WSUS (FM)

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WSUS 102.3 is a Class A radio station serving the Sussex County area on 102.3 FM. They are licensed to Franklin, New Jersey and are owned by Clear Channel Communications. The station plays an adult contemporary music format. They are known as The "Best Variety Of Soft Rock 102.3 WSUS". The station is consitantly the number one radio station in Sussex County.

102.3 WSUS signed on in 1972 and was locally owned by Peter Bardach. The station had a Top 40/Country hybrid format. Half the songs played were current Top 40 Hits and half the songs country, including current hits and older songs. They were known as "Town & Country". In 1975 WSUS changed their night-time format to Top 40/Rock mixing Top 40 and Rock cuts both old and new. During the day they continued their Top 40/Country hybrid format.

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By the late 70's, General Manager Jay Edwards had acquired the station, and WSUS liners included "All Hit Music" and "Dependable WSUS". The station was also news intensive during the day. Their news was and still is known as "First Report News". WSUS consistently was at or near the top when ratings are measured. Sussex County occasionally was a rated market when WSUS and WNNJ would pay Arbitron to take diaries in Sussex County in order to measure ratings here. This practice only happened once a year until the past 10 years. Now Sussex is rated for Spring and Summer Books. This is known as "Buying the Book". In such a practice local stations in an area pay in order to get rated for their home county. This practice is increasingly becoming common in rural areas in order to sell ads.

In the winter of 1982 with Top 40 leaning young again and WIXL doing very well with their all country format WSUS dropped the daytime Top 40/Country hybrod format during the day and the Top 40/Rock format at night and became an adult contemporary radio station. They were more of a Hot AC at night (playing slightly more rock then) but overall they were now AC rather than Top 40. The station became a slightly hotter AC by the late 1980's. The station continued with weekend specialty shows as well.

In the early 1990's WSUS gradually moved into a regular straight ahead adult contemporary format. In 1997 Jay Edwards sold WSUS to Nassau Broadcasting Partners. Early in 1998 Nassau took over the station. They revamped the format. The station now became known as "The Best Variety Of Soft Rock". They added Delilah, a syndicated love songs show in the 7 p.m. to Midnight time slot. The station also added better sounding jingles as well. By now the makret was rated twice a year. In all but a few books WSUS has easily been the number one station in the area. Occasionally now co-owned Classic Rock station WNNJ FM was on top.

In the Winter of 2001 Clear Channel Communications would purchase all the Nassau stations in the Sussex/Warren/Monroe County cluster except for WVPO, WSBG, and AM 960 located in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Clear Channel would get WSUS, WHCY, WNNJ, WNNJ FM, and local marketing agreements for WDLC and WTSX (which would end Fall of 2004). WSUS stayed as it was with no changes. In fact WSUS is the only station that has not since been changed significantly since the sale to Clear Channel. In exchange for these stations Nassau would be paid a good sum of cash plus WEEX and WODE in the Lehigh Valley (which Clear Channel had to sell due to the merger with AM/FM/Chancellor).

WSUS continues to be a high rated station in the region. They concentrate on news, traffic, and weather.

[edit] Airstaff

WEEKDAYS

5:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. - Steve Andrews

10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. - Maria Lake - Soft Rock Cafe from Noon to 1 p.m.

3:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. - Vince Thomas

7:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. - Delilah (Delilah Rene} - Love Songs

12:00 a.m.-5:00 a.m. - Mel Andrews

SATURDAYS

6:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. - Maria Lake

10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. - George Fuller

3:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. - Vince Thomas

7:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. - Delilah

SUNDAYS

7:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m. Chris DeBello

8:00 a.m.-8:30 a.m. College Hill Perspective with Dr. Brad Gottfried (president of Sussex County Community College)

8:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m. New Jersey Newsmakers with Chris DeBello

9:00 a.m.-12:00 a.m. American Top 10 with Casey Kasem

12:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Mel Andrews

4:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. George Fuller

7:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. Delilah

[edit] Past Air Personalities

• Dom Coles
• Mark Fowser (news)
• Frank Garrity
• David Matthau (news)
• Jerry Morelli (sports)
• Eric Slater