Some WIP personalities were lured to WPEN, including Tom Brown, and an extensive promotional campaign was launched with the station billing itself as "The New 95." However, listeners did not respond in large numbers and the station went into a gradual decline. Around 1969, the station left NBC, and management decided to seriously challenge WIP, Philadelphia's dominant MOR music station. It was held in a converted night club near 22nd and Walnut Streets, so the public was allowed to sit in on all broadcasts.Īround 1967, WPEN became an affiliate of the NBC Radio Network. Also, during the 1960s, an evening interview show hosted by Frank Ford was broadcast on weekdays. The station was a news-intensive MOR format. Still all along, artists like Sinatra and Cole, as well as Big Bands, were heard on WPEN. In the early 1970s, artists like The Carpenters, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, James Taylor, and others became core artists. By the mid-1960s, WPEN was also playing softer songs by The Beatles, The Association, The 5th Dimension, Tom Jones, The Mamas & the Papas, The Righteous Brothers, and others. WPEN opted, though, to remain a non-rock station but played some of the softer songs by artists like The Platters, Elvis Presley, Everly Brothers, Brenda Lee, and others. In the late 1950s, rock and roll began to dominate the chart. Years later Raymond hosted Jewish music programs featuring Klezmer music on radio stations in New York City, Philadelphia and Florida.
Jim Reeves could be seen doing newscasts from a second floor studio.īefore the Steve Allison show, radio personality Art Raymond ("The Man in the Black Sombrero") hosted a live Latin music dance program from the Ranch Room. In the late 1950s, Frank Ford hosted the late evening talk show from the restaurant studio. Many evenings Allison showed up for work in a tuxedo. Allison had guests such as Eddie Fisher, Billy Eckstein and numerous local politicians at the Ranch Room. In addition to live guests, Steve Allison took telephone calls from listeners. WPEN was one of the first broadcasters in the country to use a live seven-second delay tape system. This show was broadcast from the "Ranch Room" restaurant on the station's ground floor building on Walnut Street between 22nd and 23rd streets. Steve Allison, formerly of Boston, was host of a five or six nights a week radio show from 11:30PM–2:00AM. In the early 1950s, WPEN became one of the pioneers of late night live audience talk radio. At this time, a show called the "950 Club" began as well. The music at that time consisted of artists such Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Mills Brothers, Tommy Dorsey, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Pat Boone, Tony Bennett, and many others. As entertainment programming moved from radio to television, WPEN evolved into a popular music format in the early 1950s. During the mid-1940s, the station was owned by the Philadelphia Bulletin newspaper in 1948, the newspaper bought the more powerful WCAU and sold WPEN to the local Sun Ray Drug Store chain. WPEN then went to 950 kHz in the NARBA frequency shifts of 1941. In the 1930s, WPEN moved to 920 kHz, sharing time with WRAX until the two stations merged in 1938. The most notable speaker was Percy Crawford who spoke consistently to the crowd of homeless men.
Beginning in November 1929, Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission broadcast their Sunday morning services from their 800-person homeless shelter and soup kitchen.
In its early years, it was known for Italian-language programming, and was co-owned with another major Italian-oriented station, WOV in New York City. The frequency was previously shared by the Pennsylvania School of Wireless Telegraphy's WPSW, which went on the air in 1926, and Bethayres-based WALK, which launched in 1927 both stations were acquired by William Penn Broadcasting and merged to create WPEN. WKDN began broadcasting as WPEN on April 19, 1929, originally as a 250-watt station on 1500 kHz.
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