Flirtin' With Disaster? When KZPS Went Southern Fried And Salty...
The April 23 2007 debut of KZPS 92.5 Dallas-Fort Worth's new "Roots, Rock, Americana, Outlaw Country" format
I had planned to put this in this week’s “Radio This Week Back Then” episode coming out later this week, but I love a radio station that tries something different or unique. It’s worth singling out some of those attempts at trying to bring something different and creative to the dial even if it wasn’t rewarded with success.
On this day back in 2007, KZPS 92.5 Dallas-Fort Worth tried something different by relaunching its traditional classic rock format with a playlist not unlike any other large market classic rock station into something that was not like any other large market classic rock station.
KZPS History
In February 1986, the KZPS calls made their Dallas/Fort Worth radio debut on the former KAFM, derived from the “Z92.5, Your Power Station” branding of the top 40 format it was airing. That was after a brief stint under the KZPW calls that had just a slight resemblance to another station in town that had call letters KZEW… Z92.5’s history is pretty brief with the top 40 format shifting to AC and adding contemporary jazz (“enerjazz” as it was branded after the “Feel The Energy” tag line the station launched with) in the music mix and in a nightly block along the way. In the fall, it finally flipped to a classic hits format (still with jazz at nights initially) that fit between oldies KLUV 98.7, classic rock KRQX 570, and rockers KZEW 97.9 “the Zoo” and KTXQ 102.1 “Q102” as “Classic Hits 92.5 KZPS.” Click for audio from the classic hits days that was included in a previous Substack a couple of weeks ago. That led it to fully evolving to classic rock “Classic Rock 92.5 KZPS” in 1990.
Lone Star 92-5
That all changed on April 23 2007 at the stroke of Midnight when KZPS moved to a “roots, rock, Americana, Outlaw Country” format branded as “Lone Star 92-5.” A jockless form of the format and brand had been running on its 92.5HD2 subchannel prior to the main channel flip; the classic rock format went the other way and lived on via 92.5HD2 until its return to the main channel the following year.
The new format had a number of unique attributes:
Crosstown country rival KPLX 99.5 “99-5 the Wolf” was friendly to Texas Country artists in its playlist and had starting tossing in an occasional Eagles, ZZ Top, or some other “wide open country”-friendly rock act. This was significantly more.
Traditional commercials were replaced by sponsorships where advertisers would sponsor an hour and get 1-2 minutes of reference (or “integration” as it was described in newspaper and trade journal articles at the time) by the DJs in a live conversational format. It was something more common on a classical or non-commercial outlet than on something like a salty, southern fried classic rocker/Red Dirt hybrid. You did have to feel for the DJs; it’s not easy to spend 60 seconds on the awesomeness of a cell phone plan in a conversational tone that sounds natural and doesn’t sound like reading ad copy.
The first week was sans DJs, but the initial line up included a good dose of Dallas/Fort Worth rock radio cred: Bo & Jim in mornings, Jon Dillon middays, and Redbeard in PM drive. This would be the first time Bo & Jim and Redbeard were back on the same station since Q102’s demise.
The legendary Willie Nelson was the imaging voice for the station.
Despite all that, the new format was not well-received by the masses and KZPS reverted back to classic rock a year later, retaining the “Lone Star 92-5” handle, which it maintains today.
Call me weird, but I was perfectly OK with Pat Green, Old 97s, ZZ Top, Eagles, and Tom Petty all co-existing together on the same station with a great line up of talent. At the time, down I35 in Austin, AAA KGSR 93.3 was mixing many of those artists minus the southern rock component and having a pretty successful run at the time. I wonder if a similar approach might have seen a better run for Lone Star 92-5…
Here is the audio from the launch at midnight. The new format simply began at the end of the “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” syndicated show that was running Sunday late nights at that time on KZPS. Yes, I took the title of this post from the music log below…
Legal ID: KZPS 92.5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Jason Boland/”Somewhere In The Middle”
ZZ Top/”Party On The Patio”
Lynyrd Skynyrd/”On The Hunt”
Pat Green/”Three Days”
Junior Brown/”Highway Patrol”
The Black Crowes/”Jealous Again”
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band/”Betty Lou’s Gettin’ Out Tonight”
Drive-By Truckers/”Where The Devil Don’t Stay”
The Marshall Tucker Band/”Fire On The Mountain”
John Mellencamp/”Pink Houses”
Stoney LaRue/”Oklahoma Breakdown”
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble/”Tightrope”
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers/”Jammin’ Me”
Johnny Cash/”I Walk The Line”
The Rolling Stones/”Honky Tonk Women”
Legal ID: KZPS 92.5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Old 97’s/”Barrier Reef”
Eagles/”Life In The Fast Line” (Live)
Bad Company/”Good Lovin’ Gone Bad”
Whiskeytown/”Crazy About You”
Willie Nelson/”Ten With A Two”
Molly Hatchet/”Flirtin’ With Disaster”
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.