Radio Back Then This Week: Week Ending January 27
Audio Trip Back In Time To Hear KRBE, WAEB-FM, WARQ, and a Format Flip in The Bay Area
Digging through boxes of old old cassettes and CDs, I thought we take an audio trip of what radio sounded like during this week back then. Queued up below are audio airchecks from top 40 KRBE-FM/AM 104.1/1070 Houston back in its “Power 104” days from this week in 1987, top 40 WAEB-FM 104.1 “B104” Allentown from this week in 2008, WARQ 93.5 Columbia SC from its “Rock 93-5” days this week in 2005, and the format shuffle in the Bay Area from this week in 2011 that saw long-time classical outlet KDFC downgraded and moved off its longtime 102.1 facility.
Aircheck: KRBE-FM 104.1/KRBE 1070 Houston “Power 104” January 28 1987
This audio is from middays with DJ Chris Kelly on a Wednesday morning. This day was the one year anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger explosion, so the aircheck includes a moment of silent and a tribute song that was pretty forgettable. Also forgotten on classic hits stations today are songs from Mr Mister, Lone Justice, Stacey Q, A-ha, and Madonna. Most of them were follow up hits to more popular hits, though I always liked “Shelter” from Lone Justice.
Genesis/“Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”
Nancy Martinez/“For Tonight”
Mr. Mister/“Is It Love”
Lone Justice/“Shelter”
Stacey Q/“Shy Girl”
Dead Or Alive/“Brand New Lover”
Shirley Murdock/“As We Lay”
Moment of silence
Shannon Marcus/“Bid You Goodbye”
A-ha/“Cry Wolf”
Madonna/“Where’s The Party”
Billy Vera & The Beaters/“At This Moment”
Totally Useless Fun Fact: The AM had recently gone back to simulcasting the FM, so the DJs gave the legal ID that included the AM at :10-:05 before the hour when the “power play” music sweep kicked off since the AM was not in the imaging of the legal ID at the top of the hour. Before returning to simulcast the FM, KRBE was one of the original pioneers of the classic rock format, as “Classic Rock 1070.” Like other AMs that pioneered the format in the mid-80s, a new FM competitor quickly entered the picture that made being a classic rock music station on AM tough. In this case, the launch of KZFX 107.5 “Z107” in the market ended the run of classic rock on AM.
Aircheck: WAEB-FM 104.1 Allentown-Easton-Bethlehem PA “B104” January 22 2008
Next up is the evening shift on a Monday with DJ Jason Bowers on longtime CHR B104.
Santana (Featuring Chad Krueger)/“Into The Night”
Jordin Sparks/“Tattoo”
The Jonas Brothers/“When You Look Me In The Eyes”
Buckcherry/“Sorry”
Taylor Swift/“Teardrops On My Guitar”
Daniel Bedingfield/“Gotta Get Thru This”
Rihanna/“Don’t Stop The Music”
Timbaland (Feature OneRepublic)/“Apologize”
Colbie Caillat/“Bubbly”
Rihana (Featuring Ne-Yo)/“Hate That I Love You”
Gwen Stefani (Featuring Akon)/“The Sweet Escape”
Good Charlotte/“I Don’t Wanna Be In Love”
Maroon 5/“Wake Up Call”
Fergie/“Clumsy”
Nickelback/“Feelin’ Way Too Damn Good”
Fall Out Boy/“Thnks Fr Th Mmrs”
Alicia Keys/“No One”
Aircheck: WARQ 93.5 “Rock 93-5, Columbia’s Rock Station” January 27 2005
These days, WARQ is running a top 40 format, but it was an active/alternative rock hybrid back in 2005. This aircheck is from a Thursday evening shift with DJ Cataldo.
The Smashing Pumpkins/“Disarm”
System Of A Down/“Chop Suey!”
Shinedown/“Burning Bright”
Staind/“It’s Been Awhile”
Collective Soul/“Counting The Days”
Red Hot Chili Peppers/“Californication”
Sum 41/“Pieces”
Taproot/“Poet”
Alice In Chains/“Rooster”
Papa Roach/“Scars”
Aircheck: KDFC-FM 102.1 San Francisco classical to classic rock format change January 24 2011
In most large radio markets, there used to be a FM station running a commercial classical music format. As the format skews a fairly older audience not in high demand by most advertisers, long surviving classical outlets with familiar call letters have disappeared over the decades. Long gone are WNIB 97.1 Chicago (to become classic hits WDRV “97.1 the Drive” in 2001), KLEF 94.5 Houston (to oldies KLDE “Oldies 94.5” and today is modern rock KTBZ-FM “the Buzz”), WTMI 93.1 Miami (to dance WPYM “Party” in 2011 and now AC WFEZ “Easy 93.1”), and WFLN 95.7 Philadelphia (to modern AC WXXM first and then several other formats leading to today’s adult hits WBEN-FM) to name a few. The KLEF calls are now used in Anchorage, where classical KLEF 98.1 survives as the last commercial classical FM. (A few classical FMs still on the air today do have commerical licenses, but are operated as non-profits by local public radio organizations - WFMT 98.7 Chicago, WRR 101.1 Dallas).
Some long time commercial outlets have survived via either sales and/or intellectual property donated to a non-profit, often ending with the format moving to lesser facilities. Classical WQXR-FM 96.3 New York ended up under the on a lesser facility, 105.9, under New York Public Radio. Classical WCLV 95.5 Cleveland lost its big signal after a sale and ended up on a rimshot class A signal on 104.9 as part of a multi-signal format swap. Now part of local pubcaster Ideastream’s cluster, the WCLV calls moved back to a stronger facility, 90.3, in 2022. Classical KHFM 96.3 Albuquerque also ended up as a non-commercial outlet on the lesser 95.5 facility licensed to Santa Fe. Classical KING-FM 98.1 Seattle did keep its facilities as it was sold to a non-profit that runs it today.
This week in 2011 saw a similar scenario in the Bay Area. USC bought college outlet KUSF 90.3 from the University of San Francisco. As well, USC bought KNDL 89.9 (now KOSC) Angwin, which covers the Santa Rosa area north of San Francisco. USC also acquired the intellectual property of KDFC-FM from then-owner Entercom. On January 24 2011, the classical format ended on the big 102.1 signal and moved down to the much smaller non-commerical signals of KUSF and KNDL, and 102.1 became a simulcast of classic rock KUFX 98.5 “Classic Rock K-Fox” San Jose. The KDFC calls would migrate over to KUSF. KDFC would eventually end up being available again in the southern part of the market through the purchase of KCNL 104.9 Sunnyvale, now relay KXSC.
The aircheck is of the 102.1 facility from this day. It features the final minutes of the classical format with host Hoyt Smith and then the switch to simulcasting KUFX with DJ Tim Jeffreys and the KUFX staff.
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra/“Fanfare For The Common Man”
Format change
ELO/“Roll Over Beethoven”
Queen/“We Will Rock You”
Queen/“We Are The Champions”
Led Zeppelin/“Black Dog”
The Who/“Behind Blue Eyes”
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.