In the early 90’s, Hit Radio was struggling with what direction to take. Many flipped formats completely, while some went in a Rhythmic direction, and the rest leaned on the surging product of Alternative Rock to fill their playlists.
Nowadays, Elvis Duran is coming up on a decade as leader of the “Z Morning Zoo”, which is now syndicated to Miami. Here, he was still in his afternoon slot, while promoting the fact that he was going to fill in on the morning show later that week for the first time.
TECHNICAL
The master copy of this aircheck was received in late 2002, in the very early days of this website. This came in on a scotch brand cassette and was a whole recording – unscoped – as they say. Interestingly enough, there are dropouts in the audio and it seems to have been recorded in monaural. The audio quality is okay. Certainly not the best, but it’s all we have and when it comes to Z100, something is a whole lot better than nothing!
PROGRAMMING
Z100 was one of the leaders of the Alternative leaning CHR movement. But that didn’t mean that they weren’t playing all the hits. In this aircheck, you’ll hear artists as diverse as Guns N Roses, Salt N Pepa, Alice In Chains, Madonna, AC/DC, and David Bowie. You can almost trace the roots of the Jack/Bob Variety Hits format here. In this whole aircheck, you’ll hear exactly ONE Z100 jingle! Everything else is imaging, voiced by Zak (I can’t remember his last name), whom I believe passed away in 2002. This voice also imaged my old Memphis station, 94.1 The Buzz.
E on the Z. E! was and still is a television entertainment magazine. This was a novel idea, combine E! reports with Z100 programming. It made Z100 sound like it was completely in touch with its audience.
Note the pop-culture references here: Joey Buttafuoco getting out of jail; Whitewater; 900 numbers; and the top hit from Ace of Base.
AIRCHECK AVAILABLE IN TWO FORMATS:
Audio-Only and YouTube Video. Either will work in your operating system, however, YouTube videos do not play when the page is closed and our audio does.
This is what a top 40 radio station should sound like. I grew up listening to z100 during this format, it was very truly innovating and I know the critics werent fond of the format but it works, at least it did for me and my friends.
Besides the good music, the on air talent, the voiceover guy(RIP Keith),shows,and the sound effects made for a great format.
I know there are people out there who probably feel the same way that I do, but are sucked into todays crap on the radio and forgot how good it was.
I Can’t Believe That Elvis Duran Would Soon Become The Leader Of The Z Morning Zoo.
Can you possibly re-post the Z100 Alternative composite from 1993?