In recent weeks, many in the radio industry and fans of radio history have been all a-twitter over the release of this one-hour-long documentary about the launch and rapid rise to leadership in the nation’s #1 market.
WHTZ, or Z100, came to life on the morning of August 2, 1983, at 100.3 on the FM dial. The station, which previously had been WVNJ-FM playing an easy-listening style of music and licensed to Newark, New Jersey, had just been purchased by Milton Maltz and Malrite Broadcasting.
While the station more or less limped on the air on that first morning, primarily because the new WHTZ transmitter located on the Empire State Building had not yet been activated — that would not come until Day Three — and the former WVNJ-FM signal originated from a very short tower out in suburban New Jersey, providing poor coverage of much of the metropolitan area.
However, come Day Three and the stronger signal, program director and morning show host, Scott Shannon — who was hired based on his leading a very successful show named the Morning Zoo at a station in Tampa, Florida — moved into high gear.
In the documentary, Scott tells the story of coming to New York — actually Secaucus, New Jersey, where the station’s new studios were being built, which is not far from the New Jersey end of the Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson — to be interviewed, then leaving feeling he wasn’t getting the job. However, waiting for the elevator to leave, the door opens and out steps Milt Maltz, who asks him where’s he’s going. I forget Scott’s exact words, but Milt tells him he’s hired … and that’s the beginning of Scott’s new life. Then, I can feel what he’s feeling, a nervous panic sets in as he’s got to get his head into the Big Apple atmosphere and make magic happen — as he says at one point, “I didn’t come to New York to fail!”
It’s not all quite clear, but the station is off and running with a strong set of personalities around the clock. Yet, (it’s my conclusion based on my own experience) the next rating report is released and there’s no movement from the bottom rung among the stations listed. It’s a downer, but Scott’s mind kicks into high gear … that’s when he proclaims on the air…
“We are going from Worst to First, we need your help!”
What he had just launched is the cheapest, yet most powerful form of promotion and advertising there is… he enlisted the listeners into a Word-of-Mouth campaign. By harnessing their existing body of listeners to take the Z100 message to the masses — for instance, people post hand-made signs — and they delivered!
That’s what created the Worst-to-First story, taking the station from the bottom to the top in the audience listenership ratings in 74 days! Result: A station that today is a legend in radio broadcasting history, as is its creator Scott Shannon. Today Scott Shannon is still on the air doing a morning radio show in New York City, albeit on a different station, now nearly 40 years after that August 1983 debut!
If your curiosity has been raised, I encourage you to take a look at this two-minute trailer of what to expect from the documentary.
As noted in the headline of this Musings, with the release of this documentary, my mind was triggered to tell about a mini-version of this dynamic success story that occurred in the Big Apple some 14 years earlier.
Yes, it’s one which I personally shared in … WRFM Stereo 105 and its rise from the depths to the top tier in about 150 days.
Here’s how I describe our experience — which provided insight into how the Z100 story played out — in my radio memoir, RADIO … My Love, My Passion:
When the summer rating report arrived in late September, we were not surprised to see no change in WRFM’s ranking, as the survey period had begun before our on-air changes had been made and the dial card distribution got underway. At the same time, I wasn’t quite prepared for the fall report, which arrived two days before Christmas. I can’t say that in all of my 80 years, have I received a more exciting Christmas gift than what was contained within the pages of the Arbitron listenership report: WRFM had moved from number 23 up to number 10, crashing into the big leagues of New York radio. We immediately became the talk of the Big Apple media and advertising communities. Variety, the show business newspaper, commented on the news and “found WRFM’s unprecedented strength notable since the station now outranks some well-known AM operations.”
Meanwhile, sales reps for other stations who called on advertising agencies immediately went to work attempting to discredit our rating success, proclaiming it was a total fluke. How could WRFM have amassed such a large audience in such a short period of time, experiencing such a big jump in only three months? These reps were also posing the question, “Where have you seen any advertising for them?” Of course, the answer was the 750,000 dial cards providing the vital information that WRFM was “New York’s Most Musical Station,” and the ecstasy that folks felt when tuning in; they just had to tell their friends what they’d found on their FM radio.
