Jeez..

Has it been over FIVE & HALF Years since this poor little page has seen any new info?
Tsk.. Tsk.. SHAME ON ME..
K..
Well, here's some BIG news.. A WLIR Documentary is NOW IN PRODUCTION..

Here is a plot synopsis and production details..
Dare To Be Different: How a small Long Island radio station became the "voice of a generation"
August 1982. Bands like the Ramones, the Clash, U2, the Smiths, the Cars, the Police, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Blondie, Tears For Fears, Elvis Costello, Duran Duran, and the Cure are redefining a fresh new music scene. But to the disenfranchised youth weaned on bland Top 40 and corporate rock, these artists might have escaped notice were it not for a small, independent radio station broadcasting from Long Island, NY.
This was WLIR.
For a brief, but startling, five year period, this wildly influential station battled the FCC, faced financial struggles, competed with signals far stronger than theirs and faced shutdown at a moment’s notice. But none of that stopped ‘LIR from doing what no other station would or could. It spotted musical trends from Europe, discovered new and intriguing artists and was responsible for breaking many of these bands in America. ‘LIR nurtured a local club scene and created a heritage that’s since spawned hundreds of tribute sites and message boards. Curated by a staff of like-minded and adventurous personalities, ‘LIR spoke a new language to its audience. It was the social network of its day and its fans quickly became family.
Jomyra Productions, Inc.
11500 W. Olympic Blvd. Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Ellen Goldfarb, Producer
info@dtbdthemovie.com
310-408-1770
www.daretobedifferentthemovie.com
Now, for the first time, comes Dare To Be Different, the full story of WLIR and the 80’s alternative scene, as told by that decade’s most cutting edge artists and the radio DJ’s that helped make them famous.
and more…
Featuring the biggest superstars of the 80’s:
Howard Jones – Tears For Fears – Blondie-The B-52's-The Talking Heads-
and many more…
And the world famous WLIR personalities:
Denis McNamara – Larry the Duck
Donna Donna – Ben Manila – Malibu Sue
Jeff Beck – The Mighty Maxximizer
Nancy Abramson – Bob Waugh
In the 1980’s it was a slogan: 92.7 WLIR -- the station that Dares to be Different.
Today it’s a legacy.

INDEED IT IS..  (Stay Tuned)

GOOD RIDDANCE TMO!!

Newsflash The equity draining (READ: lifeblood sapping) media profiteers have cast
off the dried husks of what were once viable and vibrant broadcast
entities :


BUSINESSTALKRADIO.NET, INC. PURCHASES THREE MORE STATIONS
The sale of Long Island stations WLIR-FM(107.1), WBON-FM(98.5) and

WDRE-FM( 105.3) to BusinessTalkRadio.net, Inc. has been announced.

The
announcement was made by Michael L. Metter, President and CEO of
Business TalkRadio.net, Inc. and Ronald Morey, Founder of The Morey
Organization and Jarad Broadcasting.

“I am very excited about this latest acquisition,” Metter said.

“Having
grown up in the NY City area, I was weaned on the heritage cutting edge
rock station WLIR-FM and in later years was an avid fan of the former
modern rock format of WDRE-FM.

Many groups got their start on
WLIR-FM and just as it was the showcase for new talent in the past, we
expect to make that happen again,” he said.

“It is a great
opportunity to enhance the formats and develop new cutting edge
programming to syndicate nationally, with the stations being the
flagship for these new shows.

“This continues to expand our business model of interesting and unique programming throughout the country,”he added.

“Ron
Morey is a very talented radio executive who has done a great job in
building premiere radio properties and we hope to take them to the next
level,” Metter said.

Metter added that the company will LMA
WBON-FM with the company’s business and lifestyle formats as of Janaury
1. The other stations will follow with LMA’s March 1, until the
acquisition is approved by the FCC.
Thanx for the heads up Cee!

Some WLIR Musings..

It's amazing how much of what was played on WLIR is seldom heard anywhere else (except when I play it from my personal collection).

