K-Rocks 570 before Newstalk.

[radioman921]

What ever happened to the jocks that were on 570 when it went rock for a short time, before fliping to KLIF. I thought it was pretty cool. I actually heard one night at about 2:30a Three Fates by ELP. For a Prog Rock fan that is a total treat.

 

[Kent]

I'm not sure what happened to the old KRQX jocks, but I remember it had several formats between K-Rocks and KLIF. They also had the old KLDD "K-Oldie." It actually wasn't a bad station, but it didn't take long for it to get whipped by KLUV. KLDD and KZEW flipped at the same time to a simulcast of KKWM "Warm 97.9," though 570 still broke away for sports programming. It even kept the old KLDD, and possibly KRQX, request line for the sports programming 787-1157.

 

[MikeShannon914]

570 was a simulcast of KKWM-"Warm 97.9" for nearly a year right before KLIF "moved down the dial" from 1190. Warm may have played ELP, but that doesn't sound like a typical group they'd play within their light AC format...but you never know. They would play two songs by the same artist back-to-back, so sometimes the 2nd song would be pretty obscure if a given group didn't have two strong hits to play (for example, Marty Balin's "Hearts" would be followed by the seldom-heard #27 "Atlanta Lady," for example; same for Franke and the Knockouts "You're My Girl" played after the more-popular "Sweetheart;" "Girl" only hit #27 and got next to no airplay here when new in 1981. Far as the jocks, go to www.knus99.com/amlist.html and you'll find my list there under "570." If you want to know where any and all the jocks are now, post the names on here and we'll all try to help.

(Granted, the station may have used the Billboard Top AC Hits list [1961+ version] to make their playlist from, so some of these may have done better than the Hot 100 #'s I gave.)

 

[Kent]

Yeah, I remember some of those obscure songs on Warm 97.9 as part of the "two songs in-a-row by the same artist" thing they used to do. I'm also thinking Lite 97.9 shelved that pretty quickly. My mother used to really like Warm 97.9, but my father and I just found it irritating to no end. Of course, we weren't in its target demo! I also remember it did the reverse of most other stations and had an all-female lineup except for middays and, possibly, overnights. I never listed to that station aside from when Mom was in the car. So, I never heard it in the overnights.

 

[MikeShannon914]

Seems like Jay Roberts did mornings, Nancy Johnson did middays (which she's told me since that Arbitron showed her timeslot was the runaway winner against anything else in the market, even KVIL; Nancy was one of the only holdovers from KZEW; she admits the format bored her to tears and she brought a book to work daily to stay awake!), the late Vickie Hunter did evenings, as did Steve Fernandez and the late Randy Coffey at times, and Steve Anderson and Stan Atkins (holdovers from KLDD) did most weekend shifts.

Remember, "It's 79 degrees in Dallas, 78 in Fort Worth, and at 97-point-9 FM, it's alwaaaaayss...............Warm. The New Warm, 97-point-9 FM, KKWM-FM and AM, Dallas-Fort Worth. I'm ______, and I'm starting another music hour of soft, relaxing favorites."

I liked the predictability of it. If a so-so Manilow song was playing, I'd stay tuned in to see what the next Manilow song would be. The third song in a set would stand alone, no duplicate artist, etc. Something like this: Artist A - Artist A - Artist B - short tag - Artist C - Artist C - Artist D - commercials," etc...lather, rinse and repeat every hour of the day.

"Lite 97.9" was another story. It was pure light AC schlock, no repeating artists, with overkill on Whitney and Michael Bolton and other currents. They ran these 1 & 2 minute-long, self-hyping explanations of what the station was about, even 6 months into their tenure...always followed by the 'ding' of a wine glass--"The New Lite (DING) 97.9 FM." Cheesy.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Yeah, I remember some of those obscure songs on Warm 97.9 as part of the "two songs in-a-row by the same artist" thing they used to do. I'm also thinking Lite 97.9 shelved that pretty quickly. My mother used to really like Warm 97.9, but my father and I just found it irritating to no end. Of course, we weren't in its target demo! I also remember it did the reverse of most other stations and had an all-female lineup except for middays and, possibly, overnights. I never listed to that station aside from when Mom was in the car. So, I never heard it in the overnights.

