Radio This Week Back Then: Week Ending February 17
What was on the radio this week…back then: KIOC Beaumont, WSTR, WBTS, and WWWQ Atlanta, WYAV Myrtle Beach, WJMX-FM Florence SC
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!
It is the end of another week and time for another edition of what radio sounded like this week…back then.
Aircheck: KIOC 106.1 Beaumont/Port Arthur/Orange “Power Hits K106” February 17 1995
I have quite a few airchecks of KIOC from this time as I was a fan. When my parents lived in Houston in the early to mid-1990s, I would tape them and Houston’s KRBE 104.1 in their top 40-modern rock hybid days when I would visit. KIOC was a great small market CHR that in the late 1980s and early 1990s that wasn’t afraid to play some hip or quirky singles others didn’t. See Prince’s “D.M.S.R” in the music log of the aircheck below. They evolved to a rock-leaning top 40 in the early and mid-1990s before converting briefly to modern rock “New Rock 106-1, K106” in 1996 before flipping back to top 40 on the rhythmic side as “Hot 106” soon after that. Hot was also short lived as KIOC flipped to rock “Big Dog 106” in 1997, which it remains today.
This aircheck is from a Friday afternoon in mid-February 1995 with Chris Chambers. The first couple of songs come from their “Flashback Friday” segment. Filing under how things have changed from three decades ago in this aircheck:
Live and local airshifts with lots of caller interactions and local contesting.
Lots of live appearance promotion.
Your organization could play charity basketball against the K106 DJs and employees. A lot of radio stations today do not have local DJs or much of a staff to field a team today.
The ad for the 11th Annual Soap Opera Awards on NBC / KJAC 4 Port Arthur.
ABC is down to just “General Hopsital” and CBS is down to “The Young & The Restless” and “The Bold & The Beautiful” as the only surviving soap operas today on network TV.
KJAC changed calls to KBTV in 1999 and relocated studios to Beaumont from its city of license, Port Arthur. It switched to Fox “Fox 4” in 2009, and the Fox affiliation and “Fox 4” branding is now a subchannel on CBS KFDM 6 Beaumont. KBTV now just clears the Dabl diginet. The Fox affiliation at the time belonged to KVHP 29 “Fox 29” Lake Charles LA, which is separately referenced in another ad in the audio. The NBC affiliation is now on a subchannel of ABC KBMT 12, branded as “K-JAC NBC” in homage to the KJAC calls and long-time association with NBC in the market.
Cyndi Lauper/“She Bop”
Prince/“D.M.S.R.”
Legal ID: KIOC 106.1 Orange TX-Beaumont-Port Arthur-Lake Charles LA
REM/“Bang And Blame”
Stone Temple Pilots/“Plush”
The Cranberries/“Ode To My Family”
The Smithereens/“Too Much Passion”
Hootie & The Blowfish/“Hold My Hand”
Dionne Farris/“I Know”
Little River Band/“Happy Anniversary”
Jesus Jones/“Right Here Right Now”
Melissa Etheridge/“If I Wanted To”
Bon Jovi/“Never Say Goodbye”
Bruce Springsteen/“Murder Incorporated”
Toad The Wet Sprocket/“Something’s Always Wrong”
Legal ID: KIOC 106.1 Orange TX-Beaumont-Port Arthur-Lake Charles LA
Madonna/“Take A Bow”
Tears For Fears/“Everybody Wants To Rule The World”
Sarah McLachlan/“Hold On”
Duran Duran/“A View To A Kill”
Collective Soul/“Shine”
Current format: rock “Big Dog 106”
Aircheck: WSTR 94.1 Atlanta “Star 94” February 14 2004
To Atlanta now to visit the 3 competing CHRs during the Valentine’s Day and Presidents Day holiday weekend of 2004. Up first is WSTR, which leaned more adult top 40. WSTR would shift to hot AC at the end of the decade and then to rhythmic hot AC in 2020.
Kristin Gates is the DJ on this Valentine’s Day afternoon.
Madonna/“Music”
3 Doors Down/“Away From The Sun”
Maroon 5/“Harder To Breathe”
Kelly Clarkson/“Miss Independent”
Nickelback/“Someday”
No Doubt/“Underneath It All”
Fuel/“Falls On Me”
Dido/“White Flag”
Jet/“Are You Gonna Be My Girl”
Legal ID: WSTR 94.1 Smyrna-Atlanta
Evanescence/“Bring Me To Life”
Current format: rhythmic AC “Star 94”
Aircheck: WBTS 95.5 Atlanta “95-5 The Beat, Atlanta’s New #1 Hit Music Station” February 15 2004
Up next is WBTS, which skewed rhythmic and dance as “95-5 The Beat” (or “The Be-Aught”). Before becoming WBTS and targeting Atlanta in 1999, the station was long-time country outlet WNGC Athens. WBTS relicensed from Athens to Atlanta suburb Doraville in 2005. WBTS would fully evolve to R&B before flipping to a simulcast of news/talk sister WSB 750 in 2010. The WNGC calls and country format remained in Northeast Georgia by moving to then-WSTE 106.1 Toccoa GA.
