WIP FM

Start as WIBG-FM

In Philadelphia, FM frequency 94.1 began as WIBG-FM, the sister station of WIBG, and mostly simulcast the AM top-40 station until the mid-1960s, when it began to experiment with a prerecorded "underground rock" format without announcers. In 1968, owner Storer Broadcasting shut the station down while attempting to get permission for an increase in transmission power. WIBG-FM was a restricted class B station at the time, limited in range to avoid interfering with WKOK-FM in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. During 1969, the call letters were officially changed to WPNA when Storer sold WIBG (AM). The station remained silent and the call sign would be changed again before it returned to the air.

Sold to SJR Communications

Having been unsuccessful in getting the Sunbury station to agree to an FCC waiver, Storer sold WPNA to SJR Communications. (SJR stood for "San Juan Racing", referring to the company's lone US holding: a racing track in San Juan.) SJR changed the call letters to WYSP ("Your Station in Philadelphia"), and quickly made a deal with the Sunbury station that allowed WYSP to increase its power. The station became a full class B, with a non-directional 550 ft. antenna resulting in 39,000 watts effective radiated power (ERP). On August 23, 1971, WYSP went on the air. The format consisted of live announcers playing big-band and easy listening music from half-hour-long reel-to-reel tapes that were produced in-house. The WYSP studios were located in the Suburban Station Building at 16th and JFK Parkway in Philadelphia. A new RCA transmitter and circular polarized five-bay Gates antenna was installed at the transmitter site.

Album-oriented rock format

At 6 AM on Monday, August 6, 1973, WYSP abruptly stopped playing big-band music and started playing album-oriented rock (AOR). The entire announcing staff was fired (despite attempts to unionize), and five new announcers were hired, including Tom Straw and Dean Clark. The music included popular cuts from albums by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Chicago, and Crosby Stills and Nash. Radio consultant Kent Burkhart was called in; he pulled Dick Findley from WEBN in Cincinnati to be the Program Director, Music Director, handle the promotions, and do middays. With promotional help from artists like Aerosmith, Jimmy Buffet, and Charlie Daniels, the station took off. After a series of concerts in the park, high school hops and public involvement, the station beat the competition at WMMR by more than 2 to 1 in the ratings. It was at that point in 1975-1976 that the station peaked. Lee Abrams replaced Findley with "The Fox & Leonard Morning Show" (Sonny Fox & Bob Leonard), the first two-man morning show on AOR radio.

In 1974, WYSP became Philadelphia's "quad" station, piping its audio through a Sony Quad encoder, which provided "ambience" effects to the rear channels of the handful of quad radios in the market. Due to a compatibility problem with regular mono radios, and a lack of interest from the listening public, the quad encoder was quietly dismantled in 1976.

In June 1979, Program Director Steve Sutton was hired to put a failing YSP back on the map. Assembling a line-up of Jerry Abear, Sean McKay and Bill Fantini (6-10a), Denny Somach (10a-2p), Randy Kotz (2-6p), Gary Bridges (6-10p), Cyndy Drue (10p-2a) and Trip Reeb (2-6a), the station broke artists like Tom Petty in Philadelphia. Sutton hired popular Eagles linebacker Frank LeMaster for mornings during football season. The station was loud, up and cutting edge. Production—outrageous spots and promos—from Jay Gilbert and later, R.D. Steele, made WYSP unique. The station was hugely creative; it generated the syndicated shows found on album rock stations around the country. NBC recognized this, and pursued WYSP as its flagship affiliate for its new "Source" network. WYSP soon tied WMMR as #1 in the coveted 18-34 demographic. In 1981, Steve Sutton accepted an offer from old friend and WMMR PD Charlie Kendall to cross the street and become the MMR morning host, "Steveski."

Classic rock format

WYSP became the nation's very first "classic rock" station in the spring of 1981, when Frank X. Feller (then General Manager) received a suggestion and a reel-to-reel tape with a sample of what the "Classic Rock" format would sound like from account executive Jim Sacony. The featured artists on the reel to reel were the Yardbirds, The Zombies, Young Rascals, Van Morrison, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Steppenwolf and The Byrds. Frank then directed Program Director and midday jock Dick Hungate to team up with station consultant Lee Abrams to more effectively compete with two traditionally-programmed and very entrenched competitors - WMMR and WIOQ. The actual on-air describer "classic rock" was thought of in a strategy session at WYSP's then One Bala Plaza offices, in which other adjectives such as "timeless" and "vintage" also were discussed by Hungate and Abrams. In this pre-PC age, it fell upon Hungate to create the universe of all old-rock tracks based upon his previous Philly experience as MD of WMMR in 1978-79, using metal file boxes and color-coded 3" X 5" index cards to manually rotate within each age/strength category the on-air playlist.

