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″.
Jim Dilaurenzio is the best!! I contacted him about getting some WRFM cd’s and he sent me so many that it will take years to hear them all. The copies are so clean it feels like I’m listening to the station live. Jim Thank you!…….I offered to pay and instead he insisted that I spread the music around by making copies to anyone who enjoys easy listening and WRFM 105. I don’t understand why this music is not back. Especially with the new HD radio technology. I wish I had the money to start a station. I know that a beautiful music format would do well. Especially if I was able to hire Jim D to program it!! He the type of good people you don’t meet enough!! Thanks again Jim!
Pleas excuse me!! JOE Dilaurenzio is my new friend who made me the WRFM cd’s. I wrote Jim by mistake because i was chatting with a friend named Jim and I subconciously wrote his name…I’m very sorry JOE and thanks again!
Mike, I wish I knew who you were, because I’d be interested in some of the music you received. I was a teenager when the switch was made, but WRFM brings me back to fond, family-related memories, and having worked at a Beautiful Music station for a short period of time about 13 years ago, I know the sound is familiar enough to take me back in time. A very good pick-up on your part.
Please email your contact so we can discuss either me getting copies or at least a complete song list if possible Jjscardino@gmail.com
Back in the 60s I was sent a reel to reel postable tape featuring WRFM from New York from a friend who lived there. I can remember by heart much of the tape espeacilly the line: “WRFM’s easy music hour continues from 93 on the dial with music just right for you.” This was during the Egypt/ Israel war and a garbage mans strike in New York. It was the sheer word perfect delivery and the tone of the annoucers voice that was so New York. I wish that I still had the tape. I always regarded WRFM as the king of stations. Andrew. London.
Andrew—–You have special dispensation to make this little ‘mistake,’ but when you mentioned ’93 on the dial,’ you were inadvertently referring to WPAT AM 930 and FM 93.1, Paterson NJ and New York NY, respectively. I say you have a handicap simply because you’re European and perhaps not too accustomed to our call letter system of identifying radio stations. WRFM was located at 105.1 on the FM dial, licensed, of course, to New York City.
Best Wishes, Joe DiLaurenzio
I WAS MUSIC DIRECTOR FOR PARENT COMPANY BONNEVILLE IN THE 80′S AND WHAT YOU HEARD ON WRFM IS MANY SELECTIONS I WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR. YES IT IS A DIRE SHAME IT IS NO LONGER ON EVEN IN A SMALLER STATION. I SEE COMPLAINTS FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY ABOUT THIS AS I LIVE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NOW. THE BROADCASTING EQUILIBRIUM IS DAMAGED BEYOND AND TO PAY FOR SATELLITE AND FEED THE COFFERS OF THE FCC IS NOT WHAT I EVER HAD IN MIND. TRY WKTZ JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA ON THE NET NO STRINGS ATTACHED. RATINGS HAVE GOT THIS COUNTRY IN A SEVERE DOWNWARD SPIRAL.
Dear Tom, Andrew & Jed—–I’m the “Joe” to whom Mike Canzio referred above in his January 6, 2010 post. All I want to do is to get this music to people who love it. I’m 57 and pretty bad with Nero, Windows Media Player and iTunes [the latter is what my wife uses]. But I’m learning.
So far I can certainly duplicate CDs, such as those 100 or so WRFM CDs, plus CD albums of Bert Kaempfert, Billy Vaughn, the Living Strings, Percy Faith, Andre Kostelanetz, Frank Chacksfield and over 100 others, from my LP collection. What I need to learn is how to burn MP3s, so I can send 10 times the amount of material on one disc. Bear with me. My e-mail address is:
flametfan@hotmail.com. By this time next year, or sooner, I’ll be sending you anything you want on a MP3. Jed—thanks for writing. I can actually pick up WKTZ at 50kW here in Gainesville, FL. I wish I could program some of their music. Signing off for now—-Joe D.
I had no idea this site existed and I’m amazed that 26 years after the changeover, people still are talking about us. Thank you all for that. Most of us old fuddie duddies are still around, though some have passed on, most recently Jim Branch, New Director, who departed earlier this month (4/11.)
Anyone with questions or comments, my e-mail is wesrichards@gmail.com
Thanks Again
Wes Richards
Sunday-Friday 12 noon-6pm, 1975 until the bitter end.
correction: News Director, not new director. My eyes ain’t what they used to be.
Awesome post, Wes—–and thank you so much for your kind words. It means SO DARN MUCH to hear from someone who actually worked at the station. I tried contacting Marlin at his XM e-mail address but he never replied. I wish he could understand that although I’m a bit nerdy, I’m loyal to-a-fault and very appreciative of 20+ years of great programming. That’s all: there’s no hidden agenda. I lived vicariously through Mitch Lebe, Dick London, Joe Roberts, Al Turk & Ken Lamb, wishing I could have been a part of it. Maybe in another lifetime! Let me know if I can send you some arichecks! I can relate to your comment about typos and one’s eyesight in our advanced years. At least our minds are young and vital!
