Radio This Week Back Then: Week Ending March 30
WABB-FM Mobile, KNIN Wichita Falls, the first days of Y107 Los Angeles and Radio Now 93.1 Indianapolis, and some of the final days of KKPN "102.9 the Planet" Houston and WYOK "Hot 104" Mobile
What was on the radio this week…back then. As these take some time to pull together each week, if you enjoy these weekly audio rewinds, please do me a favor, subscribe, and share and pass it on. Thank you!
Beginnings and endings. In this week’s edition, we have the first day of modern rock “Y107” Los Angeles that signed on this week back in 1996 and the format change and debut of top 40 WNOU “Radio Now 93.1” Indianapolis from this week in 2000. We also have some stations that soon would be changing formats…modern AC KKPN “102.9 the Planet” Houston and top 40 WYOK “Hot 104” Mobile. Along for the ride are long-time top 40 outlets WABB-FM Mobile/Pensacola and KNIN-FM/AM “Power 92-9” Wichita Falls/Lawton
Modern rock KMAX 107.1/KBAX 107.1/KAAX 107.1 “Y107” Los Angeles First Day, March 27 1996
Modern AC KKPN 102.9 “102.9 the Planet, Houston’s Modern Hits” Houston, March 28 1998
WNOU 93.1 “Radio Now 93.1” Indianapolis Top 40 Format Debut, March 28 2000
Face-Off: WABB-FM 97.5 Vs WYOK 104.1 “All The Hits Hot 104” Mobile/Pensacola, March 26 2006
Top 40 KNIN-FM/AM 92.9/990 “Power 92-9 KNIN” Wichita Falls, March 23 1992
Aircheck: KMAX 107.1/KBAX 107.1/KAAX 107.1 “Y107” Los Angeles First Day, March 27 1996
Our first aircheck is from the 107.1 “trimulcast” in the LA market and the first day of its new modern rock format as “Y107.” Coming under common ownership in 1988, the three stations, all class A facilities on 107.1, began simulcasting together:
KMAX, licensed to Arcadia, covers the most population of the three in the LA market (now KSSE)
KBAX, licensed to Fallbrook, covers primarily northern San Diego County (now KSSD)
KAXX, licensed to Ventura, covers primarily the Oxnard/Ventura market (now KSSC)
With the launch of the new format, Y107’s promos take aim at cross-town modern rock “World Famous” KROQ 106.7. The “Sabu From India” one near the beginning of the aircheck likely would not make it on air in 2024.
The Smashing Pumpkins/”1979”
Dave Matthews Band/”Too Much”
Live/”Selling The Drama”
Oasis/”Champagne Supernova”
Green Day/”Brain Stew”
Violent Femmes/”Blister In The Sun”
Red Hot Chili Peppers/”My Friends”
Nirvana/”Dumb”
Ammonia/”Drugs”
REM/”Man On The Moon”
No Doubt/”Just A Girl”
Talking Heads/”Burning Down The House”
The Verve Pipe/”Photograph”
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Aircheck: KKPN 102.9 “102.9 the Planet, Houston’s Modern Hits” Houston, March 28 1998
The 102.9 spot on the FM dial in Houston had long been home to standards/soft AC KQUE “FM103, KQ.” Targeting an older audience, it was an unusual treasure in a major market that survived well into the 1990s through its local ownership. The 102.9 facility was sold in 1997 to SFX, who launched modern AC KKPN on March 20, 1997, and the KQUE intellectual property moved to sister KNUZ 1230.
Although a pretty decent station, KKPN ended up with one of the shortest lifespans on the Houston FM dial. A year later, through industry mergers and consolidations, new owner SFX was purchased Capstar (the predecessor to what is now iHeart Media), but ownership caps at the time would disallow adding KKPN to Capstar’s holdings in Houston. So, KKPN was spun off to Heftel (a predecessors to today’s TelevisaUnivision radio division). The sale closed on May 28, two months after this aircheck, and at 12:01AM on May 29, KKPN became the new home to regional Mexican “Estereo Latino.” Until this point, all the Houston FMs running a Spanish-language format were on lesser or rimshot facilities. In this case, the “Estereo Latino” format was on rimshots KLTN 93.3, KLTO 104.9, and Galveston area KLTP 105.3. As 102.9 was a 100kw facility utilizing a tower in downtown Houston, the format finally had market-wide coverage.
This is aircheck is from a midday Saturday shift with DJ Dave Morales.
