A Capitol 4th
4th of July in DC 1997-2000: WWZZ/WWVZ "Z104" and WINX
My parents moved from Texas to Washington DC in the mid-1990s. Given it is the nation’s capital and home to one of the biggest fireworks shows in the country each year — and televised nationally on PBS — I ended up visiting each 4th of July from 1997-2000. They lived in a high rise above the tree line…so we could see the fireworks from air conditioned comfort and have the concert on in the background via the telecast.
With the 4th of July this week, here are some airchecks from those trips. There are four airchecks — one from each year between 1997 and 2000 — of top 40 WWZZ 104.1/WWVZ 103.9 “Z104, Today’s Hit Music” and an aircheck from Z104’s 1998 format rival. If you are thinking that Z104 didn’t get a CHR rival until WJMO-FM 99.5 flipped to CHR WIHT “Hot 99.5” in 2001, well, that’s pretty understandable. Z104’s rival only lasted a half a year and had far worse signal coverage of the market. And it was on the AM dial…probably the last attempt at an AM station trying CHR in a large market in the US. If it still doesn’t ring a bell, the station in question was WINX 1600.
Z104’s debut in July 1996 gave DC back a mainstream top 40 for the first time in four years. DC lost top 40 WRQX 107.3 “Q107” to hot AC in 1990 and top 40 WAVA-FM 105.1 flipped to religious programming in 1992 after being sold to Salem.
Z104 was disadvantaged with its signal. With then-WGMS 103.5 licensed to Washington (now WTOP), the 104.1FM facility has been — and still is — site-restricted to the southeast of DC. The use of the Frederick MD market 103.9, which was, ironically, top 40 WZYQ 103.9 “Z104” on its own prior to being bought and paired with the 104.1 signal during 104.1’s previous classic hits WXTR-FM days, was designed to help offset lack of coverage on the northwest part of the market.
I always thought Z104 was a bit underrated as a pretty good CHR — fun, upbeat, good jocks, and great imaging and sound.
“Z104, Today’s Hit Music” Date: Friday, July 4, 1997 Format: Top 40 DJ: Jojo Morales
I always liked the imaging on Z104…this audio has some good lines: “I guess you can call it hands free radio…no button pushing necessary” and, for a market with a lot of politicians, “Washington’s movers and shakers are movin’ and shakin’ to the new Z104.” The don’t drink and drive PSA was also well done.
3rd Party/”Can U Feel It”
Sheryl Crow/”Can’t Cry Anymore”
Robyn/”Do You Know (What It Takes)”
Gina/”Just A Little Bit”
Legal ID: WWVZ 103.9 Braddock Heights MD-Frederick MD/WWZZ 104.1 Waldorf MD-Washington DC
Le Click/”Call Me”
TLC/”Creep”
DJ Company/”Rhythm Of Love”
C+C Music Factory/”Here We Go”
Jewel/”You Were Meant For Me”
Backstreet Boys/”Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)”
Soho/”Hippychick”
Puff Daddy/”I’ll Be Missing You”
Fun Factory/”Close To You”
Paula Cole/”Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”
En Vogue/”Don’t Let Go (Love)”
Culture Beat/”Take Me Away”
Inner Circle/”Sweat (A La La La La Long)”
Legal ID: WWVZ 103.9 Braddock Heights MD-Frederick MD/WWZZ 104.1 Waldorf MD-Washington DC
Az Yet/”Hard To Say I’m Sorry”
Savage Garden/”I Want You”
Natural Selection/”Do Anything”
The Wallflowers/”One Headlight”
Gina G./”Gimme Some Love”
“Z104, Today’s Hit Music” Date: Wednesday, July 1, 1998 2:10PM Format: Top 40 DJs: Linda Energy, Shawn Sellers
From 1997 to 1998…bonus points on this one for the use of “Washington’s monument to new music, Z104.”
Backstreet Boys/”Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”
Paula Cole/”Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”
Will Smith/”Just The Two Of Us”
Matchbox Twenty/”3AM”
Shania Twain/”You’re Still The One”
Le Click/”Don’t Go”
Vonda Shepard/”Searchin’ My Soul”
Savage Garden/”To The Moon & Back”
TLC/”Creep”
Legal ID: WWVZ 103.9 Braddock Heights-Frederick/WWZZ 104.1 Waldorf-Washington
Natalie Imbruglia/”Torn”
Babyface (Featuring Mariah Carey)/”Every Time I Close My Eyes”
Janet Jackson/”I Get Lonely”
Fastball/”The Way”
DJ Company/”Forever Young”
Nu Flavor/”Heaven”
K-Ci & JoJo/”All My Life”
3rd Party/”Can U Feel It”
Ace Of Base/”Cruel Summer”
Will Smith/”Getting’ Jiggy Wit It”
Jennifer Paige/”Crush”
“Z104, Today’s Hit Music” Date: Thurday, July 1, 1999 (afternoon) Format: Top 40 DJ: Lisa Berigan
Fast forward exactly one year…
Semisonic/”Closing Time”
TLC/”No Scrubs”
Ricky Martin/”Livin’ La Vida Loca”
Blessid Union Of Souls/”Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me For Me)”
Lauryn Hill/”Everything Is Everything”
Enrique Iglesias/”Bailamos”
Legal ID: WWVZ 103.9 Braddock Heights-Frederick/WWZZ 104.1 Waldorf-Washington
Brandy/”Almost Doesn’t Count”
Billie Ray Martin/”Your Loving Arms”
702/”Where My Girls At?”