Now why is that?

Seems to me the songs spanned a wide swath of the musical spectrum with regard to genres and audio stylings.

Songs that fared well in the clubs also got substantial airplay not to mention the worldbeat and international flavored tracks that were featured on 'Off The Boat'.

That's what really kept me listening for all those years (until the playlist became addled by the WDRE wonks who succumbed to the Seattle grunge programming influences of the early 90's..ack!!)

To lend some credence to my claim, I've started a musical playlist ('Some LIR Musical Biscuits') HERE

Please feel free to add to the list and I'll post 'em!

Here's Something To Try out

Glommed from Here (Good One Sean!)

Glad my associated group were these guys..

(Um.. rather than Air Supply, Ratt or El Debarge!)

Heh.. Heh.. ;-)

What band from the 80s are you?

You're in touch with the world, and you have a very strong opinion on things like politics and war. Even if you do end up changing your image in the future, most of us will still like you.
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Club Music & WLIR

Summer Breeze.. Makes Me Feel Fiiine..

Oops.. wrong genre (sorry! been off doing summertime things with family lately)

Now.. Back to the topic at hand

There are so many fave 80's dance songs that I came to know by initially hearing them on WLIR or in the area nightclubs. Whichever happened first, there was a unmistakable synergystic interplay between the two which further fueled the popularity and 'must have' desirability of those tunes during my club kid years.

My earliest recollection of such tunes came in the summer of 1983 when I transitioned from the area 'watering holes' to my first NW club, Paris NY. Certainly by then a host of NW annointed artists (Bowie, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Naked Eyes, Police, etc..) were basking in the glaring spotlight of top 40 radio crossover fame.

However, aside from all this Z-100 & (then recently flipped) WPLJ embraced radio format fodder, came a new and very different musical vibe over the dancefloor soundsystems of numerous LI clubs I came to know like 007, Camouflage, Malibu, PNY, Rumrunners/Heartbeat, 007 etc..

IMO, What helped make WLIR so influential was that some of the airstaffers (DJ Bird, Larry The Duck, Maxx to name a few) would DJ at those very same clubs!

This intimate relationship with the metro NY area music scene was indeed a signature hallmark of 92.7 .

Years & decades later, even crudely home taped live WLIR 'dance party' broadcasts would become sought after musical 'time capsles' from those halcyon years.

The following songs were ones I fondly remember from my early clubbing days ('83 - 84)

A Girl In Trouble - Romeo Void
Amok - Ledernacken
Around My Dream - Silver Pizoli
Blue Monday- New Order
Brand New Lover- Dead or Alive
Electric Dreams- Phil Oakey & Georgio Moroder
Generals & Majors - XTC
Head Hunter - Front 242
Heart Goes Bang- Dead or Alive
Images In Heaven- Pete Gotwin
Indigo Eyes - Peter Murphy
I Travel - Simple Minds
Join In The Chant - Nitzer Ebb
Just Can't Get Enough - Depeche Mode
Kiss Me - Steve (Tin Tin) Duffy
Love Tempo- Quando Quango
One More Chance (original 1984 ver)- Pet Shop Boys
One Thing Leads To Another - The Fixx
Say It Again - Danse Society
She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
Shoot U Down- APB
Smalltown Boy - Bronski Beat
State Farm - Yaz
Temptation - New Order
Thats Good - Devo
Thats Love That It Is - Blancmange
The Hardest Part - Blondie
The Mask - Roger Glover
Trommeltanz (Din Daa Daa) - George Kranz
Two Hearts(Beat as One) - U2 (S. Lillywhite Remix)
Uncertain Smile - The The
West End Girls (original 1984 ver)- Pet Shop Boys
What I Like About You - Romantics

Sadly, some of them would follow the earlier aformentioned artists into the dubious pantheon of 'overplayed' 80's top 40 & comp classics (Arghh!)

Funny how some of them (such as Simple Mind's 'I Travel') predated my initial listening experience by 4+ years!

