Back Then…The Unofficial History Of NJ 101.5

This is an ongoing blog that I will share with you about the history of New Jersey 101.5 from this side of the radio.

Just a collection of little stories from my memory back then. I welcome your comments, reaction to any of these stories.

So once again, let us go to back then. It is early 1990, and Press Broadcasting has commenced to reshape WKXW into New Jersey 101.5. Jim Gearhart, the man we have all grown very fond of, the man who has been starting our days on New Jersey 101.5 for more than two decades, back then, had just been anointed to take over mornings from Ken Wright, (actually, they did a flip, with Ken becoming the morning guy on our AM station, WBUD).

Back then, when Jim first took over the mornings on New Jersey 101.5, no one, including Jim, was sure this Jersey-centered format would fly, taking phone calls from people in New Jersey about New Jersey issues. So Jim and the rest of us took a very pragmatic approach to attracting interest in what we were doing back then. We went with whatever worked.

So here is my little tiny part in Jim's early, early days. I was one of Jim Gearhart's very first callers back then. We wanted people to call on the phone. So to give them the idea, I said to Jim, I will call you on the air from the newsroom. I'll just call myself, "Joe from Egg Harbor." I cannot remember what Jim and I talked about on the air for a few fleeting minutes back then. Of course, that little ruse very quickly became very unnecessary back then. We take hundreds, thousands of calls from you daily and weekly and your interest has never waned.

Stay tuned...

Check out all of  the editions of "Back Then"