Radio This Week Back Then #56: February 16-22
Soft AC WFEZ "Easy 93.1" Miami, CHR WZYQ "Z104" Frederick, country KAGG "Aggie 96" Bryan/College Station, CHR KNOE-FM "FM102" Monroe, AC KLBQ "Q99" El Dorado
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 brings a potpourri of formats and markets:
Miami | soft AC WFEZ “Easy 93.1”
Frederick MD | top 40 WZYQ “Z104”
Bryan/College Station | country KAGG “Aggie 96”
Monroe | top 40 KNOE-FM “All Hits FM102”
El Dorado AR | AC KLBQ “Q99”
Happy reading and listening!
Related: Miami
Before WFEZ, the 93.1 spot on the Miami dial was probably best known for its three decade run as classical WTMI. It was purchased by Cox in 2001 for $100M — as part of buying WTMI and a few other stations in the Northeast from Marlin Broadcasting for $125M and Cox then selling back those Northeast stations for $25M. WTMI would join Cox’s Miami cluster of WFLC 97.3, WEDR 99.1, and WHQT 105.1. Initially, Cox had pledged to protect the format, but although profitable, well-rated, and grossing $6M in revenue, it trailed younger-skewing R&B WEDR, which was grossing $17.6M.1 With WTMI costing $100M, an aging classical music demographic was not going to provide a return on that investment very quickly.
On New Year’s Eve 2001, Cox flipped WTMI to dance as WPYM “Party 93.1, South Florida's Pure Dance Channel.” WPYM lasted a couple of years; it then flipped to rock WHDR “93 Rock” in 2005. Finally, in November 2010, after years of middling ratings, WHDR gave way to soft AC WFEZ “Easy 93.1,” which brought success and listeners back to 93.1.
This aircheck from this week back in 2019 is from WFEZ’s morning drive show.
Related: Frederick MD, 103.9 Frederick
WZYQ’s top 40 days date back to its AM sister, WZYQ 1370 (now WSHE at 820), which ran top 40 as “14ZYQ.” The FM evolved from top 40 simulcaster to originator under the “Z104” handle. However, the days of serving as a local outlet in the Frederick market came to an end in 1995 when WZYQ was purchased and turned into WXVR, a relay of Washington DC rimshot oldies WXTR-FM 104.1 “Xtra 104.” The 104.1 facility aimed at DC from its southeast, and the WXVR’s 103.9 facility added some coverage to the northwest side of the DC market.
The “Z104” handle got resurrected when the pair flipped to top 40 WWZZ/WWVZ “Z104, Today’s Hit Music” in the summer of 1996. The pair flipped to classical WGMS/WGYS in January 2006 and then to adult hits “George 104” a year later in January 2007. “George” only had a brief lifespan as the 104.1 signal was sold and the 104.1/103.9 simulcast ended with the end of common ownership. 104.1 became black gospel WPRS-FM “Praise 104.1” while 103.9 began relaying sister news WTOP 103.5 Washington under the WTLP calls, which remains its present format.
This aircheck is from 1992, still serving as a local Frederick outlet.
KAGG’s history is pretty brief: It signed on Saturday, 2 December 1990 as a brand new signal as country “Aggie 96” and has maintained the call letters, format, or branding ever since. The name comes, of course, from Texas A&M University in College Station, whose students and sports teams are known as Aggies.
This aircheck comes from a Tuesday evening two and half months after KAGG signed on. It was a pretty good station back then, sounding bigger than B/CS’s much smaller market size was back then. The one big change from then to now was it was live and local then; all shifts today are originate from out of state (Nashville, St Louis, Atlanta).
Although some places show KNOE-FM’s sign on as occurring in 1967, it signed on before then. The local paper, Monroe News-Star, started carrying program listings for it in June 1966. According to it, KNOE-FM was on the air 6AM-Midnight and most of the day was programmed with “full-time stereo pop-standard music with light classical, Broadway. News on the hour.” KNOE-FM was the off-shoot of KNOE 540 and CBS KNOE-TV 8. The call letters referred to businessman and one-time Louisiana Governor James Noe, who owned the stations in Monroe and WNOE-AM/FM in New Orleans. The outlets were run by Noe’s son for decades, and the Noe family sold off the Monroe AM, FM, and TV outlets between 2006-2008.
This aircheck comes from KNOE-FM’s top 40 “FM102” days of the early 1990s. KNOE-FM often branded as some “FM102” variation — “FM102,” FM102 Rocks,” “All Hits FM102” — before shifting to hot AC in March 1993 as "Mix 102.” It would shift back to top 40 “FM102” soon after and then rebranded the top 40 format as “Star 101.9” around 2006-2007. In 2013, KNOE-FM dropped top 40 and flipped to adult R&B KMVX “Mix 101.9,” which it remains today.
Very small market radio sometimes allows for radio stations that don’t fit conventional labels. Ostensibly, KLBQ was top 40 “Q99” in the 1980s, but shifted towards AC by the late 1980s. Some old radio directories showed it a CHR in the 1990s, while Broadcasting Yearbook listed it as both AC and CHR for years. Perhaps the old SRDS Spot Radio & Rates guide had it best nailed down — “adult contemporary mixed with 20% gold top 40.”
From this aircheck I taped passing through this weekend in 1992, KLBQ is a bit of a train wreck with a lot of gold, some current AC, some current pop, and odd throwbacks for an AC like Ratt’s “Round & Round” (preceded by what seemed to be old 1980s era “nothin’ but the hits” top 40 imaging).
At the time, KLBQ was on its original class A allocation at 99.3. It later upgraded to a C3 with a move to 98.7. Presently, it is adult R&B KMLK.
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.
“Future Of Classic Radio In South Florida Up In The Air,” The Miami Herald, 23 December 2001.