Club Music & WLIR

Summer Breeze.. Makes Me Feel Fiiine..

Oops.. wrong genre (sorry! been off doing summertime things with family lately)

Hey All! This blog is now linked HERE!

Now.. Back to the topic at hand

There are so many fave 80's dance songs that I came to know by initially hearing them on WLIR or in the area nightclubs. Whichever happened first, there was a unmistakable synergystic interplay between the two which further fueled the popularity and 'must have' desirability of those tunes during my club kid years.

My earliest recollection of such tunes came in the summer of 1983 when I transitioned from the area 'watering holes' to my first NW club, Paris NY. Certainly by then a host of NW annointed artists (Bowie, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Naked Eyes, Police, etc..) were basking in the glaring spotlight of top 40 radio crossover fame.

However, aside from all this Z-100 & (then recently flipped) WPLJ embraced radio format fodder, came a new and very different musical vibe over the dancefloor soundsystems of numerous LI clubs I came to know like 007, Camouflage, Malibu, PNY, Rumrunners/Heartbeat, 007 etc..

IMO, What helped make WLIR so influential was that some of the airstaffers (DJ Bird, Larry The Duck, Maxx to name a few) would DJ at those very same clubs!

This intimate relationship with the metro NY area music scene was indeed a signature hallmark of 92.7 .

Years & decades later, even crudely home taped live WLIR 'dance party' broadcasts would become sought after musical 'time capsles' from those halcyon years.

The following songs were ones I fondly remember from my early clubbing days ('83 - 84)

A Girl In Trouble - Romeo Void
Amok - Ledernacken
Around My Dream - Silver Pizoli
Blue Monday- New Order
Brand New Lover- Dead or Alive
Electric Dreams- Phil Oakey & Georgio Moroder
Generals & Majors - XTC
Head Hunter - Front 242
Heart Goes Bang- Dead or Alive
Images In Heaven- Pete Gotwin
Indigo Eyes - Peter Murphy
I Travel - Simple Minds
Join In The Chant - Nitzer Ebb
Just Can't Get Enough - Depeche Mode
Kiss Me - Steve (Tin Tin) Duffy
Love Tempo- Quando Quango
One More Chance (original 1984 ver)- Pet Shop Boys
One Thing Leads To Another - The Fixx
Say It Again - Danse Society
She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
Shoot U Down- APB
Smalltown Boy - Bronski Beat
State Farm - Yaz
Temptation - New Order
Thats Good - Devo
Thats Love That It Is - Blancmange
The Hardest Part - Blondie
The Mask - Roger Glover
Trommeltanz (Din Daa Daa) - George Kranz
Two Hearts(Beat as One) - U2 (S. Lillywhite Remix)
Uncertain Smile - The The
West End Girls (original 1984 ver)- Pet Shop Boys
What I Like About You - Romantics

Sadly, some of them would follow the earlier aformentioned artists into the dubious pantheon of 'overplayed' 80's top 40 & comp classics (Arghh!)

Funny how some of them (such as Simple Mind's 'I Travel') predated my initial listening experience by 4+ years!

When I Got 'Hooked' (For Real)

