In summer ’83, with CHR resurgent, new convert WPLJ New York was “ready for our climb to the top,” as then-morning man Jim Kerr recalls. But on Aug. 2, WHTZ (Z100) launched under PD/morning man Scott Shannon. It says something about the strength of hit music in the mid-‘80s that WPLJ had a perfectly good run as a Top 40 station. But it was Z100 that went “from worst to first,” making Shannon the (figurative) format captain of ‘80s CHR radio in the process.
Worst to First: The True Story of Z100, premieres on Video on Demand Feb. 11. Produced by syndicated Z100 morning man Elvis Duran, David Katz, Trish Hunter Shannon, and John McConnell, much of the hour-long documentary delivers exactly what it promises—an inside look at the five months between Z100’s August, 1983 launch and the release of the fall ratings that showed the station at No. 1.
For somebody who wasn’t in the market when Z100 launched, Worst to First does a great job in bringing home the excitement of the format debut. Shannon didn’t warn his Morning Zoo team members about the on-air rant that launched the “From Worst to First” campaign. As portrayed in the documentary, what ensued was a mix of big city and small-town radio. Former New York Daily News radio writer David Hinckley (a co-writer here) calls it viral growth before the term existed. Then-MD Michael Ellis knew Z100 was working when the Ray’s Pizza he went to switched from WKTU.
Much of Worst to First is Shannon’s story: buying his first radio on layaway as a kid; finding stardom and a girlfriend in Tampa, persuading her to come to New York with him. and teaching himself the market. Owner Malrite’s Jim Wood recalls wanting a PD who was “just a little screwed up.” Shannon remembers throwing his presentation binder at somebody in his Z100 job interview; Malrite’s Milt Maltz followed Shannon into the hall to offer him the job anyway. A succession of original staffers recalls their own intimidating first encounters with him.
Worst to First covers Shannon’s on-air attacks on WPLJ PD Larry Berger, but also a less-known dust-up with Daily News columnist George Maksian. Associate producer Ken Lane, who began his long-time record business career at Z100, recalls walking into the newsroom and somehow managing to sticker Maksian’s desk without being stopped. (Another industry vet, John McHugh, is co-producer/music supervisor. Director/writer/producer Mitchell Stewart worked on Z100’s TV spots around 2000-01.)
The best artist interviews here include Jon Bon Jovi, who recalls speeding up when hearing his songs on Z100, in hopes of telling a cop that it was his song on the radio. Lost Factor readers will be excited to learn which artist Debbie Gibson stole her signature hat from at the Z100 studio. Tony Orlando was the Morning Zoo’s first guest; when he arrived, he recognized Shannon as the man who broke “Candida.” Madonna used to call Z100 herself on behalf of “Holiday”; in one of the movie’s final scenes, she and Z100 shut down Times Square for the Who’s That Girl opening four years later.
There are a lot of industry people who wanted to be in the business because of Z100. They will likely have seen From Worst to First by the end of the first weekend. But there are also a lot of New Yorkers who remember the phenomenal first days, and more than two million still listening. The film’s final scenes include Duran at the Jingle Ball, and praise for the station’s longevity.
Seeing From Worst to First, particularly the execution of the campaign itself, makes you wistful for a day when station launches got that kind of attention, but it’s also a reminder that station successes never really happened just by osmosis. Z100’s launch was a product of showmanship and the power of human contact; radio still has those things in its toolkit, but they’re often sitting dormant.
Worst to First is now available to rent or buy on Apple/iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, Vudu, and Microsoft as well as on many cable systems and DirecTV.