Star 94-1 Turns 30

[RadioDoogie]

I noticed the station is announcing about once per hour that they are turning 30 this year and they are playing songs from the early 90s. Saying “This is what we sounded like back then.” Really brings back some memories. Heard two songs from the summer of 1993 during Star’s brief time as a full blown CHR. “All 4 Love” by Color Me Bad and “What’s Up?” By 4 Non Blondes.

 

[DoctorRadio997]

I can't imagine a 28 year old female who listens to Star wants to be reminded that the station she listens to is older than she is. I've very rarely seen a pop station draw any attention to how many years it has been in the format. Rock stations have done it, but in rock it points to credibility with the audience. Pop, top 40 and hot AC listeners don't care that the station is 20 or 30 or 50. The older it is, the more irrelevant it sounds to the core.

 

[jabba17]

I can't imagine a 28 year old female who listens to Star wants to be reminded that the station she listens to is older than she is. I've very rarely seen a pop station draw any attention to how many years it has been in the format. Rock stations have done it, but in rock it points to credibility with the audience. Pop, top 40 and hot AC listeners don't care that the station is 20 or 30 or 50. The older it is, the more irrelevant it sounds to the core.

96 Rock often would say that they were over 25 or over 30 years old ("Atlanta's rock station for over 25 years"). Unfortunately, they wouldn't make it to 35.

96 Rock would have turned 45 this April.

The oldest moniker on the commercial FM dial is V-103, since 1977. I think V-103 has made references to their longevity.
The oldest format on the commercial FM dial is country on 101.5, since 1968 (first as WBIE, then as WKHX "Kicks")
The oldest callsign on the commercial FM dial (besides WSB-FM, natch) is WZGC, since 1972.

 

[RadioDoogie]

96 Rock often would say that they were over 25 or over 30 years old ("Atlanta's rock station for over 25 years"). Unfortunately, they wouldn't make it to 35.

96 Rock would have turned 45 this April.

The oldest moniker on the commercial FM dial is V-103, since 1977. I think V-103 has made references to their longevity.
The oldest format on the commercial FM dial is country on 101.5, since 1968 (first as WBIE, then as WKHX "Kicks")
The oldest callsign on the commercial FM dial (besides WSB-FM, natch) is WZGC, since 1972.

Doesn’t WZGC stand for General Cinemas? They were bought out by AMC Theaters back around 2000. I remember they were in several Simon Malls across the country back in the day. YouTube has some fantastic bumpers from General Cinemas from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Doesn’t WZGC stand for General Cinemas? They were bought out by AMC Theaters back around 2000. I remember they were in several Simon Malls across the country back in the day. YouTube has some fantastic bumpers from General Cinemas from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

You are correct that the GC in WZGC stood for General Cinemas.

When First Media (the Marriott family) acquired WZGC, it became a sister station of WPGC in Washington, DC. It was a coincidence that both stations had GC as their last 2 call letters. WPGC stood for Prince Georges County (MD).

The webmaster of the WPGC tribute site (from its Top 40 days) insisted to me that the Atlanta station changed its calls to WZGC to be consistent with WPGC. I tried to tell him WZGC stood for General Cinema, but he wouldn't hear anything of it.

 

[MrRadio]

Wow, Star 94 is approaching 30...

It was a big, bold move to abandon the WQXI-FM callsign and 94Q branding, but after 4 PDs in 18 months, a GM that should have retired five years prior, and three different 'new 94Q' formats, it was probably time for a change.

Little did they know that the worst ratings were yet to come.

The subtraction of Gary McKee for a sub-par morning show (Murphy & McKeever) and the re-introduction of nightly "Jazz Flavors" made it seem as though they were trying to capsize the operation before it could get started. With Star 94's weak music mix ("No heavy metal, no rap, and the music only stops twice an hour!"), crap morning show, and weird jazz music at night every night of the week, Star 94 was easily the most dreadful sounding major FM in Atlanta until Steve McCoy came in (1990) and the jazz was taken off again in 1991.

