At the end of May, a local radio station and mainstay in the New York metro area, 95.5 WPLJ, went off the air after 48 years. I’ve listened to this radio station for as long as I can remember. All across social media, there are posts about how fans are mourning the death of this radio station – myself included! Folks have described their feelings using words like sadness, loneliness, and emptiness.
It feels like a piece of New York is truly over. But it’s just a radio station! Why are so many of us having such an emotional reaction to a music station folding?
We’re of the Same Generation
Born in 1971, WPLJ was a Gen-Xer. The forgotten generation, as some might say! The end of the broadcast is another indication of this. When WPLJ launched in 1971, it was a classic rock station. My friend would listen, and I remember feeling like I wasn’t cool enough for that!
So along came the 1980s, and WPLJ transitioned to Top 40 in 1983, with various versions of the format over the years. Just as many Gen-Xers were becoming teenagers and experiencing all the changes that come with that, 95.5 was right there, growing into the “new you” right alongside.
Long before the days of on-demand and streaming, 95.5 really was the station that many in my generation grew up with. WPLJ was often the first place we’d hear a new song or be introduced to a new artist. The days when you had to sit and listen to the radio, hoping your favorite song would come on, and the multiple mix tapes made from those times. This station definitely helped shape my music taste. Doesn’t the music you loved as a teenager hold a special place in your heart?
I grew in tandem with this radio station. I listened in the mornings as I got ready for school. As I got older, along with many others, I heard as we got ready for work and on the commute. And, most recently, I’ve listened to WPLJ when driving my daughter to school.
The end of the broadcast strikes a chord as yet “another piece of childhood” fades away. Similar to when a television show is cancelled, an entertainment icon passes away, or when your parents sell your childhood home. Further indication of change and the fact that nothing lasts forever, even though we think it will. (Oh, and those of us who laughed at Game of Thrones fans after the series finale – our apologies. We hear you now.)
Symbolic Moments
To the chagrin of many, thanks to WPLJ, I’m a complete 1980s pop music junkie, but further nostalgia hits at times like this, and additional memories surface:
- Summers at our beach club in the Bronx. Competing boomboxes blasting, and no doubt, that’s how I first heard many of these beloved summer songs.
- The times my friend and I sat in one of our apartments after school just waiting for Careless Whisper, by Wham!, to come on the radio – with a little screech whenever it did!
- Hearing 95.5 WPLJ come through on the radio when driving home from college or a road trip. Even muffled, you had that warm feeling of knowing that you were approaching home.
- My father is surely a creature of his teenage music as well. When my sister and I were young, we would beg him to turn off WCBS-FM and turn on “our stations.” If he agreed, he’d only turn on WPLJ because it was the only radio station “he could take.”
- September 11, 2001…working in Manhattan and listening to Scott and Todd while the world was about to learn that we’d been attacked. I read that Scott and Todd stayed on the air for 16 hours. People called in with their accounts of the day or to express their fears. When New York City needed you the most, you came through.
Oh! I heard that on PLJ!
For the past few years, I’ve been driving my daughter to elementary school. It gave us some extra minutes together in the mornings for just the two of us. Luckily enough, the segment “Blown Off” didn’t start until my daughter was out of the car and already at school! Still, I’d often reach my house right after the person who’d been blown off told their story. And I’m not going to lie – I’ve camped out in my car for an extra few minutes to hear the outcome.
My favorite is from a few years back when the girl said she blew off the guy because he had 19 Tweety Bird tattoos! A few weeks back, a guy called in saying he was blown off because his date never showed up. When they got the girl on the phone and asked why she didn’t show up for the date, she responded that she was there! Apparently, the guy was so drunk that he didn’t remember!
WPLJ radio was a New York staple, offering a constant in the city that never sleeps—something to be counted on in this ever-changing, busy, and crazy world. Day in and day out, the same DJs were there for our entertainment or a little pick-me-up, no matter what was going on in their lives.
My husband and I listened intently to the last hour on May 31, 2019, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The DJ Race Taylor ended the broadcast with words that have been sitting with me ever since. “May the mere thought of the letters PLJ bring a smile to your face, a warmth to your heart, and a tingle to your ears.” Replace the “PLJ” with something bygone you treasured, and those words captured so much of what we might feel when something we love comes to an end or changes.
New Yorkers are tough, but we love our New York stuff. And WPLJ radio was certainly New York stuff. Sometimes you don’t realize how much of an effect something has on your life until it’s not available anymore. It’s too early to tell, but the habit of tuning the station in is going to be rough to break.
We’ll have to determine what will take its place as that first preset in our car. Maybe we’ll leave it empty for a while. So 95.5 WPLJ radio…. It’s time to say goodbye and to thank you for the laughs, memories, and, most of all, music.
