Radio This Week Back Then #45: November 24-30
Modern AC KAMX "Mix 94.7" Austin, top 40 KHOM "Mix 104.1" and weekend rock 40 WEZB "B97" New Orleans, top 40 WPXY-FM "98PXY" Rochester
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:
Austin | modern AC KAMX “Mix 94.7” (1998)
New Orleans | top 40-rock WEZB “B97,” top 40 KHOM “Mix 104.1” (1995)
Rochester | top 40 WPXY-FM “98PXY” (1991)
Happy reading and listening.
Related: Austin
It took about a decade after the 94.7 signal launched for the station to find its footing in the Austin market. Licensed to Luling, the signal signed on in March 1987 as an AC/country hybird KAPT “Capital 94.7.” When launched, the local Austin American-Statesman newspaper described it as “Texas adult contemporary” that included “Nashville hits and country covers along with the same old tunes off the pop and rock charts.” Despite the limited success of such a format, it does get tried again every now and then — read about and hear CIGY 97.7 Calgary in RTWBT #18.
KAPT would shift to what we now term hot AC, and then on 25 July 1988, after a weekend of stunting with various sounds (bird calls, jackhammers, trains), KAPT flipped to easy listening. That evolved to soft AC. In July 1990, KAPT flipped to country KATG “Country Cat.” That lasted a year and half before it flipped to oldies KFGI “Froggy 94.7” in March 1992. KFGI croaked in October 1994 when it flipped to hot AC KPTY “Party 94.7.” The “Party” was over a year later when the station relaunched as KAMX “Mix 94.7” in October 1995.
KAMX has been running ever since. It did shift to modern AC from the late 1990s to the early 2000s before reverting back to hot AC, which it still runs today. This aircheck is from the modern AC era.
Related: New Orleans, WEZB, 97.1 New Orleans
I put in a lot of WEZB’s history when I put up a 1992 aircheck in RTWBT #7. As noted then, WEZB dropped its long-time top 40 format in the mid-1990s for talk, including Howard Stern mornings and maintaining its long-time “B97” brand. Initially, the talk programming was just Monday-Friday, and, on the weekends, it ran a top 40-rock format — “we say it all week, and we play it all weekend.”
The talk format ended on 6 June 1996 when WEZB flipped to hot AC "B97." It evolved back to top 40 "B97" in 1998, which it remains today.
This aircheck is from that weekend rock 40 programming back in 1995.
With WEZB having gone to talk, KHOM replaced its then 70s-80s oldies format with top 40 as “Mix 104.1 KHOM” in 1995. The KHOM calls referred to its then-city of license, Houma, 50 miles southwest of New Orleans. In the late 1980s, KHOM relocated to a nearly 2000’ stick near Vacherie, about 40 miles west of New Orleans, that allowed it — and then-WCKW-FM 92.3 La Place — to rimshot both New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
For this aircheck, the voice imaging is by the late great Brian James. When WEZB returned to top 40 in 1998 and become a competitor to KHOM, James became the imaging voice for WEZB. One of WEZB’s legal IDs with the top 40 relaunch began with “this ain’t no radio station from Houma…” before its “WEZB New Orleans” legal ID and reference to being “licensed to the greatest city on the planet.”
KHOM came under Clear Channel ownership and spent its remaining 25 years in the New Orleans market shifting through many formats, call letters, and brands:
KHOM would change calls to the more “Mix 104.1”-friendly KUMX in 1998.
In 2001, KUMX dropped top 40 for classic hits KFXN-FM “104.1 the Fox.”
A year later, KFXN-FM returned to top 40, but as KSTE-FM “104.1 Kiss FM.”
Like KUMX, it struggled against WEZB, and, so. in the summer of 2005, it became black gospel KHEV “Hallelujah 104.1.”
In November 2006, with clustermate WRNO 99.5 dropping its long-time “Rock of New Orleans” brand for talk, KHEV picked it up as KYRK.
In the summer of 2010, KYRK shifted to classic rock KOBW “104.1 the Brew.”
In the summer of 2011, KOBW flipped to 90s oldies KVDU “Voodoo 104.1.” The KVDU calls and “Voodoo” brand would see a couple of format shifts: 90s oldies to rhythmic AC to hot AC.
On 22 August 2017, hot AC KVDU flipped to adult hits “104.1 the Spot.”
In August 2021, the 2000’ tower in Vacherie was destroyed by Category 4 Hurricane Ida. KVDU began operating from auxiliary facilities in New Orleans. In 2023, it re-licensed from Houma to Gonzales. That was the first step in downgrading the former full class C to a class C3 as a Baton Rouge facility. Last month, KVDU signed off from the New Orleans market and turned on the Baton Rouge market facility as adult R&B “104.1 the Vibe.” iHeart concurrently moved its former rock station in Hattiesburg, WFFX 103.7, into the New Orleans market via city of license change to Marrero LA. WFFX moved in as a hot AC “Voodoo 103-7,” resurrecting the one-time KVDU brand.
Last year, WPXY-FM passed the 40 year mark as a top 40 outlet. The calls date further back to the mid-1970s when it was easy listening “Pixie.” The top 40 format was only into its 8th year this week back in 1991.
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.