Star's peak years were 1993-94, the real CHR years, programmed by the great Lee Chesnut.

 

[jabba17]

94Q/Star 94's problem is that they seemed to want to grow old with the boomers; they never went after GenX-and-younger markets until they had to--first by the flip of Z-93 to classic rock and then Power 99 to 99X, leaving a gaping CHR hole that they did a so-so job of filling, and then again as boomers started to age out of the money demo and they HAD to cast their lot with GenX soccer moms. They did have some success with their niche as the "mother-daughter" station, but that format has been so fickle it's been hard to manage.

If it weren't for Steve McCoy they probably would have flipped to an entirely different format somewhere along the way.

IMNSHO 94Q/Star 94 has long been the weak sister of the CHR/AC stations, and hasn't been an influential musical force in ATL since they flipped out of the "Rock 40" format in the late 70s.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Wow, Star 94 is approaching 30...

It was a big, bold move to abandon the WQXI-FM callsign and 94Q branding, but after 4 PDs in 18 months, a GM that should have retired five years prior, and three different 'new 94Q' formats, it was probably time for a change.

Little did they know that the worst ratings were yet to come.

The subtraction of Gary McKee for a sub-par morning show (Murphy & McKeever) and the re-introduction of nightly "Jazz Flavors" made it seem as though they were trying to capsize the operation before it could get started. With Star 94's weak music mix ("No heavy metal, no rap, and the music only stops twice an hour!"), crap morning show, and weird jazz music at night every night of the week, Star 94 was easily the most dreadful sounding major FM in Atlanta until Steve McCoy came in (1990) and the jazz was taken off again in 1991.

Star's peak years were 1993-94, the real CHR years, programmed by the great Lee Chesnut.

When I moved to Atlanta in 1994, Star 94 was being programmed by Kevin Peterson. He was replaced by Dan Bowen in 1998. Their 12+ shares were in the mid-high 5's in 1994 and started moving higher.

Star 94's peak years in terms of ratings were 1998-2000. And that translated to revenue. They were consistently sold out in those years.

 

[MrRadio]

jabba17, you are preachin' the gospel, my friend!

94Q/Star 94 has always actively resisted mainstream CHR. Always, always, always.

In 1988-89, 94Q's PD was Jan Jeffries. Jan brought in a mainstream CHR approach as "Atlanta's Hit Music 94Q." The Winter 1989 book was 94Q's first "up" book in two years. 94Q made significant gains, especially in 18-34s, so much so that Power 99 noticed and tightened up their format.

However, in spite of statistical evidence that the new CHR lean was working, well-past-his-prime 94Q GM Jerry Blum got a whole lot of flack from the (lazy) sales guys because "Jazz Flavors" was an easy sell and Jeffries was the one who had the stones to get it out of the way. So Jeffries had to go in Blum's mind. Instead of jettisoning Jan Jeffries, Jerry Blum should have been mercifully put out to pasture and 94Q should have stayed the "Atlanta's Hit Music" course. There was plenty of room in the market for 94Q and Power 99 to battle it out.

But instead Jeffries was gone, replaced by smart CHR programmer Bill Cahill. His job was to fix 94Q, but after some research, it was decided that changing the branding and starting fresh was the best plan. Unfortunately for Bill Cahill, it was also decided by the upper management that whatever WQXI-FM became, "Jazz Flavors" would be back on 7 nights a week. So poor Cahill came in with one hand already tied behind his back, and we got the super-weak Star 94, more "Jazz Flavors," and a morning show that belly-upped inside of six months.

I also agree that if Steve McCoy hadn't joined, Star would have flipped again. Probably to all-jazz, because the management couldn't seem to let that wheezy old show die.

