WKNR-FM becomes WNIC

On the morning of April 25, 1972, while John McRae was playing the last rock and roll records of the Keener era on WKNR-AM, Jim Cutler was at the controls in the control room on WKNR-FM. Keener-FM had pioneered a new approach to beautiful music when it launched Stereo Island in 1971. It required the DJs to put together seamless mixes of the most mellow popular tunes amongst a jingle package customized for the brand. It was a concept that was a step above the mind numbing elevator music that was an automated?staple across town at WLDM. But the human capital it required to produce the Stero Island sound didn’t throw off enough cash flow to satisfy the bean counters (sound familiar?), and as Keener AM backtimed to the top of the hour with “Turn Turn Turn” by the Byrds, Jim Cutler queued up his final Stereo Island set. Jim Nuznoff knew it was coming and had his reel to reel rolling to document the first hour of the new WNIC. The resulting aircheck ?gives a good feel for how tragically bland WNIC’s initial programming concept was. Juxtaposed against what we hear today, you can see just how far “100.3” has come.