Radio This Week Back Then #51: January 12-18
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 features a couple stations not yet previously featured:
Salt Lake City | modern rock KHTB 94.9 “Alt 94-9”
New Orleans | CHR KLRZ 100.3 “Z100”
One thing in common to both is that they are each rimshots from the south end of their markets. As always, happy listening and reading!
Licensed to Provo, the 94.9 facility targets Salt Lake City to the north, but lacks a city grade signal over the northern part of the market around Ogden.
The facility is probably best known from its days as top 40 KZHT. Originally branded as “Hot 94-9,” in the early 1990s, it shifted to a rhythmic lean before reverting to mainstream top 40 "94-9ZHT, Today's Hit Music." For several months in late 1991, KZHT was temporarily simulcast to the north end of the market via simulcast on KRPN 107.9 Roy between that station’s oldies “WKRP” format and running SMN’s Z-Rock hard rock format under the KZQQ calls.
At the end of 2003, the KZHT intellectual property moved to then-sister — and full market signal — KISN 97.1 Salt Lake City, which flipped from hot AC “97-1 Kiss FM” to top 40 “97-1ZHT.” The 94.9 signal flipped to rock KHTB “94-9 the Blaze,” which later rebranded as “94-9 Z-Rock.” In September 2013, KHTB shifted to modern rock “Alt 94-9, Everything Alternative.” This aircheck comes four months into the modern rock format.
Like “ZHT,” “Alt” was also later relocated to a better signal. In 2015, the KHTB calls and modern rock format moved to the former KENZ 101.9 as “Alt 101-9.” 94.9 became classic hip hop “94.9 the Vibe” and took the KENZ calls. The CHR format made a return to 94.9 in 2017 when KENZ flipped to CHR “Power 94-9.” In October 2019, sister KHTB dropped the modern rock format to simulcast KENZ, with the new combo branded as “Power 94.9/101.9.”
Related: New Orleans
KLRZ signed on in the early 1990s as a rimshot well away from New Orleans. Licensed to Larose, the 100.3 facility was significantly handicapped against full market signals.
I recorded this aircheck of their CHR format from a trip to New Orleans in January 1995. At this time, it had the challenge of going up against long-time CHR WEZB 97.1 “B97.” Production wise, it was put together pretty well. Musically, it seemed to jump early on new singles — most that never ended up charting on the national charts.
The CHR scene got a big shake up in 1995 in the market. WEZB flipped to talk with Howard Stern mornings. KHOM 104.1 dropped its oldies format to fill the void as CHR “Mix 104.1.” KHOM was also a rimshot, but as a full class C with its 2000’ tower closer to the city, it covered far more population than KLRZ’s C1 facilities did. (The 104.1 facility was destroyed in 2021’ and the 104.1 signal was re-allocated to the Baton Rouge market. More in RTWBT45 under the KHOM section that week).
In June 1996, WEZB dropped talk and flipped to a hot AC/adult top 40 format. With KHOM and now WEZB making for a more crowded space, KLRZ dropped CHR the following week and flipped to classic rock on 14 June 1996.
Three years and a half years later, KLRZ flipped to Cajun/swamp pop/Zydeco as “the Rajun’ Cajun.” After a decade and half, KLRZ flipped to ESPN sports on 1 January 2014, with the Cajun format remaining on former simulcast KLEB 1600 Golden Meadow. Two months ago, after a period of stunting, KLRZ dropped sports for R&B “Streetz 100.3.”
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts. Similarly, other data (charts, ratings, etc.) belong to their owners.