade" format - was that their first format after ending the WEST simulcast? "Hit Parade '70" & '71 also ran on WIFI in Philadelphia before they went live & local top 40. The old WEST was an FM 'relic' by the '70's with the 'Yawn Patrol' morning show, noontime & evening 'Voice of the People' call-in shows, etc. I agree that the switch of WEEX on FM to WQQQ was ill-timed as FM top 40 was starting to take off, it would have been smarter to switch the AM format. I was in college at E. Stroudsburg in the early '70's & WEEX was the strongest outside the area top 40 signal & you could hear it blaring in the dorm hallways. I was able to pick up WSAN marginally in the daytime - what a great little AM progressive rock station with the same local A-Treat commercials, etc. as the top 40 AMs. When 95.1 started as rock they still used the WEZV calls for a time as Z-95 before becoming WZZO.

 

[ActuallyInTheBiz]

I'd love to get some unscoped WSAN airchecks with the IDs and spots included. Maybe they're out there, I haven't looked. Now I'm motivated to look.

 

[Seltzer]

I didn't remember that WLEV ran the syndicated "Hit Parade" format - was that their first format after ending the WEST simulcast? "Hit Parade '70" & '71 also ran on WIFI in Philadelphia before they went live & local top 40. The old WEST was an FM 'relic' by the '70's with the 'Yawn Patrol' morning show, noontime & evening 'Voice of the People' call-in shows, etc. I agree that the switch of WEEX on FM to WQQQ was ill-timed as FM top 40 was starting to take off, it would have been smarter to switch the AM format. I was in college at E. Stroudsburg in the early '70's & WEEX was the strongest outside the area top 40 signal & you could hear it blaring in the dorm hallways. I was able to pick up WSAN marginally in the daytime - what a great little AM progressive rock station with the same local A-Treat commercials, etc. as the top 40 AMs. When 95.1 started as rock they still used the WEZV calls for a time as Z-95 before becoming WZZO.

Yes. They ran Hit Parade beginning in 73 and stayed with it for many years. Into the early 80s at least before going live. Mick Hagerty was on in the morning and it was still a few years before they totally dropped Hit parade and began doing music locally. Around 83, Top 40 CHR music returned to 99.9.

 

[humwing]

was it WLEV or WEZV that had a format of the week? one week in 1975 it was believe it or not....disco! only 790 WAEB had disco-79 0h.on saturday nights back then.

 

[Bob Farro]

Ahhh the turmoil of Easton radio in the '70's!! I was at WEEX with John Price - great guy and fun to work with. Up at the Big X we made fun of the Hit Parade format... "That was......" --- "This is......". Who knew that voicetracking would catch on?

The WEEX FM signal was the signal that mattered, even at the original 13,000 watts. When it went to 50,000 watts, it woulda been the baddest-ass rocker in the valley. Instead... it was, "WQQQ... 99.9.....STEREO.....fmmmmmm" *snore*.

I do recall when we went to 50kW, we got calls from the people who lived near the tower, complaining that they picked up the signal on their stoves, all over the FM band... on their shoes... everywhere. When Tom Wolfe was asked what he planned to do about it... he said he planned to play music!

 

[Seltzer]

Ahhh the turmoil of Easton radio in the '70's!! I was at WEEX with John Price - great guy and fun to work with. Up at the Big X we made fun of the Hit Parade format... "That was......" --- "This is......". Who knew that voicetracking would catch on?

The WEEX FM signal was the signal that mattered, even at the original 13,000 watts. When it went to 50,000 watts, it woulda been the baddest-ass rocker in the valley. Instead... it was, "WQQQ... 99.9.....STEREO.....fmmmmmm" *snore*.

I do recall when we went to 50kW, we got calls from the people who lived near the tower, complaining that they picked up the signal on their stoves, all over the FM band... on their shoes... everywhere. When Tom Wolfe was asked what he planned to do about it... he said he planned to play music!

Always felt that the Big X was the BEST SOUNDING of the Top 40 stations in the Lehigh Valley. Better than WAEB. Better than KAP. But the signal on 1230 just couldn't compete..didn't get much out of Easton-Pburg at night. Especially in the 70s. Lucky you to have worked there back then.

 

[Seltzer]

was it WLEV or WEZV that had a format of the week? one week in 1975 it was believe it or not....disco! only 790 WAEB had disco-79 0h.on saturday nights back then.

LEV was Hit parade in 75 so it could have been WEZV.

 

[BobSmolarek]

Yes i can confirm it was WEZV 95.1 with the disco music, I remember that. Also they were beautiful music for awhile. I remember it did take awhile for them to get the WZZO calls even though they used the Z-95 handle as WEZV.

 

[JH_Radio]

what is MOR? I've heard of this format and think its now not on anyware.

 

[klutch00]

what is MOR? I've heard of this format and think its now not on anywhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_of_the_road_%28music%29
MOR= middle-of-the-road - was a format started in the late 1950s or early '60s designed to cater mostly to the adult population of the time. They played mostly 'standards' by crooners and what I'll call 'croonettes' of the old days (Sinatra, Como, Williams, Fisher, Darin, Page, Shore, Day, etc.) as well as some 'contemporary' music by artists such as The Beatles, Elvis Presley and others not considered 'offensive'. It was sometimes known as 'chicken rock' in its early days. As time passed, the format became inundated with many genres and found itself without serious direction. Many of these stations especially in major metropolitan areas were 'personality' oriented and featured some if not quite a bit of banter between personalities. Two-man morning shows were quite common and some also had two (or more) man afternoon drive time shows as well. Most also had a full service presentation with a full news staff. Some stations which were key players in the old days included Baltimore's WBAL, New York's WNEW, Philadelphia's WIP (until about the mid 1970s), Richmond VA's WRVA, Atlanta's WSB, Detroit's WJR, Chicago's WGN (until the 1970s), LA's KMPC (until the 1970s or so), Cincinnati's WLW, Minneapolis's WCCO, and others. One of the most prominent players was Washington DC's WMAL. In fact, Washington DC had as many as four major players in the format. These included WRC until about 1972, WWDC until about 1975 and WTOP until about 1966. The adult audience in Washington was super-served whereas the teen audience was under-served. If you wanted AM top-40 in DC until about 1972, you had to rely on one of four smaller stations whose range was quite limited or didn't broadcast at night.

I wouldn't say that MOR is totally gone. Many of the new 'standards' stations which also feature soft AC or even traditional AC today could qualify as being MOR. I would consider Albany NY's WROW to be MOR; Denver's KEZW might also qualify.

 

[JH_Radio]

Wonder if stations such as the former WPEN (Before the Real Oldies format) was MOR? How about WRZN owned by sunshine broadcasting?
Thanks for all of the info!
Sounds to me that MOR and Bigband/standards could overlap, except MOR doesn't include bigband. Beautiful Music i think could include some elamints of MOR too. Amazing how formats overlap sometimes.

 

[klutch00]

Wonder if stations such as the former WPEN (Before the Real Oldies format) was MOR? How about WRZN owned by sunshine broadcasting?
Thanks for all of the info!
Sounds to me that MOR and Bigband/standards could overlap, except MOR doesn't include bigband. Beautiful Music i think could include some elements of MOR too. Amazing how formats overlap sometimes.

WPEN might've been considered nostalgia at the time in question although they might've been considered MOR in the mid 1970s. I think Easton's WEST was almost certainly MOR before they adopted the big band format in 1980; although it could be argued that they went back to it for all intents and purposes by late 1981.

 

[stevations]

I saw a large response (more response than many larger markets) to my last youtube aircheck posting.... so here is more WLEV!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EQZ_JAvdzs