As we proceeded through the 1980′s the older targeting music formats weren’t cutting it anymore. The baby boomers were approaching their thirties and wouldn’t tolerate “Elevator Music” at work. WRFM’s ratings had taken a tumble from Adult Contemporary stations WYNY and WLTW along with fellow Easy Listening WPAT. In order to compensate, on April 15, 1986, WRFM gave way to “New York’s Soft Rock” WNSR. Achieving a solid niche in the AC marketplace, WNSR was partly responsible for driving WPIX and WYNY out of the format. As the 80′s turned into the 90′s, WNSR continued to evolve into a more contemporary station eventually changing its name to “Mix 105″.
Is it really 20 years since this happened? It does not seem like it.
I heard the format change in 86. The next morning when I woke up, they were playing the Doors and Light My Fire with the processing of WRFM still in tact. That was strange.
Dick Bartley did mornings for a couple of weeks after the change to WNSR.
I remember the early days of WNSR, the super summer of 1986:
The first full time air staff: June 1986 ( Great station!)
Dick Bartley, Bill Neil, Bob Worthington, Steve Kamer, Paulette Bolan and Jim Douglas.
News department: Ted David, Cathy Carpin and later in 1986 -Debbie Gross.
One of the saddest days in New York radio.WRFM was legendary. The music was absolutely beautiful. Isn’t it amazing that Bluer than Blue from the Frank Chacksfield Orchestra played. At least it was a Beautiful Instrumental ! WNSR and how many formats since then ? We need Beautiful Music back in NY on FM radio ! How we miss WRFM !
We really miss it. God Bless WRFM and the people who made it come alive ! You made history and created a legacy that will be forever cherished,loved and respected. God Bless You All !
WRFM WAS THE BEST GROWING UP IN NY NJ WE ALLWAYS LISTENED TO BEAUTIFUL MUSIC WRFM ! JIM BRANCH, JIM ALWAYRD ,ELWOOD THOMSAN ,BEVERLY PARPELL, WES RICHARDS, BOB JONES ,AL TURK ,KEN LAMB,JOE ROBERTS ,LARRY YONT , MITCH LEBE ,DICK LONDON ,RON ALEXANDER ,CHRIS EDWARDS , BILL BUCHNER THE BEST STATION OVER WTFM WVNJ WPAT WHOM WWYD WHUD . I MISS WRFM THE DIFFERENCE IS THE MUSIC.
Might you know what ever became of Dick London? (He was a neighbor of mine back in the sixties/seventies.
Hello WRFM fan’s back in the Great 70′s My Father Steve listened to WRFM so much and their format of music Bonneville My Father used to know what song WRFM would be playing next . My Father and His friend Marcell would allwys go up to the studio’s of WRFM and talk with Al Turk .Al Turk at the studio would smoke Viceroy Cigs . and some times Al would take a nip of His Brandy , Al used to bring a pint of Brandy up to WRFM Studio’s when He would do His shift . As a kid we lived in beautiful Lake Mahopac ,N.Y. 60 miles north of the big city up the Taconic State Pkwy. And My Father used to turn His Channel Master Probe 9 FM Antenna with His Alliance Antenna Roder to north east and We would hear WWYZ 92.5 in Waterbury , Ct. and We would hear the same song on WWYZ then My Father would turn the Antenna to N.Y.C. and listen to WRFM and hear the same song as WWYZ maybe a 10 second delay. WWYZ 92.5 Waterbury ,Ct. was on the great Bonneville format just like WRFM in N.Y.C..In My travel’s I used to listen to other Bonneville stations that was on the WRFM format .WWEL 108 Boston , WWOM 101.1 Albany , WFPG 96.9 Atlantic City , WALL FM Newburgh and KBIG 104.3 Los Angeles . I sadly remember WRFM’s last night of Beautiful Music in 1986 Larry Yont did the news and after that point at midnight History was changed .Ken Lamb a DJ on WRFM early 70′s well I spoke to Ken Lamb in 1984 and at that time Ken was the morning DJ and program director of Easy 93 WPAT Clifton , N.J. And Ken told Me WRFM is gonna change their format and it happend in 1986. You can hear Ken on ABC TV on the Soap’s . Bonneville the music that was on WRFM You can hear that music on WKTZ 90.9 in Jacksonville , Fla. WKTZ has all of the Bonneville music online too. Peace Steve
Dear Sir. I am writing to you to see if you can assist me. During the 70s and 80s I regularly listened to WRFM. Many times I was not aware of the artist of the songs that were playing such as a piano and strings instrumental of \”All By Myself\” and \”Paper Mache.\” Can you identify who the artists were for these 2 instrumentals? If so, I would appreciate hearing back from you. In addition, is there a phone number I can call to speak with someone. Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I sure do miss this \”soft\” music station and wish it would return!
