Thanks to Contributor Robyn Watts, we now fit one of the pieces of the 570 AM puzzle in Dallas.
570 Dallas started off as WFAA – and really, the station that was WFAA began elsewhere on the dial – where every other AM station in America did, at 833 Kilocycles (KC) was at a couple of different frequencies during its life, even sharing time for a long while with WBAP. Eventually, as history shows, the station that would eventually become KLIF moved to 570.
KRQX began on July 2, 1983. It perhaps was, the great experiment. Can Rock music survive on the AM band? It did for a time, on the frequency of one of America’s greatest Top 40 stations ever. Yet, the format you hear on this aircheck is not exactly what you’d expect. Motown. Carole King… Classic Rock was a different animal than what the format is today back in the 1980s.
KRQX lasted until January 26, 1987 when the station’s then new owners, Anchor Media, put the Rock station out of its misery, flipping 570 to straight ahead 50s & 60 Oldies as KLDD.
How many people out there still remember when WFAA and WBAP used to swap frequencies (570 and 820)? I never did understand why they did that, but eventually WFAA stayed put at 570. I take it KRQX didn’t use jingles?
Jay,
Remember the sound of the cowbell on WBAP that signaled the frequency swap.
WFAA had 570 during the day, and WBAP at night.
Tony
We had a great station combo (along with The ZOO); we were the original Classic rock and our listeners loved it.
“….on the frequency of one of America’s greatest Top 40 stations ever”
If that is a reference to KLIF their Top 40 days were at 1190. 570 did do Top 40 in the mid seventies as WFAA but didn’t last long and had little ratings impact.
You’re right, of course. I was thinking of 1190. Will have to fix before I get yelled at!!! Thanks for pointing that out.
Exactly right.
WFAA in its top-40 days on 570 sounded somewhat like WABC. It had top-notch talent, but it was difficult to beat KLIF on 1190 and KNUS-FM later.
Tony
you sure you got the right aircheck?…’rock & roll stew’ by traffic?….the incredible and totally forgotten today ‘open my eyes’ by nazz, todd rundgren’s first band?…and the electric prunes?…i remember a station that was basically zoo jr and when they first came on it was who-beatles-stones-who-beatles-stones for about a week….this is astounding
KRQX was the first new format that I launched. It was intended to fill in the gaps of all those requests we got across the hall at KZEW but couldn’t fit in among the Triumph, Kansas and Boston Lps. So a new ‘Classic Rock’ format encompassed all the best rock from the ’60s and ’70s, and also included some NEW TRACKS from artists that were heritage acts (Van Morrison, Don Fagan) or new bands that sounded vintage (Fabulous Thunderbirds). It worked really well until 92.5 copied what we were doing on the AM band on the FM and squashed it. Of course 92.5 and the consultants who took this format on the road stripped out all the NEW TRACKS thus dooming it to become another oldies format that would eventually age out with its audience. It had such promise and I was proud to be at the helm of devising the sound of the station. After that, my next project was KDGE ‘The Edge’ in the summer of 1989. Again.. a format that got copied nationwide and still exists.
What I remember most about KRQX was Ludlow in the Morning. I loved it when he was selling the used underwear or in the winter of 1983 singing ‘I Can’t Get No (Cabbage Patch Kids)’.
Anyone remember the louie louie marathon on april fools day 1983