Radio This Week Back Then #19: May 26-June 1
WFLZ-FM "93-3FLZ" and WSSR "Star 95.7" Tampa, WDFX "99.5 the Fox" Detroit, and KYYI "Y104" and KTLT "FM106" Wichita Falls TX
What was on the radio this week…back then. This is a weekly visit back to radio audio from this week in past years for those that enjoy radio history or those working in radio looking for promotional ideas, etc. If you enjoy these weekly audio rewinds, they take a lot of time to put together, so please do me a favor, subscribe, and share and pass it on. Thank you!
19 weeks into this project and we have yet to visit Tampa or Detroit. So, this week includes our first trip there. I also included an aircheck that has puzzled me since I recorded it — KTLT Wichita Falls’ flirt with top 40 that doesn’t seem to have existed all that long and doesn’t appear in any archives, but yet, here it is on tape.
Top 40 WFLZ-FM 93.3 “93-3FLZ” Tampa Bay, June 1 1999
Modern AC WSSR 95.7 “Star 95.7” Tampa Bay, June 1 1999
Top 40-rock WDFX 99.5 “99.5 the Fox” Detroit, May 30 1989
Top 40 KTLT 106.3 “FM106” Wichita Falls TX, May 27 1991
Country KYYI 104.7 “Y104” Wichita Falls TX, May 27 1991
“93-3FLZ, The Hit Music Channel” Date: Tuesday, June 1, 1999 1:15PM Format: Top 40
WFLZ-FM is now three and half decades into its CHR run. This aircheck is from 1999, a decade into its initial flip to top 40 and four years after it rebranded from “Power 93” to “93-3FLZ.” Overall, it sounds good, particular with some of the clever contesting…
Station Contest and Promotions: 93-3FLZ had cooked up some pretty cool events. One was a “survival of the fittest” promotion where 5 listeners will be picked to ride the new Gwazi wooden rollercoaster at Busch Gardens. The catch is the have to ride it 93 times in a row…whoever remains on the coaster after the 93 laps splits $5,000. The promo at the beginning of the aircheck is pretty funny. The other contest was leveraging the news and hype on Y2K…the first of the newborn of registered couples who arrives on or after January 1 2000 gets $25,000.
Stevie B/”If You Leave Me Now”
Dishwalla/”Counting Blue Cars”
TLC/”No Scrubs”
Christine Aguilera/”Genie In A Bottle”
Eve 6/”Inside Out”
Boyz II Men/”End Of The Road”
Shania Twain/”That Don’t Impress Me Much”
Legal ID: WFLZ 93.3 Tampa
Brtiney Spears/”Sometimes”
Monifah/”Touch It”
Backstreet Boys/”I Want It That Way”
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“Star 95.7, Today’s Music Alternative” Date: Tuesday, June 1, 1999 12:30PM Format: Modern AC DJ: Rob Harder
About This Aircheck
“The evolution of music continues” on this aircheck of WFLZ clustermate WSSR, though as a modern AC, it wasn’t pushing any boundaries. This WSSR aircheck was recorded first and the tape flipped over for the above WFLZ aircheck. This aircheck was about a year and a half into WSSR’s run as a modern AC. WSSR would last about 6 years before flipping to R&B WBTP “95.7 the Beat,” which continues rolling along today. WBTP is actually the longest-running format and calls on 95.7 since it signed on in 1963.
Tori Amos/”Silent All These Years”
Madonna/”Beautiful Stranger”
Deep Blue Something/”Breakfast At Tiffany’s”
Legal ID: WSSR 95.7 Clearwater
Semisonic/”Closing Time”
Jewel/”Down So Long”
The Verve/”Bitter Sweet Symphony”
Red Hot Chili Peppers/“Under The Bridge”
Smash Mouth/”All Star”
Meredith Brooks/”What Would Happen”
Sugar Ray/”Every Morning”
U2/”One”
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“99.5 the Fox” Date: Tuesday, May 30, 1989 6PM Format: Top 40-rock DJ: Terry Young
About This Aircheck
This aircheck was about a year after WDFX signed on as “99.5 the Fox,” changing identities from its previous WDTX “99DTX” brand. At this point, WDFX was a top 40/rock hybrid. There are a lot of hair bands plus some pretty decent tracks from Richard Marx, Eddie Money, Living Colour, Cheap Trick, Henry Lee Summer, Cyndi Lauper, and Love And Rockets. Each time I hear this audio, I imagine DJ Terry Young had 4 or 5 cans of Jolt cola before this shift…he is amped up and gives the format a lot of energy.
