Radio This Week Back Then #23: June 23-29
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!
I am releasing this a bit earlier than I usually do since my calendar is pretty full the next two days, so I likely wouldn’t get to add any more airchecks to the six new ones below.
The line up this week includes the retirement of a Radio Hall of Famer, two format changes, and another’s first day a few hours after its format change.
Dallas/Fort Worth:
Last morning show for the retiring Ron Chapman on 60s-70s oldies KLUV 98.7 “98.7 K-Love,” June 24 2005
Current morning drive on the now-KSPF 98.7, June 26 2024
First day of top 40 KESS-FM 107.9 “Radio H2O,” June 28 2012
Houston
Modern rock-dance top 40 KNRJ 96.5 “Energy 96.5,” June 23 1990
KNRJ 96.5 temporary format change to modern rock, June 25 1990
Baltimore
WXYV 102.7 format change from R&B “V103” to top 40 “102-7XYV,” June 27 1997
Almost 2 hours of audio…enjoy.
"98.7 K-Love, Greatest Hits Of The 60s & 70s" Date: Friday, June 24, 2005 (morning drive) Format: 60s-70s oldies DJs: Ron Chapman and Jody Dean
This audio is the last hour or so of the farewell show for legendary Dallas DJ Ron Chapman, who was retiring after 45 years on air on Dallas/Fort Worth radio. Within it, the mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth both read proclamations declaring the day as “Ron Chapman Day,” the mayor of Dallas also gives him a key to the city, local men’s choir Vocal Majority play tribute via telling his history in the market via song, as well as some clips from his time in D/FW, first at legendary top 40 KLIF 1190 starting in 1959 (as Irving Harrigan) and then to his long-time home at KVIL. Chapman moved over from KVIL to sister KLUV in 2000.
Chapman may best be known for asking his KVIL 103.7 listeners to each send in $20 — not telling them what for. In an expression of how much his audience admired him and trusted him, the ended up mailing in over $200,000, which was donated to charity.
He passed away in 2021 at the age of 85. As mentioned on the aircheck, Jody Dean would take on mornings, having a 13 year run from 2005 to 2018, when Jeff Miles then took over mornings. The size of the casts of Dean’s show and Miles’ show were reduced in cost-cutting moves during their runs. Miles and his show were cut in 2022. See further down in this article on the current sound of morning drive on 98.7.
Presently, after selling off the KLUV call letters and “K-Love” brand last year, 98.7 is classic hits KSPF “98-7 the Spot.”
The Lovin’ Spoonful/”You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice”
Legal ID: KLUV 98.7 Dallas-Fort Worth
The 5th Dimension/”Up, Up And Away”
Orleans/”Still The One”
The Bryds/”Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)”
Don Fogelberg/”Leader Of The Band”
Chicago/”Beginnings”
Lulu/”To Sir With Love”
Eagles/”Take It To The Limit”
“98-7 the Spot” Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2024 7:07AM Format: classic hits DJs: Carter
When the KLUV calls were sold off last year and the station relaunched as KSPF a year ago this month, they did so initially without any of the former KLUV DJs on the air. I live north of the market and will scan by periodically. I honestly recall ever hearing a DJ on the air once or twice since KSPF debuted. Given parent Audacy’s financial troubles (it filed Chapter 11 at the start of the year), I just assumed they were still running without DJs in most dayparts. Surprise, KSPF lists three DJs, including one for AM drive on their website. So, I put on the radio recorder to compare now versus two decades ago above.
Chapman was, of course, a Radio Hall of Fame inductee…so any morning drive programming is going to have a tough time comparing to that. However, as noted above, KLUV did run two personality-driven, high audience interaction morning shows after his retirement until 2022. So, how does the 2024 version of the station sound? Some notes I observed…
In 2005, 98.7 was still 60s and 70s oldies, primarily focused on the 1970s. Two decades later, it has moved forward one decade to being 80s-focused.
If the morning drive up until 2022 was heavy on the morning personalities and their on-air team, it is a little different in 2024. In the 65 minutes of recording in the heart of the morning commute, the on-air engagement was 58 seconds of traffic updates and 39 seconds of a morning show consisting of a team of one lone DJ. 65 minutes is 3900 seconds…so literally 39 seconds is 1% of the airtime devoted to a DJ to entertain or engage the audience, which may explain why I’ve only heard a DJ once or twice scanning the dial since KSPF came on one year ago.