Like I said before, WLIR's signal reception was not that great in my neck of the woods.
There were few occasions (in the car) when the signal was consistently strong enough for me to listen long enough to make out any of the songs being played.
In the meantime (1981-83), my NW musical taste was primarily influenced by the everpresent TV music videos on Niteflite (remember that one?) and MTV.
Sure, during that time I was catching some wave music (Cars, Clash, Police, Squeeze, Talking Heads, U2 etc..) on other metro NY stations such as WPLJ, WBAB, WAPP.
Other area stations such as WBLI would play ubiquitous genre tracks such as 'Pop Muzik' and 'Cars', while WKTU and WPIX (for a short time)would play club remixes of 'Rock The Casbah' and 'Glad To Know You'.
Seldom would I hear songs from featured TV video artists like The Cure, Devo, Duran Duran, The Fixx etc..
This left me to fill the musical void with regular visits to Record World and Sam Goody.
During this time it became clear to me that the local radio market was not getting anywhere near the amount of NW music exposure that the equivalent TV viewing market was (how strange is that?).
Unbeknownst to me that in 1982, WLIR G.M. Denis McNamara made the decision to go TOTALLY New Wave, featuring virtually the same song and artist lineup as MTV! (which was not coincidence mind you- more on that another time..)
It wouldn't be until the following year when I started working for Huntington TV Cable, that I would really become a NW music 'purist'.
How so? Well, turns out my office duties entailed working at a computer terminal, answering phones, issuing and accepting CATV equipment from customers and service technicians, all the while watching a TV monitor that had non other than MTV on 95% of the time.
It wasn't long before I became well acquainted with tracks like 'That's Good', 'Send Me An Angel', 'Mexican Radio','In A Big Country' etc..
Being so well versed in the NW genre made it clear that local radio wasn't gonna cut it for me anymore.. I had to find a station that played this stuff!
Interestingly enough, it was during that time I started going to Paris New York (which was literally just blocks from my house).
I was immediately struck by the club music being played there, 'Blue Monday', 'Go!', 'Shoot You Down' and others.
By the time I left the CATV job in the summer of '84 there were names of songs and artists I wanted to hear on the radio but wouldn't get consistent airplay on any one particular station, if at all..
It was when I got this two bit part time job at a local Flowertime nursery that I got to hear WLIR on a regular basis (Courtesy of this tinny little radio that somehow pulled in the station). WHAT A REVELATION!
I remember EXACTLY which two songs that subsequently got me hooked.
The original Bobcat label (Bobby O.) version of West End Girls and the haunting strains of Romeo Void's 'A Girl In Trouble'(which for some reason, I could never catch the title or artist credits).
NO WHERE ELSE would I hear those two tracks ('cept for Paris NY). This is what prompted me to get that attic FM antenna and signal booster mentioned in my earlier post.
That's my story of what did it for me..
(Now let's hear some of yours gang!)

Update..

Two fellow NWO'rs /WLIR fans Abacab66 and Glittering Prize have graciously accepted my invite to be contributors to this blog. THANK YOU!

This morning, I spent the better part of 2 hours burning wireless minutes with Glittering Prize just talking about those very memories and recollections of things WLIR .

Great minds certainly do think alike!

So many experiences that centered around or were in some way connected to our appreciation of the music and NW pop culture news emanating from that broadcast studio in Garden City.

Just the kind of stuff that should be posted here..

Well, so where do I begin?

Hmm.. how about... a Signal Coverage Map? ((((Yawn))))



Sorry, but I geek over stuff like this.. Deal With It..

As you can see the WLIR radio signal did not carry over a whole heck of a lot of Metro NY real estate.

I for one, did not get much of a signal up on LI's North Shore (Huntington & Greenlawn).

I first came to hear of WLIR while tooling around in a friends car during the autumn of '79.

I can't seem to recall much about it other than it was a mixed bag of AOR, some new wave and other stuff. (I'll fill in the blanks later.. Although I do recall some of those neat 'Newsblimp' minute news segments)

Like some other determined listeners, I eventually resorted to buying the biggest 'fringe reception' Dx'r model FM roof antenna plus plug in FM signal booster from Radio Shack in order to get something better sounding than.. whrsssssh krshhhh krshhhh You..'re krshhhh Li..ening.. whrsssssh to krshhhh ..LIR whrsssssh ..arden City... (you know what I mean..).

That was in the fall of '84.

To All...

This obviously will be a work in progress...

I'm listening to Tears For Fears 'The Working Hour' as I'm typing this on Fathers Day 2006.

Hopefully the many thoughts and memories of this wonderful FM radio station will start to flow.

I've invited some fellow NW Outpost members (who are devout WLIR fans) to make contributions to what will eventually be a sizable and nostalgic collection of memories.

Stay Tuned...