107.9 WXKS-FM
New England Radio Composite | April 1980
Curator’s Notes: This composite is a collection of various airchecks of stations in the 6 state New England region. One of the real joys for a radio listener up there is, There are a lot of medium market stations, all within earshot of the major cities of Boston, Hartford, Providence, and, while not technically in New England, Albany NY. If you liked radio in the Northeast, or lived anywhere in the central part of Massachusetts where atmospheric conditions varied so much that one could catch stations from all over New England, this will be a real treat for you! Please consider a generous donation to this website for site support. You won’t find many things available for free on the web these days, so take the time to support your favorite website! Use the Donate button below...
Sample: 107.9 WXKS-FM Medford | March 10, 2003
Please scroll down below this post for an important message “Kiss-108 plays ALL of today’s Hit Music Curator’s Notes: I’ll keep this brief since it would take longer to read than listen. Considering that the jock doesn’t mention his name, and I recorded this right after the WAAF aircheck, I think this is Matt Seigal from his “Matty in the Morning” show. There are no extra voices and it’s too short to get any of the extra reports in. It’s also likely this was recorded after 9 am and there wouldn’t have been much more in the way of morning show material anyway. It’s just too short, scoped down. This recording was actually about 25 minutes long unscoped, but after the music came out, the rest was mainly commericals. Who wants t...
Dale Dorman, WXKS-FM Medford/Boston (Kiss 108 FM) | May 1, 1999
What teens, do you suppose, knew that in 1999, one of their favorite DJs was in his 50s? On the occasion of Uncle Dale’s passing in 2014 at age 71, at the time of this aircheck, he was at the tail end of a 20+ year run as the Afternoon Drive jock at Boston’s “Kiss-108 FM”. Dorman is one of those jocks who made it big in the RKO chain of stations back when personality really mattered. Once the Morning Show host at WRKO in it’s top 40 heyday, Dorman also spent time doing West Coast top 40 at KFRC San Francisco in the late 60s, and after WRKO was the morning guy at Fairbanks’ WVBF in it’s “F-105” incarnation. Over 9 minutes scoped from the original 30, here’s Uncle Dave, STILL doing top 40 and sounding like he’s relevant and lo...
CHR Sample: 107.9 WXKS-FM Medford/Boston | August 20, 1998
Date of Recording: 08.20.1998 Station: 107.9 WXKS-FM Medford, Massachusetts, USA Format: Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) Station Owner: Jacor/Evergreen/Clear Channel Communications (iHeart Media) Contributor: Anonymous Airchexx Entry: 1,491 Kiss-108 wants to know, what did YOU DO last Summer? Comments: It seems that every decade, the trends in popular music rotate back to rock before rotating around to R&B, Hip Hop or whatever today’s stuff is called. 1998 saw so much current Rock product that even an heritage Rhythmic CHR like Kiss-108 was playing a LOT of Rock based music in rotation. Commercial free Kiss hours (which meant about seven minutes of commercials when the commercial free hour was done), personalities that were still allowed to speak and a heritage format kept Kiss 108...
Sunny Joe White, WXKS-FM Kiss 108 Medford/Boston | November, 1989
Date of Recording: 11.xx.1989 Station: 107.9 WXKS-FM Medford, Massachusetts, USA Format: CHR Featured Air Personality: Sunny Joe White (1954-1996) Contributor: Robyn Watts Comments: In the history of Boston radio, perhaps no other Program Director was as successful or famous as “Sunny” Joe White. Hired by Ritchie Balsbaugh to launch Disco “Kiss 108” in 1978 from the ashes of Beautiful Music WWEL-FM 107.9, White took Boston’s first Disco station straight to number 1. By late 1979, as the Disco fad faded into oblivion, White took Kiss in a new direction, and by mid-1980, Kiss was straight-ahead Top 40, where it remains as of this writing. Sunny Joe White’s success with Kiss 108 really is unparallelled, at least from a longevity standpoint. While the decade...
QuickCheck: J.J. Wright, WXKS-FM Kiss-108 FM Boston | 1990
Thanks again to Robyn Watts for this four minute flashback to J.J. Wright’s afternoon drive show on Richie Balsbaugh’s ORIGINAL Kiss station (not Clear Channel’s copycats). Wright sounds great on this all-too-short recording. This is from an era of great sweepers and very tasty jingles. Wish there was more… This tape is from one of many in a long series of “East Coast Airchecks” – a popular subscription aircheck service from that era.
