WKTU (103.5 FM) is a rhythmic adult contemporary formatted radio station licensed to Lake Success, New York. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station broadcasts from studios at 125 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan; its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building. Although licensed to a community in Nassau County, which is part of the Long Island radio market, the station is assigned by Nielsen to the New York market.
History WGLI-FM–WTFM (1958–1982) In 1958, 103.5 MHz was assigned to Babylon, New York for WGLI-FM, simulcasting sister station WGLI (1290 AM). William Reuman, the founder and owner of WWRL in New York City, was the owner of WGLI. 103.5 MHz had previously been assigned to WPAT-FM in Paterson, New Jersey, which went on the air as WNNJ in 1949, and was deleted in early 1951.In 1957, a new station with the WPAT-FM call letters, now at 93.1 FM, began broadcasting.
In March 1960, Friendly Frost Inc. (a Long Island-based appliance store chain) acquired WGLI Inc. from Reuman and his partners. In November 1961, Friendly Frost moved the station from Babylon to Lake Success, and the call sign was changed to WTFM. WTFM transmitted with 20 kW from a 200-foot tower outside the studio building at 173-15 Horace Harding Expressway visible from the Long Island Expressway. Eventually, the transmitter was relocated to the Chrysler Building, and a major signal boost was accomplished. As WTFM, the station used the slogan "The International Stereo Sound of New York", and played an instrumental-based easy listening format. Initially, it was strictly instrumental versions of pop standards, however by 1969, the station began playing soft instrumental versions of rock and roll baby boomer pop songs as well as standards. The station was eventually sold to Sydney Horne, and the company became known as WTFM, Inc. By 1971, the station began playing soft vocalists once every 15 minutes including soft songs by rock artists and standards artists. They kept this format until 1977, the reason being as an easy listening station, WTFM was up against similar stations: WRFM, WVNJ-FM, and WPAT AM & FM, that had higher ratings. As a result, the station switched to a soft rock-leaning adult contemporary format. The station would at some points be more of an AC format, while at other points more of a mellow rock format. Ultimately, ratings continued to remain low with the new format. WTFM was put up for sale in 1980, and Heftel Broadcasting made a proposal to buy the station from Sydney Horne. The plan was to switch WTFM to an album rock format, but the sale was never consummated. The station stayed up for sale and had many offers, but none that were acceptable, throughout 1980 and 1981.
WAPP (1982–1986)
In early 1982, Doubleday Broadcasting Co., a subsidiary of publisher Doubleday and Company, acquired the station, and by April its call letters were changed to WAPP. However, the format would remain the same for a while longer until new ownership decided what to do with the station. On June 14, 1982, WAPP switched to an album-oriented rock format similar to WPLJ and WNEW-FM, and was renamed "The Apple 103.5"; the format began with "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who. The station launched with a commercial-free summer.
In 1983, a then-unknown Jon Bon Jovi visited the station and wrote and sung the jingles for the station. He spoke with DJ Chip Hobart, who suggested Bon Jovi let WAPP include the song "Runaway" on the station's compilation album of local homegrown talent. Bon Jovi was reluctant, but eventually gave them the song, on which Bon Jovi had used studio musicians to play on "Runaway" (which was written in 1980). As part of a marketing effort, WAPP-FM launched a contest called "New York Rocks 1983". Local music acts were encouraged to submit demo tapes to this competition. Among the tapes submitted to this contest was "Runaway", but didn't win the competition. Another act called the "Frankie Carr Band" won the honors. This competition was repeated in 1984. WAPP worked with WWOR-TV in nearby Secaucus, New Jersey on a music video show, Rock 9 Videos, for a short time in 1984.
As 1984 progressed, WAPP's ratings were on the upswing. However, the station's owners decided to abruptly change the station's format to CHR that October. They felt that if co-owned stations in Washington, D.C., and Minnesota could do well with the format, then this station could as well. This would not be the case, as the station could not compete with WPLJ or Z-100, and their ratings fell. The station quietly segued back in a rock direction with a rock-leaning CHR format in June 1985. The station leaned toward current based rock while playing a limited amount of rhythmic cuts. Even that would not be able to turn the station's ratings around as 92.3 FM, the original WKTU, flipped to rock as "K-Rock".
WQHT (1986–1988) In 1986, Emmis Communications acquired WAPP from Doubleday. On August 13, 1986, WAPP began stunting with a classic rock format as "Classic 103".
On August 15, 1986, at 6 pm, The Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now" and a bomb noise rang out, marking the end of WAPP. The station then flipped to a CHR/dance/urban contemporary format as Hot 103, New York's Hottest Mix with new call letters WQHT. The first song on "Hot" was "R.S.V.P." by Five Star. No one in the radio industry expected it, but the new format that would be labeled "rhythmic contemporary" was taking shape. WQHT was the second such station with the format, months after Emmis launched it on KPWR in Los Angeles earlier that year.
WQHT's first Program Director was Joel Salkowitz. Steve Ellis, formerly of WAPP, was music director. Don Kelly was the consultant for both WQHT and KPWR in those early months.
