Jukebox Radio
Encyclopedia
Jukebox Radio was a low power FM radio station
Low-power broadcasting
Low-power broadcasting is electronic broadcasting at very low power and low cost, to a small community area.The terms "low-power broadcasting" and "micropower broadcasting" should not be used interchangeably, because the markets are not the same...

 in Dumont, New Jersey
Dumont, New Jersey
Dumont is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The population was 17,479 at the 2010 Census.Dumont was formed on July 20, 1894, as the Borough of Schraalenburgh from portions of Harrington Township and Palisades Township, at the height of the "Boroughitis" phenomenon then sweeping...

 from 1993 to 2003 with the call letters W276AQ on 103.1 FM. In addition, "Jukebox radio" was heard on a Full Power Class A FM station, WJUX
WJUX
WJUX is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to Monticello, New York, USA. The station is currently owned by Bridgelight, LLC....

-FM 99.7 from Monticello, New York
Monticello, New York
Monticello is a village located in the Town of Thompson in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was 6,512 at the 2000 census. It is the seat for the Town of Thompson and the county seat of Sullivan County...

 from 1995 until 2004. These two stations simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...

 during that time period. In addition, 94.3 FM also simulcast Jukebox Radio from Rockland County, New York
Rockland County, New York
Rockland County is a suburban county 15 miles to the northwest of Manhattan and part of the New York City Metropolitan Area, in the U.S. state of New York. It is the southernmost county in New York west of the Hudson River, and the smallest county in New York outside of New York City. The...

 from 1996 to 2003. "Jukebox Radio" originally played Traditional Big Band Music in 1993, then evolved to more of an adult standrards format by 1995. "Jukebox Radio' evolved into to Oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....

 in 1997. The station switched back to Adult Standards but emphasising more baby boomer pop in 2000. Due to legal issues, Jukebox Radio was forced to sell the stations in 2002 and today a Christian Teaching/Preaching/Praise & Worship Music format called "The Bridge occupy the dial positions.

History

Originally licensed as a Non-Commercial station "Jukebox Radio" hit the air on March 5, 1993 on FM translator 103.1 FM with DJs Lee Martin (Morning and Afternoon Drive), Matthew Borzi (Mid-days) and Larry Hopper (Evenings). The station was owned by Gerry Turro. Gerry Turro was the chief engineer of 1130 WNEW
WBBR
WBBR is a radio station broadcasting at 1130 AM in New York City. It airs Bloomberg Radio, a service of Bloomberg L.P. WBBR's format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market updates and interviews with corporate executives,...

 New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 from the 1980s until 1992 when WNEW folded. That station also had a big band/adult standards format from 1981 to 1992. Gerry purchased WNEW's music library at the end of 1992 for use on Jukebox Radio.

Jukebox radio's music was originally a blend of traditional adult standards and big bands from the 1930s, 1940's and early 1950s. Core artists originally included Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...

, Mills Brothers
Mills Brothers
The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed as The Four Mills Brothers, were an American jazz and pop vocal quartet of the 20th century who made more than 2,000 recordings that combined sold more than 50 million copies, and garnered at least three dozen gold records...

, Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...

, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

, Andrews Sisters, Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....

, Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

, and others. The station, initially, only played a handful of sings newer than 1955 and sounded similar to the 1981 version of 1130 WNEW.

In 1994, more easy listening artists such as Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...

, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

, The Lettermen, Perry Como
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...

, Jerry Vale
Jerry Vale
Jerry Vale is an American singer.-Career:In high school, in order to make some money, he took a job shining shoes in a barbershop in New York City. He sang while he shined shoes, and his boss liked the sound so well that he paid for music lessons for the boy...

, pre-1970 Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

, and others were added and Jukebox began playing more of the 1960s non rock songs but no baby boomer pop, except for a couple Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

 and Connie Francis
Connie Francis
Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...

 songs, just yet. Jukebox Radio was non-commercial originally, each hour was underwritten by various sponsors. In 1995, WJUX was able to become a commercial station when leasing commercial airtime on 99.7 FM in Monticello, New York
Monticello, New York
Monticello is a village located in the Town of Thompson in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was 6,512 at the 2000 census. It is the seat for the Town of Thompson and the county seat of Sullivan County...

, which was nearly 100 miles away, becoming WJUX-FM. FM translator W276AQ, Fort Lee 103.1 in Bergen County became a translator station for WJUX. But what was unusual was that the station's studios and offices and announcers were all based in Bergen County. The station transmitted from the 103.1 frequency and sent the signal through digital phone circuits to WJUX-FM in Monticello which rebroadcast the signal to the north-western section of The Hudson Valley. At this point, Jukebox Radio became a commercial station.

In the middle of 1995, Jukebox Radio began adding baby boomer pop to the format, playing about 4 or 5 per hour. Artists like Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....

, Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...

, Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....

, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

, Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...

, Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...

, Brenda Lee
Brenda Lee
Brenda Mae Tarpley , known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis...

, soft Beatles songs, Tony Orlando
Tony Orlando
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis , better known as Tony Orlando, is an American show business professional, best known as the lead singer of the group Tony Orlando and Dawn in the early 1970s. Discovered by producer Don Kirshner, Orlando had songs on the charts in 1961 when he was 16, "Halfway to...

, Everly Brothers, and others. The station still continued to emphasise the Sinatra type artists and continued to feature some big band music as well.

