Radio This Week Back Then #48: December 22-28
Christmas travels: London, Birmingham, Paris, Honolulu, Maui, Baton Rouge, Lafayette LA, Alexandria LA, Beaumont/Port Arthur, Waco
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.
Christmas week meant a lot of traveling over the years, so this week is 13 stations from markets I passed through or traveled to back in the 1990s.
London | modern rock XFM 104.9 (1997)
Paris | French rhythmic CHR NRJ 100.3 (1998)
Birmingham | rhythmic CHR Choice 102.2 (1997)
Honolulu | rhythmic CHR KQMQ-FM/AM 93.1/690 (1994)
Baton Rouge | rock CHR WGGZ 98.1 “Z98” and rhythmic CHR WFMF 102.5 (1989), CHR WLSS 102.5 “Loose 102” (1996)
Lafayette LA | CHR KSMB 94.5 (1989)
Beaumont/Port Arthur | modern rock KIOC 106.1 “New Rock 106-1, K106” (1996)
Waco | CHR KWTX-FM 97.5 (1992)
Maui | rock KAOI-FM 95.1 "Ka `oi” and oldies KLHI-FM 101.1 (1994)
Alexandria LA | CHR KQID 93.1 “93QID” (1989)
Happy reading and listening!
Related: London
While British pop outlets share a good amount of music with their US top 40 counterparts, alternative rock outlets between the two countries are quite different. DJ Claire Sturgess on this aircheck of Xfm from 1997 mentions DJ Ian Camfield has the next shift. Camfield now works in the US at Audacy’s modern rock KVIL 103.7 “Alt 103.7” Dallas/Fort Worth and tracks for other Audacy outlets. Outside The Verve’s ”Bitter Sweet Symphony,” you would be hard-pressed to hear any other track on Xfm on any Audacy alternative outlet in the US.
Xfm rebranded as “Radio X” in 2015, which it remains today.
One year after the trip to England came a trip to Paris. The NRJ brand is all over a big swath of Europe. In France, it has a network of outlets around the country, including 100.3 in Paris which I recorded this aircheck off of. It runs a mix of French-language and English-language pop, dance, and R&B music.
Back in 1997, Choice 102.2 in Birmingham was running a mix of R&B and dance as “Today’s Hottest Music.” It was rebranded a few years later as “Galaxy” and then became part of the Capital FM network of stations in 2011. Presently, it runs “Capital” network programming from London with some local regional content as well.
Related: Honolulu
An aircheck from the same trip of rival KIKI-FM 93.9 “I94” was in last week’s edition, RTWBT #47. KQMQ-FM ran CHR in the 1980s and 1990s, and flipped to 1980s oldies in late 2000. It returned to CHR in 2005 as "93.1 the Zone, Hawaii's New Hit Music Station." In 2011, it flipped to Hawaiian/reggae and is currently branded as “Hi 93, Hawaii’s Local Hits.”
For this aircheck, I must have run out for dinner as I recorded the PM drive shift on side A and started side B of the tape about an hour after the first side ended during the evening shift, thus the log showing a divider in the middle.
Related: Baton Rouge, WGGZ, 98.1 Baton Rouge
Both Baton Rouge top 40 stations at the time this week in 1989 were sounding great. As noted in a previous round of WGGZ airchecks, Z98 was pretty rock-leaning. In fact, on this aircheck, the Scorpions’ 1989 remake of The Who’s 1964 track “I Can’t Explain” never even entered the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. It tracked only on the album rock chart (The Who’s version did crack the Hot 100, but barely, as it peaked at #93). As it did in the 1987 airchecks, Z98 continued to make use of a high load of recurrents.
Presently, the station is classic rock WDGL “Eagle 98.1.”
Related: Baton Rouge
With a completely different sound, WFMF also sounded great with a lot of energy. Unlike Z98, which was skewing rock, WFMF was rhythmic leaning…lots of pop, dance, R&B — and remixes of the songs.
WFMF would shift back to mainstream top 40, and in 1996, it rebranded as WLSS “Loose 102”; see next aircheck…
In the 1970s, under its former WJBO-FM call letters, 102.5 was a progressive rock outlet called “Loose FM.” In the fall of 1996, top 40 WFMF rebranded to that former name as “Loose 102” WLSS, though it was a top 40 outlet.
This aircheck is exactly 7 years to the date after the WFMF one above. Billboard Hot 100 chart fun: This aircheck has quite a few songs that got a ton of airplay that never appeared on the Hot 100: “Lovefool,” “Don’t Speak,” “I Go Blind.”
