Radio This Week Back Then #55: February 9-15
WAVA DC's farewell, KTFM "Hot KTFM 103" and KSMG "Magic 105FM" San Antonio, WWHT "Hot 107.9"
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:
Washington | CHR WAVA-FM 105.1’s farewell
San Antonio | rhythmic CHR KTFM 102.7 “Hot KTFM 103,” oldies KSMG 105.3 “Magic 105FM”
Syracuse | CHR WWHT 107.9 “Hot 107.9”
Happy listening and reading!
Related: Washington DC
This week back in 1992, after “8 years, 107 days, 5 hours, 1 minute, 54 seconds,” WAVA signed off as a CHR as it changed hands from a financially struggling Emmis to Christian radio operator Salem. As long time rival WRQX 107.3 had already moved to hot AC “Mix 107.3” in 1990, the sign-off left the DC market without a CHR until WWZZ 104.1 “Z104” signed on in 1996.
This aircheck covers the last 80 minutes of WAVA that allows the staff to say goodbye and then rolls into a long montage of old clips, jingles, etc. After the montage, the station says goodbye playing Night Ranger’s 1985 ballad “Goodbye” before being turned over to Salem, which would then flip WAVA to religious programming.
Salem, itself facing financial challenges in recent years, has spun off real estate, non-core businesses, and quite a few radio stations in the last few years. It’s most recent sale of stations being sold off included its contemporary Christian WFSH-FM 104.7 in the Atlanta market to Christian broadcaster K-Love. In an odd full circle moment, as part of WFSH-FM’s sign off two weeks ago before Salem turned it over, their last song was also Night Ranger’s “Goodbye.”
Side A of the cassette audio:
Side B of the cassette audio:
Presently, WAVA-FM is still owned by Salem and running Christian talk and preaching.
Related: San Antonio, KTFM, 102.7 San Antonio
KTFM was the FM spin-off of legendary top 40 outlet KTSA 550. KTFM would continue the top 40 legacy when it moved from AC to the top 40 format in 1983 and evolved to a rhythmic CHR by the end of the 1980s, which is when this aircheck is from. At the time, San Antonio had a three-way CHR race between KITY 92.9 “Power 93,” KSAQ 96.1 “Q96,” and KTFM. KTFM would outlive those two by a decade, flipping to rock KSRX “102.7 K-Rock” in 2003. KSRX had a brief run and flipped to its present day adult hits KJXK “102.7 Jack FM” identity in 2006.
The KTFM calls were picked up in 2005 when regional Mexican KLEY-FM 94.1 flipped to rhythmic oldies “Jammin’ 94-1” under the KTFM calls. KTFM evolved to top 40, reuniting the calls with the top 40 format it was long associated with. It kept the calls but changed branding to “Energy 94-1” in 2016. In 2022, it flipped to sports, but retains the KTFM calls. Today, both KJXK and KTFM are co-owned as part of Alpha Media’s San Antonio cluster.
This aircheck features the final songs of that week’s local “Hot 30 Countdown” with Dr. Drex.
Related: San Antonio
After being upgraded to cover the San Antonio market, the former KWED-FM Seguin became gold-based AC KSMG “Magic 105” in March 1985. It would add playing oldies at night and then converted full-time to oldies in 1988. In 1990, it got a FM format rival when long time rocker KISS-FM 99.5’s new owners shockingly flipped it to oldies “99.5 Kiss FM, Oldies Radio.” Another competitor emerged soon after that as well when progressive KFAN-FM 101.1 became KONO-FM to give longtime oldies KONO 860 a FM signal, creating a rare three FM station oldies format battle.
The new oldies format on KISS-FM was a flop, and KSMG’s owners were able to LMA it at the end of 1991. KISS-FM temporarily simulcasted KSMG before reverting to its heritage rock format, leaving KSMG and KONO-FM to fight it out. KSMG would drop out of the battle in 1995 when it flipped to hot AC. Through mergers and consolidation, KISS-FM, KONO-FM, and KSMG are now all commonly owned by Cox Media.
At the end of 2023, KSMG rebranded its hot AC format as “Hits 105.3.” With crosstown KXXM 96.1 dropping CHR for bilingual gold-based AC in November, KSMG shifted towards top 40 “Hits 105.3, San Antonio’s Hottest Music” to fill the void.
Related: Syracuse
Back in April 1993, easy listening WRHP 107.9 flipped to country WHEN-FM. Crosstown classic rock WKFM 104.7 also flipped to country, as WBBS “B104.7,” the day after. In the ramped up radio mergers and consolidations of the 1990s, WBBS and WHEN-FM came under common ownership in 1996, leading WHEN-FM to flip to CHR WWHT 107.9 “Hot 107.9” at 12:11PM on 10 June 1996 after a weekend of stunting. Both stations remain in their respective formats and brands today as part of iHeart’s Syracuse cluster.
This aircheck from 1999 is from the end of the morning drive show into middays.
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.