WNYL (FM)


WNYL is an FM radio station licensed to New York City and owned by Entercom. WNYL broadcasts an Alternative rock format branded as "Alt 92.3", with studios located in the Hudson Square neighborhood in Manhattan and transmitter located at the Empire State Building.
The station was the flagship of The Howard Stern Show from November 1985 to December 2005, and The Opie and Anthony Show from April 2006 until March 2009.
WNYL also broadcasts in HD Radio.

History

Early years (1948–1975)

The station, first went on the air on December 25, 1948 as WMCA-FM. The station was co-owned with WMCA by former New York state senator Nathan Straus Jr.. FM radio was not a successful venture for Straus, and he decided to either sell the FM station or close it down altogether.
In late 1950, Straus sold the station to the owners of WHOM radio and WHOM-FM went on the air on February 26, 1951, featuring a variety of formats, including ethnic, background music, classical, Spanish, and easy listening. By the early 1970s, WHOM-FM had a Spanish-language easy listening format.

WKTU (1975–1985)

Mellow 92/Disco 92

WHOM and WHOM-FM, in the early 1970s, were sold to SJR Communications. On June 5, 1975, WHOM-FM became WKTU, taking on an Adult Contemporary format and was positioned as "soft rock". They were known as "Mellow 92". They played current AC songs that crossed over to Top 40 as well as a mix of music from 1964 forward. Core artists included Eagles, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Stylistics, Linda Ronstadt, Four Tops, Carly Simon, Barry Manilow, and some more contemporary cuts by Barbra Streisand. For 1960s music the station played softer Beatles songs, Mamas and Papas, Spanky and Our Gang, Association, Fifth Dimension, among others. The station steered clear of AC only songs and standards vocalists as well as hard rock or uptempo R & B. Eventually the station evolved, re-positioned as mellow rock, dropped artists like the Carpenters, most R & B product, and added some softer songs from AOR artists. Unlike today's Adult contemporary music formats, WKTU, by early 1978, was only playing artists heard on Album-oriented rock stations, using the softer songs from their popular albums. Artists found primarily on Top 40 stations were no longer included. WKTU was still called "Mellow 92" at that point. Ratings were relatively low. The "Mellow 92" format continued until June 1978.
Meanwhile, station executive David Rapaport visited New York's Studio 54 discothèque on half a dozen occasions, and was very impressed with the crowds there. He got the idea that a disco-based station was needed, as several FM-based Top 40 stations were leaning disco in other markets, although no one was airing all disco music around the clock. As a result, Rapaport purchased 200 disco records and brought them into the station. WKTU abruptly flipped to a disco-based rhythmic top 40 format with the tagline "Disco 92" at 6 p.m. on July 24, 1978. The same disc jockeys from the mellow format were at first kept on, with Paco from Spanish language sister station 1480 WJIT added for afternoons. That fall, the station rose from "Worst to First", unseating long-time leader 770 WABC in the 18−30 age demographic. Air personalities of this era included Kenn Hayes, Randy Place, Paul Robinson, Trip Reeb, Mary Thomas, Dave Mallow and Joe Guarisco. During the height of the disco craze, WKTU was the station to follow in New York.
Initially, WKTU played mostly dance/disco and a few rhythm-friendly pop and rock songs, but by 1979, the station began to add more R&B music as well as rhythm friendly new wave rock. By then, WKTU was still regarded as a disco station, but could be more accurately described as rhythmic contemporary hit radio. Since that term was not yet used, the station had been classified as urban contemporary. During this period, the disc jockeys included Paco, G. Keith Alexander, Rosko, J.D. Holiday, Dale Reeves, Bob Bottone, Jim Harlan, Carlos DeJesus, Joe Causi, Guy Broady, Jay Thomas, Freddie Colon, Don Geronimo, Al Bandiero and Diane Pryor. Paco later went to jail for drug dealing.

