New Orleans B97 - The Talk Years

[Delete My Account]

To most listeners, that era of B97 (which according to Wikipedia was Summer 1994 to Spring of 1996) doesn't seem to be that well remembered or appreciated.

I lived in listening range at the time, and can't remember the entire lineup, I know they had Stern, I remember listening to Scoot fairly often, who's still on WWL. Lovephones late night. Didn't Gary Spears do a show during that era? They filled overnights and weekends with alternative - "Planet B."

I never read any comment on what led to them flipping it to talk in the first place. No idea how the ratings were, I'm assuming not great. But it entertained me at the time.

Who was their V/O guy?

 

[txchipk]

To most listeners, that era of B97 (which according to Wikipedia was Summer 1994 to Spring of 1996) doesn't seem to be that well remembered or appreciated.

I lived in listening range at the time, and can't remember the entire lineup, I know they had Stern, I remember listening to Scoot fairly often, who's still on WWL. Lovephones late night. Didn't Gary Spears do a show during that era? They filled overnights and weekends with alternative - "Planet B."

I never read any comment on what led to them flipping it to talk in the first place. No idea how the ratings were, I'm assuming not great. But it entertained me at the time.

Who was their V/O guy?

WEZB didn't flip to talk until August/September 1995. By August 1995, half the day was talk already as they added Stern in January 1995. When they did flip, they kept a rock-leaning top 40 format on the weekends (I have an aircheck of that from November 1995 somewhere).

Falling ratings (5.4-4.7-4.4 in the 12+ Winter 95-Spring 95-Summer 95) and new programming head led to the change. It last less than a year as they dropped Stern and the other talk and shifted to hot AC the following year.

 

[AMFMTV]

To most listeners, that era of B97 (which according to Wikipedia was Summer 1994 to Spring of 1996) doesn't seem to be that well remembered or appreciated.

I lived in listening range at the time, and can't remember the entire lineup, I know they had Stern, I remember listening to Scoot fairly often, who's still on WWL. Lovephones late night. Didn't Gary Spears do a show during that era? They filled overnights and weekends with alternative - "Planet B."

I never read any comment on what led to them flipping it to talk in the first place. No idea how the ratings were, I'm assuming not great. But it entertained me at the time.

Who was their V/O guy?

Was that around the time that Walton and Johnson split up -- and one of them went to afternoons? My memory is a little fuzzy, but that sounds familiar. And Michael Chase did a late night LGBT themed show during that era too, which was pretty groundbreaking for radio back then.

 

[RFLA]

Was that around the time that Walton and Johnson split up -- and one of them went to afternoons? My memory is a little fuzzy, but that sounds familiar. And Michael Chase did a late night LGBT themed show during that era too, which was pretty groundbreaking for radio back then.

Think Walton and Johnson had either moved to Houston or were at WCKW.. cant remember if W&J moved on , when they went with Steven's and Pruitt or what

 

[AMFMTV]

Think Walton and Johnson had either moved to Houston or were at WCKW.. cant remember if W&J moved on , when they went with Steven's and Pruitt or what

Now that you say it, that sounds about right.

 

[RFLA]

I think one of the rumbles to create rivalry on WCKW (I think after W&J left for Texas) was why listen to the imitators (W&J) when you could hear the real "radio Gawds" as both shows had same premise back then.. The Sex for Sam fiasco in 2002 basically changed radio for many years and W&J started going more political talk show and only now starting to hear morning personalities start to be a little risqué again..