WPLJ

I found out last night when I went on a quick errand that 95.5 WPLJ has closed down and been replaced with a Christian contemporary music station. I don't listen to commercial radio a lot any more but it's usually been my go-to for pop if I'm in the mood.

I remember growing up with PLJ as hard rock before changing format to Top 40 in the 80s.

Interesting that there's apparently a market for a second Christian contemporary station in the greater NY area.


wait. there's another Christian radio station here?


now I'm worried.


Since at least as far back as the early 80s, I have no idea of the format changes that have occurred at what were the big rock/pop stations of my youth, like WPLJ and WNEW.  For rock/pop, I've been listening mainly to FUV for decades and occasionally latching onto to college stations when in range.  


It was bought by Educational Media Foundation.  They own well over 400 stations in the U.S. and are a non-profit, allegedly.

https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2019/05/legendary-station-wplj-is-signing-off-today-and-people-are-in-serious-mourning.html



bub said:
Since at least as far back as the early 80s, I have no idea of the format changes that have occurred at what were the big rock/pop stations of my youth, like WPLJ and WNEW.  For rock/pop, I've been listening mainly to FUV for decades and occasionally latching onto to college stations when in range.  

 Since WNEW was no more and 'PLJ became "adult contemporary", I'll put up with some "classic rock", but it's boring.  WFUV is where the radio of my youth went, including "Mixed Bag" and folks like Dennis Elsas.


Well I'll happily admit I was mostly tuned into Z100 as a teenager. PLJ was a second choice when I didn't like what was playing on 100.3.


Train_of_Thought said:
Star 99.

 I just looked them up. They broadcast out of Bridgewater apparently but are strong enough to reach NYC.

The Educational Media Foundation website lists 96.7 in Port Chester as another station. 

It will be interesting to see how a Christian rock station does in New York City.  They do appear to be a legit non profit with a 4 out of 4 rating at Charity Navigator. 


These days, I think Paul Calvalconte is the best thing on radio.  He's replaced Vin Scelsa as the fun, everything goes free form DJ Sunday nights on FUV, he's replaced Jonathan Schwartz on the Saturday and Sunday shows on NYC for American songbook type stuff, and he also has a show on the classical station.  He's so upbeat and inclusive in what he plays.  It's hard not to like his shows.  


Exactly four Sundays ago, Cavalconte made my afternoon with this brief, perfect intro: “So, Bob Dylan, what did you do today?”

Cue “Isis.”


I hate this change! Listened off and on on Thursday, when many of the personalities from over the years were in the studio or called in, and Friday as they ended at 7pm.

Social media, Facebook, etc pretty much scrubbed clean of PLJ within hours. 

Absurd that there’s another Christian station in this market. As noted, over 400 stations all managed by about 9 Djs... awful 


I haven't listened to PLJ since 1983. I miss WNEW-FM a lot more. 


peteglider said:

Absurd that there’s another Christian station in this market. As noted, over 400 stations all managed by about 9 Djs... awful 

 I think the market will end up determining whether it's absurd or not. EMF probably did their research before making what was probably a huge investment in the license. And again from what I can see this will be the only one actually broadcasting from the city.

I'm not crazy about the network model but again it's usually market forces that drive that sort of business model. How is it that different from the NPR model? I know locally our NPR affiliates produce a lot of original programming but around the country it's more frequent that all the programming comes from national sources. 


Drat. I'm going to have to change my car's radio pre-sets.  

In the 80's I used to listen to their 'dirty joke of the day' at 7:20 in the morning before leaving for high school.

https://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n34574


FUV is the only worthwhile station on the NY FM dial in my opinion.


dano said:
FUV is the only worthwhile station on the NY FM dial in my opinion.

 Having lived in  Austin TX for a couple of years I was amazed when I moved to NYC at the generally abysmal quality of the radio stations here.  Why are they (with the exception of WFUV) so much worse than the stations in smaller markets?


Lynn Samuels, if we're talking radio memories. 

Sirius XM isn't fantastic but with no commercials and at least five bearable stations, it's a pretty good value.


Klinker said:
 Having lived in  Austin TX for a couple of years I was amazed when I moved to NYC at the generally abysmal quality of the radio stations here.  Why are they (with the exception of WFUV) so much worse than the stations in smaller markets?

 Maybe the advertising money in the NY market is so good they have to run about 55 minutes of advertising very hour? That's what it seems like to me when I flip on one of the commercial stations. 


this is sad. Plj was always my top choice for my am drive. I haven’t had an am drive in 5 or 6 years but I’ll still miss them!


dano said:
FUV is the only worthwhile station on the NY FM dial in my opinion.

Try WFMU or WBGO.


mrincredible said:


Klinker said:
 Having lived in  Austin TX for a couple of years I was amazed when I moved to NYC at the generally abysmal quality of the radio stations here.  Why are they (with the exception of WFUV) so much worse than the stations in smaller markets?
 Maybe the advertising money in the NY market is so good they have to run about 55 minutes of advertising very hour? That's what it seems like to me when I flip on one of the commercial stations. 

 There have been many articles over the years on why the NYC commercial radio market is so sh!tty.  Ultimately comes down to the big $$$.


yahooyahoo said:


dano said:
FUV is the only worthwhile station on the NY FM dial in my opinion.
Try WFMU or WBGO.

 These three, plus 93.9 NPR, dominate my car radio presets.  Also, WSOU for when my son is in the car and successfully lobbies for metal....


I suppose that with the increasing availability of streaming radio stations, the poor quality of the NYC area stations is less meaningful although I have not gotten into the habit of streaming stations from other areas.  


With streaming, I have just gotten out of the habit of listening to radio when I am not in the car.  The sole exception to that is WNYC but I generally listen to them via streaming when I am at home. We have a radio in a box in the basement for emergencies but I don't think there is a functional one anywhere upstairs. 


I'm a big commercial radio station listener and what I find the saddest is that Bronson & Chistine are no longer on 106.7 lt fm!  No goodbye, nothing!  They made a great team in the AM.  Cubby from 103.5 KTU took Bronson's place.  Lots of changes.


My favorites are WTAF and GTFO.

But seriously, WNYC and 1010WINS. The music stations around here have sucked for years. I'll stream KEXP or BBC Radio 6 Music before the drek they play on terrestrial radio here.


Good ones mentioned above and add WXPN out of Philly.


weirdbeard said:


yahooyahoo said:

dano said:
FUV is the only worthwhile station on the NY FM dial in my opinion.
Try WFMU or WBGO.
 These three, plus 93.9 NPR, dominate my car radio presets.  Also, WSOU for when my son is in the car and successfully lobbies for metal....

 WSOU is the only of those in my presets. The best.


bub said:

These days, I think Paul Calvalconte is the best thing on radio.  He's replaced Vin Scelsa as the fun, everything goes free form DJ Sunday nights on FUV, he's replaced Jonathan Schwartz on the Saturday and Sunday shows on NYC for American songbook type stuff, and he also has a show on the classical station.  He's so upbeat and inclusive in what he plays.  It's hard not to like his shows.  

 I really liked Calvaconte before he took over for Jonathan Schwartz. Now I think he’s trying to be too much like him. I couldn’t stand Schwartz...


The WFMU shows are all archived nearly immediately, so you can access them whenever/wherever you like. I'll throw in a plug for Sophisticated Boom Boom with Sheila B., which features "female-fronted pop from the past, present and future; from all over the globe. And the occasional man" and airs 3-6 p.m. on Friday.

Here is the latest playlist/archive:

https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/87735


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