Radio This Week Back Then: Week Ending March 9
It's A Gulf Coast Trip: WEZB New Orleans, KNRJ vs KRBE Houston, KRGY vs KBFM Brownsville/McAllen, WQID vs WZKX Biloxi/Gulfport, and WPFM Panama City
What was on the radio this week…back then. If you enjoy these weekly audio rewinds, please do me a favor, subscribe, and share and pass it on. Thank you!
Three “Power”’s, two “Energy”’s, 2 “B”’s, a “Q,” and a partridge in a pear tree. This week is a Gulf Coast weekend as we cover airchecks along the Gulf Coast from the Rio Grande Valley to Panama City. Thanks again to Chris Huff for fleshing out some of the backstories of the stations.
This week:
Face-Off: KNRJ 96.5 “Energy 96.5” Vs KRBE 104.1 “Power 104” Houston, March 3 1990
Face-Off: KRGY 99.5 “Energy 99.5” Vs KBFM 104.1 “B104” Brownsville/McAllen, March 6 1991
Includes bonus audio of KRIX “99X”
Face-Off: WQID 93.7 “94QID” Vs WZKX 107.9 “Power 108” Biloxi/Gulfport, March 4 1992
Aircheck: WEZB 97.1 “B97” New Orleans, March 4 1992
History
WEZB signed on in 1945 as WRCM, the first FM in New Orleans. More typical of the time would be for a new FM to be the offshoot of an existing AM station, but WRCM launched without an AM sister. However, WRCM’s owners would acquire WJMR 990 to make it an AM/FM combo. The radio combo would sign on WJMR-TV channel 61 (CBS/ABC) on November 1 1953. WJMR-TV moved to channel 20 in 1955, then to channel 13 as WVUE, then to channel 12, and then to channel 8 in a swap of dial positions with PBS WYES. WRCM would pick up the WJMR-FM call letters in the 1960s. The AM/FM pair carried block programming including early rock played by DJ Poppa Stoppa (or one of the white DJs that played the part of being that DJ since WJMR did not allow black hosts to be on the air at the time). The pair would become WNNR-AM/FM “Winner” before returning to the WJMR-AM/FM calls.
The pair were sold apart and WJMR-FM became easy listening/beautiful music WEZB in 1972.
WEZB flipped from easy listening to disco “Disco 97” at 6PM on February 8 1979, but it did not make it to see its first year anniversary, having evolved to dance top 40 “FM97, the Rhythm Of The City” and then to top 40 as “B97.”
WEZB’s top 40 format evolved to talk in the mid-1990s (talk weekdays including Howard Stern mornings and top 40-rock weekends). WEZB flipped to hot AC "B97" June 1996 and evolved back to top 40 "B97" in 1998, which it remains today.
About This Aircheck
Allen Beebe and Bubba Carson are the DJs this afternoon after Mardi Gras.
Gloria Estafan/“Live For Loving You”
Eddie Money/“I’ll Get By”
Legal ID: WEZB 97.1 New Orleans
Karyn White/“The Way I Feel About You”
Starship/“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”
Kathy Troccoli/“Everything Changes”
Chris Cuevas/“You Are The One”
Natural Selection/“Do Anything”
Vanessa Williams/“Save The Best For Last”
Corina/“Temptation”
Paul Young/“What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted”
Mariah Carey/“Emotions”
Mr. Big/“To Be With You”
Face-Off: KNRJ 96.5 “Energy 96.5” Vs KRBE 104.1 “Power 104” Houston, March 3 1990
Same date: Saturday, March 3 1990. Same format: CHR. Same market: Houston. Two stations: KNRJ vs KRBE.
Houston trivia: As it is mentioned in the audio on both stations below — it’s part of KRBE’s legal ID even — the 64 story Transco Tower, now known as the Williams Tower, is the tallest skyscrapper in the US outside a metro downtown/CBD area.
KNRJ 96.5 Houston “Energy 96.5”
History
96.5 signed on the air originally in 1948 as the KXYZ-FM, the FM counterpart to KXYZ 1320. KXYZ-FM would go silent for several years, re-signing back on in 1961. The pair were bought by ABC in the late 1960s and KXYZ-FM would split from simulcasting easy listening KXYZ. Like the other ABC O&O FMs across the country at that time, it began running ABC’s initially automated progressive rock “Love” format as “Love 96 1/2.” The call letters changed to KAUM in early 1971. After the Love format was discontinued, KAUM ran its own progressive format. It went through a number of formats in the 1970s — progressive, disco, and then top 40. KAUM became rocker KSRR in July 1980. When ABC merged with Capital Cities in 1985, KSRR was spun off due to ABC becoming the new owner of KTRK-TV channel 13 and TV/radio cross-ownership was no longer allowed under the FCC rules at the time. Shortly before it ended its run, “97 Rock” evolved to a rock/CHR hybrid.
