I remember them overplaying Runaway Train and Break It Down Again during this time while hearing Bizarre Inc and Captain Hollywood Project in the rotation too!
This is unbelievable. My boyfriend knew this guy too. He was at 94.5 in the Boston area. Mylan Zervonivich is his real name. Ellis, you're the bomb say my man!
Z100 sounded good in this aircheck considering that the CHR format had lost its pop center. But it's strange to hear Z without jingles. I was living in Albany at the time and Fly 92 had a similar alternative lean.
This is extremely rare! I assume you only recorded this while NY, if you have anymore please share! Such an underrated era in my opinion! And it sounded really tight!
I didn't know this era of Z100 was so hard to find. I only made 1 trip to New York in 1993. I was on air in Orlando at the time. If I find more, I will post.
I worked in the music dept during this era. Nirvana/Pearl Jam/RHCP We're added. Station skyrocketed. Human Human=nicest guy in radio biz. Keeps a clean studio, too. Lol
I remember this era quite well. Z100 went from a pop CHR station to New York's New Rock in 1993, along with the stylized bumpers and promos (who created them and who does the voice)? The station went heavy on Seattle-grunge music, along with other rock acts until about 1996, when pop music returned with the advent of 103.5 KTU that February.
At 10:13 - "Two Steps Behind" by Def Leppard -- the perfect song to describe the problems of pop music in fall 1993. From a bad movie - "Last Action Hero" -- the band played to what record label execs thought was good for the radio, not for what the band stood for. The result? "Let's Get Rocked" and this fluff at a fragile time for radio. Why did Top 40 flounder? This song explains a lot
November 1993 I went to the movies for the first time in Manhattan to go see RoboCop 3 (Orion Pictures).. skipped it instead to watch The Addams Family Values since me and my friends didn't know they were showing the movie before the actual realised day. Looking back I have no regret.
It wasn't a bad direction that Z100 went into the mid 90s with . They really could have only gone two different directions. WFLZ post power pig I think did a really good job of navigating the change of the music catered to the format. WHYI was an example of a CHR station that tried to retain its older audience (like Z100 had) and struggled mightily at the hands of Power 96.
Props for mentioning WFLZ. It worked for them as there was no direct format competition in Tampa. WHYI, on the other hand, was a Hot AC from 1991 to 1995. They were in a LMA with WAXY which allowed WAXY’s then-Hot AC format to migrate over to WHYI while WAXY flipped to Oldies. The combo was designed to sell both stations to an older demo. Unfortunately it didn’t work for them long term. After both stations were sold to what would become I-Heart Radio, WHYI went back to CHR.
Do you, by any chance actually have the Z100 version of All That She Wants? (which is cut off here at the 14 minute mark) I cannot find that version for the life of me and this is the closest I have gotten to hearing it (so I know it exist and is not my imagination)
@@ktujon in the middle she states "I need to be touched" followed by saying/singing All That She Wants multiple times. Someone found it on Reddit and I gave it downloaded on my phone but the quality is not as good as a cd (turns out it was a Z100 exclusive, the same way that there was a KTU exclusive version of TheVenga Boys We Like to Party, when they sang KTU, The Beat Of New York, The Venga Boys Say hi)
I always thought that Z100’s Alternative lean was due to the fact the New York City market lack a full-signal Alternative station at the time (WDRE/WLIR was a rimshot from Long Island and didn’t cover the entire market very well). Also, acts like Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, etc. were exploding in popularity. So Z100 filled the hole as a Pop-Leaning Alternative station. Unfortunately, this move left a hole for a rhythm-based station (103.5 WKTU) to come in and beat Z100 several years later. This, along with 92.3 K-Rock switching to Rock-based Alternate left Z100 a chance to move back to the center in 1996.
Alternative music in 1993 was Top-40 music! Z100 leaned on that. The market lacked a true alternative station, but Q104 also debuted as a rock station playing the same music in the fall of 1993 (they would flip to Classic Rock in the summer of 1996). In 1993, PLJ was AC, WNEW was all over the place with their rock format, K-Rock was classic rock, Hot 97 was Hip Hop & R&B, Kiss, and WBLS were UC, and 103.5 WYNY was country music (the channel became KTU in February 1996). I was just a teenager when all of this was happening and the only way to hear new music for free was mainly on the radio.