I remember when they were a top 40 station as WFAA 570. I have a music survey or two from that era with the jocks names on it. Darn good station, daytime reach to Midland in the West, I remember hearing them in AM stereo all the way down I-45 to Houston until 560 from Beaumont beat them up pretty bad. When I was in Houston, I could turn a portable radio to null KLVI and still get them in stereo. At night, they were really great in stereo - even though I was listening in Houston.

I have no doubt that their stupid IBOC has a similar range. As for 1190 moving down the dial - the KLIF call letters refer to a legendary top-40 station - the mightly 1190. If 570 had an ounce of integrity, they would change the call letters until they EARN them by switching to legacy top-40 music similar to what "the mighty 1190" played. It makes me sick to think of the KLIF calls assigned to the piddle, drivel, and swill of talk.

The closest thing Dallas has to the legendary KLIF 1190 is KLUV.

 

[MikeShannon914]

First Broadcasting's music-in-a-box format during 2006 on 1190 brought back memories of KLIF for me. First, the months-long Beatles marathon, then some pretty decent oldies thereafter (and alas, more than a 300-song playlist!)

WFAA-570 had Bud Buschardt ("57 Nostalgia Place,") Steve Goddard (look for a great aircheck out there from Steve taped during October, 1976,) Jim Thomas, Gentleman Jim Carter, Jack Schell, the late Randy Coffey, Rob Williams (Rob Milford,) the late Ken Summers (Sasso,) Chuck Murphy and Charlie Van during their Top 40 years, among others.

Another abuse of heritage calls: KFJZ (870, was Music of Your Life briefly, now it's a Spanish Religious station)

Honorable reuse of heritage calls: KJIM (1500 in Sherman; MOYL and some pop oldies)

 

[longtimelistener]

Before WFAA-AM became "Newstalk570" in the late 70s with Dick Wheeler, Ed Busch, Kevin McCarthy, Neal Sperry, "The SuperHandyman" etc., they were doing an mor/pop format for a while. I don't remember who the jocks were.

 

[MikeShannon914]

From what I've been told by Steve Goddard and Rob Milford, the station was playing Top 40 until 11/2/76 (Election Day) and became "Newstalk 57" that day. The old aircheck of Goddard's is dated October, 1976. MOR was already being played on WFAA in the early 1970s, evidenced by a 4/27/70 aircheck when the final switchover with WBAP/WFAA occurred. What happened in between, I have no idea. I know "57 Nostalgia Place" would have been a better complement to a Pop format, and I believe Bud did that show from 4/74-10/76. So whether it happened before that or during, I don't know. But going by Goddard's aircheck, it was Top 40 right up to the change to Newstalk (and it checks out..."Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," "Moonlight Feels Right," etc put it right at the assumed date.)

Dick Syatt, Jim Simon and Charley Wright were some others who were at Newstalk 57.

Whatever became of Dick Wheeler, anyway? I believe he's still alive.

 

[longtimelistener]

I don't know what Dick Wheeler is doing these days. Last I heard (many years ago) he was on his big sailboat at Lake Texoma.

IMHO, Dick was the Walter Cronkite of DFW radio.

 

[jd]

WFAA-570 had Bud Buschardt ("57 Nostalgia Place,") Steve Goddard (look for a great aircheck out there from Steve taped during October, 1976,) Jim Thomas, Gentleman Jim Carter, Jack Schell, the late Randy Coffey, Rob Williams (Rob Milford,) the late Ken Summers (Sasso,) Chuck Murphy and Charlie Van during their Top 40 years, among others.

Mike, another interesting note about that era: for a while the overnights were handled by Channel 8's legendary Don Norman, their booth announcer at the time. (I suspect, though, that it wasn't all night long, with the latter portion of the show probably having the voice bits on tape.) It was bizarre, with deadpan Norman doing some really off the wall stuff, like "walking over to the weather corner" ritual for the forecast. Yep, footsteps...more footsteps...rip the paper off the printer...more footsteps...then settle back into the chair and do the weather. Somewhere, somebody has to have some air-checks of it.

 

[billdavis]

I seem to remember a WFAA publicity photo or video of Don Norman running his hand over his hair on the side of his head, like a matinee idol would back in the 30s or 40s.