Backstreet Boys/”I Want It That Way”
TLC/”Unpretty”
Third Eye Blind/”How’s It Going To Be”
LFO/”Summer Girls”
Madonna/”Beautiful Stranger”
Coolio/”1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New)”
Christina Aguilera/”Genie In A Bottle”
Carlos Santana & Rob Thomas/”Smooth”
K-Ci & JoJo/”Tell Me It’s Real”
Blackstreet/”Take Me There”
“Z104, Today’s Hit Music” Date: Monday, July 3, 2000 (PM drive) Format: Top 40 DJ: Gary Star
One more year ahead…to 2000.
Matchbox Twenty/”Bent”
Destiny’s Child/”Bug A Boo”
Legal ID: WWVZ 103.9 Braddock Heights-Frederick/WWZZ 104.1 Waldorf-Washington
Creed/”Higher”
Toni Braxton/”He Wasn’t Man Enough”
Mary Mary/”Shackles (Praise You)”
Backstreet Boys/”The One”
Crystal Waters/”Say…If You Feel Alright”
Vertical Horizon/”Everything You Want”
Whitney Houston/”It’s Not Right But It’s OK”
Savage Garden/”Crash And Burn”
Brian McKnight/”6, 8, 12”
Enrique Iglesias/”Be With You”
Legal ID: WWVZ 103.9 Braddock Heights-Frederick/WWZZ 104.1 Waldorf-Washington
Joe/”I Wanna Know”
Third Eye Blind/”Never Let You Go”
Alice Deejay/”Better Off Alone”
*NSYNC/”It’s Gonna Be Me”
Deee-Lite/“Groove Is In The Heart”
Anastacia/”I’m Outta Love”
Blink 182/”What’s My Age Again?”
TLC/”Baby Baby Baby”
It did not last long, but suburban WINX 1600 Rockville launched a top 40 format in May 1998. It ran top 40 in the 1960s through the 1980s, though it was often well behind the market’s bigger and better known AM top 40 outlets. The station was sold and, by the end of 1998, it flipped to Spanish romantica. Given the novelty of it, I recorded it on my 1998 trip to DC.
Date: Wednesday, July 1, 1998 5:49PM Format: Top 40 DJ: Mike Parris
The audio is less than great. See the graphic below to see the coverage of 1600 (now ethnic WLXE). My parents lived in a high rise in northwest DC, so the combination of low power on a frequency at the high end of the AM dial, the DC’s market being located in a area of poor ground connectivity, recording well outside the 2 mVm contour, high rise construction (concrete walls), AM fidelity, and the recording being a 30 year old cassette tape…well, the audio is less crisp than the Z104 ones. There was a lot of AM band hiss/noise, popping, fading; I was able to fix some of that, but I am not an Audacity genius, so it is still pretty poor. I normally wouldn’t even post it, but I have never come across any other aircheck of WINX from this brief 1998 top 40 run. So, for the sake of preserving radio history, here it is. (If you are a magician with fixing crummy AM broadcast audio and would like to volunteer to make it listenable, I have two airchecks of WINX from this week back then…).
Matchbox Twenty/”Real World”
The Wallflowers/”Heroes”
Shania Twain/”You’re Still The One”
Legal ID: WINX 1600 Rockville MD-Washington DC
Brian McKnight/”Anytime”
Backstreet Boys/”Everybody (Backstreat’s Back)”
Primitive Radio Gods/”Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand”
UB40/”Red Red Wine”
Fastball/”The Way”
Mariah Carey/”My All”
Natalie Merchant/“Carnival”
Natalie Imbruglia/”Torn”
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.
WINX did this as a semi-stunt to attract a buyer. It worked, as the station ended up in the hands of a Hispanic radio operator. Then, there's the Dan Vallie-consulted Z104. Who knew it was the first LGBTQ+-driven Top 40 station, as Bonneville (and the LDS Church) highly influenced the programming and that meant no rap and more dance product based on Dupont Circle sales trends.