Your favourite classic rock radio station(s)

Flower

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Once upon a time ~ from Wikipedia

WNEW-FM

"Where Rock Lives"

On Halloween, 1967, WNEW-FM adopted a progressive rock radio format, one that it became famous for and that influenced the rock listenership as well as the rock industry. The original disc jockeys were Rosko, who started on October 31, 1967, Jonathan Schwartz who made his debut on November 16, 1967 and "the Professor" Scott Muni, who first appears on November 18, 1967. Alison Steele would stay on from the female staff and eventually take over the overnight shift on January 1, 1968. Disc jockeys would broadcast in ways that bore out their personalities:

Morning fixture Dave Herman was not afraid to mix Erik Satie or Donna Summer into the playlist;

Noontime stalwart Pete Fornatale, a great fan of Poco, promoted The Beach Boys when it was not fashionable and later started his eclectic weekend Mixed Bag program;

Afternoon legend Scott Muni would use his gravelly voice to introduce largely unknown British artists on his "Things From England" segments;

Nighttime host Jonathan Schwartz was a raconteur who would sneak in the Sinatra pop standards that he not-so-secretly liked better than rock;

Overnight presence Alison "The Nightbird" Steele would play space rock groups in between readings of her equally spacey poems;

Weekend personality Vin Scelsa started his idiosyncratic Idiots' Delight program, which soon gained a devoted following.

Other well-known disc jockeys who worked at the station included Rosko, Dennis Elsas, Pete Larkin, Richard Neer, Dan Neer, Jim Monaghan, Pam Merly, Meg Griffin, and John Zacherle

The classic logo of WNEW with the Statue of Liberty pictured.WNEW-FM was among the first stations to give Bruce Springsteen significant airplay, and conducted live broadcasts of key Springsteen concerts in 1975 and 1978; Springsteen would sometimes call up the DJs during records. Later, Dave Herman featured a "Bruce Juice" segment each morning. John Lennon once stopped by to guest-DJ along with Dennis Elsas and appeared on-air several other times during his friend Scott Muni's afternoon slot. Members of The Grateful Dead and other groups would hang out in the studio; Emerson, Lake & Palmer's visit to Scott Muni's show is often credited for popularizing the group in America. In addition to music, youth-oriented comedy recordings such as from Monty Python would also be aired.

The station sponsored a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden each holiday season that drew reasonably big-name acts. It could fairly be said that WNEW-FM earned its slogan "Where Rock Lives". The station's television commercials during its rock years featured the song "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos and was considered the station's anthem.

The station thrived during the late 1970s when it helped boost the transition of the Punk/New Wave movement into the mainstream. During this era, the station hosted many live broadcasts from the legendary Greenwich Village night club, The Bottom Line. Among the bands featured live from the club were The Police, Joe Jackson, Squeeze, The Records, Rachel Sweet, David Johansen, Rockpile, Mink DeVille and the Tom Robinson Band. Many of these bands were being spotlighted during their debut New York City performance.

In the late 1970s the station began to feel the threat of disco. They hired Gianettino and Meredith Advertising to come up with a way to communicate with the New York area. The G&M pitch by creative director George Meredith to station manager Mel Karmazin: "You can't tell them what you want to say, which is 'Disco Sucks,' but you can tell them that 'Rock Lives.'" And that became their battle cry.

Beginning in the mid '70s and extending into the 1980s, WNEW fielded a successful softball team, the WNEW All-Stars, playing in and around the New York metropolitan area and competing in the New York Sports and Entertainment League. Among the All-Stars were DJs Thom Morrera, Jim Monaghan, Richard Neer, Dan Neer and Pat Dawson, along with Crawdaddy editor Peter Knobler at shortstop, music business regulars Jack Hopke, Ed Vitale, Matt Birkbeck, Ralph Cuccurullo and John "Boots" Boulos in the outfield, and Michael "Chopper" Boulos at second base. The team consistently won deep into the playoffs, playing against teams led by Meat Loaf, among others.

In the 1980s, the station gradually adopted a more conventional album-oriented rock format, and sometimes seemed stodgy compared to college radio stations playing alternative rock. When long-time competitor WPLJ switched away from rock in 1983, WNEW-FM picked up some of its most popular DJs, such as Carol Miller and years later Pat St. John who would take over the morning show and programming duties.

From 1988 to 1992, a series of transactions involving WNEW-FM and its sister radio and television stations, resulted in ownership of WNEW-FM passing from Metromedia to Westinghouse and adopting the shorter WNEW call sign (former sister stations WNEW-TV became WNYW-TV under Fox, and WNEW-AM became WBBR under Bloomberg).

By the 1990s, the station was further losing relevance in the face of the popularity of grunge rock and so became more of a classic rock station. It spent its remaining music days flip flopping between a variety of classic, adult album and alternative rock.

 

Groovy Man

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i just prefer to not listen to the 100 most overplayed songs of the "classic rock era", whatever that is

It's only ''overplayed'', if you listen to the radio a lot.

Try turning off the radio, and it won't be overplayed.

Anyway, how come ''modern rock era'' music doesn't get played out?
 

Magic

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EDIT: all the images will take you to the station web page if you click them
 

LG

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...I don't have one, I don't listen to any radio stations anymore period. If I were to select one station I used to listen to constantly many years ago, then it would be CBC 2.
 

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