Hi Wes,
My name is Janice Losgar and my dad, Joe Losgar, worked at WRFM. I remember you! Sadly, just found out Larry Yount passed away last summer. My dad passed in 2003. It’s amazing to run across this kind of thing on the Internet! Best to you.
Janice
I am 49 years old and I miss WRFM 105.1 FM, WPAT 93.1 FM Easy Listening Music Radio Stations. I grew up listening to this Beautiful Music and I wish it would come back. The FM Radio Frequency Band is quite large so there’s still plenty of room left for music variety for everybody.
Thanks,
David A. Smith
As a teen-twenty-something I used to listen to WRFM and WPAT esp. in the car. It was a guilty pleasure (and a few of my “cooler” friends knew about it.) Listened to a wide/eclectic range of music from hard rock to beautiful music to symphonic. It’s a shame the music is off the air. XMRadio brought it back with “Sunny” then “Escape” when Marlin Taylor was programming…too bad mean ‘ole Mel K merged XM and Sirius and ruined alot of the XM formats.
I found around 2 hours of 1969 WRFM content posted on the web last year..but darn if I can find it now.
Maybe someone can post some more content on newsgroups like alt.binary.sounds.mp3.easylistening ….it would be much apprecated!
Drew—–Don’t know what prompted me to check back at this website, but I’m the guy with about 125 hours of WRFM airchecks transferred from the original reel to reel tapes to CD. From the CDs, I chose 25 hours of the best of the best, and loaded them into two circa-700mB WMA files, from which I can burn you two discs and mail them to you. My e-mail address is: flametfan@hotmail.com. I’m 58 years old, which is probably more than twice your age, but hey——I love your post. When I was in high school, and supposed to be grooving on the Beatles, the Byrds, Creedence, S&G, Blood Sweat & Tears, et al., I was chilling with WRFM, and oh so very occasionally defected to WPAT and WVNJ but NEVER to WTFM. You gotta make your own sunshine, a direct quote from Neil Sedaka, but so appropriate for free thinkers such as we.
Write me if you want those airchecks!
Hi Joe:
I was fifteen when I came to NYC from Taiwan. Right away, everyone in my family was hooked on WRFM. We’d only listen to this station and enjoyed the “elevator music” when we were at home or in the car. I still remembered the day that I drove to FDR High School in Brooklyn and fumbling the radio on the way home trying to hear the usual sound that I was so used to listen. At that time, I couldn’t understand how a station can suddenly change format just like that in the USA!
Ever since, radio is not the same to me anymore…Now, I’m an expat working in China, and I’m still trying to find the internet radio station that offer the same format as WRFM.
Boy, do I miss that radio station. Anyone can suggest internet radio stations that come close to WRFM besides WKTZ? Sometimes, I’m having trouble connecting to that flash player. Thanks.
Frank—–I’ve found a new way to share my two circa-700mB WMA files of WRFM airchecks from 1969 and 1970. All you have to do is write me at flametfan@hotmail.com and I’ll send you an invitation to pick them up. Mailing two CDs to you in China might be risky, but this method will deliver them to you, despite their size [1.36 gigs], over the internet.
This invitaion is open to anyone. Just write me at flametfan@hotmail.com.
Long live Percy, Bert, Billy, Ray, Norman, Ray, Johnny the Jingle Man, Andre K, Hugo, Henry, Frank C, Herb, Enoch, Tony, Chet, Tommy G, Al C, Carmen, Andre, Floyd, Ronnie, Roger, George & Ethel Gabriel’s Living Series on RCA Camden!!!!!! [To mention a few..............]
I remember . . . WRFM, WTFM and WPAT from back in the day. It was music my parents listened to (along with some classical). But it was all solid stuff and the announcers were top notch. Yes, I read all the previous posts. I DO recall Jim Branch. I was searching for info about Jim Aylward and I happened upon this site. I still have some of the London Phase 4 vinyls of Ronnie Aldrich and Frank Chacksfield my folks bought back in the day. They sound as good as ever. I recently purchased a double cd of the Aldrich albums “Destination Love” and “Love”. Now, I can save the vinyl and play the cd in the house or the car. Yes, I mourn the loss of some music formats. This is one of them….I have a review of Ronnie Aldich’s “Two Pianos Today” on amazon; handle: Photoman D-76. (or some such thing). I regret that I did not record some of those long ago days and nights when I was listening.
Hi… I worked for WRFM from 1968 to 1971 as a station engineer and then for WTFM, a competing Beautiful Music station, first as an engineer and later as the music director.
You can find great Beautiful Music programming on Sirius/XM satellite/internet radio. I believe that the person who programs the music (oor at least the person who did it 5 yrs ago) is Marlin Taylor who was responsible for the format at WRFM.
The music never sounded better….but I wonder if anyone is still making these recordings.