Atlanta FM Composite: “FM-73″ | August 1973
Tucked away in a box which contains about 15 reels generously donated earlier in 2005 was this 3″ reel of goodies. So, you wanna know what the typical FM station in a large market sounded like in ‘73? Here’s a really GOOD representation of the greater Atlanta FM dial. I was expecting a bunch of Beautiful Music stations. Surprisingly, there’s plenty of contemporary formats on the Atlanta FM band at a time before it really began to compete with AM. In particular, listen for the WZGC “Z-93″ aircheck. Wasn’t “Z-93″ around in the 80s during the CHR wars?
The source tape is in good condition, but apparently the left channel has worn through a bit more than the right. Still, I’ve encoded this in stereo so that listeners can get a feel of what it was like to tune an old Marantz receiver around in the early 70s. Think back to your audiophile days…
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Hi Steve,
Yes, Z-93 was around playing the hits during the 80’s, until 1989 when they’ve flipped to Classic Rock. A pleasent surprise for me was that little bit of WBBQ/Augusta that was recorded with this composite, considering that Augusta is about 130 miles to the east.
Robyn
I really like this reel. Considering that Z-93 was at that time not even near the top 40 giant like it became in its latter days. WQXI am 790 was the king during this time. Although it was really neat to hear radio from my younger days.
Hello
I remember Z-93. I listened to it when I was in North Georgia on vacations in the early-mid 80s. I never understood why they played strange-sounding versions of “The Heat Is On” and a few other songs. This didn’t mean I was against my town (Macon, south of ATL) having such a station. Power 99.7 (later 99x) closed in on Z-93’s younger listeners around 1984.
Wasn’t CHR Top 40 for the 18-36 crowd. It was adopted apparently as the demographic for teeny-bop music (faster dance tunes, etc)was sagging.
I remember the first CHR outlet near my home- WNKS-FM, or Kiss-FM, out of Columbus, GA. I would DX it on the Cutlass’s radio and I was tickled pink. This was the best I could do; Macon had a 60% white demographic that was mostly country. Its “Top 40″ station was struggling to get out of the automation days and a twenty-cut playlist.
CHR wasn’t totally Top 40 but I was happy. Now the baby boomer’s children listen to country or slop. The programmers know they are a numerically superior force.
Thanks for the memories.
KAT
The cuts from WQXI-FM sound like they were from the brief time in the early ’70s when the station was automated. They became automated when the calls were flipped from WKXI to WQXI-FM.
About this same time, the calls of WGKA-FM were flipped to WZGC-FM and Z93 was born. It was an automated station for several years, broadcasting the tape-syndicated Drake-Chenault Solid Gold format.
WBBQ-FM from Augusta was being simulcast at that time with their AM side. At this time, the FM side had an audience that was probably minuscule compared to the AM side. WBBQ-AM was a very hot top-40 station in its heyday.