Radio This Week Back Then #11: The Week Ending April 6
KYNG "Young Country 105.3" Dallas/Fort Worth ends. KBXX "97-9 the Box" Houston and KBFB "B97.9" D/FW begin. WLDB "B93.3" Milwaukee becomes "Trending Radio." Plus top 40 CHED 630 Edmonton.
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 are big themes this week. On the radio this week back then saw the end of “Young Country” KYNG 105.3 Dallas/Fort Worth in 2000 and the first days of “97-9 the Box” (the future KBXX) Houston and AC “B97.9” (the future KBFB) Dallas/Fort Worth. As well, we pay our first visit to the Milwaukee market for the format flip at AC WLDB 93.3 “B93.3” to the short-lived “Trending Radio 93.3.” Our final audio visit is another new market for this Substack, and our first trip outside the US: top 40 CHED 630 Edmonton.
Aircheck: KYNG 105.3 “Young Country 105-3” Dallas/Fort Worth Last Day, April 2 2000
On January 27 1992, the former hot AC KRSR 105.3 “Star 105” flipped to “the first Young Country station in America” and made hot country a format soon to be a format in a lot of markets. It was a trendsetter in its day as “Young Country”-branded stations emerged in markets across the US and Canada in the 1990s after KYNG came on — KYCY-FM/AM 93.3/1550 “Young Country 93.3” San Francisco, KIKK-FM/AM 95.7/650 “Young Country 95-7” Houston, KYCW 96.5 “Young Country 96-5” Seattle, WYCD 99.5 “Young Country 99.5” Detroit, KEYV 93.1 “Young Country Y93” Las Vegas, KBEQ-FM/AM 104.3/1030 “Young Country 104” Kansas City, WYGY 96.5 “Young Country Y96” Cincinnati, WYCT 94.1 “Young Country 94.1” Baton Rouge, and CKBY 105.3 “Young Country Y105” Ottawa among them.
In July 1998, rival KPLX 99.5 dropped its longtime “K-Plex” brand and relaunched as “Texas Country 99-5 the Wolf,” itself a new trendsetter that shook up the three-way country battle between KYNG, KPLX, and KSCS 96.3. KYNG would adjust by briefly dropping “Young Country” in favor of “Superstar Country” on January 4 1999, but the “Young Country” brand would return on August 13 1999.
This audio is from the final hours of KYNG with Lee Harris and Chuck Mohnkern on air as the final DJs that Sunday evening before it signed off to start a countdown to “the Talk That Rocks” hot talk programming starting the following morning at 6AM. Since the debut of talk programming on April 3 2000, 105.3 has remain formatted as some form of talk programming — hot talk from 2000 to 2008, when it became the present day sports format as KRLD-FM “105-3 the Fan.”
A couple of items from the audio:
Amber Alerts were started by D/FW radio stations in response to a 9 year old girl from Arlington being abducted and later found dead so that word could get out to the public on any future abductions; the program had not yet rolled out nationally.
As this is before the Iraq War and being banned from many radio outlets for their comments on it, The Dixie Chicks were still on the radio (twice in this 45 minute aircheck).
They must have really liked one jingle from the jingle package…as the same jingle was played four times in 30 minutes.
Mark Chestnutt/”Too Cold At Home”
Lee Ann Womack/”I Hope You Dance”
The Dixie Chicks/”I Can Love You Better”
BlackHawk/”I Need You All The Time”
Patty Loveless/”If My Heart Had Windows”
Jessica Andrews/”Unbreakable Heart”
Aaron Tippin/”What This Country Needs”
Gary Morris/”The Wind Beneath My Wings”
Sammy Kershaw/”Third Rate Romance”
Legal ID: KYNG 105.3 Dallas-Fort Worth
The Dixie Chicks/”Goodbye Earl”
Toby Keith/”Wish I Didn’t Know Now”
Kenny Chesney/”How Forever Feels”
Reba McEntire/”The Greatest Man I Never Knew”
Garth Brooks/”Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)”
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Aircheck: KRRW 97.9 “B97.9” Dallas/Fort Worth First Day, April 3 1997
KYNG was not the only format change this week back then in Dallas/Fort Worth as in 1997, classic rock/oldies KRRW 97.9 “Arrow 97.9” flipped to AC “B97.9,” which was slightly less of a trailblazer nationally than KYNG. The calls would change to KBFB a month later. At that time, the 97.9 frequency was mostly remembered for being rocker KZEW “the Zoo” in the 1970s and 1980s. KZEW ended in December of 1989, stunting with a couple of weeks of Christmas music before becoming soft AC KKWM “Warm 97.9.” KKWM was short-lived and would rebrand the following year as KLRX “Lite 97.9.” KLRX only lasted two and half years before becoming KRRW “Arrow 97.9, All Rock & Roll Oldies” in October 1993 as part of CBS’ effort to generate a brand in several markets around that concept. So, KBFB became the third effort on an AC format in less than a decade. KBFB was softer — and far less personality-driven — than cross-time rival — and industry stalwart — KVIL 103.7.
This aircheck, with DJ Hank Murphy, comes from the first evening of the new B97.9. Some of those soft rock songs from the 1970s on this audio don’t get much airplay these days.
Tracy Chapman/”Give Me One Reason”
George Michael/”One More Try”
Legal ID: KRRW 97.9 Dallas
Dr. Hook/”Sharing The Night Together”
Celine Dion & Peabo Bryson/“Beauty & The Beast”
George Harrison/”My Sweet Lord”
The Jets/”You Got It All”
Rod Stewart/”Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright)”
Charles & Eddie/“Would I Lie To You?”