WQHT played a different variety of music than what was on the New York radio dial at that time. There was no CHR/Dance station in the market since WKTU left the air a year earlier. WQHT came on the air with a new and improved dance-oriented format, which radio trade magazines of the day called a hybrid format. The station mixed in top 40 hits with dance and club music of the day. The station was also known for playing "hotmixes" or extended versions of certain songs. The "hotmixes" were either just the extended versions available commercially on 12" singles, or mixes that were created by local club DJs, such as "Little" Louie Vega. They also aired regular versions of the songs that had longer intros than that of their competitors. Noel used WQHT's version of his single "Silent Morning" for the song's music video, as evidenced in the video's credits. With the debut of WQHT, some record labels such as Atco and Elektra reportedly started to see a spike in 12" single sales in the New York metropolitan area, as was reported by Billboard.
WQHT's imaging sounded similar to that of sister station KPWR, as WNAP alums Chuck Riley and Eric Edwards became the official voices of the station. While Chuck mainly voiced bumpers and sweepers, Eric on the other hand mostly voiced promos and specialty liners. These two were also the voices for other Emmis stations at the time such as KPWR, WLOL in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, and WAVA in Washington, D.C.
A month after the station's launch, WQHT began adding an airstaff. Some of the first Hot 103 DJs to join WQHT were, Deborah Rath-Howell from KPWR in Los Angeles, Al Bandiero from WKTU, Johnny "Big John" Monds from WUSL in Philadelphia, Sunny Joe Allen from KC101, Frederick "Fast Freddie" Colon and Niecie Colon from WBLS, as well as Vanessa Scott, Rufus Hurt, and Mitchell Phillips, who were hold overs from WAPP.
"Broadway" Bill Lee from KPKE in Denver joined the station around Christmas 1986 as the youngest of the Hot Jocks. Rick Allen also joined as Production Director, in addition to being the voice of WQHT's electronic prizedroid Robojock, and TM Communications customized KPWR's "K-Power!" jingle package for WQHT under the name of "The Hot Streak!" with Chuck on rapping vocals.
By 1987, WQHT was making a name for itself by playing freestyle music in regular rotation. Artists such as Noel, Safire, The Cover Girls and TKA were made famous because they were played in heavy rotation right next to Mainstream Top 40 artists such as Exposé, Debbie Gibson and Taylor Dayne. Freestyle and club music from other cities such as Miami, who had (and continues to have) an active dance and club scene, wasn't ignored either. Company B and Tiger Moon, who were famous in the Florida club scene, were played on WQHT as well. In fact, Hot 103 pioneered custom station versions of songs, where the artists would change lyrics and sing about the station. Because of WQHT's success with the genre, WHTZ copied the station's success by adding a few Freestyle titles, as well as urban contemporary stations WBLS and WRKS, who were playing long versions of the records they played as well.
That same year, WQHT added a local weekly countdown show called New York's Hot Tracks, hosted by Bill Lee, which counted down the top 10 selling 12" singles of the week. The show started on Sunday nights, then moved to Fridays at 6 pm, and then later at 5 pm. It featured short interview clips and aired sonovox numbers produced by Rick Allen identifying the chart position. "Hot Tracks" was produced, for a time, by PD Joel Salkowitz and researched by Angie Martinez, who would later become an afternoon host after the station flipped to Hip-Hop and R&B in 1992. (The show would later be hosted by Jeff Thomas, and was cancelled in 1993).
In July 1987, WQHT wanted to devote some airtime to older dance music at the urging of Al Bandiero. Management agreed, and thus began "The Disco Classics' Showcase", which would feature dance music older than seven years. The show was broadcast for an hour from 8 pm-9 pm on Sundays. In 1989, the show was expanded to two hours. Later hosts would be Paco Navarro in 1992 from WKTU fame, and Freddie Colon. The show lasted until 1994.
Morning drive From the time the station signed on the air, it presented a music intensive morning show with only two stopsets of commercials an hour. Mornings were first hosted by Rufus Hurt with news by Judy Hernandez (another hold over from WAPP, where she went by the name Judy Herron). After Hurt left, "Big John" Monds took over for him.
By the fall of 1987, WQHT was looking for a morning team to round out its dayparts. It settled on the veteran team of "Walton & Johnson & The Not Ready For Drive Time Players". The show didn't click, and was cancelled in a couple months.
In 1988, the station brought in the married morning team of Ron Stevens and Joy Grdnic from KSHE in St. Louis to handle morning drive. Stevens & Grdnic were unique as they were a male/female team rather than the usual male/male morning show. Veteran newsman J. Paul Emerson of KMEL's Morning Zoo was joined as the wild newsman with a tabloid type delivery. The station added traffic updates via Shadow Traffic and contracted with WNYW meteorologist Nick Gregory to provide live weather updates.
WQHT's big impact In February 1987, Billboard created a new "Crossover 30" chart in response to WQHT and the rise in popularity of other CHR/Dance stations. The chart was based solely on airplay from stations that reported to it. Radio trade magazine "Radio and Records" created a similar chart and started reporting the weekly music adds by WQHT and others.