Radio This Week Back Then #66: April 27-May 3
This week: Dance WQHT 103.5 "Hot 103" New York, top 40 KINT-FM 97.5 "Kint 98" El Paso
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.
Radio audio, history, and musings from radio this week back then…
New York | Dance WQHT 103.5 “Hot 103” (1987)
El Paso | Top 40 KINT-FM 97.5 “Kint 98” (1982)
Happy reading and listening!
Related: New York, 103.5 New York
About
Presently rhythmic AC WKTU “103-5KTU,” the 103.5 facility signed on in 1958 as WTFM, a FM simulcast to WGLI 1290.
Aircheck
For this aircheck back in 1987, WQHT had signed on the previous summer when Emmis closed on the purchase of WAPP and changed its format to dance. From the profile in the 22 August 1986 Radio & Records1:
Emmis has converted WAPP/New York to a New York version of its Urban-slanted hybrid KPWR/Los Angeles, surprising many market observers who had predicted a Classic Rock approach for the station. … “We’re calling it ‘The Hot 103.5,’” says WAPP VP/GM Stuart Layne, describing the changes Friday (8/15) in which WAPP became WQHT.
Layne described WQHT’s format as similar to KPWR, adding, “It is, of course, researched and designed for New York. Basically, New York is a very conservative music market. Even though there are two terrific CHR stations here, they are (musically) conservative CHRs.”
30-40% New Music
“At any given time, between 30 and 40% of our music will be new to the marketplace. We’ll either be breaking music way ahead of the CHRs or we’ll be playing dance club-type music. The whole sound of the station is based on upbeat, energetic music. We can jump on music because we have a sound to fit, as opposed to reacting to sales or airplay in other markets.”
In line with the R&R article, the music in this aircheck was a mix of pop tracks that would have been shared with then CHR rivals WPLJ 95.5 and WHTZ 100.3 “Z100” and a lot of dance tracks that appeared on the dance and club charts, but never appeared on the pop charts.
The intellectual property of WQHT and country WYNY 97.1 swapped facilities the following year in 1988. At its present home on 97.1, WQHT “Hot 97” shifted from this dance-driven approach to its more familiar R&B and hip hop format in the early 1990s.
Audio
Aircheck Log
About
Presently regional Mexican KBNA-FM, the 97.5 facility signed on in September 1969 as KINT-FM, the new FM sister to top 40 KINT 1590. KINT was a daytimer, so KINT-FM simulcasted the top 40 format during the day and then played progressive rock in the evening after KINT’s sunset sign off.
Dating back to April 1959, the KINT calls have had a fair amount of value in the market as they have been recycled after their original run on KINT 1590 and KINT-FM 97.5.
Presently, the calls are used by Univision KINT-TV 26 (RF25) “Univision 26” and clustermate Spanish-language adult hits KINT-FM 93.9 “La Suavecita.”
Aircheck
This aircheck comes from the evening of 3 May 1982 with DJ Skipper T Thomas. The audio was heavily scoped when I got a copy many years ago, so I don’t have the unscoped version to build out a log. This is toward the end of KINT-FM’s top 40 run as it flipped to AC KYSR-FM “KYS, Kiss” a few months later in August 1982. KYSR was not very successful ratings-wise, and a sale ended the format in 1985. The KYSR calls went unused after that in the US until September 1992 when soft AC KXEZ 98.7 Los Angeles picked them up, where they calls remain today.
Audio
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 respective owners.
“Emmis Turns WAPP Into Hot 103.5,” Radio & Records, 22 August 1986. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Archive-RandR/1980s/1986/RR-1986-08-22.pdf