One of Z100's lowest points in its history, as the rumors were strong the station wouldn't make it as so many other Top 40 stations died in 1992 and into 1993. Here, they are transitioning toward Alternative even with a major Janet Jackson concert promotion in progress. The voiceover artist was big during the grunge era and was even heard on WBZZ (B94) Pittsburgh in summer 1995. Z100's ratings went up, the station was saved, and in 1996 Elvis Duran shifted to mornings just as boy bands arrived. That led Z100 on its revival.
@@EllisFeaster Saturday, Nov. 6, 1993 -- Z100 was still sort of floundering in the ratings. Mix 105 was ahead of WPLJ. Hot 97 was slowly moving to Hip-Hop. I was living in D.C. and doing a U.K. hit-driven Top 40 show on American University's radio station as Washington had no CHR since the death of WAVA in Feb. 1992. As such, I was banging out Haddaway, Corona, Ace of Base, Inner Circle and Culture Beat alongside Meat Loaf and 4 Non-Blondes. Looking back, late 1993 was when music finally came back after 3 1/2 years of bad product. However, the grunge movement took over by the middle of 1994. By summer 1995, stations like WBZZ sound good when listening to air checks with today's ears but were dated and jumbled in 1995-mind. "All kinds of music for all kinds of people" was seen as an excuse for a lack of format variety in Pittsburgh. In NYC, Z100 was banging out "The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get" by Morrissey -- a memory I vividly recall as a stunner since, growing up in NYC, the only home for this was tiny WLIR just seven years earlier.
What a great station Z100 was late 1993-96, good music mix , good voice over guy , great presentation. It wasn't a low point for the station, in fact, this great format kept the station alive during those years. The ratings were solid, It was the soundtrack of my teens. I felt music was real again, not silly wannabe music, pop music was dead at that point. I get that it wasn't the flame throwing Z100 sound of the 80s that the heritage listeners were looking for. I do agree that the format couldn't last forever as pop music was making a comeback and 2 new stations in NYC arrived in 1996, KTU and K-Rock pulled listeners away. ***I would love to talk to anyone that worked at Z100 during that era and pick their brain. It must have been a radical change going from listener friendly pop acts of the 80's and early 90's to new alternative bands and artists not normally heard of top 40 radio***
Excellent analysis. I was brought into the music dept during this era. I pushed for the alternative rock to be added as Pearl Jam had just won MTV video of the year and Z100 was playing Tommy Pewit. I also went over all the music playlists with a fine tooth comb to balance the various genres. Station went from #10 to #1. They tell me that I saved it!
Ellis Feaster Thank you so much for replying to my comments. It’s amazing considering the amount of videos and comments from viewers you get daily. I’m trying to download these stations for myself and complete them with the songs so I can listen to them while in the car or whatever. I’d rather listen to these than the new stuff they got today!
I try to stay on top of it all, but it is tough sometimes, especially with my morning radio show here in Orlando, and my TV work. I prefer listening to the old stuff also, as opposed to today's radio, much of which is so soulless & uninspired.
Ellis Feaster I feel like radio music now is only intended to make money out of people from parties and stuff like that. Even though there’s some meanings in these songs, the songs themselves just sound too damn dead and commercial! And artists now sound pretty much identical to others, they don’t have their own style anymore like back in the day. You couldn’t grab Exposé and say they sounded similar to Culture Club. Or Madonna with Bonnie Tyler. It just wasn’t possible. Now it is.
I remember them overplaying Runaway Train and Break It Down Again during this time while hearing Bizarre Inc and Captain Hollywood Project in the rotation too!
This is unbelievable. My boyfriend knew this guy too. He was at 94.5 in the Boston area. Mylan Zervonivich is his real name. Ellis, you're the bomb say my man!
Z100 sounded good in this aircheck considering that the CHR format had lost its pop center. But it's strange to hear Z without jingles. I was living in Albany at the time and Fly 92 had a similar alternative lean.
Thanks for sharing ..I remember this year of Z100 ..sucks how much this station changed over the years so much , compared to now 2019
This is extremely rare! I assume you only recorded this while NY, if you have anymore please share! Such an underrated era in my opinion! And it sounded really tight!
I didn't know this era of Z100 was so hard to find. I only made 1 trip to New York in 1993. I was on air in Orlando at the time. If I find more, I will post.
I worked in the music dept during this era. Nirvana/Pearl Jam/RHCP We're added. Station skyrocketed. Human Human=nicest guy in radio biz. Keeps a clean studio, too. Lol
I'm back in the car, 13 years old and my mom is driving. Wow! Crazy.
truly awesomes thank you ellis this rocks
Impressive burying of 'Newark' in the legal ID at 3.07!
