Radio This Week Back Then #44: November 17-23
BBC Radio 1, WBAP's 1963 JKF coverage, WZGO "Z106" Philly, Argentine rock en Español Mega 98.3 Buenos Aires, KDRE/KFTH/WNWZ "WDRE" Little Rock/Memphis, KFFM Yakima
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.
There is quite the variety in this week’s airchecks including two international airchecks, the 1963 JFK assassination coverage of the news as it unfolded on WBAP D/FW, and a Little Rock and Memphis simulcast of the short-lived WDRE modern rock satellite format.
UK | top 40 BBC Radio 1 (2001)
D/FW | WBAP 820’s 1963 coverage of JFK’s assassination in downtown Dallas
Philadelphia | top 40 WZGO 106.1 “All Hit Z106” (1984)
Buenos Aires | Argentine rock en Español LRL312 98.3 “Mega 98.3, Puro Rock Nacional” (2005)
Little Rock/Memphis | modern rock KDRE 101.1/WNWZ 1430/KFTH 107.1 “WDRE” (1994)
Yakima | top 40 KFFM 107.3 (1991)
Happy reading and listening!
Related: London
For the US Thanksgiving holiday in 2001, I traveled across the pond to the UK for a few days in London. It was a bit of an escape — I was working in the telecom space where the telecom industry was in free fall, shedding tens of thousands of jobs over the previous 12 months, and it was traveling two months after the events of 9/11.
While there, I brought my trusty portable cassette recorder and rolled tape on some of the London signals. When I travel through London, I always try to get BBC Radio 1. Radio 1 just always sounds like what a big time CHR should sound like — big. It has great jocks, always well-imaged, great playlist, and big names pop by in studio (David Beckham and Madonna teased for the following day on this aircheck).
Obviously, the BBC has a different funding model than commercial US outlets, but even today they sound great and do so with the same challenges of an keeping an audience that has numerous digital alternatives competing for their ears. Despite that, they don’t just exist, but, rather, they still sound relevant today in an infinite dial world.
For this aircheck on the US Thanksgiving holiday in 2001, Dave Pearce is the DJ and the back-end is a mix show. The fun with old UK airchecks is the hits that never made it to the US. Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman remake of ”Somethin’ Stupid” was a #1 hit on the UK charts, for example, and never made it to the shores of the US.
Related: D/FW, WBAP, 820 D/FW, 570 D/FW
This week in 2003, on the 40th anniversary of the JFK assassination in Dallas, news/talk WBAP 820 “NewsTalk 820 WBAP” spent the day airing “JFK40: The Lost Kennedy Tapes” — a near-real-time replay of recordings of WBAP’s broadcast day from 22 November 1963. I recorded it to a couple of CDs.
For decades, WFAA Dallas and WBAP had an odd share-time agreement where the two stations swapped dial positions several times a day. When one was on 570 kHz, the other was on 820. Then, they would swap dial positions…and then later swap back. The other odd arrangement was that 570 was an ABC radio affiliate — regardless of whether WFAA or WBAP was running on 570. Likewise, 820 was a NBC radio affiliate regardless of which occupant is at home on 820.
In the audio from the first CD: the announcement of JFK’s death, the news of the death of a Dallas police officer (JD Tippit), international reaction, and the finding of the rifle on the 5th floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. At this point, WBAP is on 820, so the network news coverage is from NBC radio and NBC TV.
From the next CD, WFAA and WBAP swap dial positions, sending WBAP to 570 and WFAA to 820. So, WBAP’s 3PM switch from 820 to 570 meant the radio network feed changed from NBC’s stable of anchors and reporters to ABC’s.
Among the breaking news: news that LBJ was sworn in and Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested at the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff for killing Tippit and was being interrogated on the JFK assassination.
Today, the share-time arrangement has long ended, and WBAP has sole possession of 820. It added a FM simulcast via sister WBAP-FM 93.3 at the start of the year. 570 today is conservative news/talk KLIF and is a co-owned clustermate to WBAP.
Related: Philadelphia
This aircheck has made the rounds in the 40 years since it was recorded. The WZGO calls and “Z106” brand were installed on the former WWSH four months prior to this aircheck recording. It would be the first of three CHR identities 106.1 would go through over the next 9 years — WZGO to the short-lived WTRK “Electric 106” to the more successful WEGX “Eagle 106” — before flipping to smooth jazz WJJZ in 1993.
Presently, the station is Spanish hits WUMR “Rumba 106.1.”
For the week of the US Thanksgiving in 2005, I traveled to Argentina to spend the holiday in Buenos Aires. While there, I recorded a couple of stations, including this one, Mega 98.3. As my only exposure to Buenos Aires radio was just those few days, I don’t have much knowledge to pass along on the market or its history, other than Mega 98.3 would be fairly unique in the broader Rock en Español format as it programs music from Argentine rock bands and when it launched, it did so with great success ratings-wise.
Like most South American countries, call letters are seldom used. I had marked the cassette as the calls being LRL312, which still appears to be technically its licensed call letters. All the branding is around the “Mega” name, and it still remains “Mega 98.3, Puro Rock Nacional” today. As the aircheck is drive time, there is a lot of banter and not a lot of songs.
Related: Little Rock, Memphis
The 101.1 facility in the Little Rock market signed on in 1994 as KZQA, a class A FM licensed to North Little Rock, running an interim all-weather format. In August, it began simulcasting modern rock WNWZ 1430, licensed to Germantown TN, in the Memphis market 130 miles to the east on I40. The pair picked up the new WDRE modern rock network feed, based at Long Island’s WDRE 92.7 Garden City NY. KZQA picked up the KDRE call letters on 7 October 1994 to go along with the WDRE brand.
Right before this aircheck, KDRE/WNWZ entered into a LMA-to-buy with adult R&B KFTH 107.1, licensed to Marion AR, in the Memphis market to join the simulcast. At the time of this aircheck, all three stations were relaying the WDRE network as “WDRE Little Rock/Memphis.” WNWZ would peel off for SMN’s standards feed a few months later leaving the two FMs to simulcast. The WDRE network ended in 1996, and the pair switched to then-format syndicator Radio One’s modern rock feed.
KDRE would go through a number of formats right afterwards: CHR “Z101” in 1997, AAA “Lick 101” in 1998, ABC’s standards “FM101 the River” in 1999 and so on. The 101.1 signal was relicensed to Cammack Village in 2010. Today, the signal is owned by Salem and runs conservative talk as KDXE “101.1 the Answer.”
As for the aircheck, it is interesting in that the WDRE network format wasn’t unafraid to mix in some more obscure, lesser-known tracks than many modern rock outlets at the time.
If my notes are correct, this is my one and only aircheck from Yakima. I got it more than 30 years ago trading tapes with an aircheck collector.
KFFM has been in the top 40 space for quite some time. In its Clear Channel ownership days, it spent some time leaning rhythmic as “107-3FFM.” These days, it is owned by Townssquare and running mostly with syndicated our out-of-market talent.
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.