Airchexx.com

Listen now as Quick 96 quickly exits and makes way for 95.7 KJR-FM, the Hits of the 60s and 70s!

This one is very much an example of the cause-and-effect of corporate mergers. Consider the previous format change at 94.1 FM. Entercom had just closed on the purchase of WOGY-FM from Sinclair Broadcasting in January, 2000. The ink was barely dry on this purchase when it became obvious to most observers that the writing was on the wall for the country station known as “Froggy 94″. Rumors had abounded for months about a flip to something – top candidate was a format known as “The Buzz” – the slogan for the station 94.1 would become in January ’01. The difference was, in the Fall of ’00, “The Buzz” was the monikker for Entercom’s then hot 80s format, not Modern AC.

When the Buzz format launched, there were high company hopes that this station would fit well between HotAC WMC-FM 100, Alternative 92.9 WMFS and even CHR 107.5 Kiss-FM, while complimenting sister (and ratings/revenue monster) WRVR 104.5 The River. While at the outset the format change and music mix did attract a lot of listener attention and did pull from the above named stations, the effect was not as long-lived as Entercom would hope. The Buzz did manage to sound the death knell for then WKSL ‘Kiss-FM’ (it flipped first to Rhythmic WYYL “Wild 107.5″, then became home to AAA WMPS 107.5 “The Memphis Pig” before returning to CHR in 2003 as WHBQ-FM “Q107.5″), and spark minor format tweaks at WMC-FM, but overall it was not enough.

PD and morning host Kramer was relieved of his duties in 2004, replaced first by the team of Brad & Dana, then later by the syndicated “Kid Kraddock in the Morning” show. Brad & Dana would move to afternoons when perhaps the only format icon on the station, Argo, was released in 2005 to make room for Kraddock. With most of the format staple jocks gone, ratings continued to slump as the music was tweaked from core Adult Alternative crossovers to a more pop mix. In fact, 94.1 began an irreversable downward slide in ’04 which continued until the format was finally put out of its misery, following the purchase of former rivals WMC-FM and WMFS.

Courtesy of Karl Phillips, who sent in a ton of airchecks on reel, here’s one on cassette captured when former Atlanta CHR WAPW “Power 99″ flipped to New Rock as 99X. On the tape you’ll hear the old call letters still in use (not WNNX, as this would become), buried in a legal ID buried in a stopset later in this aircheck. The 99X monikker launches just a few minutes into this scoped format change.

At about 12:45 in, you’ll hear… “and now, for posterity, this is the last time you’ll hear…” and the Power 99 jingle played. Very smooth!

Now, your curator has heard a ton of format changes, but this was very classy. They originally kept the CHR jocks during the transition to Rock. Only the name and the music changed. Of course, 99X has become somewhat of a legend in Atlanta radio, although of late has had it’s share of ratings troubles, just a week ago bringing it’s legendary morning team back to try to recapture ratings. You can read up on the new Morning X by clicking this link..

Now, don’t confuse this 99X with our tribute to the ORIGINAL 99X (WXLO) which was in New York City in the 70s and early 80s. That’s a totally different station and we pay tribute to it here!

Your webmaster has always wondered why it is that radio companies can’t respect heritage call letters. Well, here’s another set of calls that went away in 1992– at least off the 98.5 frequency. WROR was the FM station to WRKO until RKO General was forced to sell off all it’s radio properties. Before WROR they were first WRKO-FM – ARKO-Matic, the automated top forty station in the 60s. Later, it was Boston’s first Oldies station as WROR. In 1980, they went live AC, with some of Boston’s most melodic and historic jingles (JAM’s “I’d Rather Be In Boston” series #1). In 1983 they experimented with CHR using a version of the WLS-FM jingles… but later reverted back to AC, which they stayed until ’92.

WBMX remains to this day on 98.5. The WROR calls were launched on 105.7 when the Country format and calls on 105.7 WKLB moved to 96.9 (and later to 99.5). Confused? There is more information to be learned about this at the Boston Radio Archives site.

New Contributor Stuart Gitlow comments:

The original recording suffered from several issues: my reception of 103 wasn’t
great, the gain was turned up a bit too much (I was just getting used to using dbx), and the tape is 22 years old. All in all though, it’s not too bad.

