Friday 11 April 2003

Rock station WNEW-FM goes lite

Once an icon of FM rock radio but now as worn as Keith Richards' face, WNEW in New York announced it would change formats on Thursday, creating a new identity as "102.7 Blink" with a mix of contemporary music, entertainment news and celebrity gossip.

Infinity Broadcasting, one of the largest major market radio operators in the country, was kicking off the change with a celebrity bash Thursday night in Manhattan, where celebrity invitees included Lisa Marie Presley, Shania Twain and Mariah Carey.

The actual format change was expected to occur during the party - some time around 7:30 p.m., station officials said. The station will retain its call letters. "Just like all media, great radio stations constantly reinvent themselves," said John Sykes, Infinity's chairman and CEO. "Blink is not only a music format but a brand that targets savvy New Yorkers that crave entertainment, gossip and information."

For 32 years, WNEW-FM was the place where rock lived. Everyone from John Lennon to Bruce Springsteen to the Ramones had a home at the station, and the stars occasionally dropped by to tout their latest album, or gab with legendary DJs like Richard Neer and Dennis Elsas. When Lennon was murdered outside his apartment in 1980, the station became the center of the rock community's mourning, playing nothing but Lennon music for the next 24 hours, interspersed with calls from grieving listeners. That changed in 1999, when Infinity switched to an all-talk format featuring afternoon shock jocks Opie and Anthony (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia). That format was dumped after a scandal last summer when the two shock jocks broadcast a pair of listeners allegedly having sex inside St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Now, more changes are in store. The new format will feature a morning team of "Entertainment Tonight" correspondent Chris Booker and Linda Lopez, sister of Bronx-born pop star Jennifer Lopez. E! Entertainment Television's Todd Newton will host a midday show from Hollywood every afternoon. DJ Ericka "DJ E-Love" Hamilton will host a show and will serve as Blink's music supervisor. Actor Kiefer Sutherland will be the station's "voice", recording Blink's commercials.

The station has also hired three reporters in New York and two in Los Angeles to cover the entertainment scene. Listeners will hear a wide spectrum of music, spokesman Dana McLintock said. He said it would not be unusual to hear a Springsteen song segue into a Lopez tune into a Beatles classic. "This is like nothing else on radio today," said Andy Schuon, Infinity's president of programming. "Andy is exactly right," said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication, Inside Radio. "He's trying to create something new, trying to make it cutting edge." Taylor said Infinity is "finally making a break with the past. ... Everybody in the industry is going to be looking at this because WNEW has such high visibility."

(New York Newsday)



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