Carole King/”Been To Canaan”
Lionel Richie/”Truly”
Bonnie Raitt/”Something To Talk About”
Paul Young/”Every Time You Go Away”
Firefall/”Just Remember I Love You”
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Aircheck: KFMK 97.9 Houston First Day Of Future KBXX “97-9 the Box”, April 2 1991
Today’s R&B KBXX 97.9 “97-9 the Box” traces its start to April 2 1991 as former oldies outlet KFMK emerged from stunting as “under construction” with the beginning of the new R&B-dance format — a format labeled as “crossover” back in the day in the trades — that would become KBXX “97-9 the Box.” The April 5 1991 edition of Radio & Records noted the new format…
“core artists include Keith Sweat, C & C Music Factory, M.C. Hammer, Mariah Carey, Guy, Bobby Brown, Anita Baker, Lionel Richie, Miami Sound Machine, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Prince, Aretha Franklin, Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross, and Michael Jackson. The target demo is 18-49.”
The “97-9 the Box” handle would come a few days later after this first day aircheck and the KBXX calls would come a couple of weeks later on April 22. On this aircheck, the imaging hints at the new name to come: “…we felt the box needed something…,” “…the new station on the box at 97.9…,” and for listeners to call 390-5365 -- given out as 390-KFMK on air in the previous format – to “…tell us how to put real magic on the box.” The last one was a jab at new format rival, R&B KMJQ 102.1 “Majic 102.1,” which is now co-owned with KBXX today. The dance crossovers phased out over time and, three decades later, KBXX is still “97-9 the Box” today.
I recorded this from my student apartment in College Station. 100kw blasting out from 1,919’ stick put out a big signal across the flat terrain of the Texas Gulf Coast and KFMK was usually loud and clear at 85 miles away. That would be a harder task today since FM translator K249ET 97.7 College Station is now on the air.
Freddie Jackson/”Love Me Down”
Mariah Carey/”Someday”
Janet Jackson/”State Of The World”
Babyface/”Whip Appeal”
Ralph Tresvant/”Rated R”
LL Cool J/”Around The Way Girl”
Ralph Tresvant/”Sensitivity”
Another Bad Creation/”Playground”
Christopher Williams/”Dreamin’”
Too $hort/”The Ghetto”
Timmy T/”One More Try”
Hi-Five/”I Like The Way (The Kissing Game)”
Johnny Gill/”Rub You The Right Way”
Rude Boys/”Written All Over Your Face”
Pebbles/”Backyard”
Salt-N-Pepa/”Do You Want Me”
Color Me Badd/”I Wanna Sex You Up”
Madonna/”Justify My Love”
Legal ID: KFMK 97.9 Houston
Father MC/”I’ll Do 4 U”
Tony! Toni! Toné!/”Whatever You Want”
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Aircheck: WLDB 93.3 “B93.3” To “Trending Radio 93.3” Milwaukee Format Change, April 1 2015
April Fool’s Day seems like an odd day to change formats and not have people believe it is some sort of gag, but some stations really do change formats on April 1; Seattle/Tacoma had two flip this week on April 1 with AAA KPNW 98.9 returning to country “98.9 the Bull” and AC KPLZ 101.5 “Star 101.5” flipping to gold-leaning country “101.5 Hank FM” a few hours later.
In this case, AC WLDB 93.3 “B93.3, Milwaukee’s Best Music” moved to a more hot AC playlist as “Trending Radio 93.3” on April 1 back in 2015. It turned out that “Trending Radio” wasn’t trending as WLDB reverted back to the AC format and “B93.3” brand less than a year later on February 2016.
The aircheck starts around 5PM for the last hour of B93.3 with DJ Stan Atkinson before the flip to “Trending Radio” around 6:07 that evening. The flip is brief: the sound of buzzing bee getting squished with the comment “I really did just kill the B.”
Taylor Swift/”Blank Space”
Legal ID: WLDB 93.3 Milwaukee
Bruno Mars/”Marry You”
The Romantics/”What I Like About You”
Ellie Goulding/”Love Me Like You Do”
Tim McGraw/”Live Like You Were Dying”
Blondie/”Call Me”
American Authors/”Best Day Of My Life”
Alanis Morissette/”Hand In My Pocket”
Maroon 5/”Sugar”
Van Halen/”Jump”
The Lumineers/”Ho Hey”
The Goo Goo Dolls/”Name”
Clean Bandit/”Rather Be”
Legal ID: WLDB 93.3 Milwaukee
Des’ree/”You Gotta Be”
Format flip to “Trending Radio 93.3”
Black Eyed Peas/”Let’s Get It Started”
Fall Out Boy/”Centuries”
Usher/”DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love”
Ella Henderson/”Ghost”
The Cure/”Friday I’m In Love”
Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj/”Bang Bang”
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Aircheck: CHED 630 “630 Ched” Edmonton, April 5 1988
Top 40 as a format on the AM dial had largely disappeared by 1988 in most US markets, but CRTC regulations enabled it to still be a viable format in Canada until the early 1990s.
CHED had been a top 40 outlet for decades. This audio is from a Tuesday morning with Rob Christie & The Ched Morning Crew. It’s definitely an old school throwback: a morning show with a large cast, full service news, and a lot of bits.
The music log from the aircheck is pretty short since playing the hits was secondary to the morning show.
Terence Trent D'Arby/”Wishing Well”
Michael Jackson/”Man In The Mirror”
Louis Armstrong/”What A Wonderful World”**
Billy Ocean/”Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car”
**Note: “What A Wonderful World,” originally released in 1967, had been re-released and re-charted at this time (making it into the Billboard Hot 100) as it was on the soundtrack of the movie “Good Morning, Vietnam.”
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As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.