All of this happened in the 80s, actually.As I recall (and my memory may be fuzzy, so feel free to correct me!) the station got a nice new tower high above Columbus, NC, which gave them tremendous reach. This was under the ownership of Don and Stella Trapp, and they ran it out of the Forest City, where the station is technically licensed. Trapp immediately changed the format to The Breeze, which was syndicated from Minneapolis. Why? He wanted something he could listen to, he told me. It was jazz, basically, but with an edge. One magazine called it "Diarrhea Rock" because a there was a lot of new age and jazzier classic rock mixed in (think Steely Dan). This was a phenomenal sounding format, with one problem. The audience was small and tough to sell.
I have one more of the five airchecks to go, but it seems to be more disco. Only one was alternative. I'll never have time for the longer list.
The disco did sound good. The alternative music wasn't too bad.