Worth A Listen: KBSO 94.7 "Retro 94.7" Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi's "Retro" Gets A New Signal, But It Still Sounds Like South Texas. And From The Archives: Retro KZFM.
Top 40 radio in Corpus Christi has generally had a rhythmic bent to it, particularly with KZFM 95.5 “Hot Z95” as the format leader for decades now. Locally owned, KZFM, as its liners used to say, “sounds like South Texas.” Oddly, the market’s classic hits stations have not had that same lean to it — whether it was KLTG 96.5’s oldies format in the 1990s or the present day classic hits format on iHeart’s KMXR 93.9 “Big 93-9” — until “Retro 104.1” debuted a couple of years ago on KCCT 1150 and its FM translator K281AV 104.1. It helps that KCCT PD Ed Oconas formally worked at KZFM (as referenced in one of the KZFM airchecks below).
With the start of the new year, the format got a signal upgrade by moving from the AM/low power FM translator combo to the bigger signal of co-owned KBSO 94.7, which dropped its Texas/Red Dirt format. KCCT/K281AV became classic Tejano “Retro Tejano 104.1,” itself a format not heard in many places.
So, let’s compare KBSO and KMXR and also go “retro” for a couple of airchecks of KZFM back in the day.
KBSO vs KMXR
Not surprisingly, iHeart’s KMXR sounds more like a pretty typical classic hits station you can hear in any market. With out-of-market voice tracking, it literally could be in any market. Here is how KMXR sounded on Monday, January 15 2024 at 9:15AM:
John Mellencamp/“Jack and Diane”
Cheap Trick/“I Want You To Want Me”
Richard Marx/“Right Here Waiting”
ZZ Top/“Sharp Dressed Man”
Eric Carmen/“Hungry Eyes”
Tom Petty/“Free Fallin’”
Cyndi Lauper/“Girls Just Want To Have Fun”
Bon Jovi/“You Give Love A Bad Name”
Mathew Wilder/“Break My Stride”
Fleetwood Mac/“Dreams”
Berlin/“Take My Breath Away”
Outside a few rock and pop tunes sprinkled in here and there, KBSO is distinctly different which a lot of dance and rhythmic product — some in remix form. As well, there are quite a few more songs that do not get as much airplay today on most classic hits stations. Here is what KBSO was jammin’ at the same time as the KMXR log above:
Bon Jovi/“Living On A Prayer”
Enigma/“Sadness (Part 1)” (remix)
Roxette/“It Must Have Been Love”
Rihanna/“SOS”
Janet Jackson/“Alright” (remix)
Robyn/“Show Me Love”
Duran Duran/“Wild Boys” (remix)
New Order/“Blue Monday”
Whitney Houston/“How Will I Know”
Brandy/“Baby”
New Edition/“Cool It Now”
Eddie Money/“Baby Hold On”
Flo Rida (Featuring T-Pain)/“Low”
Stevie B/“Dreaming’ Of Love”
Eurthythmics/“Sweet Dreams”
Maroon 5/“This Love”
Katy Perry/“Hot and Cold”
Usher (Featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris)/“Yeah!”
Black Box/“Strike It Up”
Retro Listen: KZFM
KBSO seems to have taken inspiration from what was top 40 radio back in the day in the market. Digging out some old cassettes, here is what KZFM sounded like back then.
Aircheck 1: Top 40 KZFM 95.5 “Hot Z95” February 18 1991
This is from the 7PM hour of the evening shift with Dancin' Dale Baird.
Karyn White/“The Way You Love Me”
Johnny Gill/“My, My, My”
Pebbles/“Giving You The Benefit”
Surface/“The First Time”
Londonbeat/“I’ve Been Thinking About You”
Stevie B/“I’ll Be By Your Side”
Bell Biv DeVoe/“BBD (I Thought It Was Me)”
Janet Jackson/“Escapade”
Timmy T/“One More Try”
The Cover Girls/“Show Me”
En Vogue/“You Don’t Have To Worry”
Aircheck 2: Top 40 KZFM 95.5 “Hot Z95” September 4 1994
This is an aircheck from Sunday afternoon over the Labor Day weekend in 1994.
There are some pretty obscure hits in this set from 1994. I am pretty good with a lot of songs, but I confess I needed Shazam to help on some of these. Also, a lot of acts back then sounded like they took their names from drag queens (Nuttin’ Nyce, Crystal Waters, …).
Changing Faces/“Stroke You Up”
Big Mountain/“Sweet Sensual Love”
Mr Big/“To Be With You”
Prince/“Letitgo”
SWV/“Weak”
Xscape/“Who’s That Man”
Boyz II Men/“I’ll Make Love To You”
Zhané/“Hey Mr DJ”
C+C Music Factory/“Do You Wanna Get Funky?”
Nuttin’ Nyce/“In My Nature”
Crystal Waters/“100% Pure Love”
Bad Boys Blue/“I Totally Miss You”
Totally Useless Fun Fact: Although it has had more than a half dozen formats since its sign on, KBSO is the only set of call letters ever assigned to the 94.7 Corpus Christi facility. The call letters meaning comes from its initial format — Tejano “Beso 94.”