92KTU (1981–1985)

In 1981, SJR Communications sold WKTU to Infinity Broadcasting. Also that year, WKTU added more dance-based new wave to the format. WKTU remained among the top ten New York City radio stations through 1983. Shortly thereafter, WKTU received new competition from WHTZ and WPLJ, both of which adapted a CHR format. The station maintained respectable but declining ratings, due to the new competition.
By mid-1984, WKTU moved to a mainstream CHR format as well, giving up its disco past, but the ratings continued to decline. That fall, the station added legendary WABC host Dan Ingram to afternoons, and Jo Maeder, "The Madame", from Miami's Y-100, joined Jay Thomas in the morning and did her own midday show, but the station continued to struggle in the ratings. To make matters worse, then-named 103.5 WAPP also went CHR that fall.
So strong was the memory of the late-1970s WKTU that despite all the subsequent on-air changes, the general public still regarded it as a disco station. Even though WAPP moved back to playing mostly rock music in the form of a rock-based CHR in June 1985, giving WKTU one less competitor, the station management thought a more drastic change was needed. Since New York City only had one full-time rock station with WNEW-FM, there was an opportunity.

WXRK (1985–2005)

92.3 K-Rock

On July 13, 1985, at midnight, on the same day WKTU aired the historic Live Aid concert, the station switched to an album-oriented rock format, adopted the moniker "K-Rock", and changed their call letters to WXRK..
Initially, the format at WXRK was similar to the pre-1983 WPLJ, as the air personalities left the station gradually in the next several months. Jimmy Fink from WPLJ was one of the first new radio personalities to be hired. After being fired from WNBC in October 1985, Howard Stern signed on to do afternoons, and initially combined music with talk, but on February 18, 1986, Stern took over the morning slot. His morning show became the highest-rated in the market, dethroning Don Imus, who previously had the highest-rated morning show for several years on 660 WNBC. Later that year Stern's show became syndicated, with WXRK as its flagship station.
By 1987, Stern stopped playing music on his show altogether, while the station changed to a classic rock format on June 5 of that same year. The airstaff, which included Flo & Eddie from classic rock band The Turtles, became full of veterans from other New York rock stations, including Dave Herman, Pete Fornatale, Meg Griffin, Vin Scelsa, and Alison Steele from WNEW-FM, along with Jimmy Fink, Tony Pigg, Marc Coppola, and John Zacherle from WPLJ. In 1993, The Greaseman's syndicated show was put in the nighttime slot, bookending Stern with an act that was often quite controversial.
By the mid-1990s, modern rock had become popular. In mid-1993, in New York City radio, WHTZ began to play a lot of modern rock despite primarily being a CHR station. Late in 1993, Classical music station WNCN switched formats and became WAXQ, with a mix of hard and modern rock. Moreover, WNEW-FM switched to a modern rock format in the summer of 1995, and later evolved to first an adult-based modern rock format by the end of that year, and then to a more eclectic adult rock mix by 1996. Nevertheless, by the beginning of 1996, there was no full-time modern rock station in New York City.
To fill the void, WXRK switched to an alternative leaning active rock format on January 5, 1996, right after Stern's show. To kick off the new format, which he enthusiastically endorsed as a better fit for his audience, Stern stayed on the air until 1:06 p.m. that day playing music. The first song Stern played was Marilyn Manson's cover of "Sweet Dreams ". Most of the classic rock DJs, including Jimmy Fink, Tony Pigg and Marc Coppola, disappeared from the station with this change, as did The Greaseman. By August 1997, the station added more music that suited an active rock station and removed pop leaning alternative product, and it continued this format of a hybrid active rock/alternative for several years.
By 2003, with a new program director, the station dropped the active rock variant of music. No matter what the format, the longtime problem for the station was that while Stern always had very high ratings, the rest of the station did not fare as well. Moreover, it was hard to classify K-Rock an alternative station, while it was hard to label it as active rock due to the inclusion of some, but not all, alternative artists.
Concerned about Stern's move to Sirius Satellite Radio at the beginning of 2006, and acknowledging that its target audience was looking elsewhere for modern rock music, WXRK made another format adjustment on April 4, 2005 to a mainstream rock format, which relied heavily on classic rock from artists such as Guns N' Roses, Metallica, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana, while playing new music from such established artists as System of a Down, Nine Inch Nails, Green Day and Weezer. At this time, New York City was one of the few large cities in the United States without an alternative rock station. To prevent any backlash from fans of modern rock, an Internet-only radio station called "K-Rock2" was launched at the same time as the format adjustment. The strategy did not work, as ratings did not improve much.
As a result of the imminent departure of Howard Stern to Sirius Satellite Radio, an announcement was made on October 25, 2005 that the station would adopt a Hot talk format on January 3, 2006.
At 10 a.m. on Friday, December 16, after the last terrestrial Howard Stern show, K-Rock began a 20-minute stunt with a melange of audio sound bites, music and program line-up announcements. At 10:20, K-Rock DJ Julie Slater announced "Welcome to Free FM", and went into music.