After a little more than two years into the “Loose 102” brand, WLSS dropped it and became simply “102.5, Today’s Hit Music.” It dropped the WLSS calls and returned to the WFMF calls on 7 October 1999. It remains top 40 WFMF today.
This year marks the 40th year of KSMB’s CHR run. It flipped from rock “K94” to “Hit Radio 94 1/2 KSMB” in October 1984 and was a pretty solid sounding top 40 outlet well into the 1990s. DJ Fast Eddie on this aircheck is now on in mornings at crosstown classic hits KYBG 102.1 “Big 102.1.”
Related: Beaumont, KIOC, 106.1 Beaumont
Last week’s edition had another aircheck from KIOC’s top 40/rock days of the early to mid-1990s. In 1996, KIOC shifted briefly to modern rock as “New Rock 106-1, K106,” maintaining the “K106” brand, staff, and Brian James as the imaging voice.
KIOC’s short stint in the format was the first — and still only — attempt at a commercial modern rock outlet in the market. In the following year, 1997, it returned to top 40, but as a rhythmic top 40 in “Hot 106,” which also was short-lived as it flipped again to rock “Rock 106” by the end of that year.
Related: Waco TX
Another current long-running CHR, KWTX-FM moved to CHR in early 1985. Originally, KWTX-FM and its AM sister KWTX 1230 were co-owned with CBS affiliate KWTX-TV 10. Although the norm for when former radio and TV combos were split apart to different owners was for one group to change calls, all three stations retain the KWTX calls today despite the radio and TV properties no longer being co-owned. Though in KWTX-FM’s case, they’ve only used them on-air for the hourly legal ID for decades.
The big Waco FM signals, including KWTX-FM, and all the Waco/Temple TV signals broadcast from a tower farm near Moody TX between Waco and Temple, covering both Waco, Killeen/Temple, and Fort Cavazos (formally Fort Hood). Although fairly close together and one TV market, Waco and Killeen/Temple are considered two radio markets since each metro also has smaller stations with facilities that do not reach both.
The theme of this aircheck is remakes. Five of the twelve songs are remakes — “To Love Somebody,” “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home),” “Am I The Same Girl?,” “In The Still Of The Nite,” and “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted.” Billboard Hot 100 chart trivia: After 17 years of hits, “How About That” was the last time Bad Company cracked the top 40 on the Hot 100 chart.
At this point in 1994, Maui rocker KAOI-FM 95.1 "Ka `oi" had relays in Honolulu via KGMZ 107.9 and Hilo via KAOE 92.7. Those stations have long broken away from KAOI-FM with KGMZ now classic hits KKOL-FM “Decades 107.9” and KAOE now hot AC KHBC “the Wave.” KAOI-FM itself flipped to AC “I-FM” in 2000 and then to AAA "Ka'oi FM" in 2010. A few weeks ago, it flipped to country KIXK “Kix 95.1” after a sale to a new owner.
If the Hawaiian dictionaries are correct, “ka `oi" means “the best.” This aircheck might be slightly short of the standard as the station was not tightly produced — dead air at times, the odd abrupt stopping of Pink Floyd’s “Hey You” a few seconds into it to play “Comfortably Numb” instead, etc.
At this point in 1994, KLHI-FM had flipped from AC to classic hits. While most classic hits outlets on the mainland had phased out a lot of the 1950s songs from their libraries, the 1950s were still part of the mix on KLHI-FM as “Maui’s Oldies Station.”
After this aircheck, KLHI-FM would go on to later flip to modern rock “the Point.” In 2007, the 101.1 signal was relocated to Waianae on Oahu to target Honolulu as KORL-FM, running a variety format of Japanese-language programming, brokered, and overnight smooth jazz programming as “Coral 101.1FM”; the KLHI-FM calls and then-modern rock format moved to a new signal on Maui, 92.5 Kahului. Presently, the 101.1 signal is running classic hits again, though 1970s and 1980s-based.
Related: Alexandria LA, KQID, 93.1 Alexandria LA
As noted way back in RTWBT #5, KQID signed on 17 September 1978.
The station has only ever had the KQID calls. In the mid-1990s, it rebranded from its long-time “93QID” brand heard on the aircheck to “Q93.” Running CHR for decades now, it remains “Q93” today.
For this aircheck back in the day, there were a solid CHR, particularly for such a very small market.
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.