In October 1986, KSRR became “Hit 96.5” KKHT-FM. KKHT-FM was fairly short-lived, as it would move to AC the following year. KKHT-FM’s AC format was skewed towards a younger audience trying to fill a gap between the CHRs (KKBQ 92.9 “93Q” and KRBE 104.1 “Power 104”) and the more older-skewing ACs (KLTR 93.7 “K-Lite” and gold-based AC KFMK 97.9). “Energy 96.5” debuted in February 1989 when KKHT-FM dropped its AC format for dance-driven CHR. The call letter change to KNRJ did not occur until August 4 1989. In 1990, KNRJ started adding some modern rock tracks into the mix, and it basically became a dance-modern rock hybrid by June 1990, when the station was sold. On June 25 1990, KNRJ dropped the “Energy” name and dance tracks and flipped to modern rock “96.5.” As the new owners had already requested the new call letters KHMX at the FCC, it was simply a temporary filler. The following month, KNRJ became hot AC KHMX “Mix 96.5,” which it remains today.
Fun fact: The KKHT-FM calls exist again today in Houston on rimshot religious outlet KKHT-FM 100.7 “100.7 the Word,” as part of Salem’s small Houston holdings of KKHT-FM and KNTH 1070 (the one time sister to KRBE).
About This Aircheck
“The Queen of the Energy Scene,” Alicia K, and Famous Amos are the DJs on this aircheck that sees KNRJ phasing in some modern rock into “Houston’s Fresh New Music Mix.” They really worked with the “Energy” theme…activities to get you “energized,” requests via the “energy circuits,” etc.
Janet Jackson/“Escapade”
Leila K/“Got To Get”
Ministry/“Every Day Is Halloween”
Sweet Sensation/“Love Child”
Erasure/“Blue Savannah”
A’Me Lorain/“Whole Wide World” (Remix)
Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock/“It Takes Two”
Jane Child/“Don’t Wanna Fall In Love”
Legal ID: KNRJ 96.5 Houston
Jimmy Somerville/“You Make Me Feel” (Remix)
The Cure/“Let’s Go To Bed”
KRBE 104.1 Houston “Power 104, the Power Station”
KRBE signed on the air in 1958 with a classical format. The call letters refer to original owners Roland Baker and wife Edith, not after Kirby Drive or the Kirby building it was originally located in. It was sold in 1970 and again in 1975, where it became paired up with KENR 1070 Houston. Early formats for KRBE included progressive and top 40. KRBE dropped top 40 in 1982 to become and AC and it returned to top 40 on August 21 1984. It re-imaged as “Power 104” in December 1985. See RTWBT #5 from two weeks ago for how KRBE’s top 40 format evolved from this point to the present.
About This Aircheck
Scott Sparks is the DJ on this aircheck.
New Order/“Round And Round”
The B52s/“Roam”
Starpoint/“Object Of My Desire”
Adam Ant/“Room At The Top”
Depeche Mode/“Enjoy The Silence”
The Big Supreme/“Don’t Walk”
The Mighty Lemmon Drops/“Where Do We Go From Heaven”
Paula Abdul/“Opposites Attract”
Legal ID: KRBE 104.1 Houston
Belinda Carlisle/“Summer Rain”
Milli Vanilli/“Money”
Gloria Estefan/“1-2-3”
Peter Murphy/“Cuts You Up”
Related
Same Time, Different Year: KRBE
Living in Texas and KRBE’s longevity mean I have three dozen KRBE airchecks spanning the decades. As luck would have it, for the week running March 3-9, I have the KRBE aircheck above from 1990 and I have one from 2006. So, here’s how KRBE sounded 16 years later for the evening shift with Carson and Lauren on Monday, March 6 2006.
Legal ID: KRBE 104.1 Houston
Nelly, Paul Wall & Ali & Gipp/“Grillz”
Ashlee Simpson/“L.O.V.E.”