Then comes fall 1992, and Power 99 flips to stink-rock 99X. Star 94's management made no changes at first, and simply waited for Power's audience to make the switch. But instead, they went elsewhere, and Star 94's ratings actually trended down. This outright repudiation of Star 94's format when there was no other competition in the pop music arena was when Lee Chesnut was given the green light to do whatever he wanted, and he re-focused the music 18-34, playing some rap, some R&B, lots of pop, and some country crossovers. They dayparted the rap and heavier R&B records to nights and weekends and even picked up "Casey's Top 40." It sounded really good, and it worked for a while, until they segued back to Hot AC in 1994. From then on, Star rode the line of CHR and AC, and with no competition, they could get everyone from 18-54 and print money like nobody's business.

94Q/Star 94's problem is that they seemed to want to grow old with the boomers; they never went after GenX-and-younger markets until they had to--first by the flip of Z-93 to classic rock and then Power 99 to 99X, leaving a gaping CHR hole that they did a so-so job of filling, and then again as boomers started to age out of the money demo and they HAD to cast their lot with GenX soccer moms. They did have some success with their niche as the "mother-daughter" station, but that format has been so fickle it's been hard to manage.

If it weren't for Steve McCoy they probably would have flipped to an entirely different format somewhere along the way.

IMNSHO 94Q/Star 94 has long been the weak sister of the CHR/AC stations, and hasn't been an influential musical force in ATL since they flipped out of the "Rock 40" format in the late 70s.

 

[RadioDoogie]

jabba17, you are preachin' the gospel, my friend!

94Q/Star 94 has always actively resisted mainstream CHR. Always, always, always.

In 1988-89, 94Q's PD was Jan Jeffries. Jan brought in a mainstream CHR approach as "Atlanta's Hit Music 94Q." The Winter 1989 book was 94Q's first "up" book in two years. 94Q made significant gains, especially in 18-34s, so much so that Power 99 noticed and tightened up their format.

However, in spite of statistical evidence that the new CHR lean was working, well-past-his-prime 94Q GM Jerry Blum got a whole lot of flack from the (lazy) sales guys because "Jazz Flavors" was an easy sell and Jeffries was the one who had the stones to get it out of the way. So Jeffries had to go in Blum's mind. Instead of jettisoning Jan Jeffries, Jerry Blum should have been mercifully put out to pasture and 94Q should have stayed the "Atlanta's Hit Music" course. There was plenty of room in the market for 94Q and Power 99 to battle it out.

But instead Jeffries was gone, replaced by smart CHR programmer Bill Cahill. His job was to fix 94Q, but after some research, it was decided that changing the branding and starting fresh was the best plan. Unfortunately for Bill Cahill, it was also decided by the upper management that whatever WQXI-FM became, "Jazz Flavors" would be back on 7 nights a week. So poor Cahill came in with one hand already tied behind his back, and we got the super-weak Star 94, more "Jazz Flavors," and a morning show that belly-upped inside of six months.

I also agree that if Steve McCoy hadn't joined, Star would have flipped again. Probably to all-jazz, because the management couldn't seem to let that wheezy old show die.

Then comes fall 1992, and Power 99 flips to stink-rock 99X. Star 94's management made no changes at first, and simply waited for Power's audience to make the switch. But instead, they went elsewhere, and Star 94's ratings actually trended down. This outright repudiation of Star 94's format when there was no other competition in the pop music arena was when Lee Chesnut was given the green light to do whatever he wanted, and he re-focused the music 18-34, playing some rap, some R&B, lots of pop, and some country crossovers. They dayparted the rap and heavier R&B records to nights and weekends and even picked up "Casey's Top 40." It sounded really good, and it worked for a while, until they segued back to Hot AC in 1994. From then on, Star rode the line of CHR and AC, and with no competition, they could get everyone from 18-54 and print money like nobody's business.