Alanis Morissette/”Head Over Feet”
Tonic/”If You Could Only See”
Legal ID: KKPN 102.9 Houston
The Wallflowers/”One Headlight”
Lisa Loeb/”I Do”
Sublime/”What I Got”
Melissa Etheridge/”I Want To Come Over”
Third Eye Blind/”Semi-Charmed Life”
The Cranberries/”Linger”
Fastball/”The Way”
Jewel/”You Were Meant For Me”
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Aircheck: WNOU 93.1 “Radio Now 93.1” Indianapolis Format Debut, March 28 2000
This aircheck begins with the end of the stunting between WNAP-FM’s former classic rock format and the launch of the new top 40 format as WNOU “Radio Now 93.1.” WNOU’s twist on the CHR format was that it would play the #1 most requested song at the top of each hour. WNOU would last until October 2007, when it temporally became WEXM, playing Christmas music, until December, when the format and calls of news/talk WIBC 1070 moved to 93.1. The AM concurrently flipped to sports WFNI. The WNOU calls and “Radio Now” intellectual property was picked up by smooth jazz WYJZ 100.9
Stunting
Legal ID: WNAP-FM 93.1 Indianapolis
Note: There was several minutes of dead air between the legal ID and the first song I edited down…
Fatboy Slim/”The Rockafeller Skank”
Backstreet Boys/”Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely”
TLC/”No Scrubs”
Alabama 3/”Woke Up This Morning”
Sisqo/”Thong Song”
Britney Spears/”…Baby One More Time”
Aaliyah/”Try Again”
Sonique/”It Feels So Good”
Vertical Horizon/”Everything You Want”
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Face-Off: WABB-FM 97.5 Vs WYOK 104.1 “All The Hits Hot 104” Mobile/Pensacola, March 26 2006
Same date: Sunday, March 26 2006. Same format: CHR. Same market: Mobile. Two stations: WABB-FM vs WYOK.
WABB-FM was locally owned by the Dittman family and, between WABB 1480 and WABB-FM, had been in the format several decades at this point and the calls were a powerful brand in the market — more on that in a minute. Owned by Cumulus, WYOK had been through several formats and had only been a CHR for about three and half years, moving from hot AC “Star 104” to “Hot 104” in October 2002. And the battle was about over at this point, as WYOK let go its airstaff and ended the "Hot 104" top 40 format the following week after this aircheck, stunted for several days, and then emerged as country "Kicks 104.1" on April 13 2006. Kicks only made it to 2009, when it became adult hits “104.1 Jack FM.”
Getting back to those powerful WABB calls… WABB-FM was an offshoot of top 40 WABB when it signed on in 1973 playing Bob Dylan’s “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” as the first song. It originally simulcasted WABB before splitting off. The top 40 format moved from WABB to WABB-FM in 1984.
WABB-FM was sold to religious broadcaster Educational Media Foundation in early 2012 to become its K-Love relay as WLVM and that ended nearly four decades of the WABB calls being associated with a top 40 format. As a bonus track, here is the audio of WABB-FM’s sign-off on the evening of February 29 2012, with the final song being the same Bob Dylan song it signed on with, the sign off, joining the K-Love feed mid-song, and its first legal ID with the WLVM calls.
Seeing an opportunity to fill that legacy, the next day, March 1 2012, Cumulus ended the “Jack FM” format on 104.1 and changed it to top 40 WABD, as the WABB calls still belonged to 1480.
Soon after, Cumulus and EMF made a subsequent transaction in which Cumulus would send WDLT 98.3 in the Mobile market and WRQQ 97.1 in the Nashville market to EMF and EMF would send 97.5 to Cumulus. In July, that transaction realigned the Mobile dial with K-Love and the WLVM calls moving to adult R&B WDLT 98.3, the WDLT calls and format moving to 104.1, and the top 40 format and WABD calls moving from 104.1 to 97.5. In a separate deal, Cumulus was acquiring Pensacola market WMEZ 94.1 and WXBM 102.7 to add to its cluster there. To allow for that and keep under ownership caps in each market, the 104.1 frequency was re-licensed from Atmore to Saraland, inside the Mobile market.
Back to this weekend in 2006, here is the audio of WABB-FM and Hot 104. Musically, they were pretty close as there was a lot of overlap in their playlists.
WABB-FM 97.5
Crazy Town/”Butterfly”
Mary J Blige/”Be Without You”
J-Kwon/”Tipsy”
Staind/”Right Here”
Dem Franchize Boyz Featuring Peanut & Charlay/”Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It”
Missy Elliott (Featuring Ciara & Fat Man Scoop)/”Lose Control”
Legal ID: WABB-FM 97.5 Mobile-Pensacola-Biloxi-Gulfport
Natasha Bedingfield/”Unwritten”
Kanye West/”Gold Digger”
The Pussycat Dolls (Featuring Will.I.Am)/”Beep”
Green Day/”Boulevard Of Broken Dreams”
C-City Ryderz/”Need More Body”
Rihanna/”S.O.S”
Chingy/”Right Thurr”
Daniel Powter/”Bad Day”
Nelly/”Country Grammar”
Sean Paul/”Temperature”
Gwen Stefani/”Hollaback Girl”
Nickelback/”Savin’ Me”
Ne-Yo/”When You’re Mad”
Chris Brown (Featuring Juelz Santana)/”Run It!”