Dave Rhodes They were great at hiding that COL!!
I remember this era quite well. Z100 went from a pop CHR station to New York's New Rock in 1993, along with the stylized bumpers and promos (who created them and who does the voice)? The station went heavy on Seattle-grunge music, along with other rock acts until about 1996, when pop music returned with the advent of 103.5 KTU that February.
The voice is the late Keith Eubanks, who also famously voiced 99X in Atlanta and many other stations. Incredible talent.
At 10:13 - "Two Steps Behind" by Def Leppard -- the perfect song to describe the problems of pop music in fall 1993. From a bad movie - "Last Action Hero" -- the band played to what record label execs thought was good for the radio, not for what the band stood for. The result? "Let's Get Rocked" and this fluff at a fragile time for radio. Why did Top 40 flounder? This song explains a lot
November 1993 I went to the movies for the first time in Manhattan to go see RoboCop 3 (Orion Pictures).. skipped it instead to watch The Addams Family Values since me and my friends didn't know they were showing the movie before the actual realised day. Looking back I have no regret.
Wow good times, nice days life was simple. I was young .....lol.
Paradise By The Dashboard Light!!! WOW!!!
I think that was I Would Do Anything For Love, by Meatloaf. One of the top songs of 93.
Yes but due to the popularity of that song...Z100 also played the classic Dashboard.
11:23 Ellis
@@donmccullen1973 Perhaps ... but at 6:38 it is the No. 1 song of Nov. 1993 - "I'd Do Anything For Love"
@@adamjacobson2449 Yes.
*anymore z100 while there in 1993
awesome
It wasn't a bad direction that Z100 went into the mid 90s with . They really could have only gone two different directions.
WFLZ post power pig I think did a really good job of navigating the change of the music catered to the format.
WHYI was an example of a CHR station that tried to retain its older audience (like Z100 had) and struggled mightily at the hands of Power 96.
Props for mentioning WFLZ. It worked for them as there was no direct format competition in Tampa.
WHYI, on the other hand, was a Hot AC from 1991 to 1995. They were in a LMA with WAXY which allowed WAXY’s then-Hot AC format to migrate over to WHYI while WAXY flipped to Oldies. The combo was designed to sell both stations to an older demo. Unfortunately it didn’t work for them long term. After both stations were sold to what would become I-Heart Radio, WHYI went back to CHR.
Do you, by any chance actually have the Z100 version of All That She Wants? (which is cut off here at the 14 minute mark) I cannot find that version for the life of me and this is the closest I have gotten to hearing it (so I know it exist and is not my imagination)
I wish I had it, but I don’t. So sorry.
@@EllisFeaster ok😔😭
@@jadedjc6981 what's the difference with the z100 version and the album version (it was the first cd I ever bought btw)
@@ktujon in the middle she states "I need to be touched" followed by saying/singing All That She Wants multiple times. Someone found it on Reddit and I gave it downloaded on my phone but the quality is not as good as a cd (turns out it was a Z100 exclusive, the same way that there was a KTU exclusive version of TheVenga Boys We Like to Party, when they sang KTU, The Beat Of New York, The Venga Boys Say hi)
@@jadedjc6981 interesting I have heard different intros for venga boys we like to party where they mention the specific radio station
Keith Eubanks was starting to do voiceovers during this time, but who was the other guy? He also did 99X in Atlanta for a brief time.
And I think they would alternate between the two, as heard here. The other guy did the legal ID, and Keith would do the Janet promos, etc.
I always thought that Z100’s Alternative lean was due to the fact the New York City market lack a full-signal Alternative station at the time (WDRE/WLIR was a rimshot from Long Island and didn’t cover the entire market very well). Also, acts like Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, etc. were exploding in popularity. So Z100 filled the hole as a Pop-Leaning Alternative station. Unfortunately, this move left a hole for a rhythm-based station (103.5 WKTU) to come in and beat Z100 several years later. This, along with 92.3 K-Rock switching to Rock-based Alternate left Z100 a chance to move back to the center in 1996.