I forgot Star 94 played Casey’s Top 40 for the short CHR period from 1992-1994. Must have been Sunday’s 8-noon and they picked up Rick Dees from Power 99 and put it Sunday nights 8-midnight. Seacrest was on overnights. Here’s my format/countdown history rundown of Star 94-1. They were Hot AC until Power went to X in October 1992. The CHR era was amazing. Summer of 1993 had this amazing CHR playlist. Then fall of 1994 they went adult CHR dropped CT40 but kept Rick Dees and format stayed that way until Q100 came on air in January 2001. No Casey Kasem until Peach got him in 2001. Not even 95-5 the Beat would pick him up. I have always assumed this was a Cox thing. Most Cox CHRs don’t play any countdown shows across the country - not even today. They would play the CHR version of Rick Dees but would interrupt all the rap songs or any other songs Star refused to play with a “Weekly Top 40 extra, Buckhead here you go...” During the 1994-2001 era, the station was tagged as a CHR format in publications but refused to play some big hits. They wouldn’t play any rap hits but refused to play some big pop hits during this era too. I was really frustrated during this era. K-Ci & JoJo “All My Life” was number 2 in summer 1998. Star 94 eventually played it until it went to number 2 but it was an acoustic version (awful). Waited until “Genie in a Bottle” went to number 1 in summer 1999 before playing it. Never played “I Want You Back” by NSync or “Backstreet’s Back” by the Backstret Boys. Just awful. It was this very reason we were all hungry for 95-5 the Beat. When Q came on air, Star went full CHR to go head to head with Q while 95-5 the Beat (also turning 20 this year in September) went Rhythmic. Then went Hot AC in Spring 2002. Also played Hot AC version of WT40. Started playing CHR version of AT40 in January 2004 (Saturday nights 8-midnight) with Seacrest’s arrival to AT40 but continued playing the Hot AC version of Rick Dees on Sunday nights. Talk about a real identity crisis. It was exhausting. Then they started playing both CHR versions (AT40/WT40) shortly after this and moved AT40 to Saturday nights 7-11 to add a dance mix show at 11pm to compete with Q100. They dropped Rick Dees in October 2007 for Dawson McAllistar and went more (not full) CHR and moved AT40 Sunday’s 8-noon. They went full blown Hot AC in Fall 2010 and switched to the hot AC version of AT40. Dropped AT40 in summer of 2012 and handed it off to Power 96-1. No countdown shows until they picked up Billy Bush from Q100 in Summer of 2013 when CBS created the Daly Download and Q100 picked this up and eventually placed it on all their Cumulus CHRs. The last 9 years have been the most consistent with Star. The initial days of the latest Hot AC era played more 90s to now. The last few years have been almost all songs off the Hot AC chart with very few previously played songs. Always figured they’d pickup Rick Dees again (especially after Entercom took over) but that has never happened. Hope this covers everything.

 

[Craziaskowboi]

I think Star 94 should focus on the 25-54 market at this point, with Q100 and Power 96.1 duking it out for the 18-34 market. I like that they brought the 1990s back to the playlist, and I hope that they bring back the Big '90s Weekend too (periodically, not every weekend), with a slightly larger playlist that includes songs they might not have played back then. It's possible that the Big '90s Weekend was a bit ahead of its time, because the 1990s retro trend hadn't yet taken off in the first half of this decade. Besides, Star 94 has historically been known for having retro shows on the weekends. First, it was the Friday Night '80s during the late 1990s-early 2000s, and then it was the Big '90s Weekend in the first half of this decade. I also think that Star 94 should drop the "1," because everybody still calls it "Star 94" anyway.

 

[RadioDoogie]

I think Star 94 should focus on the 25-54 market at this point, with Q100 and Power 96.1 duking it out for the 18-34 market. I like that they brought the 1990s back to the playlist, and I hope that they bring back the Big '90s Weekend too (periodically, not every weekend), with a slightly larger playlist that includes songs they might not have played back then. It's possible that the Big '90s Weekend was a bit ahead of its time, because the 1990s retro trend hadn't yet taken off in the first half of this decade. Besides, Star 94 has historically been known for having retro shows on the weekends. First, it was the Friday Night '80s during the late 1990s-early 2000s, and then it was the Big '90s Weekend in the first half of this decade. I also think that Star 94 should drop the "1," because everybody still calls it "Star 94" anyway.