Ne-Yo/“So Sick”
Staind/“Right Here”
Cascada/“Everytime We Touch”
Chris Brown/“Yo (Excuse Me Miss)”
The All-American Rejects/“Dirty Little Secrets”
Black Eyed Peas/“Pump It”
Natasha Bedingfield/“Unwritten”
Green Day/“Boulevard Of Broken Dreams”
Pink/“Stupid Girl”
Ray J/“One Wish”
Linkin Park/“Numb”
Gwen Stefani/“Crash”
Legal ID: KRBE 104.1 Houston
Top 5 @ 8
5) Baby Bash (Featuring Marcos Hernandez)/“Mamacita”
4) T-Pain/“I’m N Luv (Wit A Stripper)”
3) The Pussycat Dolls (Featuring Will.I.Am)/“Beep”
Face-Off: KRGY 99.5 “Energy 99.5” Vs KBFM 104.1 “B104” Brownsville/McAllen, March 6 1991
Same date: Wednesday, March 6 1991. Same format: CHR. Same market: Brownsville/McAllen/Rio Grande Valley TX. Two stations: KRGY and KBFM.
I actually recorded both of these a couple of hundred miles away (KBFM and then flipped the tape and got KRGY). One advantage of living at the time near the Texas Gulf coast with a fairly empty FM dial was a little nighttime heat inversion would sometimes propel the big signaled South Texas FMs to roll in for a brief visit.
KRGY 99.5 Brownsville “Energy 99.5”
First up is “Your unofficial South Padre spring break station,” KRGY.
History
The 99.5 facility signed on January 1978 as KRIX, with an adult top 40 format as “X99.” KRIX was the FM sister to KRIO 910 McAllen, the one-time big top 40 outlet in the Valley. KRIX flipped to rock as “99X” in 1982.
Unfortunately, I do not have any full airchecks of KRIX. I only have clips of them when I could sporadically receive them. This is a brief composite of 99X from the spring of 1988, November 1988, and June 1989.
KRIX flipped to top 40 “Energy 99.5” on January 1 1991, with the KRGY calls coming the following month. KRGY was fairly short-lived as it would flip to AC July 30 1992, taking the KVSE calls on September 1. The adult contemporary format only made it about 5 months as it became Tejano KKPS “Que Pasa 99.5” at the end of December. Tejano music peaked in the 1990s with less new product becoming available once the 2000s came. As such, the Tejano format on KKPS had a long run, but the Tejano music phased out and it transitioned to regional Mexican. On March 30 2020, KKPS flipped from regional Mexican ”La Tricolor 99.5” to bilingual rhythmic hits “Fuego 99.5.” That flip was part of a realignment of most of the cluster as co-owned top 40 KVLY 107.9 “107.9 Mix-FM” moved to AC “107.9 RGV-FM” and rocker KFRQ 94.5 “Q94.5” shifted to classic rock around the same time. KKPS remains bilingual rhythmic hits “Fuego” today.
About This Aircheck
I am pretty good with recognizing most 1980s and 1990s hits just from a few intro beats, but there is a lot of pretty obscure hits in here. For example, Erasure’s “Drama!” starting off the aircheck was a hit in the UK and Europe when it was released in 1989, but it never cracked the Billboard Hot 100 in the US…so kind of unexpected to find it getting airplay on a South Texas top 40 in 1991. Also not lighting up the charts in this aircheck: former The Bangles lead Susanna Hoffs only made it to 30 on the Billboard Hot 100, Jasmine Guy at number 66, and Chicago’s “Chasin’ The Wind” sputtered out at number 39.
Erasure/“Drama!”
Susanna Hoffs/“My Side Of The Bed”
Divinyls/“I Touch Myself”
Wang Chung/“To Live And Die In L.A.”
Iggy Pop/“Livin’ On The Edge Of The Night”
Book Of Love/“Alice Everyday”
The Soup Dragons/“I’m Free”
Riff/“My Heart Is Failing Me”
Mariah Carey/“Someday”
Jasmine Guy/“Another Like My Lover”
The Darling Buds/“Crystal Clear”
Legal ID: KRGY 99.5 Brownsville-Harlingen-McAllen
Chicago/“Chasin’ The Wind”
KBFM 104.1 Edinburg “B104”
History
KBFM signed on the air February 1 1972 with an easy listening format.
KBFM flipped to progressive rock in 1974 and then to a rock-based top 40 a couple of years later. Unlike KRGY’s life span, KBFM has been some form of top 40 now for decades.
Presently, KBFM is also bilingual rhythmic CHR as “Wild 104.”
About This Aircheck
It was mainstream top 40 back then on this audio. Billy Santiago is the DJ. Obscure radio nerd fun fact: KBFM used to alternate its 3rd city in its legal ID hourly between Brownsville and Harlingen. This aircheck captures the Brownsville variant.