Station Contest and Promotions: WDFX had just given away a trip to see Bon Jovi play in Russia and was promoting another concert trip to see them play in Los Angeles. The Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls were playing in the 1989 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. Morning show Andy Savage and Steve Courtney had a different spin on the typical sports bet bit between media outlets in different markets: If Chicago loses, they would have to shave their heads and beg for money at one of Chicago’s airports. Fortunately for them, the Pistons would end up winning the series 4-2 and go on to sweep the Lakers to win the NBA Finals.
Peter Gabriel/”In Your Eyes”
Legal ID: WDFX 99.5 Detroit
Pat Benatar/”Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
Great White/”Once Bitten Twice Shy”
Richard Marx/”Satisfied”
REO Speedwagon/”In My Dreams”
Modern English/”I Melt With You”
Winger/“17”
Howard Jones/”Everlasting Love”
Steve Winwood/”While You See A Chance”
Lita Ford & Ozzy Osbourne/”Close My Eyes Forever”
The Bangles/”Be With You”
Cinderella/”Coming Home”
Bryan Adams/”Run To You”
Eddie Money/”I Wanna Go Back”
Living Colour/”Cult of Personality”
Legal ID: WDFX 99.5 Detroit
Skid Row/”I Remember You”
Cheap Trick/”The Flame”
Henry Lee Summer/”Hey Baby”
Def Leppard/”Love Bites”
Cyndi Lauper/”I Drove All Night”
Journey/”Don’t Stop Believin’”
Love And Rockets/”So Alive”
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Presently, the station is country WYCD.
“FM106” Date: Monday, May 27, 1991 2:23PM (Memorial Day) Format: Top 40 "FM106" DJ: Brian Driver
About This Aircheck
This is one of those airchecks that has always stumped me a bit. I recorded this driving through on Memorial Day 1991. I hadn’t planned to record it since KTLT had been soft AC “K-Lite,” and that wasn’t my music taste. I was surprised to find the “K-Lite” brand was gone and in was new jingles and imaging and the music switched towards top 40. As this was several years before the World Wide Web, there was no station website at the time. There was never a mention in the trade magazines. I can’t find any reference to a change in the archives of the local newspaper. There is not much history about KTLT at all out there. Even the station’s Wikipedia page (as of May 26 2024) is all of four sentences in length and it has an incorrect first air date. But, never the less, here it is… It could not have lasted long as KTLT picked up one of 24/7 satellite format provider Unistar’s soft AC formats later in 1991….and brought back the “K-Lite” brand with it.
Station Contest: The holiday weekend contest was two passes to the movie “Soapdish” that was opening nationwide the following weekend.
The Rebel Pebbles/”Dream Lover”
Paula Abdul/”Rush Rush”
Dino/”Romeo”
Daryl Braithwaite/”Higher Than Hope”
Phil Collins/”Another Day In Paradise”
Londonbeat/”A Better Love”
Legal ID: KTLT 106.3 Wichita Falls
Amy Grant/”Baby Baby”
The B-52s/”Love Shack”
Firehouse/”Don’t Treat Me Bad”
Cathy Dennis/”Just Another Dream”
Michael Bolton/”Love Is A Wonderful Thing”
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Presently, the station is rock KBZS “106-3 the Buzz.”
“Y104” Date: Monday, May 27, 1991 1:24PM (Memorial Day) Format: country DJs: James Bond, Bill Michaels
About This Aircheck
This is the aircheck on the other side of the tape of the KTLT aircheck above. So, it is from the same afternoon on Memorial Day 1991. KYYI was about two years old from its first sign on date.
KYYI would end up being managed and then bought by cross-town rival country KLUR 99.9. In a bit of unusual programming for a country FM, in early 1997, Y104 picked up carrying Dr Laura’s advice talk show and ran it each afternoon from 1-4. It ended up flipping to classic rock “104 the Bear” at the end of 1997, which it remains its current format.
Station Contest: The contest of the day was a chance to win tickets to Billy Bob’s, the world’s largest honkey tonk, in Fort Worth.
Ricky Van Shelton/”Living Proof”
Lorrie Morgan/”We Both Walk”
T. Graham Brown/”If You Could Only See Me Now”
The Kentucky Headhunters/”The Ballad Of Davy Crockett”
Willie Nelson/”Ain’t Necessarily So”
Billy Dean/”Somewhere In My Broken Heart”
Reba McEntire/”Can’t Even Get The Blues No More”
Conway Twitty/”Crazy In Love”
Mark Chesnutt/”Brother Jukebox”
Legal ID: KYYI 104.7 Burkburnett TX-Wichita Falls TX-Lawton OK
Doug Stone/”In A Different Light”
Tanya Tucker with Paul Davis & Overstreet/“I Won’t Take Less Than Your Love”
Garth Brooks/”The Thunder Rolls”
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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.