Since posting, we’ve had numerous corrections and additions which merit posting here. One very interesting description was found in the Archives at the Boston Radio Interest Group.

Emailed courtesy of Paul Connors:

CBS had to sell WEEI-AM 590 in Boston to meet FCC ownership regulations (in 1983, it was still 7-7-7 in a market) so that it could make room for the purchase of Metromedia’s KRLD AM 1080 in Dallas. ‘EEI was the weakst signal (only 5k watts) in CBS group’s
portfolio while KRLD and Dallas represented more powerful signal in a bigger market.

While Metromedia petitioned FCC to keep both KRLD AM and a UHF station(ch.33) in Dallas, it also had agreed to sell KRLD to CBS convinced that FCC would reject their petition. Suprisingly, FCC bought Metromedia’s argument(KRLD was going to produce news and public service programming for the UHF station) and allowed Metromedia to keep both, KRLD and the UHF station, despite one-to-a-market rule. In turn, it spoiled KRLD sale to CBS. At that point it was too late to retain WEEI which was already going to Helen Valerio, of the Papa Ginos’ fame.

13 years later, CBS ended up with KRLD through a swap with SFX. In 1996, CBS traded its longtime oldies signal KKWR/Houston for KRLD.

…So, that’s the story of the ownership changes as per the Boston Radio Archives. We encourage our ‘listeners’ to verify any of our material from Boston there, at www.bostonradio.org.

Now, Connors goes on to add the following to this aircheck:

The date of the call letter change was 3/9/83, not 3/1. WHTT lasted until until 7/7/1986, when the calls were changed to WMRQ. The station was still owned by CBS at the time. As a matter of fact, the station was an O&O when the series of corporate cannibalisms began in the 90′s. The WEEI call letters stayed on 590 until 9/8/1994.

Thought you might like to hear what somebody who was there remembers.
I also remember how I had a cassette deck in the WHTT studio that was hooked up to record WEEI. I used to listen to and write down the Kevin O’Keefe traffic reports, and then read them as my morning show traffic updates! He was in the chopper above Boston for 32 years – 1960-1992!!

Paul Connors

With ratings continuing to slowly fall, aging demos and a business core becoming more unwilling to advertize to persons over 55, Entercom pulled the plug on its AM Standard’s outlet WJCE. The call letters were originally chosen to compliment an Urban AC format called “The Juice” some years earlier and were not changed when that format expired after the emergence of crosstown FM Urban AC 103.5 WRBO.

So, with little fanfare and virtually NO imaging or announcements whatsoever, the music was pulled in the middle of a song and the CNN News feed simply clicked in, followed by the Al Franken show on the Air America Network.

One of the most haphazard format changes heard in ages. We present it to you as a scoped 10+ minute audio time capsule, to serve as a place holder for the next format change that will inevitably happen to this noisy unkempt AM signal which was once home to Rick Dees, Terrence McKeever, Roy Mack and others in it’s heyday of the 60s and 70s as Plough Broadcasting’s WMPS.

And, to confuse you further, Locally owned and operated WMPS now occupies AM 1210, after having been moved by Flinn Broadcasting from 96.1 to 107.5 and then to internet only, only to resurrect them on the aforementioned AM 1210 in 2005.

Lost, are you? This audio clip should explain it all.

Program Director Paul Cannon launches this ‘new’ incarnation of WTIC-FM with a few words, and a produced history lesson. “The Rap is gone. Forever.”

Today, CBS Radio O&O WTIC-FM shares the same building with it’s AM counterpart, dinosaur WTIC AM 1080, Lite 100.5 WRCH and a few others. The station…. pretty much your typical Hot AC now, and FAR from it’s CHR glory days.

For those who remember (and even those who don’t or don’t care to), here’s what it sounded like over a dozen years ago from the Insurance Capital of the World….

Courtesy of Peter Q. George from Massachusetts. Thanks, Pete!

