A
ALRocker
Guest
Kmow of any AM stations that play current rock music, like when AM was king in the 60's and 70's?
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Are you kidding? From what I've heard, 610/KFRC in the Bay Area gets credit for lasting longer than the vast majority of AM Top 40 stations. The hilly San Francisco topography got the credit for that longevity...picking up FM signals (espcially in moving cars) was tougher in the Bay Area until FM transmission improved.
But "The Big 610" has been gone for about 22 years now!
If I can modify this thread a little, it would be interesting to know what Top 40 AM stations around the country lasted even longer...possibly into the 90s (?)
But "The Big 610" has been gone for about 22 years now!
If I can modify this thread a little, it would be interesting to know what Top 40 AM stations around the country lasted even longer...possibly into the 90s (?)
A
ALRocker
Guest
WTAK AM 1000 in Huntsville, Al. had a AOR format until around 1990 or so, then they went to FM. Before that they were top 40 WVOV. It's now Love 1000, playing black gospel.
WJET Erie was an AM CHR until the late 80's before migrating to FM. WINX Rockville (Washington) MD attempted CHR on AM in the late 90's. As far as North America, are there any CHR's still on the AM band in Canada?
The closest I could find to an AM station playing rock is CFIW 1200 In Canal Flats, B.C. It's an active rocker, BUT it's a low powered relay of another station. There's a bunch of AC stations, including a hot AC in Creston BC, CFKC 1340. The last true CHR in Canada that I'm aware of was CKLG 730 in Vancouver, which called it quits in 2000. KCJJ 1630 in Iowa City is still a hot AC at night. ¿Does that count? Back in about 1998-2001 they were calling themselves "eastern Iowa's hit music station".
mimo said:
Not that I'm making the "rules," or anything, but I don't think low powered AM stations that are merely simulcasting a more powerful FM signal should count. There have been examples of this in the SF Bay Area. For example, the low powered 1510 AM here simulcasts KPIG, the great free-form 107.5 FM rock signal out of Monterey. The format has created a lot of buzz, so 1510 is just a way to make the station accessible to Bay Area listeners. But KPIG won't have any real impact until they find a way to simulcast it on a Bay Area FM frequency.
I would bet that there are more people that stream KPIG on their computers, than there are AM listeners. For those of you who are interested, it's a terrific station. Here's the link: http://www.kpig.com/
I really don't remember many AM stations playing pure rock back then, just CHR. Is that what you meant? How about WKHZ (1590) in Ocean City, Md. Does that count? They are a bit heavy into recurrents and 90s gold and slant a bit rhythmic, though.ALRocker said:
gr8oldies said:
August 1985, to be exact ... that's when WAAY dropped its live CHR format in favor of SMN's "StarStation" AC.
(per Smith Broadcasting's history page at www.31alumni.com)
ALRocker said:
WTAK was AOR between around November 1987 and July 1993, when they signed on WTAK-FM 106.1. Between WVOV dropping top-40 for country in 1979 and the calls changing to WTAK and AC in 1981, there were at least three formats - oldies, churban, gospel! They finally hit paydirt with the what-do-we-have-to-lose flip to AOR in '87.
--Russell
1985 - 1987 seem to be the years that many AM rockers threw in the towel. KFRC gave up in 85 or 86. In my opinion, they were still superior in terms of format, and DJs (including Dr. Don Rose), and they still had an excellent news department, not just the rip-and-read headlines read by the morning traffic reporter. They even tried AM stereo, which went nowhere. But they just couldn't compete anymore with a low-fi signal against 3 or 4 powerful and high fidelity FMs.
Ironically, their biggest competetor was KMEL (106.1). That frequency had been KFRC-FM until about a decade earlier, when the owners (RKO General) sold 106.1, believing that there was no future in FM.
Ironically, their biggest competetor was KMEL (106.1). That frequency had been KFRC-FM until about a decade earlier, when the owners (RKO General) sold 106.1, believing that there was no future in FM.
AM 770 in Minneapolis-ST Paul, a college station, rocks to this day.
I can't remember the call letters, and when I was listening this morning they only ever identified as "radio K", whic means
"every station west of the Mississippi" to me. If they really wanted me to know what station they are they would use their calls.
The music truly sounds wonderful on AM. They used to be CQUAM stereo, but it's been years since I had a stereo
AM radio in a rental car, so I don't know if they're still stereo.
I can't remember the call letters, and when I was listening this morning they only ever identified as "radio K", whic means
"every station west of the Mississippi" to me. If they really wanted me to know what station they are they would use their calls.
The music truly sounds wonderful on AM. They used to be CQUAM stereo, but it's been years since I had a stereo
AM radio in a rental car, so I don't know if they're still stereo.
KeithE4 said:
They may have remained a music station until 1989, but no way would I call them a rocker at that point. Even by '84 or so they were more AC-ish than rock.
Another large-market AM that held on as a music station until the late 80s was the mighty KB in Buffalo (I think the calls changed to WWKB in '86), though they did do some talk programming for a while in the mid 80s. Again, they'd pretty much ceased to be a rocker by '83 or so, becoming AC, and at the end oldies.
AM 770 in Minneapolis-St Paul is KUOM. Calls stand for University of Minnesota. In addition to the oddity of it being an AM rocker, its also an oddity in that its a daytimer. With 5kw on 770, the signal is reasonably good...especially to the south and southwest where the ground conductivity is better.
Personally, I don't find the audio quality to be very good....sounds "muddy" to me, but perhaps that's just because I'm used to hearing that type of music either on fm, satellite, CD, etc. 1510 in San Francisco sounds better IMHO (assuming, of course, you can find yourself within range of the signal).
Personally, I don't find the audio quality to be very good....sounds "muddy" to me, but perhaps that's just because I'm used to hearing that type of music either on fm, satellite, CD, etc. 1510 in San Francisco sounds better IMHO (assuming, of course, you can find yourself within range of the signal).
KFRC threw in the towel 22 years ago this month. WLS was CHR until 84. Following their 25th reunion WLS drifted into a strange land of music that featured a music variety that included "That's Amore" to "Dancing In The Dark". Scott Childers' www.wlshistory.com talks about the last days here http://www.wlshistory.com/WLS80/
The story of how WLS ended as a music station is here, http://www.wlshistory.com/jox/docduncan.htm and includes an aircheck. Warning, it is depressing on many levels.
The story of how WLS ended as a music station is here, http://www.wlshistory.com/jox/docduncan.htm and includes an aircheck. Warning, it is depressing on many levels.
Lkeller said:
Don't know if any of you are familiar with this station, but legendary Sarasota, FL Top 40 station WKXY (a.k.a. "93 KXY") was Top 40 until 1990. In fact around late 1989-early 1990, they flirted with Rhythmic CHR as "93 KXY, Florida's Amazing AM" as they tried unsuccessfully to compete with Tampa's "Power Pig." Well of course that didn't work and by late summer 1990, they took a more adult direction. They drifted into AC territory soon after. In 1993, they fired all of the jocks and went satellite AC. Two years later they went to (you guessed it) a talk format.
Radio K won't be alone so0n. In Montreal, CJLO 1690 is about to begin testing next week. It's a college radio station currently streaming on the internet only. The focus will be new music, alternative, upcoming indie bands, metal, punk and anything else that's underground. Like most other Canadian x-banders, it'll be licensed for only one thousand watts fulltime. I don't quite understand why our x-banders don't try for the full 10,000 daytime like they do in the states. The only one who did was CHHA, they claimed since they needed to relocate the transmitter, there'd be a huge portion of their audience that would be unable to get the signal at all at the 1000 watts they had.
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