Note: Part of the reason for doing this is to digitize the cassettes in my audio vault before they degrade more. This one is pretty much gone as the tape is damaged and the audio warped, but I salvaged what I could.
YoungBloodZ/“Damn!”
Sean Paul/“Get Busy”
Twista, Kanye West & Jamie Foxx/“Slow Jamz”
Outkast/“B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)”
Alicia Keys/“Fallin’”
Legal ID: WBTS 95.5 Athens GA-Atlanta
Usher (Featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris)/“Yeah!”
Britney Spears/“Toxic”
Dr. Dre (Featuring Eminem)/“Forgot About Dre”
Nelly (Featuring Justin Timberlake)/“Work It”
Current format: news/talk WSBB-FM “95.5 WSB,” simulcast with sister WSB
Aircheck: WWWQ 100.5 Atlanta “All The Hits Q100” February 14 2004
The third of the Atlanta CHRs from back then was WWWQ, playing “all the hits” — musically between the more adult-leaning WSTR and the rhythmic sounding WBTS. The facility is another out-of-market move-in to the Atlanta market. It was originally country WHMA-FM 100.5 Anniston AL, a big class C whose signal spanned from the west Georgia to the outskirts of Birmingham. The 100.5 facility was downgraded to a class C3 and relicensed to College Park GA in the middle of the Atlanta metro as WWWQ in 2001. It had a directional antenna to protect from interfering with co-channel WSSL-FM 100.5 “Whistle 100” in upstate South Carolina.
As a class C3, eventually upgrading to a class C2, it lacked the coverage of the full 100 kw signals like WSTR and co-owned WNNX 99.7. In 2008, the top 40 format and WWWQ calls moved to the better 99.7 facility, ending the trendsetting modern rock “99X” format and brand. The WNNX calls moved to 100.5, but as rock “Rock 100.5.” The “99X” brand was brought back — on 100.5 — in 2022.
Caroline is the DJ on this Valentine’s Day afternoon audio.
Nickelback/“Someday”
Jennifer Lopez/“Love Doesn’t Cost A Thing”
Sarah McLachlan/“Fallen”
Nelly (Featuring Justin Timberlake)/“Work It (Back In Black Remix)”
Incubus/“Drive”
Legal ID: WWWQ 100.5 College Park-Atlanta
Jessica Simpson/“With You”
Fefe Dobson/“Take Me Away”
Beyonce (Featuring Sean Paul)/“Baby Boy”
Madonna/“Music”
Evanescence/“My Immortal”
Outkast/“Hey Ya!”
Maroon 5/“This Love”
Current format: classic alternative WNNX “99X”
Aircheck: WYAV 104.1 Myrtle Beach “Wave 104” February 16 1992
Onward to The Grand Strand and top 40 WYAV on a late Sunday afternoon for this audio with DJ Real Charlie Steele.
WYAV would changed to classic rock in 1993, which it still is today. It also changed city of license from Conway to Myrtle Beach itself in 2006.
Marc Cohn/“Walking In Memphis”
Michael Jackson/“Remember The Time”
Mariah Carey/“Emotions”
Guns ’N’ Roses/“Sweet Child O’ Mine”
Rod Stewart/“Broken Arrow”
Tevin Campbell/“Round And Round”
U2/“Mysterious Ways”
Huey Lewis & The News/“Do You Believe In Love”
Boys II Men/“Uhh Ahh”
PM Dawn/“Paper Doll”
Legal ID: WYAV 104.1 Conway SC
Van Halen/“Top Of The World”
Amy Grant/“Good For Me”
Richard Marx/“Satisfied”
Current format: classic rock “Wave 104”
Aircheck: WJMX-FM 103.3 Florence SC “103X” February 15 1992
A 70 mile trip northwest takes us to Florence SC on the same weekend from 1991 for top 40 103X. I usually recognize most songs from this era just from the intro, but the “Wash The Rain” tune stumped me. I never heard it before. It also stumped Shazam. I did eventually track it down to 1990s Canadian pop-rock band World On Edge. As I had never heard it before on any station, it is kind of interesting a top 40 station in South Carolina found it.
The Cars/“My Best Friend’s Girl”
Vanessa Williams/“Save The Best For Last”
Asia/“Heat Of The Moment”
Tami Show/“Did He Do It To You”
Londonbeat/“I’ve Been Thinking About You”
Simple Minds/“Don’t You (Forget About Me)”
Nirvana/“Smells Like Teen Spirit”
World On Edge/“Wash The Rain”
Boys II Men/“Uhh Ahh”
Scoprions/“Wind Of Change”
Prince/“1999”
Lisa Stansfield/“All Around The World”
Current format: still top 40 “103X”
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.