There were certainly high commercial spot loads during the previous morning shows. That hasn’t changed. Audiences suffer through that based on the value of the content of the morning show more than offsetting enduring the ad breaks. Today, to get to that 39 seconds of content, you only had to also get through two breaks, just each one featuring 7 minutes of commercials. Now, the “98-7 the Spot” name makes sense…
Here is the audio from this morning to make your own observations…
Queen/”Fat Bottomed Girls”
Pet Benatar/”Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
Whitney Houston/”I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”
Jimmy Buffett/”Margaritaville”
Bon Jovi/”You Give Love A Bad Name”
The Outfield/”Your Love”
Rick James/”Super Freak”
Def Leppard/”Pour Some Sugar On Me”
Prince/”1999”
Aerosmith/”Sweet Emotion”
Legal ID: KSPF 98.7 Dallas-Fort Worth
Queen & David Bowie/”Under Pressure”
UB40/”Red Red Wine”
Lynyrd Skynyrd/”Sweet Home Alabama”
Each week, I search through my index of airchecks for a given date range to find candidates for this weekly newsletter. From time to time, when I look at the list, it dawns on me that I completely forgot about some station in the search results. This aircheck was one of those as I had forgotten Univision tried a short-lived, mostly English-language top 40 outlet in D/FW. Given owners Univision and predecessor Hispanic Broadcasting’s track record in the market of frequently shuffling brands, call letters, and formats on its rimshoot signals, that can be understandable; see the 107.9 facility’s dozen or so changes below in its history since its sign on in 1999.
“107.9 Radio H2O” Date: Thursday, June 28, 2012 7:46PM (first day of the new top 40 format) Format: Top 40 DJ: No DJ
For this aircheck in 2012, KESS-FM had flipped from Spanish oldies/adult hits midday to top 40 “107.9 Radio H2O.” If I recall, the name derived from “Hispanic 2.0.” The music was English-language hits, though the ads were still Spanish-language. As the format was a few hours old at the time of recording, there were no DJs on air. Each of the songs played is back-announced via song tags. Presently, the station is Spanish CHR KDXX “Latino Mix,” simulcasting with Fort Worth rimshot 107.1 Benbrook TX, which now has the KESS call letters.
Fun/”We Are Young”
Nelly Furtado & Timbaland/”Promiscuous”
Gotye/”Somebody That I Used To Know”
Edward Maya/”Stereo Love”
Legal ID: KESS-FM 107.9 Lewisville-Dallas-Fort Worth
Nicki Minaj/”Starships”
LMFAO/”Party Rock Anthem”
Rihanna/”Where Have You Been”
Nina Sky (Featuring Jabba)/”Move Ya Body”
Foster The People/”Pumped Up Kicks”
Lady Gaga/”Poker Face”
The Wanted/”Glad You Came”
Adele/”Rolling In The Deep”
One Direction/”What Makes You Beautiful”
Eminem (Featuring Rihanna)/”Love The Way You Lie”
I put up an aircheck of KNRJ from March 3 1990 in RTWBT #7. As I noted then, KNRJ was starting to pepper in some modern rock into the dance playlist. They also added a weekly alternative show called “Alternative Static” around this time. Now, it is three months later and the music mix has inverted where most tracks are alternative songs with some dance tracks intermingled — though, most of the modern rock tracks are dance-friendly remixed versions. I might be a bit weird, but I found it oddly listenable…sort of a poppier version of today’s Sirius XM’s 1st Wave channel’s “Safety Dance” Saturday night 80s alternative dance mix show. Also changed between March and June 1990 is the secondary branding from “Houston’s Fresh New Music Mix” to “Houston’s New Music Alternative” at this point.
Alas, Energy’s days were numbered. New owners Nationwide Communications had already requested the KHMX calls at the FCC earlier in June for later use. With the hot AC format starting to spread around the country and “Mix” being a favored handle (WOMX-FM/AM 105.1/950 “Mix 105.1,” WMXZ 95.7 “Mix 95.7 WMIX” as ones already launched at this time), it was not too hard to guess what was in KNRJ’s future. I recorded the first aircheck on a Saturday while visiting Houston. Early on, it teases to listen Monday morning about “the future of Energy 96.5.” Since I had to return to Dallas Sunday, for the 2nd aircheck below, my brother was kind enough to roll tape to record the format change that came Monday morning…only it wasn’t to KHMX, yet.
“Energy 96.5, Houston’s New Music Alternative” Date: Saturday, June 23, 1990 Format: Modern Rock-Dance Top 40 DJ: Terry McGuire
Jane Child/”Welcome To The Real World”
Depeche Mode/”Enjoy The Silence” (remix)
The Time/”Jerk Out”
Erasure/”Drama!”
Erasure/”A Little Respect” (remix)
Soft Cell/”Tainted Love”
Morrissey/”November Spawned A Monster”
Legal ID: KNRJ 96.5 Houston
Red Flag/”Count To Three” (remix)
Stacye & Kimiko/”Wait For Me” (remix)
Oingo Boingo/”Weird Science”
Brother Beyond/”The Girl I Used To Know”
Gino Latino/”Welcome” (extended version)
Snap!/”The Power” (remix)
“Energy 96.5" to "96.5, Houston's Alternative Music Source" Date: Monday, June 25, 1990 6:49AM Format: Format Change From Dance-Modern Rock To Modern Rock DJs: Jeff Scott and Al Carson
On that following Monday, the “future of Energy 96.5” was revealed and it was that it had no future. As a play on the the old bit/stunt of DJs taking over the control room, locking the door, and demanding a new format, DJ Jeff Scott starts going through the KNRJ library and starts tossing out the non-alternative CDs (“I don’t want to play this crap anymore”), admits KNRJ was not winning in the ratings (“Energy just isn’t going…”) and, after about 12 minutes, launches the new — temporary — modern rock format as “96.5, Houston’s Alternative Music Source” with a top 100 alternative songs of all time countdown and the promise of “no [New] Kids, no rap, no crap.” KHMX would make its debut the following month on July 20.