WFNY-FM (2006–2007)

92.3 Free-FM

The WXRK call letters were replaced by WFNY-FM on January 1, 2006, with the official "Free FM" launch two days later at 6 a.m. The station, which was one of several CBS Radio stations around the nation branded as "Free FM", featured rock singer David Lee Roth as its morning show host. Other talk shows from hosts such as The Dog House with JV & Elvis, Penn Jillette, Leslie Gold, Chris Booker, and Jake Fogelnest & Jackie Clarke aired weekdays, while an active rock music format continued to be played on the weekends, called "Free Rock Weekends.
Simultaneously, the WXRK call sign moved to the former in Cleveland, also owned by CBS Radio, and coincidentally at the same 92.3 frequency, and was rebranded as 92.3 K-Rock.
WFNY's ratings plummeted with the change to an all-talk format. As the replacement for Howard Stern, Roth lost nearly three-quarters of Howard Stern's previous audience, dropping a 7.9 share to a 1.8. Among the core audience—18- to 34-year-old men—the numbers fell from 13.8 to 1.3. Overall station ratings went from 3.2 in Summer/Fall of 2005 to 2.7 in Winter of 2006, and later to a 2.0, leaving it in 20th place in the New York market.
On April 25, 2006, Chris Booker, host of The Booker Show, announced that he was broadcasting his last show on Free FM. He soon moved over the morning show at Q102 in Philadelphia. The abrupt end of his show, which had evolved on afternoon drive before the format switch, led the station to revert to "Free Rock" music at nights.
The following day, on April 26, 2006, Opie and Anthony replaced David Lee Roth in morning drive on Free FM, while simulcasting on XM Satellite Radio. The show aired from 6–9 am on both terrestrial and satellite radio, then continued on XM exclusively to 11 am.
By spring 2007, Opie and Anthony managed to slightly improve WFNY-FM's ratings to a 1.4. However, this performance left the radio station ranked #22 of 25 in the NY market.
Weekends continued to use the "Free Rock Weekend" format, which included hour-long "Freecasts" in which a single listener chose the songs played during the hour. The listener also acted as guest DJ over the phone during the time.
The station was also used as a secondary broadcaster of sister station WFAN, serving as a secondary outlet for NFL football games, New Jersey Devils hockey games and New Jersey Nets basketball games when there was a conflict with another game on WFAN.
After Jim Cramer's Real Money went off the air on in December 2006, WFNY-FM was left with just 4 talk shows. As a result, the station attempted to revamp its lineup with the addition of several new talk shows, the first of which occurred on December 20, 2006. Ron and Fez, who also have a show on XM radio, signed an agreement to broadcast a 92.3 Free FM-exclusive radio show from 6pm to 9pm. Ron and Fez had previously been employed by CBS at WNEW-FM shortly after that station switched to FM Talk in 1999.
Additional new shows soon followed. On December 28, 2006, John and Jeff started being broadcast from syndication out of sister station 97.1 Free FM in Los Angeles. They broadcast live 2–6 am. On January 2, 2007, Larry Wachs, who was half of The Regular Guys morning show on WKLS-FM in Atlanta, began hosting the 10pm to midnight slot on the station for 2 weeks. That same day, Nick DiPaolo became host of the 12pm to 3pm time slot. He had done some preview shows the previous week. Beginning January 3, Loveline with Dr. Drew Pinsky & Stryker aired Late Nights, tape delayed, from 12am to 2am.
Danni was Free FM's Music Director and was still a Free Rock disc jockey. She has been heard doing DJ shifts on co-owned Fresh 102.7 as well. Free Rock Weekends aired 6am Saturday – 12am Sunday, and 6am Sunday – 2am Monday. Game Show Radio ran 12–2am on Sundays, while infomercials ran 2am–6am Sunday.
Free FM was using guest hosts for the 10pm to 12am time slot. March 2, 2007 was the last day for the Penn Jillette show on Free FM and CBS Radio stations. The following Monday, WFNY-FM expanded the guest host time slot by an hour, making it 9pm to 12am.
In April 2007, during an interview with a local band "A Brief Smile" on The Dog House, the hosts JV and Elvis directed numerous homophobic insults at the band's bassist. The hosts referred to the bassist as "Fag Number 1" and asked, "How many badges of honor do you have in your colon?" and kicked him out of the studio. After playing a song by the band the hosts also called the bass part "a little faggy." The bass player returned to the studio, stated he was bisexual and that he found their use of the word "faggot" offensive. Gay rights groups such as GLAAD criticized the show as being homophobic for their remarks.
JV and Elvis were later suspended on April 30 over a six-minute prank phone call peppered with ethnic and sexual slurs to a Chinese restaurant, after numerous Chinese American advocacy groups complained to CBS demanding the hosts be fired.
Beginning on May 7, Free-FM started using guest hosts 9 am to 12 pm to replace The Dog House. On May 12, 2007, AP News reported that CBS Radio spokeswoman Karen Mateo said, "The Dog House with JV and Elvis will no longer be broadcast ." CBS fired the co-hosts JV and Elvis, as well as the producer of The Dog House after numerous complaints received from various civil rights groups.
On May 15, 2007, XM Satellite Radio suspended the Opie and Anthony Show for 30 days because of comments made by a homeless man about raping Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and First Lady Laura Bush made on an uncensored May 9 broadcast. Their suspension was effective immediately. During this time, CBS Radio kept the show on from 6 to 9am. However, it was not simulcast on XM.

