WDEL Radio History and Background

        WDEL-FM was a local FM radio station broadcasting to a very small community during the 70's and 80's. The coverage was quite small only reaching parts of Clifton, Montclair and Passaic NJ. The format was generally Rock music from the 1960's through 1980's. WDEL made it's radio debut sometime in late 1972. The original call letters were WDLN which was changed to WDEL in 1974. Unfortunately no broadcast records were kept during this period. Official Broadcast logs were started in 1974. The last broadcast entry in the log was 12/25/1984 and it is assumed this was the last official broadcast. The station hosted a few local DJ's and was virtually all music. There were no commercials except promotions to their own specials and broadcast schedule. The station would consistently have specials focusing on bands or seasonal type music. Listeners enjoyed specials such as The Beatles, Deep Purple, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes, Steely Dan, The Supremes, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones just to name a few. There were also Oldies (1960's) and 70's specials through the years. Probably the most popular special was the non stop Christmas Music Special which was broadcast all through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. All types of Christmas music from popular to classical and all without commercial interruption or DJ. There were occasional weather reports for the local area which were done mostly by the DJ. In later years WDEL had an official Weatherman named Bob Hashback who reported.