Hard rock format

In 1995, WYSP would abandon classic rock for a new hard rock format during a period when former WMMR morning host John DeBella joined the station. WYSP returned to classic rock once again a few years later, but ultimately switched back to a current, hard-rock format once and for all.

Purchase by Infinity Broadcasting/CBS

WYSP was ultimately purchased by Infinity Broadcasting. Infinity merged with CBS in 1996. CBS already owned WMMR, and the Infinity merger left CBS one station over the Federal Communications Commission's ownership limit of the time. WMMR was sold to Greater Media. This left empty space at the KYW-AM-TV studios on Independence Mall, which served as the headquarters for CBS' broadcasting operations in Philadelphia. On April 5, 1997, WMMR and WYSP switched studios. WYSP moved downtown to 5th and Market Street near Independence Mall in Philadelphia and WMMR moved out to Bala Cynwyd. In 1977, the transmitter site was also moved to its present location in Roxborough.

Talk show formats

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the station gradually added or tried out several talk-intensive or talk-based shows during the daytime hours. Howard Stern was broadcast in mornings from 6-10 am until he left for Sirius in 2005. The shows were a mix of locally based and nationally syndicated programs, such as Opie and Anthony and Don and Mike. While some shows proved successful in their time slot, the station did not retain many of them, with only a few incarnations of the locally produced shows still on WYSP. Shows that were dropped were usually replaced by the music format.

Free FM format

On October 25, 2005, the station switched to the Free FM format. From its inception until early 2007, WYSP featured a format of straight talk from 6AM to 7PM, a mix of talk and music from 7PM to 10PM and all music from 10PM to 6AM the next day, with all music from 10PM on Fridays to 6AM on Mondays.

The station also featured the syndicated Howard Stern morning show until his move to satellite. Philadelphia was the first city that syndicated Stern, beginning on August 18, 1986. It is also the official award winning broadcaster of Philadelphia Eagles games. From April 2006 to October 2007, the station carried Opie and Anthony's syndicated talk show in the morning, as Stern moved to Sirius Satellite Radio, and David Lee Roth's morning show failed to garner good ratings.

At 11:59 p.m. EDT on March 16, 2007, former WYSP D.J. Jacky Bam Bam (now with WMMR) signed off at the station's previous 5th and Market Street studio (also shared with KYW, KYW-TV, and WPSG-TV) before switching over to the new studios located on the 9th floor at the new 4th and Market studio (KYW is also located in the same building, but on the 10th floor). The first all-talk broadcast (the 9 A.M. Barsky Show) occurred on March 19, 2007 with minor, but correctable problems.

On November 20, 2006, WYSP added the Scotty and Alex Show to replace Couzin Ed. While they continued to play music, it was obvious that the new show was brought in to be a talk-based replacement. On April 17, Scotty and Alex stopped playing music and WYSP began to carry the syndicated Loveline and John and Jeff shows, effectively ending music programming during weekdays.

FM talk station format

During the week of June 18, 2007, the use of the "Free FM" title was ended during broadcasts, and new imaging was slowly rolled out which referred to the station as both "94-1 WYSP" and "94 WYSP." During the week of June 25, their "94 WYSP Talks" logo was unveiled on the station website, effectively wiping clean any trace of "Free FM" from the station's identity. On August 13, during the first "Eagles Radio" broadcast of the year, new imaging began to refer to the station as "Philadelphia's FM Talk Station," a nickname also being used by corporate sister station KLSX in Los Angeles.

As recently as June 2007, WYSP was committed to the talk format as long time music programmer, Gil Edwards was let go. Edwards lobbied for a return to rock at that time but was rebuffed by management.

On September 11, 2007, an article was published in the Philadelphia Daily News which stated that a format change at WYSP was imminent. Paul Barsky brushed the article off as rumor, as did Matt of the Matt and Huggy Show. Kidd Chris ranted on the topic, and the brutal radio industry itself. Scotty and Alex somewhat referred to their show that night as their "last" show, claiming that not many radio shows get to do a final broadcast, yet hoped to return tomorrow (they would not).

