The Eagle Has Landed. The Eagle Has Landed Again. And Again.
KEGL 97.1 Dallas/Fort Worth relaunched the "97.1 the Eagle" brand today. Let's listen to when the brand was relaunched in June 1992. And again in December 2007. And again today.
After 18 months, with the sports/hot talk format branded as “97-1 the Freak” largely a dud in the ratings, KEGL 97.1 owner iHeart reversed course and flipped the station back to its long time “97.1 the Eagle” branding this morning.
The Eagle has had more comebacks than the McRib at MacDonald’s at this point. So, for a little bit of D/FW radio history fun, let’s revisit and listen to each of the attempts.
June 15 1992: Relaunch of The Top 40-Rock Format
KEGL and “The Eagle” brand was originally hatched in 1981. For most of the 1980s, KEGL was a rock-leaning top 40 outlet. Click here for audio from its rock-leaning CHR days from 1982, 1987, and 1988 from a previous Substack I posted earlier this month. Towards the end of 1989 and into 1990, KEGL shifted from those roots to a more mainstream top 40 outlet with more dance and rhythmic songs added to the mix.
In mid-June 1992, they decided to reverse course and return KEGL back to its rock-leaning roots. The airstaff, including morning jock Kidd Kraddick, were let go and KEGL went into stunt mode playing songs from The Eagles all weekend. (If memory serves me, I vaguely remember it repeating “Hotel California” at first before adding other songs from The Eagles). On the morning of Monday, June 15th, the top 40-rock hybrid was relaunched.
In hindsight, this was probably not the best decision. Nationally, the top 40 format was hemorrhaging outlets between poor music product and the splintering of the format as stations fled to hot AC or modern rock or other formats. In D/FW, that left the market without a mainstream CHR, which got filled several months later when smooth jazz KOAI 106.1 “106.1 the Oasis” flipped back to its top 40 “Kiss FM” roots in November as KHKS. (Note: KHKS and KEGL are now co-owned; at the time, they were not and competitors). With Kraddick free, he landed there and the station — and his soon-to-be syndicated morning show — took off. KEGL would bring in the syndicated Howard Stern show to fill mornings and finally jettison the remaining top 40 product and become a full time AOR the following summer on July 24 1993.
Steve Miller Band/”Fly Like An Eagle”
Top 40-rock Format Launch
Legal ID: KEGL 97.1 Fort Worth-Dallas
Guns N’ Roses/”November Rain”
ZZ Top /”Legs”
Genesis/”I Can’t Dance”
Annie Lennox/”Why”
Poison/”Nothin’ But A Good Time”
Mr. Big/”To Be With You”
The Neville Brothers/”Fly Like An Eagle”
Queensrÿche/”Silent Lucidity”
John Mellencamp/”Again Tonight”
The Cure/”Friday I’m In Love”
Prince/”1999”
The Black Crowes/”Remedy”
Legal ID: KEGL 97.1 Fort Worth-Dallas
Tom Cochrane/”Life Is A Highway”
Howard Jones/”Lift Me Up”
RTZ/”Until Your Loves Comes Back Around”
Don Henley/”Dirty Laundry”
Bryan Adams/”Thought I’d Died And Gone To Heaven”
December 18 2007: Relaunch of The Rock Format
July 24 1993 - May 18 2004 would be the run of the first incarnation of KEGL's rock format with KEGL flipping to soft AC "Sunny 97-1." That lasted a little over a year as Clear Channel (now iHeart) tried rolling out a Spanish oldies/adult hits format branded as "La Preciosa" across some of its outlets across the country. KEGL flipped to that format in August 2005.
KEGL kept with that until it flipped to all-Christmas December 1 2007 and then began stunting December 18 for the 10AM re-launch of "the Eagle." This aircheck is the final minutes of stunting and then the return of the rock format. Deja vu: “November Rain” made the cut here and the relaunch above.
End of Stunting/Rock Format Launch
Ozzy Osbourne/”Flying High Again”
Linkin Park/”Bleed It Out”
Metallica/”Enter Sandman”
AC/DC/”For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)”
Three Days Grace/”Never Too Late”
Van Halen/”You Really Got Me”
Alter Bridge/”Rise Today”
Led Zeppelin/”Rock & Roll”
Seether/”Fake It”
Staind/”It’s Been Awhile”
Jimi Hendrix/”All Along The Watchtower”
Pearl Jam/”Alive”
Mötley Crüe/”Kickstart My Heart”
Legal ID: KEGL 97.1 Fort Worth-Dallas
Breaking Benjamin/”So Cold”
Tool/”The Pot”
Guns N’ Roses/”November Rain”
Today, April 29 2024: Relaunch of The Rock Format
After stunting with songs containing the word “freak” in their titles, on October 3 2022, KEGL drop the rock format again and flipped to a hot talk/sports hybrid as “97-1 the Freak.” Despite including a roster of talent that included some well-known market names from popular sports outlet KTCK-FM/AM 96.7/1310 “the Ticket,” ratings were, well, freakishly below expectations. The plug was pulled last Friday with KEGL filling time with talk from other iHeart outlets or sports betting-related programming from the VSiN radio network. After carrying the Dallas Mavericks playoff game Sunday night, KEGL went into stunt mode promoting the 10AM Monday debut of a new format.
With snippets of 90s rock, the sound of an eagle squawking, and the the promise of a “landing” Monday morning, it was pretty well telegraphed the rock format and “97-1 the Eagle” brand would return yet again.
Indeed, at 10AM, the Eagle was rocking again. At least on this first day, the format is more of a harder-edged classic rock outlet centered on the 1990s and 2000s. 85% of the songs of played in the first two hours were more than 20 years old and there were no current or new songs released in the last year or two.
Here is the final minutes of the stunting and the first two hours of the return of “the Eagle."
Metallica/”Master Of Puppets” (1986)
AC/DC/”Back In Black” (1980)
Foo Fighters/”Best Of You” (2005)
Alice In Chains/”Man In The Box” (1991)
Three Days Grace/”I Hate Everything About You” (2003)
Pantera/”Walk” (1992)
Puddle Of Mudd/”Blurry” (2001)
Guns N’ Roses/”Paradise City” (1989)
Evanescence/”Bring Me To Life” (2003)
The Offspring/”Come Out And Play” (1994)
Green Day/”Holiday” (2005)
Stone Temple Pilots/”Plush” (1993)
Legal ID: KEGL 97.1 Fort Worth-Dallas
Metallica/”Enter Sandman” (1991)
POD/”Youth Of The Nation” (2001)
Ozzy Osbourne/”Crazy Train” (1980)
Linkin Park/”One Step Closer” (2000)
Nirvana/”Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991)
Staind/”Outside” (2001)
Rob Zombie/”Dragula” (1998)
Giovannie & The Hired Guns/”Ramon Ayala” (2021)
I stopped recording the over the air broadcast at this point. The next two songs were:
Pearl Jam/”Alive”
Mötley Crüe/”Kickstart My Heart”
Deja vu all over: Those two were played back to back in the 2007 relaunch above as well.
When KEGL flipped to “97-1 the Freak,” the rock format and “97-1 the Eagle” brand were downgraded to the HD2 subchannel of 97.1 and an on-line stream. With “97-1 the Eagle” brand back on the main channel, the HD2 is now modern rock “the Edge,” which lost its spot on the HD2 of co-owned AC KDGE 102.1 when it was flipped to bilingual AC “Magic” several months ago.
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.