When I was in high school, I listened only to WRFM and recorded about 75 reel-to-reel tapes of Marlin Taylor’s programming dating back to 1969 & 1970. Earlier this year, I started transcribing them onto CD when my Akai reel deck developed preamp problems. So far I have about 40 80-minute CDs, and hope to finish the rest by mid-09.
Please contact me at joedoestaxes@hotmail.com, if you are interested in this music. I’ll do what I can to share it, as it is a timeless and priceless gift. To John who inquired about “Paper Mache,” I have a Frank Chacksfield recording of that song [instrumental] which may be what you’re looking for. To Marlin, God Bless you for all the great Percy Faith, Living Strings, Chet Atkins, Bert Kaempfert and Norman Luboff Choir music you shared with us/ not to mention all the others!
dear Joe,
I am wrfm fans in 1981 ,
I try to write you an email but return as email postmaster failed , in related with my interest to have wrfm sounds/musics that you recorded. I suppose it could be a precious music for me as wrfm music is my forever memoir music.
as a introduction of my self
My name is Tommy Chen , 49 years old living in Jakarta , Indonesia.
my email address is tommy_chendrawan@hotmail.com
May God Bless You always.
rgds Tommy
How about an aircheck from the morning man, Jim Aylward?? He used to have a pretty good am gig. And what about the commercial that Henry Mancini did while ‘Two For the Road’ played in the background. RFM’s tag was: THE DIFFERENCE IS THE MUSIC. . . WRFM.
Great stuff.
Hi John! In my 200 or so hours of reel-to-reel tapes of WRFM, I have either 3 or 4 of Jim Aylward’s “Today’s World-at-Large” commentaries. I’ve been in touch with Steve Farrell, who wrote 2 entries above. Steve is 42 I believe, whereas I’m 56, so my memories of WRFM and Jim Aylward are from a considerably earlier time frame. My tapes were recorded in 69 and 70, after which I left NYC to attend school in Washington, D.C., where I routinely listened to WGAY for beautiful music and WASH for adult contemporary sounds. Nothing could compare with WRFM’s music segments. To this day I am searching for: “Baubles, Bangles and Beads” and “Moody River” by John Barry; “Do I Hear a Waltz?” by Percy Faith; “Two Different Worlds” by Ernie Heckscher;
“Forever” by the Anita Kerr Singers; “Green Tambourine” by Les Brown, and “Diane” by Art van Damme. This is an abbreviated listing of my supreme want-list. If anyone has any of these songs, I’d ever forever grateful if I could add them to my collection and include them in my music mixes. On the other hand, if you’d like a copy of Jim Aylward’s commentaries, just drop me a line at joedoestaxes@hotmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
I remember WRFM very well, my favorite radio station of all time challenged only by the original Oldies Station, WCBS-FM in New York City.
My favorite DJ was Al Turk. Anyone know what happened to him after the transition?
There were just so many wonderful instrumentals and songs not heard anywhere else. And it was not, I repeat, not elevator music. I know elevator music and WRFM was not elevator music.
One Summer, every weekend, they played the theme music from The Big Country, the famous western movie starring Gregory Peck and many other stars of the period. It took me ove 30 years to find the soundtrack album, just last year. And the way I found it is weird. I was walking along the streets in the Village and came across a pile of vinyl albums on the stoop of a building. They were for the taking. One of them was that soundtrack album. I almost fell over!
I forgot 2 more DJ’S Charles Garrett and Bob Garity .WRFM STEREO 105 485 Madison Av. New York .I spoke with Larry Yont on WRFM 1981 and Larry had told me that Al Turk passed away from cancer .Al Turk was my favorite dj on WRFM.
