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'K' and 'W' Station Battles -- same market ?

Steve Green NEPA

Steve Green NEPA

My mind flipped to this from a post on the 1110 thread.

Not limited just to Top 40, were there any hot battles going on in any market between a 'W' call and a 'K' call?

The only one that comes to mind here was the KQV-WIXZ in the early 70's. Now PGH is not 'midwest', where a few such K and W faceoffs must've taken place.

Any others?
 
1290/KOIL and 590/WOW in Omaha. KOIL was the top 40 leader in the 60s, but WOW switched from MOR to top 40 by the early 70s and turned things around.

In Minneapolis, there was the top 40 battle in the 60s and 70s between KDWB and WDGY.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
My mind flipped to this from a post on the 1110 thread.

Not limited just to Top 40, were there any hot battles going on in any market between a 'W' call and a 'K' call?

The only one that comes to mind here was the KQV-WIXZ in the early 70's. Now PGH is not 'midwest', where a few such K and W faceoffs must've taken place.

Any others?
Click to expand...

KYW vs WHK and WERE during the period when KYW was on the 1100 AM in Cleveland
 
Don't forget border cities where Canadian stations like CKLW and Mexican stations like XTRA were effectively acting as U.S. stations and competing with U.S.-based stations in the same market areas.
 
In the Kansas City market on the AM band, there has long been a battle of W vs. K stations but not always with the same formats. These were simply ratings battles with the major players in the past being WDAF on 610 kHz, WHB on 710 kHz and KCMO on 810 khz. During the Golden Age of AM Top 40 radio, WHB was owned by Storz Broadcasting and they were the clear market ratings leader. Today, WDAF is KCSP with a Sports Talk format, WHB is now KCMO with a Talk format and KCMO is now WHB with a Sports Talk format. Ironically, WHB is still the ratings winner in the Sports Talk format battle.

Bob
 
My first post was incomplete.

In Minneapolis during the mid-70s, there was a 4-way top 40 battle. Two Ks against 2 Ws... KSTP and KDWB, WDGY and WYOO.
WDGY was licensed to Minneapolis, WYOO to Richfield, both WEST of the Mississippi, while KSTP and KDWB were licensed to St.Paul, EAST of the Mississippi.
 
This may be in a smaller market but in West TN there is KYTN in Union City in with several other country stations that start with W. The call letters are because they're near the KY and TN state line.

In CCM radio in Memphis in the 90's there was KSUD competing with WGSF and then later WVIM and WYLT, which became the first K-LOVE station in Memphis.
 
anotherguy said:
This may be in a smaller market but in West TN there is KYTN in Union City in with several other country stations that start with W. The call letters are because they're near the KY and TN state line.

In CCM radio in Memphis in the 90's there was KSUD competing with WGSF and then later WVIM and WYLT, which became the first K-LOVE station in Memphis.
Click to expand...

Speaking of Memphis, WDIA and KWAM (on the Arkansas side of the river) were competing for black audiences during the '50s, '60s and '70s. I believe WDIA was the dominant station.
 
CTListener said:
Did WBAP have a "K" competitor in DFW during its years as a country station?
Click to expand...

When I lived in the area in the 80's, both KPLX 99.5 and KSCS 96.3 were doing country (KBOX 1480 had changed formats by then). Another one in DFW, I believe WFAA tried Top 40 for a time in the 70's, but soon lost out to KLIF.

Another K vs W competition was in Oklahoma City, where KOMA and WKY were both Top 40 powerhouses in the 60's and 70's. Most people in the midwest/southwest in the 70's knew KOMA, but I believe WKY usually beat them in the OKC ratings.
 
I worked in a market that straddled the Mississippi (Hannibal MO/Quincy IL). I worked at KGRC, biggest format competitor was WQCY.
 
Topeka, KS has both TV & Radio stations with callsigns that start with K & W. (KTWU-TV, WIBW-TV, AM & FM, KSNT-TV, KTKA-TV, KTOP-AM, KDVV-FM, KTPK-FM & others. There also was a station with the callsign WREN-AM in Topeka, KS until 1997 when that station moved to Kansas City, KS & eventually became what is now KYYS-AM.)
 
Route66Fan said:
Topeka, KS has both TV & Radio stations with callsigns that start with K & W. (KTWU-TV, WIBW-TV, AM & FM, KSNT-TV, KTKA-TV, KTOP-AM, KDVV-FM, KTPK-FM & others. There also was a station with the callsign WREN-AM in Topeka, KS until 1997 when that station moved to Kansas City, KS & eventually became what is now KYYS-AM.)
Click to expand...

Davenport, Iowa mid-70s. KSTT-1170 (Davenport-top 40), battling with three "W" stations. WOC-1420 (Davenport-standards), WQUA-1230 (Moline, IL-pop MOR), WHBF-1270, Rock Island, IL (pop MOR, then later Country).

(I was in the middle of that one. 3+ years at WHBF radio/TV ch4. Both CBS. Lousy hours. Lousy pay. Great fun!)
 
anotherguy said:
This may be in a smaller market but in West TN there is KYTN in Union City in with several other country stations that start with W. The call letters are because they're near the KY and TN state line.
Click to expand...
KYTN had had that nickname going as far back as 1987, when their actual call letters were WKWT, which represented "western Kentucky, west Tennessee." Then they changed their calls to WYVY, and nickname to "Y-105." Sometime after Paul Tinkle took over, he changed their nickname back to "KYTN," and at some point, their actual call letters as well. I had a thread about this on the TN statewide board here.
 


Speaking about KYW, for a time 1060 KYW and 1210 WCAU were competing all-news stations in Philadelphia, KYW owned by Westinghouse, WCAU owned by CBS.

And not too long ago, 1020 KDKA (CBS) and 104.7 WPGB (iHeart) were competing Talk stations in the Pittsburgh market. These days, KDKA-FM as a CBS Radio sports station competes with 970 WBGG as an ESPN Radio sports station.

WCCO (Entercom) competes with KTLK (iHeart) in the Twin Cities for talk listeners.




 
Was thinking ... In the earlier days of radio (like way before my time), if people were more likely to listen to out-of-area stations (maybe out of necessity due to the content they wanted not being available locally) ... could there ever have been times when a C, a K, a W, *AND* an X would have all competed with each other if, for example, you lived in some place like Colorado, Nebraska, etc?

Or what about one competitor being so similar to another (like major programming overlaps -- for example I had been thinking of not only having the same playlist, but playing the songs AT THE SAME TIME, but was realizing that there's issues with that scenario ... but at least some significant similarities), so that one station actually took legal action against another (regardless of the outcome)?

Or, for the DX side of the equation ... would it be theoretically possible (assuming the stations were at the highest powers they've ever been, or still on the air - I know some Canadians / Mexicans have since either reduced power or gone off the air) for co-channel C and X stations to compete on groundwave, with a sufficiently sensitive radio & antenna/ground setup at the receiving site? Or, what about, on skywave, a C and an X station competing with each other on the same channel that has a K and a W in states that have a coastline?
 
pianoplayer88key said:
Was thinking ... In the earlier days of radio (like way before my time), if people were more likely to listen to out-of-area stations (maybe out of necessity due to the content they wanted not being available locally) ... could there ever have been times when a C, a K, a W, *AND* an X would have all competed with each other if, for example, you lived in some place like Colorado, Nebraska, etc?
Click to expand...

When I got my first car (AM radio only!) in the early 70's in Tulsa, I had pushbuttons set for the locals KAKC and KELI, plus WLS and XEROK. At night, all of them were generally good signals.
 
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