Former Radio Station Owner Dan Lerner Dies

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He’s been described as an innovative radio station owner and as a well-known philanthropist. Daniel Lerner, who gained notice for developing what is today the Adult Contemporary music format at an FM in Boston, has died.


Lerner, who co-owned that station and later owned an FM in Philadelphia, was 91 years of age. He died on February 21, the Booth Bay Register reports.

His career in broadcasting dates to 1961, when he became an account executive for an AM radio station in Newport, Rhode Island. One year later, he took a sales job at a big Top 40 station for its time: WFIL-AM in Philadelphia. Then, in 1963, Daniel Lerner and his brother, Arnold, decided to purchase an AM/FM combo in Boston. With the AM retaining the WLLH call letters, the FM became WSSH-FM, branded as “Wish.”

This is not to be confused with the WSSH that debuted in Philadelphia in 1970 under United Artists’ ownership. However, with “Wish” a strong performer in Boston, the branding and call letters ended up in the City of Brotherly Love for a Beautiful Music station that lasted across the 1970s. The “Wish” in Boston is today the home of Classical WCRB-FM 99.5.

While Arnold Lerner ran the Boston operation, Daniel Lerner in 1967 returned to Philadelphia. He took a TV job, at what was WIFI-6, and in 1972 went back to radio by becoming GM of pioneering FM Top 40 station WIFI, today WXTU-FM 92.5.

Lerner then made his mark in Philadelphia by petitioning the FCC to create a new radio station at 100.3 MHz, working with Judith Golson in launching WKSZ “Kiss 100” in fall 1982. With “no hard rock, no sleepy elevator music,” Kiss was a top performer in a marketplace where the station that had obtained the WWSH call letters became an also-ran. It also maintained a strong audience as “98! CAU-FM” attracted the Top 40 listener and Jerry Lee’s crosstown WEAZ-FM (today WBEB-FM) was a key competitor.

In 1993, WKSZ adopted the WPLY call letters and, after a brief run as Top 40 “Z100,” became Alternative “Y-100.” Lerner sold WPLY, today WRNB-FM, to Urban One for $80 million at the end of 1999. Peter Handy of Star Media Group was the broker on that transaction.

After leaving the radio industry, Lerner worked for the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, served on the board of directors of Rocky Run YMCA in Media, Pa.; and was a founding board member of FoundCare, which provides health care services for underserved people in Palm Beach County, Fla. He has also been a longtime benefactor of Garrett Williamson, a nonprofit childcare and learning center serving Newtown Square, Pa.


The Boothbay Register reports that a Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, June 2 at 3pm at the Levering Mill Tribute House in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that a donation be made to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Garrett Williamson or a nonprofit organization of the donor’s choice.