I forgot 1 more great D.J. on WRFM STEREO 105 ……..Les Marshack.My area with WRFM was from 1974 to 1986 .WRFM allways had a weak signal to the north but with my Probe 9 Channel Master Antenna with a Roder I had no problem picking up WRFM in beautiful Lake Mahopac,N.Y. And me being from NY and NYC WRFM had the best D.J.’S .Other Bonneville Music Programmed Stations I use to list to WWOM 100.9 Albany,NY WWEL 107.9 Boston ,Mass. WHOM 94.9 Mt. Washington , N.H. WFPG 96.9 FM Atlantic City,N.J. and there was other stations in the area that played beautiful music WRFM WAS THE BEST ! AND SO WERE THE D.J.’s.
Is it just me imagination, or does Larry Yount’s voice catch just a bit as he’s wrapping up the weather report just prior to signing off?
I miss the beautiful music format. At least there’s Marlin Taylor’s “Escape” channel on Sirius XM to remind me of what once was; just the other morning, in fact, I flipped it on and heard…you guessed it…Frank Chacksfield’s “Bluer Than Blue”.
Hello from the Netherlands!
Yes, I sure do remember WRFM stereo 105!
During my visits to the USA it was so nice to listen to the radio!
You named a format, and it was available.
No doubt about it, in New York I only listened to WRFM, the difference was the music.
Dring some of my visits to the USA, I brought a small fm tuner with me, plus a portable cassettedeck, with Dolby stereo, the whole stuff.
In New York I taped about 10 cassettes of WRFM, just 15 hours of music.
In other cities I listened to WHOO (Orlando), KSFI (Salt Lake City), KMYT (Merced), and many others.
But WRFM was really outstanding, and it is very unfortunate it does not exist any more!
Now I listen to whatever I can grab on from the internet.
Sometimes you can find some good stations, like KJUL (Las Vegas), streaming on internet, but I stil hope, may be some good day, a station like WRFM used to be, will emerge again, and also on the internet.
In Holland there never was anything like WRFM.
For all those music lovers, greetings from Almere, a city East of Amsterdam.
Dear Arnold, This is way more than a coincidence, my friend! My original post, written last October, was done on my father-in-law’s computer in Rotsterhaule, vlakbij Heerenveen, in Friesland.
My wife is Froukje Akkerman, and although half my age, enjoys much of the music that WRFM played. Isn’t it TRULY a small world? My jaw just about dropped when I saw your post and read that you live in the Netherlands, in Almere! When you visit America next time, let me know. Maybe we can hook up. I’ll get you a bunch more easy listening music on CD to add to your collection. My e-mail address is joedoestaxes@hotmail.com. Tot ziens!
I had the opportunity to be a part time control room engineer at WRFM in the late 60′s working mostly over nights and weekends. I really enjoyed the music, but one thing a lot of people do not know is that it was automated! We had 4-15″ reels of music and the system would go from one reel to another for each song, then to the cartridges for spots. Sometimes the system would decide to hang and there was one tube we would pull out, flip it in the air a few times and put it back in and the music would continue. Great memories for sure!
I remember WRFM very well, I was a part time control room engineer during the late 60′s on nights. I loved the music, and have a lot of great memories from those days. I can remember a news man (Elwood Thompson) that would walk in a minute before going on, walk thru the news room ripping the sheets off the printers and walk into the studio sit down and edit while on air. He was amazing and so smooth while he did this.
WRFM treated their people well, and I learned a lot of things that later in life I was able to make use of. I actually keep in touch with one of the other Part time engineers from that era.
Sorry to see it go!
I am in my late 40s, yes I am relatively that young.
As a need of relaxation, I sometimes listen to BM, EM, EL from the internet.
I feel that this format should be reinstated in some form on one of the HD subchannels on the NYC FM dial.
WKLI in Albany, NY has a format that is a bit comparable to what WRFM played in that era.
I was remembering WRFM, & came across this. I’m 62 & live in NJ, except for 4 college years in Ohio. While I like OTHER formats, ALSO, (Country’s hard to keep around here, too!), WRFM’s music was GREAT to RELAX to, & I MISS hearing it NOW! My FAVORITE was, around Christmas, when they’d take out a LARGE ad in the New York Times, listing ALL the music they were going to play during the Holiday!! Jim Aylward, Frank Chacksfield, etc….GREAT memories!!
