Radio This Week Back Then #67: May 4-10
KRBE-FM Houston and KSMG "Magic 105.3" San Antonio from 1997. WAVF "96 Wave" and WALC "100.5 the Drive" Charleston SC from 2006.
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:
Houston | CHR KRBE-FM 104.1 (1997)
San Antonio | hot AC KSMG 105.3 “Magic 105.3” (1997)
Charleston SC | modern WAVF 96.1 “96 Wave” and AAA WALC 100.5 “100.5 the Drive” (2006)
Happy reading and listening!
Related: Houston, KRBE, 104.1 Houston
Having lived in Texas a long time — and KRBE’s top 40 format has been ongoing for four decades now — I have three dozen KRBE airchecks, dating back to ones I taped in high school. So, they have and will continue to show up here pretty regularly. This is the 8th aircheck revisited, so KRBE’s history has been detailed before — way back in edition 21.
Aircheck
This aircheck from 1997 is about a year after KRBE returned to mainstream top 40 after it ran a modern rock/CHR hybrid format from 1994 through July 1996. The 1994-1996 was one of my favorite KRBE eras, but they were still on their game in 1997.
Audio
Aircheck Log
Related: San Antonio, KSMG, 105.3 San Antonio
For the background on KSMG, see edition 55.
Aircheck
KSMG moved from oldies to hot AC is in 1995, retaining the “Magic 105.3” brand. This aircheck comes about 2 years into the format.
Audio
Aircheck Log
Related: Charleston SC
WAVF signed on in 1985 as a class C1, licensed to Hanahan SC, serving Charleston. It’s rock format evolved to a pretty decent locally programmed modern rock format.
It also was part of one of the most confusing set of engineering changes that actually sees the 96.1 facility now exist in the Myrtle Beach market today. In September 2008, it was part of a couple of engineering changes designed to allow what was then WWBD 95.7 Bamburg SC to relocate into the Charleston market. WWBD did so by upgrading to a class C2 on 95.9 and changing city of license to Isle of Palms. To make way, WAVF’s 96.1 facility was relocated to the Myrtle Beach market via a city of license change to Forestbrook SC and a downgrade from a class C1 to class C2. But…coming the other way was WKZQ-FM 101.7 Myrtle Beach — which was moved to the Charleston market and its city of license changed to Hanahan to “continue service” to that town. The intellectual property of both WKZQ-FM and WAVF were then swapped to keep the formats in their respective markets. For local Charleston listeners, WAVF appeared to just move up the dial from 96.1 to 101.7, and, in Myrtle Beach, it appeared to listeners that WKZQ-FM moved from 101.7 to 96.1. The Charleston 101.7 spot only freed up since WMGL 101.7 Ravenel SC had previously moved to 107.3 after WNKT 107.5 St George downgraded and moved up I-26 to Eastover SC to target the Columbia market.
Aircheck
This aircheck comes from 2006 toward the end of “96 Wave”’s modern rock run. WAVF ran the format with a bigger library than a lot of alternative stations in other markets. In the following year, 2007, WAVF flipped to adult hits “96.1 Chuck FM.” The intellectual property moved to WKZQ-FM’s relocated 101.7 signal in 2008, which it remains today.
Audio
Aircheck Log
Related: Charleston SC
The current 100.5 facility originally signed on as soft AC WSUY “Sunny,” a class A at 100.7. In the early 1990s, it upgraded to a class C3 and moved to 100.5. After a series of consolidations and sales in the market, WSUY became part of the Jacor cluster that included oldies WXLY 102.5, country WEZL 103.5, and classic hits WRFQ 104.5. The WSUY calls and intellectual property moved to smooth jazz WJZK 96.9, which became part of a cluster containing R&B WWWZ 93.3, top 40 WSSX-FM 95.1, adult R&B WMGL 101.7, and country WBUB 107.5. With the WSUY intellectual property moved to WJZK, 100.5 flipped to modern AC WLLC “Alice 100.5.” It gained the WALC calls in 1998 after 104.1 St Louis dropped them and its “Alice” format for rock as WXTM. In 2000, WALC shifted from modern AC to hot AC. A couple of years later it shifted to “100.5 the Drive,” running AAA. Clear Channel spun it off to the religious-based Radio Training Network in 2009. Today, it runs contemporary Christian as “His Radio,” simulcast to the northwest of the market on WZLC 88.5.
Aircheck
This aircheck is from the AAA “100.5 the Drive” days.
Audio
Aircheck Log
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.