On September 12, 2007, Paul Barsky stated that he had re-signed with the station, and his show continued as normal with guest Donovan McNabb (promos for the station would later be heard featuring McNabb announcing that "the rock is back," promos recorded the day of his appearance). A rerun of the previous Wednesday's Matt and Huggy Show was played in their timeslot. At the start of Kidd Chris' broadcast, he discussed the topic of the format change, and revealed that Scotty, Alex, Matt and Huggy had been fired, the Barsky Show was no more, and that Chris himself had lost members of his show (later revealed to be co-producer Monkeyboy (Dave Eitel) and producer Brad Maybe). The night's Scotty and Alex Show was a "best of", and the night's Loveline and John and Jeff broadcasts went as planned (as they are syndicated).

Rock format

The following day, Opie and Anthony broadcast their show from the WYSP studios. They touted an announcement at 5 PM EDT, and joked about the lack of secrecy of the topic (articles in that day's Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer, Opie referring to Anthony's "new' "94 WYSP, The Rock Station" sweatshirt he was wearing, the tearing down of a "94 WYSP Talks" poster in the studio). After the conclusion of their broadcast, a "best of" show was played until Kidd Chris' show, when, at 5 PM EDT, WYSP switched back to an active rock format (without the alternative lean from 2005-2007 during Y100's demise), leaving only Opie and Anthony for the morning drive slot and Kidd Chris for the afternoon drive. The first 3 songs on the return of 94WYSP's rock format were Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses, Back In Black by AC/DC, and Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.

In another effort to improve ratings, WYSP ceased airing the syndicated Opie and Anthony Show during morning drive on October 23, 2007, replacing them with music. Many speculated that Kidd Chris would move from his afternoon drive slot to take over mornings. The last day WYSP aired (and dropped) Opie and Anthony was also the last day Kidd Chris's show aired in the 3-7 PM slot. He ended his show with "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, and music took over the timeslot starting the next day. For nearly a month, he was in talks with the station for a new contract, and was expected to return in the morning slot. On Sunday, November 25, WYSP revealed on their website that Kidd Chris would be returning the following day, with his show airing from 6-10 AM.

Kidd Chris remained the morning staple for seven months until May 16, 2008. Kidd Chris and WYSP program director John Cook were terminated from WYSP due to an offensive song called "Schwoogies" which aired on March 21 originally and several times there after. The song referred to African-Americans in slang terms that station management determined to be highly offensive.

On August 25, 2008, WYSP returned to the classic rock format it shed in 1995, using the slogan "The Rock You Grew Up With From The 70s, 80s, & 90s." WYSP's version of classic rock had a harder sound than that of the market's other classic rock station, WMGK (also WMMR's sister station).

Danny Bonaduce was named the new morning drive host for WYSP, with his program beginning on November 10, 2008. The show aired from 5:30-9 AM ET.

Sports talk format

On August 18, 2011, CBS Radio announced that then-sister station WIP would simulcast its sports talk format at 94.1 FM on September 6, thus ending music on 94.1. The change actually took place on September 2, four days earlier than announced. On its final day, Howard Stern called into the station to discuss his time on WYSP with host Spike Eskin. At 3:00 PM on that date, WYSP ended its music format with "Fade to Black" by Metallica as its final song. The WYSP classic rock programming then moved to its HD-3 subchannel.

Shortly after WIP-FM began its simulcast with WIP, it began to gradually split, with certain sporting events not being heard on both frequencies (such as most Philadelphia Phillies broadcasts, which began to air on WIP-FM in 2012 but are still carried on the AM dial by WPHT), and the syndicated Nick & Artie Show getting added to 610 AM's programming in February 2012, with local programming continuing on WIP-FM. The simulcast ended entirely January 2, 2013, when WIP became a full-time affiliate of CBS Sports Radio. Local sports programming, however, continued to air on WIP-FM.

On October 2, 2014, CBS Radio announced that it would trade 14 radio stations located in Tampa, Charlotte and Philadelphia (including WIP, which became WTEL upon the deal's closure) to the Beasley Broadcast Group in exchange for 5 stations located in Miami and Philadelphia (in which CBS would acquire WXTU and WRDW-FM). WIP-FM, however, was not affected by this transaction.