City Trenton, New Jersey Frequency 94.5 MHz | Broadcast area Central Jersey First air date 1998 | |
Branding August 7, 1965 (as WCHR-FM) Slogan "New Jersey's Oldies Station" | ||
WNJO (94.5 FM) was a radio station licensed to serve Trenton, New Jersey. It aired an Oldies music format. This station currently operates as WPST.
Contents
Launch
WNJO was launched on March 2, 1998, with then New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman kicking off "New Jersey's Oldies Station" with The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand." The station was a success, debuting at the #1 spot, kicking out WKXW and outshining sister station WPST. The 94.5 filled in the lack of a strong oldies outlet in Central NJ, with WCBS-FM's signal blocked by co-channel WBEB, and interference with WOGL from 97.9 in NYC and WMGQ in New Brunswick.
Personalities
WNJO's program directors included, Scott "Boom Boom" Edwards and Jeff Rafter (now program director at WMGQ-FM). Full-time DJs included PD's Edwards and Rafter along with Tripp Rogers, Dave Collins, Max Vierra, and Nancy Hill as well as talk personality Roberta Gale (after leaving WKXW). Part-timers included Dave Moss (formally of sister station WPST), Johnny Dark and Joe Stephens (both now at WJRZ-FM), and eventual New Jersey Broadcasters Association Radio Hall Of Fame inductee Bert Baron (now at WCTC-AM). Don Kellogg (now Operations Manager and morning personality in Texas) served as morning personality for a year. Station consultant was Oldies specialist Chris Elliot
Music
WNJO was focused on early- to mid-1960s oldies, with many late-1950s and early-1960s oldies and only a few 1970s songs.
Demise and revival
By 2001, WNJO had fallen to sixth place in the Trenton ratings behind three Philadelphia stations. With "NJ 101.5" music programming dropping all pre-1964 songs and focusing on the 1970s, WNJO lost the ability to keep WPST at the top of the ratings. Nassau had to change the station, but without causing WPST to drop (the main reason Oldies was launched in the first place). As a result, 94.5 WNJO signed off on November 1, 2001 at Noon with Hello, Goodbye by The Beatles , and flipped to Classic Hits, focusing on rock songs from 1965 to 1982 to keep pace with WKXW. The WNJO calls were replaced on August 1, 2002 with WTHK.
In late 2006, WNJO was revived on the internet as a commercial-free, jockless web stream.