Then, as would occur just three months later, when the next ARB/Arbitron rating report was released:
By early spring 1970, the winter ratings report had arrived, finding WRFM firmly entrenched in the top five among all stations. We had continued our FM dial card promotion, with more than one million cards having been distributed by the time this survey period was underway, which continued to build awareness and keep word-of-mouth flowing, plus we’d begun using posters in some train and bus stations, followed a little later by lighted signs along the tops of New York City buses.
As I prepared to leave the management of my beloved WRFM in early 1971 to devote full-time to my new role, this would be my farewell celebration:
As the year was coming to a close, the fall 1970 Arbitron audience report showed — to the surprise and chagrin of many in New York radio — that WRFM was number 2 in the market, directly behind either WABC or WOR. They were the two powerhouse AM stations of the time, but at this point, I cannot remember which one had the lead.
In hindsight, based on this item which appeared in an early 1974 issue of our client newsletter, the Taylor Report, I sense it was likely WOR which still reigned at the top. Yes, as you read this, another issue arises …
Claiming the honor of WRFM being the first FM station to reach such a vaulted position in audience ratings in a major market, that was first achieved in 1970, with 1974 being a repeat performance. In both cases, it’s yours truly reporting … and it’s the same station.
A question I don’t have an answer for … was Z100 the first FM station to reach #1 in a major market?
Back to Scott Shannon for a moment … a hype line he used frequently in those early days was:
“Broadcasting from the top of the Empire State Building.”
As a competitor was quick to point out, virtually all of the major New York City FM’s had their transmitters on the Empire State Building. While we never mentioned it on the air or in any of our other promotional literature that I can remember, as you’ll see here we made note of the fact on our FM dial card.
As for one listening to a radio station, there are two technical factors: 1) the strength of signal emanating from the transmitting antenna and 2) the quality of the programming audio. In the Z100 documentary, there’s a comment about a discussion between Scott Shannon and their chief engineer, Frank Foti, about the sound having a “punch” to it … meaning having a sense of being louder than most other stations on the dial, yet not bringing in the element of distortion. This Mr. Foti had figured out how to achieve.
I mention this because WRFM regularly had comments from listeners about how “clean and pure” its audio quality was even though it was not necessarily sounding louder. This was to the credit of one Joseph P. Losgar, who was WRFM’s chief engineer and had been since its beginnings in 1953. Joe was highly respected within the New York City radio engineering community … and he’s also remembered for giving many young folks a helping hand in getting a start in the radio engineering field.
Do I have any regrets about WRFM never reaching #1 in the #1 metropolitan area in the nation? Frankly, I never gave it any thought … I simply rejoiced that so many people in greater New York loved and were so pleased with what we brought them on Stereo 105 FM.
Unlike Scott, who knew nothing about New York prior to being hired and arriving there … while I had not spent much time in the city prior to joining WRFM in 1969, I had grown up and lived my entire life along what’s known as the Northeast Corridor, stretching from Washington, D. C. to Boston.
What I look back and wonder about at times is … I have no recollection of being nervous about whether we’d succeed … there just seemed to be no question in my mind that — if I stayed focused on the job at hand, plus the great crew of New York-experienced radio professionals continued delivering the right product every day — WRFM would be successful. Don’t remember if I’ve ever stated it but, frankly, making the leap from the bottom to a top-five most-listened-to station came much faster than I had anticipated.
And that’s the story of two FM radio stations which, out of the blue, conquered the hearts of Big Apple radio listeners … and the two guys who had the opportunity to be behind those successes!
Scott Shannon's statement that the next ratings book came out and the station showed no movement from the bottom rung is a bit exaggerated. Z100 had been on the air for only the last 1 or 2 weeks of that year's summer book.
Yes, Roddy … as I noted, it was July 3rd when WRFM made our major modification to Marlin’s format, and the Arbitron survey period was already under way – Z100’s launch didn’t come until beginning of August.