Radio This Week Back Then: Week Ending March 16
This Week: Top 40s KHFI "K98" Austin and WZUU-FM "Z95" Milwaukee
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!
I have been traveling much of this week, so the weekly trip to what was on the radio this week…back then is a little shorter. This week, our audio rewind is from a couple of Wednesday evening shifts at top 40 outlets KHFI “K98” Austin and WZUU-FM “Z95” Milwaukee.
Aircheck: KHFI 98.3 “K98, Austin’s Fresh New Music Mix” Austin, March 14 1990
I recorded this on a brief visit to Austin. This aircheck is the evening shift with DJ Clayton Allen. With Austin rapidly booming and the metro area expanding geographically, KHFI was at a signal disadvantage being a class A. KHFI won approval to move from 98.3 to 98.1 and upgrade to 100 kw and they turned on the new facilities after this aircheck in the spring of 1990.
They did not get to enjoy the 98.1 signal for long. A few months later, the owners of country KVET 1300 “K-Vet” and country KASE 100.7 “Case 101” reached an agreement with KHFI’s owners for one of the first LMAs (local marketing agreement) enabling an owner to program another station they did not own. KHFI would be turned into a FM simulcast of KVET to bring KVET to the FM dial. However, the owners of then-classic hits KQFX 96.7 arranged to take the intellectual property of KHFI. In mid-September 1990, KHFI and KQFX briefly simulcasted to transition KHFI to 96.7. KQFX became “K96.7” and took the KHFI calls and the 98.1 spot became KVET-FM.
Today, KHFI is still top 40 on the 96.7 spot, now branded as “96-7 Kiss FM.” KVET-FM is still country, while the AM is now sports
Heart/“All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You”
Janet Jackson/“Escape”
Kiss/“Forever”
Cameo/“Word Up”
Paula Abdul/“Opposites Attract”
Kaoma/“Lambada”
Legal ID: KHFI 98.3 Austin
Taylor Dayne/“Love Will Lead You Back”
Lisa Stansfield/“All Around The World” (Remix)
Legal ID: KHFI 98.3 Austin
Calloway/“I Wanna Be Rich”
Madonna/“Keep It Together” (Remix)
Aircheck: WZUU-FM 95.7 “Z95” Milwaukee, March 14 1984
This aircheck came to me years ago in a trade…back when people used to trade airchecks since that was how in the 1980s and 1990s you largely got to hear radio in other markets. Tony “Wild Child” Hamilton is the nighttime jammer here.
The “Z95” branding is new at this point, but Z95 would be relatively short-lived as the station changed formats in 1986. In 1988, it would flip again to oldies, and it has been in the classic hits domain since then under a variety of names. Presently, it is WRIT-FM “95.7 Big FM.”
Huey Lewis & The News/“I Want A New Drug”
The J. Geis Band/“Freeze Frame”
Shannon/“Let The Music Play”
Journey/“Faithfully”
Eurythmics/“Here Comes The Rain”
Rick James/“Give It To Me Baby”
Rick Springfield/“Love Somebody”
The Cars/“Let’s Go”
Legal ID: WZUU-FM 95.7 Milwaukee
KC & The Sunshine Band/“Give It Up”
After The Fire/“Der Kommissar”
Lionel Richie/“Hello”
The Flamthrowin’ 5
5) Cyndi Lauper/“Girls Just Want To Have Fun” (12” Remix)
4) Van Halen/“Jump”
3) Rockwell/“Somebody’s Watching Me”
2) Michael Jackson/“Thriller”
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.