Radio This Week Back Then #68: May 11-17
This week: Modern WUBA “Radio 104-5” Philly's first day, CHR CFGO “Energy 1200” Ottawa, CHR KRQQ “KRQ” Tucson, rock CHR KXKT “Kat” Omaha, CHR KNIN-FM "Rockin' 92-9" Wichita Falls
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:
Philadelphia | modern rock WUBA “Radio 104-5” first day (2007)
Ottawa | CHR CFGO “Hot New Energy 1200” (1996)
Tucson | CHR KRQQ “93.7KRQ” (1997)
Omaha | rock CHR KXKT “the Kat” (1992)
Wichita Falls | CHR KNIN-FM “Rockin’ 92-9” (1990)
This week also happens to be the 50th anniversary of KNIN-FM’s first air date. As well, with this group of airchecks, the 500 aircheck threshold has been crossed. As always, see the aircheck index page to see the full list of previously posted audio. Happy reading and listening!
Related: Philadelphia
About The Station
Presently modern rock WRFF, the 104.5 facility began life as the FM offshoot of MOR WRCP 1540 in 1966.
Aircheck
This week back in 2007, the short-lived Spanish tropical “Rumba 104.5” on WUBA 104.5 was moved to clustermate WDAS 1480, with 104.5 flipping to modern rock “Radio 104-5.” This aircheck is from that first day of the modern rock format. WUBA would change calls to the present day WRFF calls the following week.
The modern rock format is still running today, rebranded as “Alt 104.5” in 2020 to follow the use of the “Alt” brand on other iHeart-owned modern rock outlets around the country.
Audio
Aircheck Log
Related: Ottawa
CHR on AM stations largely disappeared in the US in the 1980s as listeners moved to FM top 40 stations. With former CRTC rules regulating the amount of contemporary hit music content allowed on FM stations continuing into the 1990s, CHR was able to continue as an AM station format in Canadian markets well into the 1990s.
Ottawa’s 1200’s final run with the top 40 format ran from 1986 until 1998. For most of the run, it was under the CFGO calls. It rebranded as CJBZ “the Buzz” in 1997, and the CHR days ended when it flipped to sports “OSR1200, Ottawa Sports Radio” in 1998.
Aircheck
This aircheck from 1996 comes about a year before the CJBZ rebrand.
Audio
Aircheck Log
About The Station
KRQQ’s history dates back to 1971, when it signed as KXEW-FM, bringing Spanish-language programming to the Tucson FM dial as the sister to “Radio Fiesta” KXEW 1600. It was sold in 1977, and the new owners converted it to top 40 under the KRQQ calls, which it still is almost 48 years later.
Aircheck
This is a Friday PM drive aircheck from this week in 1997.
Audio
Aircheck Log
Related: Omaha
The KXKT calls and “Kat” brand are now 35 years old … almost all of it as a country outlet. KXKT actually began life as a CHR, when then-AC KOMJ flipped to top 40 “the Kat” on 14 March 1990 to take on CHR monster KQKQ-FM 98.5 “Sweet 98.” KXKT later evolved to a top 40/rock hybrid and then flipped to country “K103, the Kat” on 6 October 1992. KXKT remains country “Kat 103.7” today.
Aircheck
This aircheck comes from the top 40/rock days in 1992, about 5 months before KXKT flipped to country. At the time, it had a mix of rock, some gold rock, alternative, and a bit of pop.
Audio
Aircheck Log
Related: Wichita Falls, KNIN, 92.9 Wichita Falls
About The Station
KNIN-FM signed on 50 years ago this week, on Monday, 12 May 1975, as easy listening KBID.
The present day KNIN-FM calls came in 1981 when the owners of KNIN 990 bought KBID and changed the calls. For most of its 50 years, KNIN-FM has run a top 40 format.
Aircheck
The aircheck comes from this week 35 years ago. KNIN-FM had been running top 40 since 1983 through various on-air branding. At this point, they were branded as “Rockin’ 92-9 KNIN.” That name came from a shift to a rock-leaning top 40 format the prior year as cross-town rival KKQV 103.3 “QV103” (now co-owned clustermate country KWFS-FM, now at 102.3) had shifted to a dance and rhythmic top 40 approach. QV103 folded two months before this aircheck, flipping to SMN’s Pure Gold oldies format as KWFS-FM — thus “the battle is over” references in the imaging on this aircheck. As a result, KNIN-FM had started shifting back to a more mainstream top 40 format. KNIN-FM would eventually drop the “Rockin’ 92-9 KNIN” handle in favor of “Power 92-9 KNIN.”
Also on this aircheck, KNIN-FM gave its legal ID as “KNIN-FM Wichita Falls-Lawton OK.” If you are true radio geek, you may have noticed from its current signal contour above, it does not really reach Lawton today. It did back then… I recorded this aircheck from northern Dallas back then when KNIN-FM had a much bigger signal — 1198’ (365m) 100 kw — that covered both the Wichita Falls and the Lawton markets. KNIN-FM was downgraded from a class C to a class C1 in 2010, and it recently lost more coverage when it became co-located with co-owned KWFS-FM and KBZS 106.3 on the same tower. As current owner Townsquare has 3 others FMs (KZCD 94.1, KLAW 101.3, KVRW 107.3) in the Lawton market, KNIN-FM and KWFS-FM have been essentially downgraded to barely above class C2 facilities to remove potential signal overlaps with the Lawton cluster in order to not run over FCC ownership caps.
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.
The additional KNIN songs:
"Nothing Compares 2 U"--Sinead O'Connor
"Should've Known Better"--Richard Marx
"Shake"--Andrew Ridgley (the guy in Wham! who wasn't George Michael--song was a stiff)
"I Wish It Would Rain Down"--Phil Collins (I hope)