WNNJ (AM)

WNNJ is an AM radio station in Sussex County broadcasting on 1360 licensed to Newton, New Jersey. They are owned by Clear Channel Communications and offer an oldies format playing the hits from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

History

The station signed on as a daytimer in 1953 and had a full service middle of the road music format. In 1961 WNNJ FM signed on as well and broke away as WIXL in the mid 1960's. By 1971 1360 WNNJ would evolve into an adult contemporary music format with a slight lean on Top 40 music. The station was also news intensive. WNNJ was also allowed to sign on at 6:00 AM even if it stayed dark after because they had a pre sunrise authorization. In the Fall of 1978 WNNJ modified their music to more of a Top 40 format adding more rock music.

In 1979 Group M Communications headed by Marv Strauser & Mike Levine purchased WNNJ and WIXL. WNNJ stayed with top 40 until October of 1981 when they evolved into an Adult Standards formatmixing in some Adult Contemporary hits. In the Fall of 1982 though the station dropped the baby boomer pop and became a Big Band and Standards station only playing music from the 30's to the 50's. By the Spring of 1983 the station evolved back to a Middle Of The Road format blending standards and soft AC cuts. This format failed and in February of 1984 WNNJ became a soft adult Contemporary station. At that point WNNJ got a post sunset authorization to stay on the air until 6 PM even in the months that dusk occurred before 6. That summer they modified into more of a Contemporary Hit radio station mixing in a few oldies. In the Winter of 1985 after a few false starts WNNJ settled on an Adult Contemporary/Oldies hybrid format under the name "Solid Gold 1360 WNNJ". The format did well through the late 1980's. In 1989 WNNJ got 24 hour a day authorization to broadcast. WNNJ now could stay on the air during the overnight buts till signed off at 10:00 PM

By 1990 though the current product was dropped and the station had evolved into a broad based 1955-1989 oldies format still known as Solid Gold 1360 WNNJ. Unfortunately the owners focused more on 103.7 WNNJ FM and WNNJ 1360 began to suffer in terms of ratings and sales. In January of 1994 some of the full time airstaff was laid off while other full timers and part timers were folded into 103.7 WNNJ FM. WNNJ 1360 took a satellite oldies station playing the oldies from 1955 to 1975. The station was still called Solid Gold 1360 WNNJ but was automated the whole time. The station also began broadcasting 24 hours a day.

Late in 1996 Nassau Broadcasting would buy WNNJ along with WNNJ FM. Early in 1997 they took over management of the stations. WNNJ FM was switched from Adult top 40 to Classic Hits while WNNJ 1360 would drop the Satellite Oldies in favor of ABC's Stardust satellite format featuring an eclectic blend of standards, soft rock oldies, soft AC cuts, and some big bands. The station remained automated full time. The station became known as "Unforgetable 1360 WNNJ". Ratings by now were non existent.

Then in the Summer of 1998 WNNJ added a live morning show from 5:30 to 10 AM weekdays. This was hosted by Chris Debello. The show consisted of a few adult standard songs along with news and phone call ins by people of various types. They ranged from government officials to political candidates to musicians to artists to writers to other professional people. Some are very famous while others are lesser known.

Ratings for the station climbed to decent levels. In 2000 the satellite format was switched to Westwood One's standards format which was a blend of soft rock oldies, easy listening standards, and soft adult contemporary hits. By now the station was known as simply "1360 WNNJ". Sadly demographics for this format made WNNJ a tough sell and advertising was almost non existent by October of 2002.

Then at 3 PM on November 27 WNNJ dropped the satellite soft hits format. Chris Debello continued hosting public affairs shows on all the stations with similar types of phone call ins. The station then took an 80's and 90's based Country format with a few new songs. The station was entirely automated with in house voicetracking except for overnights where they ran "After Midnight". Now the station's calls were only identified with top of the hour id's. The staion was knowna s "Bear Country 1360". Ratings for this station were non existent. The logic of the format change was that Sussex County people missing WHCY's former country format lost 2 years earlier would listen. But 96.1 WCTO known as Cat Country has an excellent signal in most of WNNJ's listening area. In the northern end of WNNJ's listening area, WRWD in Poughkeepsie (also onwed by Clear Channel) has a good class B signal. So Country fans had an FM station to listen to. So "Bear Country 1360" failed.

In September of 2004 Clear Channel lost the local marketing agreement with locally owned 96.7 WTSX (known as Fox 96.7) which played 60's and 70's oldies. At the end of the month WTSX went their separate way. Most of the airstaff though would stay with Clear Channel. They opted to move aspects of the Oldies format over to 1360. They moved airstaff from WTSX to WNNJ. They also droped the country format and switched to oldies from the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. The station became known as "Oldies 1360". The WNNJ calls are still only mentioned on the top of each hour. In the Spring of 2005 Oldies 1360 added former WCBS FM personality Max Kinkle to mornings. Ratings still seemed nonexistant. But it was hoped that when WCBS FM dropped the 60's/70's Oldies format for Adult Rock "Jack" that Sussex listeners would switch to Oldies 1360 but this has not seemed to happen though in the fall of 2005 the station showed up with some measurable audience.

Musically the station plays a deep variety. The airstaff also sounds excellent. It is hoped ratings will rise soon.

Airstaff

5:30-10 AM - Max Kinkle

10AM-3PM - Rick Davis(10AM - 12 Noon Spotlight Artist) (12 Noon- 1 PM - Doo Wop Diner)

3PM-7PM - Tony Dee (3PM-3:10 PM Elvis) (5PM-5:30 Top 5 at 5)

7 PM-MIdnight - Rob Ryan

Weekends

Lou Guru - 10 AM Saturday/various

Doo Wop Stop - 4 PM Saturday

Supergold - Mike Harvey 7 PM Saturday

Dick Clark Rock Roll Remember - 9 AM Sunday

Standards By The Sea - 8 AM Saturday

Mel Andrews