evolved into a Middle of the Road format, and on November 11, 1966 would add FM service at 92.7 MHz (today's WRRV). It was with the FM launch that WALL switched to Top 40. In 1968, the station hired program director Larry Berger, who spent the previous two years as music director of WWRL in New York City. In 1972, Straus Communications sold all their radio properties except WMCA. WALL was bought by Oroco Communications, Inc., headed by James F. O'Grady, Jr., who retained most of the staff and continued the Top 40 format on WALL (AM). Shortly after taking the reins, Oroco decided to split the FM into the "beautiful music" format using an early automation system by Bonneville Program Services. Art Livesey was made program director of the FM. The move was a departure, but WALL-FM would still simulcast the live all-night and morning drive shows on WALL well into the 1970s. In 1973, Berger was hired by ABC to program their Detroit album-oriented rock station, WRIF, and Dave Pound from New York's WNEW (now WBBR) was named WALL's program director. When Berger brought some of WALL's talent with him, Pound brought in newcomers – among them Howard Hoffman, Randy West, Simon Hendrix and John Fischer - to fill the vacancies. The "NINE!" satire tape In August 1974, WALL staffers Randy West and Howard Hoffman, along with radio friends Pete Salant and Russ DiBello, recorded a satirical tape known as "NINE!", a parody of industry marketing pitches and radio programming in general. The recording session took place in the WALL production studios after Hoffman's on-air shift ended at midnight. The tape, which takes place at fictional radio station AM 900 WVWA/Pound Ridge, New York, documents the progression of a top 40 station from earlier, awkward years (with odd sound effects, rambling disc jockeys, dead air, and wildly inaccurate weather forecasts) to a finely-tuned, professional-sounding station with various gimmicks, catch-phrases and promotions popular at the time. Ultimately, WVWA decides to go one step further and strip out all spoken-word content, leaving only a rapid-fire, barely intelligible station identification once an hour and the word "NINE!" screamed between each song. Even before an ending could be added to it, "NINE" immediately turned viral in the entire radio industry when an unfinished copy found its way to New York City's 99X (now WEPN-FM). The creators decided to leave the planned ending