In an old box of memorabilia I found a very pretty mug. I am looking for information about it. It has what looks like a radio dial around the cup with many other stations as well as WRFM 105 on it. It goes from WBGO at 88.3 through a total of 25 stations to WLIB-FM at 108. The cup is basically white with a purple bottom shaped like a pedestal and lots of gold trim. On the bottom it says “The Difference is the Music on WRFM” I’d love to know approximately what year this was done and what it was produced for. Can anyone tell me?
Dear Friends, I’m still working on transferring over 200 hours of WRFM’s programming from reel-to-reel tape to CD. The e-mail previously listed, joedoestaxes@hotmail.com, has been hacked. Please contact me at my new address, flametfan@hotmail.com. I will continue to provide copies of any of these CDs to those who might be interested. Instrumentally Yours, Joe D.
Wow, I never thought I would find so many people with the interest of this great format. Living in Peekskill NY, WHUD was the station I grew up with. I recently found a copy of their old hourly and half hourly jingles and it really brought me back. I never liked the format as a kid growing up in the 80′s but boy I’ve come to really appreciate it. My Mom use to say “one day you will like it” She was so right. Over the past 5 years I’ve collected hundreds of songs from Paul Mauriat, Lex DeAzevedo and so many others. I think nowadays road rage is such a problem because of the void of this format. When I get stressed out all I have to do is put my Ipod or Sirius XM on and it really is relaxing in heavy traffic. I’m so glad XM brought the format back but I think commercial radio would be surprised of response they would get if they brought the format back. Especially now with this new HD radio technology. WLTW should do it. They had a real nice soft rock format on their HD2 channel but have changed to country. Whatever the case I hope someone does it.
Back in the 70′s WWOM Albany NY was on Bonneville WHOM 92.3 in NY City moved up to N.H. 1975 . WHOM 94.9 transmitted from Mt. Washington , N.H. some 6,000 feet up with a power output of 48,000 watts I used to listen to that station when I was in school mid 80′s Albany , N.Y. Another great Bonneville music format.
I sure miss The WRFM Jingles infact in 1976 working with My Father going to Boston and listening to WWEL 108 FM Bonneville WWEL had almost the same jingle as WRFM . Ken Lamb left WRFM to work on WPAT well WPAT never sounded right WPAT was using old equitment WPAT had no compression WPAT never had The Optimun their sound was very flat PAT was using The Gitner . WRFM allways had a ROBUST sound thanks to Joe Alasa The Engineer on WRFM.In the 90′s WPAT had their own crummy format they were not on Shulkie . Ken Mc Kensy was the Program Director and Morning D.J. His format stunk. Poor Ken Lamb WPAT fired him in 1987 as well as another station in Long Island then Ken did the Special of the week syndicated that was a bomb .Beautiful Music was fading away .I still have the recording of Ken Lamb when WRFM pulled the switch at midnight. I also have recordings of when Ken Lamb worked on 100.7 WFMZ Allentown,Pa.when Ken worked on WFMZ that was syndicated Ken’s voice sounded better on WFMZ than WPAT and PAT Ken was live . WPAT AM/FM 93 had old out dated equitment in their studio’s. WRFM had the best of everything . You can hear the Bonneville beautiful music WKTZ 90.9 FM Jacksonville ,Fla. or online WKTZ.COM . You can listen to 101.1 WAVV Naples ,Fla. that station has 20% programed from Bonneville give Norm Albert a call.100kw. Peace Steve SteveNY110@webtv.net
Hello Joe from central Florida , thanks again for The Copies of WRFM’s Music !!! My Father , last week moved out here in Southern California it was a long 6 day drive from Palm Harbor I-75 to I-10 just 100 miles East of LA. Joe back 1986 after WRFM bit the dust I visited My Mother and Step Father in California I do rember listening to WRFM’s sister station BEAUTIFUL MUSIC KBIG 104.3 the same jingle as WRFM .Peace to all of Wrfm fan’s . Steve F.