Re: WJUX

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 06:57 PM 4/25/98 -0400, you wrote:

>I believe that WJUX does have a RealAudio feed on the Net - I think the
>station is teamed up with AudioNet. As for WVNJ, why do they always call
>themselves "The NEW WVNJ, 1160"?
>
They call themselves the NEW WVNJ for several reasons. The original WVNJ was
the AM 620 in Newark (now owned by One on One Sports and licensed to Jersey
City). Then, later, there was a WVNJ-FM (on 100.3, I think). I never heard
the FM, I understand that it had an excellent jazz format. Among the air
personalities was Les Davis, who currently does a program called Jazz
Straight Ahead on WQEW on Saturdays from 8:00 PM to midnight. I believe that
subsequent to WVNJ-FM, Davis was on WNEW (AM). In fact, I think he may have
hosted the Make-Believe Ballroom immediately before WNEW's demise. When WQEW
first went on the air, Davis did fill-in there. From there, I believe he
migrated for a time to WJUX, but left when the station ran into legal
difficulties because of the translator.

As for WVNJ-1160, the station has had an "interesting" history. I'm not sure
how many years 1160 in Oakland NJ has been on the air, but it has never been
successful and has gone through a number of formats. I think the
adult-standards format must be pushing three years old now. Within the last
year, WVNJ increased its day power from 10 kW to 20 kW. (Night power remains
2.5 kW.) This impoves coverage of Westchester and the Bronx, although most
of the small amount of advertising I noticed seemed to come from north
Jersey businesses. I think the current owners want to differentiate _this_
incarnation from all of the previous incarnations of stations with the WVNJ
calls, without giving up the historic (though arguably jinxed) calls.
Historic calls are appropriate for a station with WVNJ's current format.
Some of us still remember the original WVNJ-620. It signed on in the late
40s, with endless per-inquiry ads for TVs and vacuum cleaners, and ceaseless
repetition of "In New York, call COrtland 7-1212, that's
COrtland--CO--7-1212, and in New Jersey, call MItchell 3-8888, that's
MI--MItchell--3-8888." 

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

------------------------------