Radio This Week Back Then #47: December 15-21
Rhythmic CHR KIKI-FM "I94" Honolulu, CHR KKYS "104.7 Kiss FM" Bryan/College Station, rock CHR KIOC "Power Hits K106" Beaumont/Port Arthur
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.
This week we go through the spectrum of 1990s CHRs — rhythmic to mainstream to rock-leaning.
Honolulu | rhythmic CHR KIKI-FM “I94” (1994)
Beaumont/Port Arthur | rock CHR KIOC “Power Hits K106” (1993)
Bryan/College Station | CHR KKYS “104.7 Kiss FM” (1991)
Happy reading and listening!
This week back in 1994 was the beginning of my very first trip to Hawaii, landing first in Honolulu. As a radio geek, I brought along a bunch of blank cassettes and a couple of Walkmans. That is where this aircheck comes from.
The 93.9 facility dates only back to February 1979, when it signed on as disco KPIG-FM, the FM sister to KIKI 830. Honolulu would have two disco outlets named after animals that year as KHSS 97.5 would also flip to disco as KDUK. The 93.9 facility would churn through several formats before landing on CHR in the mid-1980s as “Hot I94.” In January 1989, it flipped calls to KIKI-FM, retaining the I94 brand.
For this 1994 aircheck, KIKI-FM was rhythmic-leaning as “Hawaii’s Hottest Music.” One thing all three stations featured this week have in common — lots of songs that did poorly on the Billboard Hot 100, or never even made it to that list.
Presently, the station is rhythmic CHR KUBT “93.9 the Beat.”
Related: Beaumont, 106.1 Beaumont, KIOC
Unlike KIKI-FM, “all rock, no rap” KIOC was more of my musical taste. I have put up several KIOC airchecks from its top 40/rock era of the early to mid-1990s already. And here is another….
Even its mainstream CHR days in the 1980s, KIOC was fairly intriguing in that it would toss in occasional tracks from international charts (UK, Australia). Some of that is still evident with INXS/”Time” and Pet Shop Boys/”Go West” in this aircheck. The Village People’s “Go West” remake by Pet Shop Boys was a nod to The Village People playing a concert that weekend in town. Beyond that, there is a lot of tracks that were songs which were “bubbling under” the Billboard Hot 100 that never made it.
Well outside the 100 largest radio markets, KIOC was pretty strong in its day — live and local jocks with lots of interaction on the phones and remotes — and talking about what is going on around town. Some of these old airchecks also remind me of small things absent on a lot of stations today, especially with syndicated and voice tracking. In this one, it is a shift change, so DJs Chris Chambers and JD have a long cross-talk to transition the shifts.
One long lost goodie on this aircheck is Billy Squier’s “Christmas Is The Time To Say ‘I Love You.’” I remember the video taped at MTV with their staff in rotation on MTV. Needless to say, it doesn’t make the playlist on your local “Lite,” “Star,” or “Sunny”’s all-Christmas format this time of year.
Presently, KIOC is rock “Big Dog 106.”
Related: Bryan/College Station
KKYS signed on on Saturday, 28 July 1984 on 104.9FM with a gold-based AC format. The local Bryan-College Station Eagle wrote up an article on the new station in its 2 August 1984 edition…
If you’ve flipped through your radio dial recently, you’ve probably discovered a new resident on the FM band. KKYS, 105 FM, signed on last Saturday night with a format of adult-oriented contemporary music, heavy on the golden oldies.
Skip Bishop, a 12-year radio veteran, came from Panama City, Fla., to direct the programming of the new station. Studios are in Manor East Mall.
“We’re targeting our music to the adult audience while eliminating anything that might be an irritant, such as heavy meal,” Bishop said. “We play about 40 percent oldies, including the Beatles, Steely Dan-type material.”
KKYS would move to CHR “Kiss 105FM KKYS” soon after. When I was going to college there, they maintained the studios in the mall, but the mall was declining rapidly due to the newer and hipper Post Oak Mall in College Station. The Manor East Mall was later torn down.
When the FCC created the new C2 class for FMs, KKYS applied for the upgrade, moving from 104.9 and 3 kw to 104.7 and 50 kw in 1989, rebranding as “104.7 Kiss FM” with the move.
This aircheck comes from my final week living in College Station in 1991. KKYS was a mainstream top 40, but it played a lot of clunkers as it jumped really early on new tracks that never got traction to even make it to the Hot 100. At the time, Bryan/College Station was ranked around the 220th largest market, so KKYS certainly was not nearly as tight on the hits as a major market outlet. A fast growing market these days, Bryan/College Station is about 40 placings higher in Nielsen market size now.
Like many CHRs of the early 1990s, a shift to hot AC and the generic “Mix” brand ended the CHR format and “Kiss” brand in 1993. KKYS still retains the format and “Mix 104.7” brand today, but without much in the way of any local talent. KKYS is now part of an iHeart cluster that includes CHR KVJM 103.1, which brought back the “Kiss FM” brand to the market two decades later in 2012. Though, the more “Kiss”-able KKYS calls remain on 104.7.
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.