At 'FNX, 25 years of modern rock

From left: news director Henry Santoro, DJ Julie Kramer, and program director Keith Dakin.

In the beginning, 25 years ago, the station played a format without a name. Calling itself "the new rock on the block" and "rock the boat radio," WFNX-FM (101.7) aired rock music, but not the familiar sound of market giants like WBCN-FM (104.1). Broadcasting lesser known artists, more imports, and the more out-there sounds of punk and new wave, the little Lynn-based station was a pioneer, broadcasting what would become known as the new rock, modern rock, or alternative format.

"We certainly led the charge," recalls news director Henry Santoro. Hired in early 1983, several weeks before the Phoenix Media/Communications Group bought what was then hard-rock outlet WLYN-FM, the station veteran recalls a time of 12-hour days that culminated in the launch of the new format with a song by The Cure, "Let's Go To Bed." That song has since launched all of the WFNX sister stations, says Santoro, including WPHX-FM and WFEX-FM, both broadcasting at 92.1 FM in Maine and Southern New Hampshire.

The station is marking its anniversary all year by playing noteworthy songs from each of its years on air, and a celebration is planned for October. But the actual anniversary has passed without much notice. In part, that's because the station's early days were so chaotic that the actual launch date may be lost in the mists of time. While FCC records show the WFNX call letters were registered on April 1, 1983, Santoro recalls the new staff taking over programming several weeks earlier. Even Phoenix Media/Communications Group owner Stephen Mindich says he no longer recalls the exact date. None of this surprises station veterans.

"The easiest way for me to describe it," says Santoro, "is that we were so busy inventing this new format that we weren't paying attention to the fact that people were tuning in."

What is known is that when WFNX went on air in March or April of 1983, it wasn't the first new or modern rock station. WLIR, later WDRE, in Long Island, N.Y., had started broadcasting a similar mix at least a few months earlier. But the Lynn station was in the vanguard, one of the few commercial stations in the country that was learning from punk-driven college radio and airing music that didn't fit in older formats.

"It was seat-of-the-pants radio," recalls Santoro. "We were changing it constantly."

Even by 1994, 11 years after the station's launch, Santoro recalls then-program director Kurt St. Thomas acting on the moment when a copy of the Beck song, "Loser," came in. "He said, 'Put this on the turntable,' " says Santoro. "We listened to it twice and then he walked into the studio. Julie Kramer was on air, and he said, 'This is your next song.' "

"It was a free-for-all," recalls Kramer, who now handles weekdays 10 a.m.-3 p.m. "We'd play everything: Lou Reed, the Divinyls, early B-52's," says the DJ, who has been at the station for about 20 years. "You could hear Suzi Quatro. It was all over the place."

These days, the station's playlist is tighter. What was briefly called "new music" is now no longer all new. So-called heritage acts like REM, the Cure, and David Bowie turn up regularly in the mix as well as in the weekday "Leftover Lunch," from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

"The format itself seems to stop at 1990," acknowledges program director Keith Dakin. "But we're still trying to break indie acts and acts from Europe," says Dakin, naming artists like Kate Nash and Vampire Weekend.

What the station has given up in spontaneity, says Santoro, it has replaced with professionalism - and an established reputation as a founder of the modern rock format. "We're in a groove now," says Santoro. "We know how to program and run a radio station now."