WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995

1995 was a transitional year for WHFS.  and the New Year's Day retrospective reflected that. During 1994, Jake Einstein had taken over WRNR and pulled together some HFS talent to re-create the "old HFS." The Einstein brothers left to join their father/s new station, but Weasel stayed at 99.1. The station's ownership also changed twice in 1995. When Jake Einstein sold WHFS in the late 1980s, Duchossois Communications took ownership and would hold the station until 1993, when it sold WHFS to Liberty Broadcasting. Liberty Broadcasting then sold the station to SFX Entertainment who quickly flipped it to CBS/Infinity in 1996.

The Top 99.1 of 1995 featured Pat Ferrise and Rob Timm, each of whom called about half of the songs. The 99.1th song featured Matthew Sweet doing the Scooby-Doo theme song -- a cute and clever song but no "Bitch Boy" (see the Top 99.1 of 1994). And neither "Just Passin' Thru" nor "Best of Dave's Garage" appeared in the retrospective lineup. Instead, there was a concert, Dave Matthews Band, broadcast live from Hampton Roads Coliseum in Newport News, VA, beginning at about 10PM on New Year's Eve. The concert had significant production and delivery problems: periods of dead air during which WHFS filled in with other music. This made for a choppy presentation that required some editing -- fading abrupt sound breaks and splicing out dead space and weird electrical noises -- to make it presentable.

The following morning featured an "Acoustic Feast," two hours of unplugged music, some of which had been previously recorded in the Modern Rock Morning Show sessions over the past few years. While a nice block of music, it lacked the professional charm of the Just Passin' Thru series.

Just Passin' Thru would make a return in 1996, when the first of what would eventually become 3 CDs was released. The quality was noticeably better than some of the earlier programs had been -- there is an upside as well as a downside to a more corporate environment. Yet among HFS afficionados, including myself, the home-grown studio version was missed.

If you enjoy this program, please post a comment with your nickname ... think if it as signing a guest book. Thanks!

--jkw

The Links:

WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -1- Prelude Pat Ferrise, Top 99.1 to 88.mp3
WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -2- Top 87 to 70.mp3
WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -3- Top 69 to 51.mp3
WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -4- Top 50 to 36.mp3
WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -5- Top 35 to 18.mp3
WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -6- Top 17 to 2.mp3
WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -7- Number One, Dave Matthews Band, First Set.mp3
WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -8- Dave Matthews Band, Second Set.mp3
WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -9- Acoustic Feast.mp3
WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -A- Acoustic Feast.mp3
WHFS Top 99.1 of 1995 -B- Acoustic Feast.mp3