Ying Yang Twins & Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz/”Salt Shaker”
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WYOK 104.1 “All The Hits Hot 104”
Kelly Clarkson/”Walk Away”
Chingy/”Right Thurr”
Weezer/”Beverly Hills”
Ne-Yo/”So Sick”
Avril Lavigne/”My Happy Ending”
Dem Franchize Boyz Featuring Peanut & Charlay/”Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It”
T-Pain/”I’m N Luv (Wit A Stripper)”
Beyonce/”Check On It”
Chris Brown/”Yo (Excuse Me Miss)”
Eminem/”Shake That”
Legal ID: WYOK 104.1 Atmore-Mobile
Rihanna/”S.O.S”
The All-American Rejects/”Dirty Little Secret”
Missy Elliott (Featuring Ciara & Fat Man Scoop)/”Lose Control”
Mario Vazquez/”Gallery”
Sean Paul/”Temperature”
Nelly/”Over And Over”
Dem Franchize Boyz Featuring Peanut & Charlay/”Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It”
The Pussycat Dolls/”Stickwitu”
Ryan Cabrera/“On The Way Down”
Black Eyed Peas/”My Humps”
Teddy Geiger/”For You I Will”
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Aircheck: KNIN-FM/AM 92.9/990 “Power 92-9 KNIN” Wichita Falls, March 23 1992
I recorded this from suburban Dallas back when the 92.9 spot on the FM dial was totally open and pulling in KNIN-FM a 120 miles away was pretty common many evenings. At the time, as well, KNIN-FM had a much bigger signal — 1198’ (365m) 100 kw — that covered both the Wichita Falls and the Lawton OK markets. KNIN-FM was downgraded to a class C1 in 2010, and it recently lost more coverage when it became co-located with co-owned KWFS-FM 102.3 and KBZS 106.3 on the same tower. Compared to the 1990s, its primary signal contour no longer covers Lawton, as current owner Townsquare has 3 others FMs in that market.
It had always been a pretty good really small market CHR. It had various branding in the 1980s and early 1990s — “Power Hits 92-9 KNIN” to “All Hit 92-9 KNIN” to “Rockin’ 92-9 KNIN” (1989) to “Power 92-9 KNIN” — but it always centered around the call letters. The move to “Rockin’ 92-9” included a shift to top 40-rock, which it backed off some the following year. They were still fairly rock-leaning for several years, including this aircheck where “Remember The Time” is the only non-rock-based track.
The AM has a long, complicated — maybe a bit infamous — history, spanning about a dozen call signs and a move from Wichita Falls to the Dallas/Fort Worth market (now as KFCD) in 2002. In its Wichita Falls days, it mostly held the KNIN calls and was most known for its top 40 “K9” days. KNIN’s owners bought the then-KBID 92.9 and converted it to KNIN-FM in 1981, with the top 40 format following in 1983. Wichita Falls has only one local AM signal today as the rest of the AMs once licensed there have relocated to Dallas/Fort Worth (the present day 570, 620, and 990 D/FW signals). 990’s move to D/FW produced a never-ending series of changes and some pretty epic messes, including a 2002 talk format hosted by female hosts targeting a female audience that lasted all of 3 days and later a sports talk format in 2007 that was falling apart in the first week.
This audio is from a post-Spring Break Monday night shift with DJ Colt West.
ZZ Top/”Legs”
Texoma’s Most Wanted: Top 8 @ 8
8) The Cure/”High”
7) Def Leppard/”Let’s Get Rocked”
6) Ugly Kid Joe/”Everything About You”
5) Queensrÿche/”Anybody Listening?”
4) U2/”One”
3) Nirvana/”Come As You Are”
2) Queen/”Bohemian Rhapsody”
1) Metallica/”Nothing Else Matters”
Cause And Effect/”You Think You Know Her”
Poison/”Unskinny Bop”
Legal ID: KNIN-AM/FM 990/92.9 Wichita Falls-Lawton OK
Ozzy Osbourne/”Mama, I’m Coming Home”
Boston/”Smokin’”
AC/DC/”Moneytalks”
The Cure/”Just Like Heaven”
Richard Marx/”Hazard”
Warrant/”Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
Steppenwolf/”Magic Carpet Ride”
The Storm/”Show Me The Way”
Michael Jackson/”Remember The Time”
Bruce Springsteen/”Human Touch”
Profiles
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.
Forget about KNIN’s signal reaching to Dallas - I picked them up in CONNECTICUT back in May 1998 thanks to some E-skip. :) Wish I had a tape of that.