Mariah Carey/“Someday”
Jon Bon Jovi/“Miracle”
Voices That Care/“Voices That Care”
Londonbeat/“I’ve Been Thinking About You”
Madonna/“Cherish”
Divinyls/“I Touch Myself”
Timmy T/“One More Try”
Tevin Campbell/“Round And Round”
Legal ID: KBFM 104.1 Edinburg-McAllen-Brownsville
INXS/“Disappear”
Roxette/“Joyride”
Face-Off: WQID 93.7 “94QID” Vs WZKX 107.9 “Power 108” Biloxi/Gulfport, March 4 1992
Same date: Wednesday, March 4 1992. Same format: CHR. Same market: Biloxi/Gulfport MS. Two stations: WQID and WZKX.
WQID 93.7 Biloxi “94QID”
Modern Mitch is the DJ for this early evening shift. WQID flipped to AC WMJY “Magic 93.7” in 1994, which it remains today.
Roxette/“Church Of Your Heart”
Eddie Money/“I’ll Get By”
Voice Of The Beehive/“Perfect Place”
The Cars/“Magic”
One 2 One/“Peace Of Mind (Love Goes On)”
Marc Cohn/“Walking in Memphis”
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark/“Sailing On The Seven Seas”
Van Halen/“Panama”
Rod Stewart/“You Are Everything”
Kansas/“Carry On Wayward Son”
Extreme/“More Than Words”
WZKX 107.9 Poplarville MS “Power 108”
History
The FM offshoot of WRPM 1530 Poplarville MS, 107.9 signed on as WRPM-FM in February 1966. It would split from simulcasting the AM for rock in the 1970s. WRPM-FM became soft AC WQLC in 1985.
In March 1987, WQLC changed calls to WZKX and went dark. WZKX returned shortly later as top 40 "Power 108." WZKX changed formats to country “Kicker 108” in 1994, which it remains today. It has since been re-licensed from Poplarville to Bay St Louis.
Note: Unfortunately, the audio is not great on this one…the cassette is pretty old and mono…
Mr. Big/“To Be With You”
Gloria Estafan/“Live For Loving You” (Remix)
Eddie Money/“I’ll Get By”
Lisa Stansfield/“All Around The World”
Prince & The New Power Generation/“Diamonds And Pearls”
Keith Sweat/“Keep It Comin’”
Roxette/“Church Of Your Heart”
Nia Peeples/“Street Of Dreams”
Legal ID: WZKX 107.9 Poplarville-Gulfport-Biloxi
The Shamen/“Move Any Mountain” (Remix)
Richard Marx/“Hazard”
Amy Grant/“Good For Me”
Aircheck: WPFM 107.9 “Power 108” Panama City, March 4 1992
History
WPFM signed on the air as easy listening WMAI-FM in September 1963. The call letters changed to WPFM in 1973. In 1978, it changed from rock to top 40. It was the “Great 108” for much of the 1980s.
It briefly branded as “Power 108” from 1992 to 1993, when it became “Kiss 108” for a few weeks. On December 1 1993, it flipped to modern rock “107.9 the Zone” and then returned to top 40 in 1995 as “Mix 108.” In 1997, the calls and intellectual property of co-owned rock WDRK 103.5 “Rock 103” moved to 107.9, where it became “Rock 108.” That was short-lived as WDRK changed to top 40 WLHR “Hot 107.9” the following year. The WPFM calls returned to 107.9 in March 2004 and it rebranded the top 40 format as “107-9PFM” on March 16 2011.
WPFM was sold off to Educational Media Foundation in September 2018. Before the sale concluded, the facilities of WPFM and its soon-to-be-former sister stations in the market were destroyed in October by category 4 Hurricane Michael. WPFM went silent, but EMF was quickly able to return it to the air as its new K-Love affiliate for the market in December. WPFM is still a K-Love O&O today.
About This Aircheck
Apparently, this week, we could also have a face-off of Gulf Coast radio stations at 107.9FM formatted as CHR outlets using the handle “Power 108” on the same day.
This Power 108, WPFM, had recently come back on the air after being silent for a few months under the new handle, so there are calls from several listener talking about the station being back on the air.
Snap!/“The Power”
The KLF With Tammy Wynette/“Justified & Ancient”
Amy Grant/“Baby Baby”
Paula Abdul/“Vibeology”
Legal ID: WPFM 107.9 Panama City
Color Me Badd/“I Wanna Sex You Up” (Remix)
Kyper/“Tic Tac Toe”
Genesis/“I Can’t Dance”
Keith Sweat/“Keep It Comin’”
Stacy Earl/“Romeo & Juliet”
C+C Music Factory/“Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”
Mr. Big/“To Be With You”
Prince & The New Power Generation/“Cream”
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.