So, if you were playing a radio nerd trivia game and would have answered “what was Houston’s first commercial modern rock outlet?” with KRQT 107.5 “Rocket 107,” technically you would have been incorrect since KNRJ beat it by 4 years.
Erasure/”Victim Of Love” (remix)
UB40/”The Way You Do The Things You Do”
The Time/”Jerk Out”
Legal ID: KNRJ 96.5 Houston
Duran Duran/”The Reflex”
Brother Beyond/”The Girl I Used To Know”
New Kids On The Block/”Tonight”
Format change…
Toto Coelo/”I Eat Cannibals”
Marc Almond/”Tears Run Rings”
Depeche Mode/”People Are People”
The B-52s/”Private Idaho”
Love And Rockets/”So Alive”
The Ramones/”I Wanna Be Sedated”
Erasure/”Sometimes”
The Communards/”Never Can Say Goodbye”
Talk Talk/”Talk Talk”
Legal ID: KNRJ 96.5 Houston
T-4-2/“Don’t Let My Love”
The Cure/”In Between Days”
After The Fire/”Der Kommissar”
Sinéad O’Connor/”Mandinka”
New Order/”The Perfect Kiss”
“V103” to “102.7XYV, Today’s Hit Music” Date: Friday, June 27, 1997 11:30AM Format: Format Change From R&B To Top 40 DJ: No DJ
This is the second trip to Baltimore since launching this Substack — and it is the second format change in Baltimore to listen to. In the earlier visit in RTWBT #5, I posted the relaunch of hot AC WBSB 104.3 “B104” as “Variety 104.” B104 had previously shifted from top 40 to hot AC in 1990, leaving the market without a top 40 outlet. This week in 1997, after a 20 year run, WXYV ended its run targeting the Baltimore African American community as “V103” and filled that top 40 format hole with a flip to “102.7XYV, Today’s Hit Music.” This write-up on the change appeared in the July 4 1997 edition of industry trade Radio & Records:
'XYV/Baltimore Now ‘Today's Hit Music’
CHR got another big boost from a major broadcast group as CBS Radio flipped Urban WXYV (V103)/Baltimore to CHR "Today's Hit Music" last Friday (6/27) at noon. "We did our homework, we know there is a huge hole for a hit radio station, and we decided to fill it," PD Dave Ferguson told R &R. "It is similar musically to WWZZ/Washington. The target will be 15 -34 non-ethnic females, and we are sure that many others will also come along for the ride"
Commenting on the lack of CHR in Baltimore, Ferguson stated, "CHR just disappeared from the Baltimore/Washington region when stations like WPGC and WERQ were running about half urban and half pop. They effectively filled the CHR hole for a while, but they've had to streamline the music more urban - which meant all the CHR listeners had nothing else to listen to but AC."
Ferguson cited today's CHR music as being "a lot more fun, upbeat, and happy." A recent hour on the new WXYV included En Vogue, Real McCoy, Jewel, CeCe Peniston, Livin' Joy, AZ Yet, Spice Girls, White Town, Bizarre Inc., Freak Nasty, Alanis Morissette, Toni Braxton, Le Click, and Marky Mark.
The station will remain jockless for about four to six weeks while the station assembles a new staff.
The aircheck is the final 30 minutes of V103, though it had dropped the imaging and was running old school tracks, V103’s sign off song of Boyz II Men/”It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday,” the format change, and the first hour of the new top 40 format.
The R&R article is correct — the new format did sound a lot like nearby WWZZ/WWVZ “Z104” Washington. Listen to some 1997 and 1998 airchecks of them in RTWBT #12.
Presently, the station is adult hits WQSR “102.7 Jack FM.”
Tom Browne/”Funkin’ For Jamaica”
Boogie Re-Edit/”Shake”
Aretha Franklin/”Respect”
Eric B. & Rakim/”I Know You Got Soul”
Junior/”Mama Used To Say”
Brick/”Dazz”
Legal ID: WXYV 102.7 Baltimore
Boyz II Men/”It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday”
Format change…
La Bouche/”Be My Lover”
Crystal Waters/”100% Pure Love”
Hanson/”Mmmbop”
Ace Of Base/”Don’t Turn Around”
White Town/”Your Woman”
Fun Factory/”Close To You”
The Wallflowers/”One Headlight”
Diana King/”Shy Guy”
Le Click/”Tonight Is The Night”
Spice Girls/”Wannabe”
Mark Morrison/”Return Of The Mack”
Real McCoy/”Another Night”
Freak Nasty/”Da’ Dip”
Gina G./”Ooh Aah…Just A Little Bit”
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.
Can I upload the H20 aircheck onto YouTube? I'm just making sure so I don't get in trouble.