Alternative music in 1993 was Top-40 music! Z100 leaned on that. The market lacked a true alternative station, but Q104 also debuted as a rock station playing the same music in the fall of 1993 (they would flip to Classic Rock in the summer of 1996). In 1993, PLJ was AC, WNEW was all over the place with their rock format, K-Rock was classic rock, Hot 97 was Hip Hop & R&B, Kiss, and WBLS were UC, and 103.5 WYNY was country music (the channel became KTU in February 1996). I was just a teenager when all of this was happening and the only way to hear new music for free was mainly on the radio.
Z100's Alternative lean was really because Top 40 had an identity crisis because of the rise of Alt, Hip Hop, and Country
One of Z100's lowest points in its history, as the rumors were strong the station wouldn't make it as so many other Top 40 stations died in 1992 and into 1993. Here, they are transitioning toward Alternative even with a major Janet Jackson concert promotion in progress. The voiceover artist was big during the grunge era and was even heard on WBZZ (B94) Pittsburgh in summer 1995. Z100's ratings went up, the station was saved, and in 1996 Elvis Duran shifted to mornings just as boy bands arrived. That led Z100 on its revival.
Adam Jacobson I wish I had more airchecks from this era of Z100. I guess we all stopped recording it in this era.
@@EllisFeaster Saturday, Nov. 6, 1993 -- Z100 was still sort of floundering in the ratings. Mix 105 was ahead of WPLJ. Hot 97 was slowly moving to Hip-Hop. I was living in D.C. and doing a U.K. hit-driven Top 40 show on American University's radio station as Washington had no CHR since the death of WAVA in Feb. 1992. As such, I was banging out Haddaway, Corona, Ace of Base, Inner Circle and Culture Beat alongside Meat Loaf and 4 Non-Blondes. Looking back, late 1993 was when music finally came back after 3 1/2 years of bad product. However, the grunge movement took over by the middle of 1994. By summer 1995, stations like WBZZ sound good when listening to air checks with today's ears but were dated and jumbled in 1995-mind. "All kinds of music for all kinds of people" was seen as an excuse for a lack of format variety in Pittsburgh. In NYC, Z100 was banging out "The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get" by Morrissey -- a memory I vividly recall as a stunner since, growing up in NYC, the only home for this was tiny WLIR just seven years earlier.
Kevin Eubanks (RIP) inspired David Diego Tomlin who sounds just like him and is one of the voice of iHeart Media.
What a great station Z100 was late 1993-96, good music mix , good voice over guy , great presentation. It wasn't a low point for the station, in fact, this great format kept the station alive during those years. The ratings were solid, It was the soundtrack of my teens. I felt music was real again, not silly wannabe music, pop music was dead at that point. I get that it wasn't the flame throwing Z100 sound of the 80s that the heritage listeners were looking for. I do agree that the format couldn't last forever as pop music was making a comeback and 2 new stations in NYC arrived in 1996, KTU and K-Rock pulled listeners away. ***I would love to talk to anyone that worked at Z100 during that era and pick their brain. It must have been a radical change going from listener friendly pop acts of the 80's and early 90's to new alternative bands and artists not normally heard of top 40 radio***
Excellent analysis. I was brought into the music dept during this era. I pushed for the alternative rock to be added as Pearl Jam had just won MTV video of the year and Z100 was playing Tommy Pewit. I also went over all the music playlists with a fine tooth comb to balance the various genres. Station went from #10 to #1. They tell me that I saved it!
I need your help again please, what’s the song at 9:20?
No problem. That's Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. from 1992.
Ellis Feaster Thanks.
What’s the song at 0:55?
Prediumed I think is was Runaway Train, but not 100% sure.
Ellis Feaster Thank you so much for replying to my comments. It’s amazing considering the amount of videos and comments from viewers you get daily.
I’m trying to download these stations for myself and complete them with the songs so I can listen to them while in the car or whatever. I’d rather listen to these than the new stuff they got today!
I try to stay on top of it all, but it is tough sometimes, especially with my morning radio show here in Orlando, and my TV work. I prefer listening to the old stuff also, as opposed to today's radio, much of which is so soulless & uninspired.
Ellis Feaster I feel like radio music now is only intended to make money out of people from parties and stuff like that. Even though there’s some meanings in these songs, the songs themselves just sound too damn dead and commercial! And artists now sound pretty much identical to others, they don’t have their own style anymore like back in the day. You couldn’t grab Exposé and say they sounded similar to Culture Club. Or Madonna with Bonnie Tyler. It just wasn’t possible. Now it is.
Runaway Train- Soul Asylum -- big Top 40 song until late 1995