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95.5 mid-90s: from Q95 to Q95.5

J

Jasonthegreat

In the mid-90s, around 1995 or so, WKQI (then a Hot AC known as Q95) appeared to be evolving from a Hot AC with softer AC artists such as Michael Bolton and Vanessa Williams to uptempo "CHR-imaged" Hot AC with more alternative artists such as Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan, Hootie & the Blowfish, and the Goo Goo Dolls. The change seemed to start in the fall of 1995 and was complete when Danny Bonaduce started doing mornings following Dick Purtan's departure for WOMC. But even as Q95-5, they still seemed to play a lot of 80s titles (both AC and CHR) and played uptempo Adult CHR titles such as Real McCoy's "Another Night", Everything but the Girl's "Missing", and La Bouche's "Sweet Dreams" in addition to the alternative-leaning titles.

The question however is this: Did Purtan's departure influence the station to become a more uptempo Hot AC, or was the intent to ignite the uptempo music always there? Also, does anyone think what Q95 did in the mid-90s is at all influenced by WDVD's transition from Hot AC to Adult CHR?
 
Re:

Your question makes no sense; 96.3 was "Planet 96.3" WPLT during that era.

How could WDVD influence Q95's programming decisions if it didn't even exist yet?!!!
 
MarkW said:
Your question makes no sense; 96.3 was "Planet 96.3" WPLT during that era.

How could WDVD influence Q95's programming decisions if it didn't even exist yet?!!!
Click to expand...

I think what I'm trying to say about WDVD is after they replaced Q95.5 as Detroit's Hot AC station. When Planet 96.3 became WDVD circa 2001, Q95 had already become 100% CHR. WDVD tried to fill the Hot AC void in Detroit, but they were unsuccessful, so WDVD started shifting toward Adult CHR about five years later according to Wikipedia (and I recall them always blasting Channel 9-5-5 for being a rap-only station).

Unless you mean I'm saying that WDVD existed before Q95's morph to uptempo Hot AC. If so, I didn't mean to confuse you. What I meant was that Planet 96.3 was alternative while Q95 was changing its music selections in the mid-90s when Dick Purtan was leaving for WOMC. I also should specifically say that a decade later, WDVD made a similar change (though unlike Q95.5, they were moving from Alternative (which was the main Hot AC genre in the late-90s/early 2000s) to more of what today's young adult audiences want to hear. However, I can mention that Q95 and Planet 96.3 shared many of the same Alternative-leaning titles, though Q95.5 had a little more pop flavor than the Planet.

Hopefully this now makes sense.

Source:
Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDVD
 
Oh, and I forgot to mention even though WDVD is leaning more toward Adult CHR, they are still technically Hot AC; it's just there are fewer gold titles and more currents/recurrents in their rotation these days.
 
I was there in 94-95.

Madonna, Prince. Lisa Lisa-Cult Jam, and all of the hot CHR stuff was playing then. You'd hear "Like a Virgin" 4 to 5 times in a 6 hour day. "Hot Hits". Dick would play off all of that. Made the best of a crappy format with a tight playlist. He became the best in spite of all of that. I left in mid 95 and i don't remember them being any hotter. Shoot, how could you be?
 
jry said:
I was there in 94-95.

Madonna, Prince. Lisa Lisa-Cult Jam, and all of the hot CHR stuff was playing then. You'd hear "Like a Virgin" 4 to 5 times in a 6 hour day. "Hot Hits". Dick would play off all of that. Made the best of a crappy format with a tight playlist. He became the best in spite of all of that. I left in mid 95 and i don't remember them being any hotter. Shoot, how could you be?
Click to expand...

I actually recall Q95 prior to Purtan's departure and the switch to Q95-5 playing a few uptempo titles such as Prince's "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" (he was "the Artist Formerly Known as Prince" then), and TLC's "Waterfalls", but I don't recall Lisa Lisa-Cult Jam being played. I personally started listening in mid-1995, and I was amazed that they were playing some of these "uptempo" 80s/90s titles along with their typical AC-leaning music. Though the station seemed "hot" when you listened, they actually became "hotter" after the move to Q95-5 following Purtan's departure for WOMC.

BTW, even though Q95 was listed as an Adult Top 40 by many Detroit radio publications, I believe they were more Hot AC due to the 80s gold that was played.
 
I think the change to that station was delayed by the fact that Purtan's audience wasn't a CHR audience. Once he left, the format change was implemented full throttle. When WDRQ flipped from WLTI in August of 1996, they became the leader in that segment forcing changes at 96.3 and the eventual development of the Mojo show and morph by 95.5 into 'Channel' where they regained the crown culminating in the switch by 93.1 to 'Doug' in the Mid-00's.
 
umfan said:
I think the change to that station was delayed by the fact that Purtan's audience wasn't a CHR audience. Once he left, the format change was implemented full throttle. When WDRQ flipped from WLTI in August of 1996, they became the leader in that segment forcing changes at 96.3 and the eventual development of the Mojo show and morph by 95.5 into 'Channel' where they regained the crown culminating in the switch by 93.1 to 'Doug' in the Mid-00's.
Click to expand...

They might have kicked it up three notches after he left, but it was pretty hot during his tenure... I'll tell ya what, sitting at my desk, hearing "Borderline", "Easy Lover", "Lets Go Crazy" or "I Will Die For You" 5 times in a work day, was enough to drive me ape....
 
That was 1985, not 1995 jry, and yes Z95.5 played those tunes regularly as they were in the AC Top 40 in that period.

I agree with you, it was hot, but with Dick's departure, it got hotter.
 
Personally, I believe the transition truly started in the fall of 1995. During this time, the station was calling itself "Q95" and "Q95.5" (this was being pronounced Q95 point 5) and their music selections were already becoming hipper than before even with the softer AC titles still being played. The full switch to Q95-5 came in the late winter/early spring of 1996 when Danny Bonaduce started doing mornings after Purtan's departure.

Even a while before the switch, in the early 90s, Q95 was playing a few hard titles. I looked through some of the Hot AC playlists from Radio & Records magazine on the American radio history website and saw that Q95 was playing titles such as "Found Out About You" and "Until I Fall Away" by the Gin Blossoms, and even "Mr. Jones" by the Counting Crows that the station probably would not have played if they were true mainstream AC. So the transformation from plain old AC to Hot AC/Adult Top 40 could in fact be traced that far back.

In addition, when the transition was occurring, the station went through slogans from "Detroit's Best Hits" to "Detroit's Continuous Hit Music station" to "Today's Best Music" to finally "Detroit's Hit Music Leader".
 
Yes. I've seen this before. At one time, I had some of their sales materials...

Boy, the ice that used to fall off of that sucker, Crazy. Being next to Mel Farr Ford was a trip as well. They used to park their cars so deep (backing them in) into their parking spaces that they would hang over into ours.
 
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