Legal challenge

This radio station is famous in the broadcast radio industry, due to Gerry Turro (former chief engineer of WNEW, New York), who thought that he figured out how to legally operate an FM translator, commercially, in the #1 Market in the world, New York City. Unfortunately jealous nearby competition did not think it was legal. Miriam Warshaw and her husband Howard, owners of AM stand-alone station 1160 WVNJ
WVNJ
WVNJ is radio station licensed to Oakland, New Jersey, serving Bergen County, New Jersey and parts of the New York City metropolitan area. The station employs a brokered programming format and is owned by Universal Broadcasting headed by Miriam Warshaw...

 filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that Jukebox Radio's signal was illegal because the low power station was run as the main station while the full power station was a translator. Also since the signals had little if any overlap. WJUX 99.7 Monticello was receiving the signal from the Jukebox Radio studios through phone lines. The suit also claimed that 99.7 was designated to serve the Northwestern Hudson Valley and the southern Catskills and not Bergen County, but all its programming aimed at Bergen County and most of its advertisers were based out of Bergen County. WVNJ had an R & B Oldies format at the time WJUX went commercial in 1995, but switched to Adult Standards early in 1996 due to low ratings. Also, WJUX had an advantage being on FM, taking potential advertisers away from WVNJ. WVNJ thought that if they could get Jukebox off the air, they would have all the advertisers to themselves, they were wrong.

Jukebox Radio won the first round of proceedings, but WVNJ appealed the decision to the Federal appellate court. WVNJ lost their appeal. Throughout 1997, Jukebox Radio began emphasising more baby boomer pop music. Big Band artists like Tommy Dorsey and old time crooners like Bing Crosby were gone. Artists like Frank Sinatra, The Lettermen, and Johnny Mathis would remain but now shared substantial airtime with songs by more baby boomer artists like Dion
Dion DiMucci
Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....

, Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....

, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....

, Paul Anka
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...

, Commodores
Commodores
The Commodores are an American funk/soul band of the 1970s and 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute in 1968, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for The Jackson 5 while on tour...

, Kenny Loggins
Kenny Loggins
During the next decade, Loggins recorded so many successful songs for film soundtracks that he was referred to as, King of the Movie Soundtrack.He began with "I'm Alright" , "Mr. Night", and "Lead the Way" from Caddyshack...

, The Association
The Association
The Association is a pop music band from California in the folk rock or soft rock genre. During the 1960s, they had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts and were the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival...

, Motown artists, and many others. By 1998 classic rockers like The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

, The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...

, Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...

, Doobie Brothers and others were mixed in. Most of the pop standards staples were eliminated. Also, more Motown artists like Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

, Four Tops
Four Tops
The Four Tops are an American vocal quartet, whose repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, hard rock, and showtunes...

, The Miracles
The Miracles
The Miracles are an American rhythm and blues group from Detroit, Michigan, notable as the first successful group act for Berry Gordy's Motown Record Corporation . Their single "Shop Around" was Motown's first million-selling hit record, and the group went on to become one of Motown's signature...

, The Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...

, The Temptations
The Temptations
The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...

, and others were added. By the spring of 1998, Jukebox Radio was a broad based oldies outlet focusing on the music of 1964 to 1979 with a sprinkling of big hits from the 1980s and the 1955-1963 era.

Format

Over the years, people such as Chuck Leonard, Jimmy Howes, Marty Wilson, Max Kinkel, Lee Arnold, Bill Owen, Stan Martin, Mike Egan, Nick Straka, Bobby Ryan, and John Paul Morris worked at the Jukebox. John's weeknight program was broadcast live from 7 P.M. to 1:00 A.M. and a taped replay of each program was re-run until 6:00 A.M. In terms of selling advertising, Jukebox was very successful, doing over 1 million a year in billing. The oldies format did fairly well for the station. Chuck Leonard ( RIP ) is now in the Radio Hall of Fame and was the first African American DJ breaking the color barrier in New York City, working at 77-WABC Radio 1965-1979.

Local News on Jukebox Radio was delivered by Mike Prelee (WNEW-AM) and David Matthau (son of Walter Matthau).

In 2000, however, it was decided that Jukebox Radio would go back to adult standards but more of a hybrid of oldies and easy listening (sort of an MOR format...the way AC stations sounded in 1976). They would be more contemporary than their arch rival WVNJ (which by then was not selling much advertising and now experiencing financial problems), but softer than an oldies station. Core artists included Sinatra, Bennett, Elvis, Neil Diamond, Simon & Garfunkel, The Lettermen
The Lettermen
The Lettermen are an American male pop music vocal trio. The Lettermen's trademark is close-harmony pop songs with light arrangements. The group started in 1959...

, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...

, Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...

, Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...

, and many others.

Legal conclusion

Unfortunately, legal battles continued. Due to the excessive legal fees forced upon Jukebox Radio, financial problems also began to occur in spite of the station otherwise being profitable. A compromise was reached that the station could stay on the air until it was sold to a non-commercial broadcaster. Since non-commercial broadcasters, have more lenient rules regarding translators, such a broadcaster could continue to run the license. As a result, Jukebox Radio was forced to sell the facilities to a non-commercial broadcaster due to these lawsuits and being buried with debt. Before going dark, Jukebox Radio was the most listened to radio station in New Jersey. In the last year, the station cut music time down to about 6 hours a day. The rest of the time was filled by infomercials. The station on 99.7 and the 103.1 translator was sold to a religious broadcaster. In November 2004, Jukebox Radio signed off for the last time and a religious format consisting of Praise & Worship Music, Christian Charismatic Preaching, Teaching, and features replaced Jukebox Radio. The station is known as "The Bridge" today.

Also, the suit did oldies music fans little good. WVNJ has resorted to running infomercials in order to stay afloat and now plays little or no music.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK