When did the last AM station stop playing top-40?

[Sammy Reed]

Some years after FM had taken over for new hit music, some AM stations were still playing top-40.
In our area, WFHG in Bristol, Va. kept playing the hits until 1989, when it switched to what was then called the "Good Time Rock 'n' Roll" oldies network.
I wonder when it was that the last AM station standing stopped playing current top-40 hits?

 

[boombox4]

Probably a few in Canada. AM Top 40 lasted longer there than it did in the US, I think.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

WQMA 1520 Marks, MS a 250 Watt non directional daytimer played Top 40 until February 2004 when we flipped the station to oldies.

Coos Bay, OR school district's KMHS 1420 played pop music till they got a non comm FM on 91.3

There's an FM near Indy doing pop, feeding a translator

A college near palm springs, Ca owns an AM and translator doing pop.

An AM and translator owned by Iheart in Venice, FL does pop as Kiss FM

 

[vchimpanzee]

Probably a few in Canada. AM Top 40 lasted longer there than it did in the US, I think.

There was a government requirement. FM stations had to get creative so they wouldn't be considered Top 40, which wasn't allowed on FM.

 

[semoochie]

There was a government requirement. FM stations had to get creative so they wouldn't be considered Top 40, which wasn't allowed on FM.

I believe there was a limit placed on hit product on FM, low enough that effectively prevented stations from being Top 40. I think it was 25% and it was later repealed. A hit record was considered a song that was a hit, not necessarily by the one who had the hit but by anyone at all, so if an artist did an album of music from the Great American Songbook and a station played one of those songs, it would be considered a hit and count that way! Curiously, even with these restrictions, AM stations eventually bombed in droves! I can even remember Seattle FMs blasting through on car radios in Vancouver B.C., a hundred or more miles away!

 

[Kent]

Prior to 1997, Canada required FM stations to play at least 51% non hit music. I believe there was also a spoken word programming requirement, though I'm not sure exactly what it was. Also, as you mention, once a song became a hit, it was always a hit. That made launching a CHR or oldies format on FM virtually impossible. In the early 90’s, the CRTC exempted 93.9 in Windsor from the 51% non hit music requirement but required it to play more Cancon.

In 1997, the CRTC removed the 51% non hit music requirement for FM's on songs that charted after 1980 in areas outside Quebec and the Ottawa market.

And, yes, AM music radio still bombed horribly. CFTR 680 and CKLG 730 ditched their top-40 formats long before the hit music requirement was removed for FM stations. They weren’t the only ones either; they were just among the most prominent.

 

[gr8oldies]

CKLW petitioned for several years to move it's Big 8 format to FM to no avail. They even put together 94 Fox FM, a top-40-like format that still met all the Can-Con and hit/non-hit requirements. The CRTC eventually approved the change, only to rescind it by only allowing the format to air 4 hours a day while requiring Big Band to continue the rest of the day.

Ironically, all these years later, 93.9 has a CHR format.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

For San Francisco the last Top 40 to be on AM was back in 1986 when KFRC flipped and renamed themselves as Magic 61. By then AC was dominating radio on the FM side.

 

[gr8oldies]

WAAY, Huntsville AL was still CHR in 1985. I can't think of many others after that time (I don't know if WLS would have still counted by then).

Prior to 1997, Canada required FM stations to play at least 51% non hit music. I believe there was also a spoken word programming requirement, though I'm not sure exactly what it was. Also, as you mention, once a song became a hit, it was always a hit. That made launching a CHR or oldies format on FM virtually impossible. In the early 90’s, the CRTC exempted 93.9 in Windsor from the 51% non hit music requirement but required it to play more Cancon.

In 1997, the CRTC removed the 51% non hit music requirement for FM's on songs that charted after 1980 in areas outside Quebec and the Ottawa market.

And, yes, AM music radio still bombed horribly. CFTR 680 and CKLG 730 ditched their top-40 formats long before the hit music requirement was removed for FM stations. They weren’t the only ones either; they were just among the most prominent.

 

[installLSC]

Did a little digging in Billboard and Wikipedia:
A 1993 Billboard article lists six top 40 stations on the AM dial. KJYK Tucson, Ariz., WIRY Burlington, Vt./Plattsburgh, N.Y., WKIC Hazard,Ky., WLNC Laurinburg, N.C.,WRON -AM Ronceverte, W.Va.,and WROB Columbus, Miss.
WLXE in suburban Washington DC actually briefly aired Top 40 in 1998.
KIIS Los Angeles simulcast its FM signal on its AM sister until 1997.

 

[semoochie]

Did a little digging in Billboard and Wikipedia:
A 1993 Billboard article lists six top 40 stations on the AM dial. KJYK Tucson, Ariz., WIRY Burlington, Vt./Plattsburgh, N.Y., WKIC Hazard,Ky., WLNC Laurinburg, N.C.,WRON -AM Ronceverte, W.Va.,and WROB Columbus, Miss.
WLXE in suburban Washington DC actually briefly aired Top 40 in 1998.
KIIS Los Angeles simulcast its FM signal on its AM sister until 1997.

There were three large market stations that originated CHR programing after everyone else had left the format: WLS was first to go, followed by KFRC and eventually, KIMN Denver. A few years later, I noticed that there were still a couple of stations in Maine. I doubt if any of the stations listed in the 1993 article were serious competitors.

 

[davideduardo]

There were three large market stations that originated CHR programing after everyone else had left the format: WLS was first to go, followed by KFRC and eventually, KIMN Denver. A few years later, I noticed that there were still a couple of stations in Maine. I doubt if any of the stations listed in the 1993 article were serious competitors.

What do you mean by "originated"?

WLS was a late comer to Top 40, starting in 1960... 8 years after the format was "invented" at KOWH.

KFRC flipped soon after KHJ did, in 1966.

KIMN was Cecil Heftel's third station, after KGEM in Boise and KLO in Ogden, UT. and it went Top 40 in 1957.

"Top 40" was not called "CHR" until R&R magazine created the name in the late 70's to differentiate its charts and reports from those in Billboard and other trades. The term stuck.

 

[semoochie]

What do you mean by "originated"?

WLS was a late comer to Top 40, starting in 1960... 8 years after the format was "invented" at KOWH.

...an Omaha daytimer, owned by Todd Storz, who later found out what real competition is, in the form of Don Burden and KOIL!

KFRC flipped soon after KHJ did, in 1966.

KIMN was Cecil Heftel's third station, after KGEM in Boise and KLO in Ogden, UT. and it went Top 40 in 1957.

"Top 40" was not called "CHR" until R&R magazine created the name in the late 70's to differentiate its charts and reports from those in Billboard and other trades. The term stuck.

Perhaps, I should have said, "three large market AM stations". What I meant is that these AM stations were the origination point. They weren't just simulcasting an FM. by the time this happened, "CHR' was the industry term.

(See third line above. It's mine, not David's!)

 

[davideduardo]

Perhaps, I should have said, "three large market AM stations". What I meant is that these AM stations were the origination point. They weren't just simulcasting an FM. by the time this happened, "CHR' was the industry term.

(See third line above. It's mine, not David's!)

Don Burden was just a copy-cat. By the time he put KOIL on in Omaha, Storz had moved into Minneapolis, St Louis, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Miami, New Orleans.

Burden, of course, lost all his licenses later on for such things as bribing a member of Congress. He was not a nice person, either.

I "met him" once. I was a young teen, and when traveling got my mother to take me to visit radio stations. In Denver, I went to his station there and one of the staff gave me a tour. Coming around a hall corner, I walked right into Burden. His response was, "Who's this little c---sucker? Get him out of here now!" at which point my tour ended.

 

[Kent]

Did a little digging in Billboard and Wikipedia:
A 1993 Billboard article lists six top 40 stations on the AM dial. KJYK Tucson, Ariz., WIRY Burlington, Vt./Plattsburgh, N.Y., WKIC Hazard,Ky., WLNC Laurinburg, N.C.,WRON -AM Ronceverte, W.Va.,and WROB Columbus, Miss.
WLXE in suburban Washington DC actually briefly aired Top 40 in 1998.
KIIS Los Angeles simulcast its FM signal on its AM sister until 1997.

I seem to remember KJYK 1490 aired CHR until '97 or '98. I believe there was also an attempt at top-40 on an AM outside of Lexington, KY (but not WKIC) that lasted for about a year. KXYL 1240 in Brownwood, TX picked up the "Kiss" top-40 format of the former KISJ-FM 104.1 for a couple years after it became country KXYL-FM. Seems like it lasted until '95 or '96. It was a pretty strange sounding top-40 that clearly didn't have much effort put into it. WLXE 1600 outside of Washington DC did indeed air top-40 for several years in the 90's as WINX. In either 1989 or 90, an AM station in the Carolinas (can't remember which one, station or Carolina!) made a brief attempt at CHR. I remember hearing Shadoe Stevens welcome an AM to the AT-40 family because it sounded so bizarre and out of place. I seem to remember it was on the lower end of the dial, but I just heard it in passing and never could figure out which station it was.

Of course, today, we're seeing a handful of CHR's launch on the AM band in smaller towns as a way to feed FM translators. I seem to remember one in West Virginia launched recently. I understand you wouldn't even know it were an AM station if you didn't realize the station in the legal ID was an AM.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Of course, today, we're seeing a handful of CHR's launch on the AM band in smaller towns as a way to feed FM translators. I seem to remember one in West Virginia launched recently. I understand you wouldn't even know it were an AM station if you didn't realize the station in the legal ID was an AM.

I was going to say that Fayetteville NC has a Hot AC which really should be considered a CHR and I think it finally is now, but even while that station was still called Hot AC, the market's former top 40 AM WAZZ had returned to that format with a translator.

 

[kevtronics]

There was actually a new Top 40/CHR station on AM in 1998: 1040 WJHR (now WCHR) in Flemington, NJ. They had just signed on at the beginning of the year with an AC format but within a few months that had begun transmitting in C-Quam AM Stereo and switched to a Top 40 format. They called it "Amplitude Modulation for The Next Generation" and claimed to be one of only 11 stations (IIRC) with the format on AM. But it didn't last long -- in May 1999 they switched to a talk format.

And in the 1980s, KIIS-AM/FM in L.A. was actually a "shadowcast", not a simulcast. They played the same music in the same order, but the AM was a few minutes behind the FM and had different DJs. Here's an aircheck of it, I believe from 1986: https://audioboom.com/posts/181086-aircheck-kiis-am-fm-shadowcasting

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

There was actually a new Top 40/CHR station on AM in 1998: 1040 WJHR (now WCHR) in Flemington, NJ. They had just signed on at the beginning of the year with an AC format but within a few months that had begun transmitting in C-Quam AM Stereo and switched to a Top 40 format. They called it "Amplitude Modulation for The Next Generation" and claimed to be one of only 11 stations (IIRC) with the format on AM. But it didn't last long -- in May 1999 they switched to a talk format.

And in the 1980s, KIIS-AM/FM in L.A. was actually a "shadowcast", not a simulcast. They played the same music in the same order, but the AM was a few minutes behind the FM and had different DJs. Here's an aircheck of it, I believe from 1986: https://audioboom.com/posts/181086-aircheck-kiis-am-fm-shadowcasting

And there's this one, an example of KIIS-AM's shadowcasting and one of my favorite airchecks of all time..... tight without being over the top

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKguXwIxxHU

 

[AKDXer]

Several small-market stations in Southeast Alaska come to mind: KINY 800 in Juneau, KIFW 1230 in Sitka, and KTKN 930 in Ketchikan. All of these also ran things like "Problem Corner", other locally originated programming, AT40, jazz on Sunday morning, etc. I believe KTKN and KINY still do. I myself thought it was interesting, in the late 2010s, hearing current hits on AM. Mind you, KTKN and KINY also have FM translators, so not sure if they really count or not.

 

[ContinuousWave]

My AM, KLLS, 1300, was probably the last Top40 in Texas on AM...2015 to 2019 in Cquam stereo..gave it my best shot:

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