STATION HISTORY: 101.1 PHILADELPHIA WBEB (Jerry Lee)

WDVR Philadelphia

On May 13, 1963, Dave Kurtz, then an engineer with Philco Electronics, turned on the master switch of WDVR-FM in the Barker building at 18 W. Chelten Ave. in Germantown and played "The Theme From The High and the Mighty." Within four months, the station's mix of "familiar music" such as Mantovani, Percy Faith, and Lawrence Welk made it the number one FM station in Philadelphia. At this time, the world was dominated by AM radio. Few FM stations had ever shown a profit, nor were they able to compete with AM stations in ratings, advertisers, or recognition. Indeed few people had FM radios, or ever bothered to listen to FM. Most car radios, even in new cars, were equipped with "AM only" radios, and sales were slow for FM sets in general. AM was considered "real broadcasting" and FM was considered "hobby broadcasting." With few listeners, and even fewer dollars, a small number of FM stations were beginning to experiment with recently approved stereo broadcasting. Their stereo schedules usually totaled no more than a few hours a week. WDVR started an industry trend by broadcasting in stereo 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This was not the only groundbreaking event undertaken by Kurtz and business partner Jerry Lee. In 1968, WDVR became the first FM station anywhere to gross $1 million a year. The station also created the first big money giveaway in radio ($101,000), and the first professional TV spot to promote radio.

In 1968, WDVR moved its studios to 10 Presidential Boulevard in Bala Cynwyd, then known as the Reynolds Aluminum Building. The transmitter had moved earlier from the roof of the Barker Building to a tower in Roxborough. In 1969, United Artists offered $3.3 million for the station. Although this was a staggering amount of money at the time for a single FM station, the offer was turned down.

WEAZ Easy 101 Philadelphia

On September 15, 1980, WDVR changed its call letters to WEAZ and started using the name EAZY 101. The station's TV promotions featured spokesman Patrick O'Neal telling viewers: "Other station's call letters begin with a 'W'. Ours begins with an 'E'. E-A-Z-Y." (Note that the station's call letters did actually begin with a 'W', despite what O'Neal said on TV) When easy listening rival WWSH (106.1) switched to Top 40 in 1982, EAZY 101 was the only Philadelphia beautiful music station. During the mid and late 80s, it was often tied for first place in the Arbitron ratings.

In 1987, Jerry Lee arranged an industry study of American listening habits and determined that "People who grew up after the advent of Rock 'n Roll basically do not like instrumental music." So on February 6, 1988, WEAZ dropped the easy listening format and started on the road towards adult-contemporary (AC). The station was extremely popular at the time of the switch, and was inundated for days with angry, distraught callers. The new TV spokesman was Robert Urich, and the station's name was shortened to EZ-101.

WBEB

By the early 90s, WEAZ had evolved from a very light AC station to a very mainstream AC station, yet it was still called EZ-101. All of that changed on April 25, 1993, when WEAZ broke it's final ties with the old easy listening image and became B101.1, "More music with less talk." The call letters were changed to WBEB and Robert Urich was dropped from the TV ads in favor of anonymous, attractive thirtysomethings.

In the early 2000s, WBEB began playing an all-Christmas music format begining around mid-November and lasting through Christmas.

When Dave Kurtz died in November, 2005 Jerry Lee bought out his share to become sole owner of the station. In an era when large corporations own virtually all large mass media outlets, Lee stands alone as the solo owner of any radio station in a major U.S. city. The estimated worth of the station stands at more than $180 million, and Lee contends that he will never sell.

• Further Information
  • 1997 CNBC Report on B-101

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