The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

Broadcast Pioneers member Dan Lerner is a Pennsylvania native son. He was born in Philadelphia on Saturday, November 26, 1932, lived in the Bywood section of Delaware County until he was seven and then in Drexel Hill until graduating from Upper Darby High School in 1950. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in Music, and was graduated in 1954. After spending several years with the City of Philadelphia Civil Service Commission, he returned to Penn where he earned a Masters degree in Communications in 1961.

Dan’s father, Joseph Lerner, emigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1894 at age five from Ukraine, grew up on a farm in Carmel, NJ, and left school after the 8th grade at age 13 and moved to New York to earn a living. As a result of his experience, he encouraged his two sons to gain a higher education, both eventually earning graduate degrees.

Dan began his career in broadcasting in 1961, as an Account Executive at a daytime AM station, WADK, in Newport, RI. In 1962, he joined WFIL (AM) in the same capacity, working for a time under late fellow-Pioneer Gene McCurdy. In 1963, Dan and his brother Arnold invested in WLLH AM & FM, Lowell and Lawrence, MA, a suburb of Boston. In 1966, Dan separated WLLH-FM from its sister AM station and changed its call letters to WSSH (Wish). It was there that Dan helped create the sound that eventually became known nationally as the Adult Contemporary format. WISH soon became one of the most listened-to stations in the Boston market. In 1986, after 23 years of ownership, the station was sold for 100 times its 1963 purchase price.

Due in part to his father’s declining health, Dan returned to Philadelphia in 1967, rejoined WFIL, this time in TV sales, where he stayed until 1971. The year he left, he was the station’s highest paid employee. In 1972, he joined WIFI, Philadelphia, as General Manager. He left WIFI in 1974 to form his own consulting company, Daniel Lerner Company. During the same year, he applied for the recently-revoked license of WXUR, Media, previously owned by controversial radio evangelist Carl McIntire. WXUR had lost its license in 1972 due to the station’s alleged violation of the FCC's Fairness Doctrine.

After a competitive battle lasting several years with three other applicants, the FCC assigned the license to Dan’s company in 1981, finding that he was the best qualified applicant to own and operate the station. The station signed on in November 1982 as WKSZ (KISS-100).

In October 1982, shortly before KISS-100’s sign on, LIN Broadcasting changed the name of WUSL to KISS-99. Dan went into Federal Court and forced them to drop the KISS name. They changed it to Power 99. Dan also successfully fought off WJBR 99.5fm, which for years had been calling itself FM 100 and wanted Dan to stop using 100. He also was threatened by Malrite’s WWSH for using the slogan “Soft Hits” on KISS-100, claiming they owned the rights to it. Within two years, KISS-100’s Soft Hits format became one of Philadelphia’s highest rated radio stations among adults. KYW-TV ran a feature story on the station at the time, calling KISS-100 “the success station.” One of the station’s slogans, “No hard rock, no sleepy elevator music” is still widely imitated.

By 1993, with KISS-100’s format niche becoming overcrowded, Dan changed the station’s name to Y100, and its format to Alternative rock. After a two years battle with format competitor WDRE, the latter dropped the format, helping enable Y100 to propel itself to the top of the ratings chart among younger listeners. It remained one of Philadelphia’s top revenue producing stations until Dan sold it to Radio One in 2000. Radio One retained Dan’s staff and its Modern Rock format for another five years before switching to an Urban sound in 2005.

Some of the other key players in the success of Y100 were Lynn Bruder, who started as an Account Executive in 1985 and worked her way up the management ladder to become President of the company, and now manages Beasley’s Wired 96.5; Jim McGuinn, who joined Y100 as Program Director after a successful stint as PD of WDRE, and now teaches at Drexel and hosts a Y100-type show on WXPN; and Scott Shannon, legendary New York radio personality and programmer, who consulted Y100.

When Dan sold off his radio stations, he retained ownership of their towers and continues to operate two communications tower companies. Dan now is semi-retired and, with his wife of 53 years, Lyn, shares time between homes in Merion and Palm Beach. He is an avid boater and still operates his own boat, a 36’ Hinckley Picnic Boat, in both Florida and Maine. He serves on the boards of two non-profit foundations, one in Florida dedicated to the health needs of the uninsured, the other in Maine building a new botanical garden there.

Dan has a daughter Julie, who lives in New York and owns an online social networking company; a son Paul, a writer in Los Angeles; and a daughter Ann Poole, who lives in Maine and, with her husband Dirk, owns several businesses there. Ann has two daughters, Savanna and Marina.

In honor of his 50th Reunion at Penn in 2004, Dan funded a scholarship known as the Daniel Lerner Family Endowed Scholarship that provides financial assistance to students in the fields of music and communications. He also has named major building facilities, including the Lerner Atrium at the Community Health Center in West Palm Beach and the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses in Boothbay, Maine. Dan turned 75 in November 2007.

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com