[DESCRIPTION BY CONTRIBUTOR ROB FRANKEL] WOR-FM became the nation’s first FM commercial rock station on July 30, 1966, but due to a strike, the station’s newly hired air talent was silenced. This left the station to function with minimalist breaks from nameless staff announcers, and a lot of segued music, jingles (from CRC) and commercials. On October 8th, the new format went live for the first time with Scott Muni (9am-Noon and 3pm-6pm), Johnny Michaels (Noon-3), Murray The K (6pm-Midnight) and Rosko (Midnight-6am). Morning drive was a simulcast of WOR-AM’s “Rambling With Gambling.” While WOR-FM was the first commercial album rock station (predating KMPX), it started out as a Top 40 station with a longer playlist and a more adult presentation than its AM counterparts (WABC and WMCA.) The more progressive and psychedelic sounds just weren’t out there yet, other than a handful of tracks from acts like The Byrds, Bob Dylan and The Beatles. By the following spring, there was a lot more album material worth playing, and WOR-FM evolved into the first FM Progressive Rock station. The evening of October 8, 1966, Mike Ferriola recorded Murray The K’s first show from a mono FM table radio, and manually scoped it on the fly as he recorded it. The full show ran six hours, and Mike scoped almost 3 hours of the show. I restored the music and as many of the original commercials from that night that I could find. I also restored a number of the original jingles (you can tell which ones because they’re in stereo.) In addition, I had the last few minutes of Murray’s show from a previous restoration that I had done, and I’ve added that to the end of this three-part exhibit. For reasons unknown to me (perhaps Artie Altro could fill in the information gaps), Murray voicetracked his first show earlier that day. He left tracks with an engineer to assemble for that night’s show. There were many technical errors that night, including the audible sounds of tape rewinding. I successfully resisted the urge to correct the errors and tighten up the show. Everything you’ll hear is true to the original broadcast, warts and all. In any case, this is more of that first broadcast than has ever been available since the night it first aired. COMMENTS FOR Murray The K, WOR NY October 8, 1966 Pt. 1