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Hot 105/107

D

dawg4life

A brief history from Wikipedia:

A new station was constructed in Marysville, Ohio at 105.7MHz in 1990 and premiered as Top 40 WNRJ "Power Pig". (The "NRJ" in the calls signified "energy" as in "Energy 105.7", a name that was originally considered but never used.) The original format lasted until 1991 when the station became urban WWHT "Hot 105". Not long after, 107.1MHz (changed from WTLT to WAHC) began simulcasting WWHT's signal. The combo (referred to as "Hot 105-Hot 107") was I.D.'d by the on-air personalities as "the station so big it has two towers."

In an effort to again re-image the station, WWHT "Hot 105" was changed to WAKS "105.7 Kiss-FM" playing more mainstream Top 40 with little or no urban product. With its poor signal and undifferentiated format, "Kiss" failed to become a viable competitor to WNCI.

Now let's think about this for a second. Even with an extremely weak signal, Hot 105/107 made such an impact in Columbus that the giant 175,000 watt WNCI was forced to change back to a true CHR just to compete.

Then unfortunately do to so called research, Hot listened to those idiots who's bright idea was to copy WNCI so Hot changed to Kiss and that completely destroyed what used to be one of the best radio stations in the history of Columbus radio.

Can you imagine how well Hot 105 would have done back then if they had the powerful signal that 105.7 has now?
 
Yes those were the days. Unfortunately, with the climate the way it is, unless you have deep pockets to go up against WNCI, now would not be the time to attempt it. Not just the money, but the relationships that WNCI has built throughout the years or any station like it depends on their client relationships in tough times like this where a new station really wouldn't have.
 
Don't forget the "Music Pig" period when we got the C&D from Tampa.
 
I have the Kiss-FM flip from December 15, 1993 on cassette. Last song on Hot was Jimmy Cliff's "I Can See Clearly Now" and first song on Kiss was Mariah Carey's "Make It Happen". If I remember correctly, Kiss-FM lasted on both 105.7/107.1 until April of '94, when they flipped 105.7 to ARROW Classic Rock, and Kiss lasted on 107.1 until January of '95 when they flipped it to all 70s ARROW 107.1.
ALSO...does anyone remember that WNCI actually RIPPED OFF the Kiss-FM "top of the hour" sound effect, which sounded like a helicopter taking off?
Brian James did their imaging as Kiss-FM.
 
alans613 said:
ALSO...does anyone remember that WNCI actually RIPPED OFF the Kiss-FM "top of the hour" sound effect, which sounded like a helicopter taking off? 
Click to expand...

Don't recall that, but of course, WNCI ripped off everything, especially promotions.  Dave Robbins said that as the high-cume station, it was their "responsibility" to make everything look like theirs.  (Those may not have been the exact words, but that was the gist of it.)

But one thing I got a kick out of revolved around how at one point the Pig tried to one-up WNCI's boast of reaching out with 175,000 watts of power by saying that the Pig reaches out with ONE MILLION milliwatts of power (or something like that).  Of course, they were telling the truth; lots of people wouldn't know (or stop to think) that a milliwatt is only 1/1000 of the power measure normally used (watts).

Ironically, if the Pig had been on a better signal and positioned as a Hot AC or Bright AC (which it really was, as opposed to CHR), it could have done fairly well given the lack of any similar mix here.
 
I always thought that Kiss-FM sounded awful Hot AC-ish as well. Also, I thought that by the end of Hot 105/107 that they had basically become a Top 40 station as it was, phasing out all the urban stuff.
I'm surprised no one else remembers WNCI ripping off Kiss-FM's top of the hour jingle. I remember hearing it in early '94 and wondering why WNCI, as big as they were at the time, would be copying another station instead of trying to be original. I guess at the time WNCI wanted so badly to be Sunny 95 with Kiss-FM's TOOH jingle. It seems like all 'NCI did back then was rip off other stations.
 
I do remember that. The first thing you heard was the helicopter, and then the announcer saying something along the lines of "105.7 107.1 Kiss fm" and then they'd sing "Kiss FM". Then a few months later WNCI had the same exact background. The helicopter noise would start up first, announcer guy "WNCI 97.9 Columbus" and then they'd sing "WNCI Columbus". Musically, the id's were exactly the same. I wouldn't be surprised if WNCI recorded it from Kiss fm, isolated the music, and added their own liners.
 
bwilliam614 said:
I do remember that. The first thing you heard was the helicopter, and then the announcer saying something along the lines of "105.7 107.1 Kiss fm" and then they'd sing "Kiss FM". Then a few months later WNCI had the same exact background. The helicopter noise would start up first, announcer guy "WNCI 97.9 Columbus" and then they'd sing "WNCI Columbus". Musically, the id's were exactly the same. I wouldn't be surprised if WNCI recorded it from Kiss fm, isolated the music, and added their own liners.
Click to expand...
bwilliam, you're right on the money!
 
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