Jeff Smulyan had an idea. What if you could recreate barroom discussion of sports on a 24 hour radio station. Lucky for Jeff, he happened to be the President of Emmis Broadcasting, which happened to have an AM outlet in New York that would be a perfect testing ground for the format. WHN had become a legend in the previous 15 years it had with the Country format, with many New York DJ’s that will go into any New York Radio Hall of Fame: Del Demontreaux, Lee Arnold, Dan Daniel, and Dan Taylor to name a few. Equipped with rights to the defending World Champion New York Mets, WFAN signed-on and without making much of a dent in the ratings it did make a name for itself locally and nationally.

After 40 years of service as Philadelphia’s Classical Music station, frequent ownership changes in the mid-1990′s and developing business trends led to the demise of 95.7 WFLN. Greater Media Broadcasting donated the WFLN music library to Temple University’s 90.1 WRTI. With Q102 leaning Rhythmic, the Modern AC format of Max was thought to fill a niche between Alternative Y100 and WIOQ. However, it took almost 6 months for Max to put together an airstaff and ratings were never able to get much higher than a 2.3 share. In May of 1999, as ratings were beginning to turn the corner after the addition of the Barsky Show in mornings, Greater Media pulled the plug on Max in order to beat AMFM to the punch with Rhythmic Oldies.

KZZP. During the 80′s, those call letters were synonymous with what was great about Phoenix radio. KZZP was the market’s legendary CHR during that decade. However, in April 1991, like many CHRs across the country, KZZP was forced to make big changes due to declining ratings and the polarization of the CHR format; they flipped to Hot AC as KVRY. Almost 5 years later, with KVRY on its death bed, owner Nationwide Communications decided to bring back the KZZP calls. But the format, while positioned as a CHR (the slogan was “Your Hit Music Station”), was actually a Modern AC — one of the first Modern ACs in the country. At the time, the move made sense. KKFR (Power 92) was a broad Rhythmic CHR that played a lot of the songs that KZZP as a CHR would have played. Instead of competing with KKFR directly, KZZP carved out its own niche and tried to appeal to the audience that grew up with the station in the 80′s.

In June of 1982, 79Q KKBQ signed-on as a rare Top 40 launch on AM at a time when most CHR’s were moving to FM. After 7 short months, the station had become a major success under Scott Shannon and John Lander. Sister station 92.5 KYND was a floundering Beautiful Music station. Promoting the move for a few weeks before it occured on December 29. 1982, 93Q would become a Top 40 powerhouse for the remainder of the 80′s.

The launch sequence at 6:00am may sound familiar to some as the 6:00am launch with “Eye of the Tiger” would be repeated in New York some eight months later when Scott Shannon debuted Z100.

Summary contributed by Jeffrey T. Mason.

I think I am qualified to give a summary of the 80′s Channel/Chicago sign-on, seeing that I was one of the folks who orchestrated it!

Contrary to popular belief, Big City Radio – not Chancellor Media – was the first company to debut a “Jammin’ Oldies” type format. It was not called “Jammin’ Oldies,” but “103.1FM, Chicago’s Heart & Soul.” They purchased WVVX/Highland Park and WJDK/Morris, both at 103.1 to create the simulcast. Call letters were changed to WXXY and WYXX. Due to a poor signal, and some bad judgment in their outdoor campaign (billboards placed in areas that could NOT receive the station), “Chicago’s Heart & Soul” didn’t see much success. It was definitely a valiant effort, however…with BCR hiring market veterans like Robert Murphy for mornings, and Fred Winston for afternoons.

In late 1998, Chancellor Media flipped WRCX (Rock 103.5) to “Chicago’s Jammin’ Oldies, 103-5 The Beat.” They offered to sell the rights to the entire WRCX format (including name, call letters, etc…) to BCR in exchange for Heart & Soul. BCR declined, and Chancellor did Jammin’ Oldies anyhow. With a full signal from downtown, it was a no-brainer who would prevail. So in early 1999, Chris Shebel (PD of sister 92.7 Kiss-FM) was named PD of WXXY/WYXX. Just as BCR signed on the first Jammin’ Oldies format, they also were the first to sign-on an “All 80′s” format. After about 6 months of planning, Heart & Soul ended it’s format at 12 noon on Thursday August 5, 1999. 24 hours of movie clips & TV theme songs from the 80′s followed. At 12 noon on Friday August 6, 1999…”The 80′s Channel – 103.1 WXXY” signed on the air. Robert Murphy, Dona Mullen & Fred Winston continued in their dayparts, and Jeffrey T. Mason was brought on-board from Kiss-FM as APD/MD and evening jock. Steve Davis from Zapoleon Media Strategies consulted.