And bring back the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Excellent synopsis, Mr. Doogie. You do a great job of representing the Doogie family.

 

[TheBigA]

And bring back the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40.

Dees must have burned a few bridges in his career, because we recently discovered the biggest market carrying his countdown is Kansas City. And there aren't many more besides that one. But he's still doing the Dees Sleaze.

 

[RadioDoogie]

Dees must have burned a few bridges in his career, because we recently discovered the biggest market carrying his countdown is Kansas City. And there aren't many more besides that one. But he's still doing the Dees Sleaze.

I know it can’t be many. His website no longer lists how many stations he’s on. Wikipedia says he’s on about 200 stations still. I don’t believe it. WWST Star 102.1 in Knoxville. This station is affiliated with Scripps Howard which I believe he’s also affiliated with through his Cooking network if I’m not mistaken. Also WXKB B103.9 in Fort Meyers, FL. WMC FM100 in Memphis. He was a big DJ in Memphis. They’ve carried his countdown since the beginning with a gap from 2003-2009. CKPT - Petersbourough, ON. WMOI Monmouth, IL. That’s all I got. I think his countdown really dropped off in affiliates after he was replaced by Ryan Seacrest over at KISS FM Los Angeles back in 2004.

 

[gr8oldies]

I couldn't tell you whether or not Dees is on Star 102.1, but there hasn't been a company called Scripps Howard for a long time. Star 102.1 was owned by E.W. Scripps after the Journal merger-demerger-re-merger but was recently purchased by Summit. Scripps Networks had the same roots but was a completely separate company from E.W. Scripps, but that company was bought by Discovery Networks. There would be no connection based on that.

I know it can’t be many. His website no longer lists how many stations he’s on. Wikipedia says he’s on about 200 stations still. I don’t believe it. WWST Star 102.1 in Knoxville. This station is affiliated with Scripps Howard which I believe he’s also affiliated with through his Cooking network if I’m not mistaken. Also WXKB B103.9 in Fort Meyers, FL. WMC FM100 in Memphis. He was a big DJ in Memphis. They’ve carried his countdown since the beginning with a gap from 2003-2009. CKPT - Petersbourough, ON. WMOI Monmouth, IL. That’s all I got. I think his countdown really dropped off in affiliates after he was replaced by Ryan Seacrest over at KISS FM Los Angeles back in 2004.

 

[RadioDoogie]

They were playing “I Want You Back” by ‘N Sync from 1998 the other day on Star 94-1. This song never played on Star 94 back in the Summer of 1998 (except on the Weekly Top 40). I remember I used to love that song and would try to keep listening to Star 94 to see if they would play it and they never would. So this is not what Star 94 used to sound like as their new tagline states.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

What do you think the odds are anyone who actually worked at Star 94 in the late 80s/early 90s was consulted when setting up their throwback playlist? I'm guessing about zero.

 

[inorm99]

The "Rock 40 " format was great.
Star despite the ratings is unlistenable

 

[MrRadio]

It’s major-league revisionist history for Star 94 to toot their own horn about hits they purportedly played in the past. They really have no steady format history to speak of, except dodging anything that had a beat, a guitar, or rap.

I guess “I Want You Back” by ‘N Sync was “too rockin’” for 94 back in the day, as was “Genie In A Bottle” by Christina Aguilera, which had to go to #1 before they would touch it.

This is the same station that played ridiculous be-bop every night for two years (and for 5 years prior to that as 94Q).

I remember David Sanborn released a single called “Bang Bang” in 1992 and Star dropped it in heavy rotation immediately. Because it was jazz! Woooo!