Radio This Week Back Then #40: October 20-26
First day of AAA KNBR-FM "93-3 the Zone" D/FW, winding down of CHR KHTR St Louis, and a listen to WCMF, Rochester's long time rocker
What was on the radio this week…back then. This is a weekly visit of radio audio from this week in past years for those that enjoy radio history, those working in radio looking for promotional ideas, or stations looking to re-find lost audio of their heritage. 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! A searchable and sortable index of all the audio is located on the Aircheck Index page.
In this week’s edition:
D/FW | first day of AAA KNBR-FM 93.3 “93-3 the Zone”
St Louis | CHR KHTR 103.3
Rochester | AOR WCMF 96.5
Happy reading and listening!
Related: Dallas/Fort Worth, 93.3 Dallas/Fort Worth
This week in 1996 saw the 93.3 facility sign-on in the Dallas/Fort Worth market. Close to two dozen applicants filed for it when 93.3C2 was allocated to Haltom City, so it took a number of years before the FCC finally awarded a construction permit. Ultimately, it came under the control of Susquehanna, which signed it on via a LMA with an AAA format as “93-3 the Zone.” It signed on with the placeholder KNBR-FM calls, which Susquehanna controlled via its ownership of KNBR 680 San Francisco. It took the more “Zone”-like KKZN calls a couple of months later in December 1996.
In a 29 November 1996 Fort Worth Star-Telegram Q&A with KNBR-FM GM Dan Halyburton:
Q: Why did The Zone pick the format that it did?
A: There are so many great current performers — people like Natalie Merchant and Sarah McLachlan — making great music. It just seems like it’s better to play the best of the new music out there — the stuff that doesn’t have a real hard edge to it — and, as the same time, play a lot of the real good classic rock artists like The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. Plus, we did our homework. We went to listeners and asked them: What do you find radio coming up short on? They told is they wanted to hear artists like Bonnie Raitt, Gin Blossoms, and Eric Johnson. So why can’t a radio station play all of those kinds of songs? We think we can.
Q: Adult alternative stations have been around for a number of years. Why do you think it took so long to get one in the Metroplex?
A: I think it’s because we live in a time when companies are driven to make profits quickly. We’re a privately owned company, so we’re a little bit insulated from some of that quick-profit way of thinking. Also, there’s a certain kind of listener that we feel we can be successful with. We decided to kind of work backward from there an try to figure out what they want to hear. That method just takes a little more time.
Presently, the station is news/conservative talk WBAP-FM, the FM simulcast to sister WBAP 820.
Related: St Louis
This aircheck of CHR KHTR is two weeks away from its flip from CHR to 1950s-1970s oldies KLOU “Oldies 103.” KHTR was around for about six years; KLOU is still going 36 years now into playing classic hits, evolving from 1950s-1970s-based oldies then to 1980s-1990s now. With KHTR dropping the top 40 format, WKBQ 106.5 “Q106.5” became the sole top 40 outlet until KHTK 97.1 came on the air a year later (1991 airchecks of both those outlets can be found way back in issue #3 of this Substack).
Some observations from the pop charts this week back in 1988:
Remakes comprised four of the top 10 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 — #1 Phil Collins/”Groovy Kind of Love” (remake of the Mindbenders’ 1966 hit), #2 UB40/”Red Red Wine” (Neil Diamond, 1968), #9 Cheap Trick/”Don’t Be Cruel” (Elvis Presley, 1956), and #10 Kylie Minogue/”The Loco-Motion” (Little Eva, 1962).
Same title, different songs, back to back: At #8 is Bobby Brown’s “Don’t Be Cruel,” one spot above Cheap Trick’s Elvis remake of the song with the same title.
“Don’t Be Cruel” also plays into the KHTR to KLOU format flip — the Cheap Trick remake led into the Elvis version to launch KLOU on 5 November 1988.
This is the first aircheck I have posted from the Rochester market. For this first time visit, the aircheck is from this week back in 1990 and long-time rocker WCMF. WCMF’s history is one of consistency — since it first started testing its signal in June 1960 through today, it has never changed calls, and, since it flipped to progressive rock in the late 1960s, it has been some form of rock now for five and half decades. Its present day classic rock format has been in place now for two decades.
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.