Comments on: 105.1 WRFM flips from Beautiful Music to AC WNSR

By: Freddi Rodriguez

Freddi Rodriguez — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 03:22:39 +0000

Hi Wes! Stumbled on this site. Was stunned. Was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my old boss Jim Branch and of Joe Losgar. I remember you Franklin! Would love to know what happened to EVERYONE who worked at WRFM in the 80′s. I’m long retired from radio news and now concentrate on my artwork.

By: Gerard Thornton

Gerard Thornton — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 02:30:34 +0000

I grew up in Coney Island in the early 1970′s and my mother played WRFM from her Lloyd phono/stereo 24 hours a day. I remember seeing the red “stereo” light on night and day (what does stereo mean, I’d wonder at 5 years). Jim Aylward would play Living Strings, Montavani, Henri Mancini, great stuff. I’d still listen if I could. My kids demand Kesha and Brittney Spears in the car! I never will forget the station, good work to the guys who staffed it.

By: Joe DiLaurenzio

Joe DiLaurenzio — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:38:27 +0000

Pretty freaky to see how many of these posts are mine. I keep coming back for a lot of reasons, one of which is to see when MT will finally break down and write something.

Who else would like to hear something from ‘the boss?’

BTW, Jim Aylward was fantastic! Does anyone know his whereabouts these days? The last time I tried Googling him, I got a link to the St.Petersburg (FL) Times, but it led me nowhere.

By: Jack K.

Jack K. — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:32:51 +0000

How would I go about getting copies of the BM/EZ music CD’s? I had downloaded some samples of WPAT years ago (poor quality) and some old WGAY airchecks, but would love to have clean versions for my mp3 player. Looking forward to your response.

By: Franklin Fletcher

Franklin Fletcher — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 04:19:06 +0000

I worked at WRFM in the early 80′s as Production Supervisor and Joe Losgar was my boss at the time. What a fine gentleman! I had the pleasure of working with Jim Aylward, Joe Roberts, Wes Richards and Jim Branch. I was responsible for “carting” commercials, commentaries, PSAs etc.. I obtained my 1st Class FCC license and was studying for my MBA at the NY Institute of Technology while working there. I went on to a career in Information Technology with Computer Sciences Corp, JPMorgan Chase and I am currently an IT Security Specialist at Broward County (Fl.)Government. Fond memories of WRFM even though my real music passion is jazz and R&B.

My email is franklin_fletcher@yahoo.com

By: Joe DiLaurenzio

Joe DiLaurenzio — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 03:44:45 +0000

Re-reading these posts almost brings me back to Queens in ’69, sitting in front of my Panasonic FM stereo receiver/ reel-to-reel recorder combo, wearing headphones and taping stereo 105 on summer vacation, wondering what they would play next. Then came Percy Faith and ‘Piccolissima Serenata,’ so I knew Maurice Larcange and ‘It Must Be Him’ would follow, and next would be ‘Little Bird, Little Bird’ by the Will Bronson Singers, to lead into ‘On a Clear Day’ by Laurindo Almeida’s guitar, only to conclude the segment with the Briarcliff Strings with their rendition of “What Is This Thing Called Love?” This is out of memory, so you can see that I was and still am a WRFM super nerd. Crazy thing is: I think I could have done it just as well as Marlin, if I had only had the chance. No bitterness, just wistfulness for a lost format that was flushed away primarily because of corporate greed.

By: michael thomas

michael thomas — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:00:54 +0000

i remember when i was growing up wrfm 105.1 was the station i always listened to every day i’d listen to wrfm,i also remember listening to such hosts as jim aylward larry yount and of course it was either ron alexander or randy alexander who had a program called music all night i also loved the wrfm news updates.the music was great so,i was very saddened to hear that wrfm was switched to another station.but it was my favourite station as well as wpat fm 93.i also would be interested in getting some old wrfm airchecks.oh yeah,i do remember jim branch.

By: Janice Losgar

Janice Losgar — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:31:56 +0000

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

By: mike marion

mike marion — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:26:59 +0000

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.

By: John

John — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:52:35 +0000

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. The difference is the music . . . WRFM.