Re-launch for WXRK (2007–2009)

K-Rock returns

At 9 a.m. on May 24, 2007, after Opie and Anthony, an eight-hour countdown clock began on the former "Free FM" website and a sound collage was broadcast for most of the day. The stunting came to an end at 4:57 p.m. with an apology from general manager Tom Chiusano, who apologized to listeners for taking K-Rock away. Minutes later, at 5 p.m., the station returned to the air as K-Rock, playing an alternative rock format with a playlist focused on rock from the 1990s and 2000s, along with heavy classic rock. The first song on the resurrected K-Rock was "All Apologies" by Nirvana, while the first host on air was Gregg "Opie" Hughes of Opie and Anthony, who confirmed that O&A would still be on the station under its new format.
The station reverted to its previous call letters, WXRK, on May 31, 2007. The previous WXRK received the callsign WKRI. The Cleveland station is now WKRK-FM.
Initially, WXRK had no on-air staff, although on Mondays it featured a Hostile Takeover show where guest sat in as the DJ. The station also had contests which begun after Opie and Anthony.
On February 8, 2008, it was announced that program director Tracy Cloherty was among the many non-programming staffers let go by CBS Radio, in an attempt to "more effectively monetize the aggregate number of listeners who hear us on the radio and the Internet." The advent of WRXP caused WXRK to morph to active rock at that time.
In December 2008, as a result of another change in the station's management, K-Rock made an adjustment to a mainstream rock format focusing more on classic rock and playing even less current rock songs. With the format adjustment, Paul Turner, who was the voice of the Howard Stern Show and K-Rock when it was a classic rock station in the 1990s, returned as voice of the station's promos.
As a result of the format shift, on December 16, 2008, FMQB announced that afternoon jock Ian Camfield had left K-Rock to go back to XFM in London. K-Rock vet Chris Booker took his place, airing in afternoon drive from 2−7 pm.
Due to low ratings, the final terrestrial airing of Opie and Anthony show aired on March 9, 2009.

92.3 Now (2009–2014)

At 4:45 p.m. on March 11, 2009, after playing "Right Now" by Van Halen, WXRK began stunting with the sound of a ticking clock. At 4:55 p.m., the station announced that K-Rock was moving to 92.3 HD2, and after an introductory package, officially flipped to a rhythmic-leaning CHR format, branded as "92.3 Now". The first song on "Now" was "Boom Boom Pow" by The Black Eyed Peas.
By July 2012, major directional changes were made with a shift to a more mainstream Top 40 format. The station also added for mornings. This would eventually become known as "Ty Loves NY."
On November 8, 2012, a full 3 1/2 years after Now's debut, the station changed call letters to WNOW-FM to match their moniker. This was made possible by a format and call-letter change at the former WNOW-FM in Gaffney, South Carolina.