What set this station apart from the other 80′s stations that followed (including ABC’s “94.7 The Zone”) was the musical direction and overall presentation. Most 80′s stations programmed a rock or new wave leaning format, with a very Gen-X sound. WXXY was straight down the middle CHR. The classic 1980′s JAM jingles and ballsy Eric Edwards sweepers were also VERY reminiscent of 1980′s Top 40 radio in Chicago.

What was perhaps the world’s best known Oldies station disappeared forever from the radio landscape, as then Infinity Broadcasting (Now CBS, Inc.) changed formats to Variety Hits as 101.1 Jack-FM “Playing What We Want”.

The day started out on a very positive note, with CBS-FM Morning personality, Former Monkee Micky Dolenz was celebrating his 100th show on 101.1 with a special live broadcast from B.B. King’s Blues Club. From the morning show, it seemed as if all was looking good at the Golden 101.

Listeners may have figured something was up when afternoon drive started and there was no DJ. No Bob Shannon… Brucie, not anyone. Just wall to wall music and jingles. Then, it happened. At 5:00 PM, there was a short pause, and….

You’ll just have to listen for yourself. A very sad moment in the history of New York radio. And unlike WABC’s departure from Musicradio 23 years earlier, there was no aura of dignity here.

Okay, WAVA Alumn Chris Taylor promised this to me over a year ago… he’s been way too busy, sooo, let me introduce the very FIRST official contribution from airhcexx.com’s crack engineer Lance Venta! Thanks, man!

What more can be said about the final hour? This is the FINAL segment of a five-hour scoped aircheck we featured some time ago which is still available here at airchexx.com by clicking here. WAVA was simply amazing! A great CHR station, one of several during that time period including WRQX Q-107 and WBSB Baltimore B-104. It’s all gone now, with WPGC-FM being Urban, WRQX HotAC and 104.3 just through so many format changes it’s hard to keep up.

The final hour of this great station, like the few I’ve heard done, is really enough to make a WAVA fan cry. One of the best ‘farewell’ hours ever recorded!

Description by contributor John Hendricks:

On this Valentine’s Day 1984 former WFIL “boss jock” Dan Donovan returned from Minneapolis as morning man during the new oldies format which tried to revive the energy of the once-popular “Famous 56″. Donovan lasted a short time before returning to Minnesota. Also on this aircheck the same day is afternoon jock Scott Taylor.

This is our first look at WFIL, and you’ll love the PAMS 60s-era jingles!

In many ways, radio mimics life. In a stroke of irony, as we post this airchecks, KFRC as we all know it is gone. More accurately, it belongs to God now. But for many people, 610 KFRC as a legend ended on this day in August 1986.

Frankly, this aircheck is anti-climactic, and quite depressing. What you hear is the final rock music played on 610, a short jingle montage, one last song, then the start of Magic 61 with Dr. Don Rose – who’s also gone now.

As a bonus, this aircheck is in Stereo. KFRC was broadcasting in Khan/Hazeltine AM Stereo at the time of this recording and someone had the foresight to hit the record button.

We at airchexx.com would like to thank the folks at The Am Stereo Radio Page for giving us permission some time ago to post a few of their AM Stereo selections.

Click HERE to Listen!

An historical relic. KFWB was the first Top 40 station in Los Angeles. Long before KHJ decided to turn up the volume, KFWB’s Swinging Gentlemen cranked out the hits.

It lasted until 1969. Now, hear the beginning of a legend.

Click HERE to Listen!

In researching the format change of KNX-FM to KKHR, I ran across a fact I wasn’t aware of. After the ‘HitRadio 93 era, KKHR returned to the KNX-FM call letters as an Adult Rock station, before flipping to Oldies as KCBS-FM. Wow, I didn’t know that till today. And, wouldn’t we love to have THOSE format changes!

Click HERE to Listen!