QuickCheck: Jackson Blue, WXKS-FM Medford/Boston | August 13, 2007
Several years while scanning around the FM band, WXKS-FM was coming in in near HD quality (the HD indicator was flashing on my Boston Acoustics receiver), which is pretty good for being 75 miles from Boston, and I thought it would be a good time to make a new recording of Kiss-108. It’s the Jackson Blue night show on Kiss, and while this isn’t the Sunny Joe White days, compare the old personality oriented Kiss with this lightning fast presentation of today’s hit music with the old days, and I swear there is still some good left in radio. You may or may not enjoy the music of today (I do), but you’ll appreciate the formatics of this RARE live night show on the FIRST and BEST ‘Kiss’ station… even if Clear Channel Communications trademarked the ‘...
Composite: 107.9 WXKS-FM Medford (Boston) | February 8, 2000
Its finally 2000. Four years after Telcom ’96 began the steady stream of consolidation of radio groups, most of the major market stations are still live and intact. This is Boston! One of America’s greatest hotbeds of Radio Talent, and one of the best who ever did it, the late, legendary Dale Dorman starts off this late afternoon/evening composite showcasing the incredible variety of music that this one time Urban-leaning CHR giant was playing! Two things about this aircheck that stick out, aside from the music. First, this is Dale Dorman’s final hour for the day. In the 5pm hour we should be hearing more of Uncle Dale, but sadly, Dorman was obviously hemmed in by the format. But we do get to hear an upbeat Dale Dorman, apparently happy this particular day (but he always ...
Composite: WXKS-FM Kiss 108 Medford/Boston | July 17, 1984
Courtesy of Matt Seinberg, here’s a wonderful look back at Boston’s KISS 108 in it’s prime! Its a mid-summer’s day and you’ll hear Matty In The Morning, J.J. Wright, Dale Dorman and JoJo Kincaid! Audio quality is somewhat marginal, but you’ll enjoy this otherwise excellent representation of Kiss 108 at the start of Boston’s CHR war with rivals WHTT HitRadio 103 (Now CHR WODS “Amp Radio”) and 94.5 WZOU (Now WJMN) which got it’s start later that year from the ashes of then AC WCOZ. All this from the genius that was the late Sunny Joe White!
Dale Dorman, Afternoon drive on WXKS-FM Kiss 108 Boston | 1992
We’re talking a Boston radio LEGEND! Dale Dorman’s career in Boston started at WRKO, having come from San Francisco’s ‘Big 610′ KFRC. After WRKO, he was the morning guy for a time at Fairbanks Communications’ WVBF – in it’s subdued top 40 incarnation as F-105. By 1981, Dorman was firmly entrenched as Kiss-108’s afternoon guy, a position he held until 2004 – where he was considered by many to be the oldest Top 40 deejay left in America! Enough about that. Dale can be heard now at WODS “Oldies 103”. We can think of no other best suited to play the music that he knows all so well…
Boston FM Composite: 1983
Here’s a quarter hour worth listening to. Starting with the great Joe Martelle, on the old 98.5 WROR, this goes back and forth between WROR and 103.3 WEEI-FM. Just two years before this was recorded, WROR had just morphed into a soft, personality AC from its days of automated Oldies. The fun part of this is listening to how much WROR tried to sound like WABC – they have Jam jingles (WABC cuts!) and even call themselves MUSICRADIO WROR! It was, in my opinon, the best that WROR ever sounded during its short-lived venture into the world of CHR. The WROR portion includes a healthy dose of Mike Waite (WPRO-FM) doing HIS thing! You’ll hear Dale Dorman on WXKS-FM… briefly. Also included, 103.3 WEEI-FM, before the station changed call letters to WHTT… a VERY rare airc...
“Matty in the Morning”, WXKS-FM “Kiss-108” Medford/Boston | March 1993
Is there one city left in America where Ryan Seacrest isn’t heard on some Top 40 station? Perhaps not today. But back in 1993, Kiss-108 had emerged as the station to turn to for hit music, and some of the best jocks to be heard anywhere in the Northeast. Ryan Seacrest wasn’t even known in 1993. But Matt Siegal WAS known as the morning man at WXKS-FM, the onetime Disco station-turned-CHR in the 80s. The audio quality is outstanding. Runs over 12 minutes, scoped. Courtesy of California Aircheck.