Tic Tak stunt

On December 17, 2010, WXRK afternoon host Mark "Tic Tak" Allen pulled an on-air tirade in which he dissed the music director and went against playing the usual Top 40 songs, including "slamming" Katy Perry singles, by declaring that "I'm playing what I want... this is my Christmas present to you" and started mixing in certain songs that do not fit WXRK's current format. Allen was hoping that station management would fire him, but from the comments from message boards like Radio-Info, this "event" was either staged or a poor ratings ploy to attract more listeners, since Allen has been known to pull successful stunts at other stations that he had worked at in the past.

Howard Stern returns

On January 17, 2012, Howard Stern made a live appearance on WXRK for the first time in over six years. Stern was a guest on the Nick Cannon morning show, via telephone, at the same time as Cannon was guesting on Stern's SiriusXM Satellite Radio show.

Hurricane Sandy

As a result of damage suffered to WINS' transmitter during Hurricane Sandy, WINS was being broadcast on 92.3. Although its transmitters were restored, WINS' transmitters were on low power for at least a day. The simulcast ended at 10 a.m. on October 31, 2012, when WINS' transmitter went back to full power.

92.3 AMP Radio (2014–2017)

Following the station's flip in 2009, WXRK/WNOW held only a 2 share as compared to WHTZ, which usually has a 7 share of the market. In addition, WXRK/WNOW had a constant turnover of program directors and airstaff, including the sudden releasing of all the then-current airstaff on May 21, 2014, as rumors of a complete rehauling of 92.3's format abounded. The following day at 2 p.m., after stunting by giving away $1,000 to callers every 9 minutes for 2 hours, WNOW-FM relaunched as 92.3 AMP Radio under veteran PD Rick Thomas, launching with commercial-free weekends until Labor Day weekend. The final song on "Now" was "Lose Yourself" by Eminem, while the first song on "AMP" was "Summer" by Calvin Harris. On June 23, 2014, WNOW-FM changed its call letters to WBMP to match the "AMP" branding. Concurrently, the WNOW-FM call letters were transferred to WNOU in Indianapolis, Indiana. After the rebrand, the station's ratings improved significantly. On January 22, 2015, WBMP launched a new morning show titled Shoboy in the Morning with Edgar "Shoboy" Sotelo, Micho Rizzo and Nina Hajian from then-sister station KZZO in Sacramento.

Alt 92.3 (2017–present)

On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom. The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was completed on November 17. On that day, at 10 a.m., after playing "Too Good at Goodbyes" by Sam Smith and "Encore" by Brooklyn native Jay-Z, WBMP flipped back to alternative as Alt 92.3, launching with "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters. The switch marked the return of the format to the market for the first time since 2012, when WRXP switched to a simulcast of WFAN as WFAN-FM after its sale to CBS. A sister "AMP" station in Dallas, KVIL, also flipped to alternative with a similar brand the same day. On June 12, 2018, the call letters were changed to WNYL to match their format.

"K-Rock2" and HD radio operations

As part of the K-Rock format change on April 4, 2005 from alternative rock to mainstream rock, K-Rock2, a new Internet-only radio station, was created. Throughout the Free FM period and during the resurrection of K-Rock, K-Rock2 continued to stream on krock2.com. Following the main channel's format change to "Now" on March 11, 2009, the HD2 channel became known as simply "K-Rock", but retained the alternative rock format. K-Rock HD2, at one point had a full-time air staff, including a local music show, but later ran completely automated.
Starting shortly after 2 a.m. on October 6, 2008, the K-Rock2 audio stream was added to WXRK-HD2. A few minutes earlier, a simulcast of sister station WFAN was added to WXRK HD3. 92.3-HD3 was initially using the delayed audio feed from wfan.com complete with internet only commercials and not the over the air broadcast feed used by WFAN on 660 AM. After a day or so, WXRK HD3 switched to the over the air feed of WFAN, but still had a time delay of over a minute. The HD3 was dropped altogether when WFAN began simulcasting on 101.9 FM on November 2, 2012. In December 2015, WBMP added Radio Disney to HD3 under a time brokerage agreement, making the return of the radio network to New York since Radio Disney's owned-and-operated WQEW was sold to Family Radio in February of that year. After the analog/HD1 channel's flip back to alternative in November 2017, the HD2 channel changed to a simulcast of sister station WNEW-FM. As of October 2018, WNYL's HD2 channel flipped to New Alternative as "New Arrivals".
In February 2019, WNYL launched an LGBTQ-centric talk/dance format on its reactivated HD3 subchannel, branded as "Channel Q".