Also, found this on Dick Wheeler, though its about 3 years old:

http://www.texasradiohalloffame.com/dickwheeler.html

 

[radioman921]

This was actually around 1987-88. One Jock I remember was a dude named Ken Baker....

 

[Kent]

Seems like Jay Roberts did mornings, Nancy Johnson did middays (which she's told me since that Arbitron showed her timeslot was the runaway winner against anything else in the market, even KVIL; Nancy was one of the only holdovers from KZEW; she admits the format bored her to tears and she brought a book to work daily to stay awake!), the late Vickie Hunter did evenings, as did Steve Fernandez and the late Randy Coffey at times, and Steve Anderson and Stan Atkins (holdovers from KLDD) did most weekend shifts.

The lineup I remember was Kelly Fox in morning drive, Jay Roberts late mornings, Nancy Johnson early afternoons, and Lisa Lee PM drive. I don't think I listened much at night as I very rarely went anywhere with my mother in the evenings. I remember Linda Martin being on nights at 97.9 for a little while, but that may have been after it flipped to Lite 97.9. I also seem to remember Linda on mornings toward the end of the Lite 97.9 era.

Remember, "It's 79 degrees in Dallas, 78 in Fort Worth, and at 97-point-9 FM, it's alwaaaaayss...............Warm. The New Warm, 97-point-9 FM, KKWM-FM and AM, Dallas-Fort Worth. I'm ______, and I'm starting another music hour of soft, relaxing favorites."

Oh, yes, I remember that very well! I also remember, "and I promise not to talk over any of your soft and relaxing favorites," somewhere in there, though that may have been going into the :50 stopset.

I liked the predictability of it. If a so-so Manilow song was playing, I'd stay tuned in to see what the next Manilow song would be. The third song in a set would stand alone, no duplicate artist, etc. Something like this: Artist A - Artist A - Artist B - short tag - Artist C - Artist C - Artist D - commercials," etc...lather, rinse and repeat every hour of the day.

As I said before, I pretty much only listened to it when going somewhere with my mother. She'd make sure to flip it on. "Star 105.3" was my usual choice for that kind of music. However, I have to admit that I much preferred Warm 97.9 to the old Magic 102.9. Mom never took much of a liking to KVIL, but she really loved Cozy 105.3, EZ-107.5 and Magic 102.9. I actually told her about Warm after expecting to hear The Zoo and being disappointed because being subjected to KKWM was much preferable to Magic. I could stomach KMEZ better than Magic, too.

"Lite 97.9" was another story. It was pure light AC schlock, no repeating artists, with overkill on Whitney and Michael Bolton and other currents. They ran these 1 & 2 minute-long, self-hyping explanations of what the station was about, even 6 months into their tenure...always followed by the 'ding' of a wine glass--"The New Lite (DING) 97.9 FM." Cheesy.

Lite was pretty bad. However, it was still Mom's first choice, especially after Magic 102.9 and EZ-107.5 bit the dust, which I remember happening within about six months of each other.

 

[gagorder]

570 sounded so good in stereo when they were KRQX, classic rock. George Gimarc helped master mind that format for them. One stunt was a guy whose name started with an "L""(Lazo?" ) One wekend the "stunt" ws he was not coming out of the studio until he played every single version of "Louie Louie" ever recorded ;Electronica,Italins, Spanish, even a n Opera version. There was like 200 -3oo versions of the song back to back

 

[Eye]

I took over as PD of WFAA-AM 570 in 1973. It was then a traditional MOR. I started sprinkling in top 40 hits that were not too loud. We labeled the station MUSICRADIO 57. As I recall, the staff included Ken Summers (Sasso) in morning drive, Jeff Dale/Steve Goddard middays, Ray Dunaway in afternoons, and Terry Bell evenings. Ed Busch hosted a talk show at 10 PM. The station did very well.
I was also PD of KZEW at the time, and eventually shifted over solely to the ZOO side. Ken Summers became WFAA PD after I moved, and later the station shifted to news-talk. At least that's how I remember it. But I could be wrong. I have trouble remembering what I had for lunch yesterday.

 

[Megapsycle]

570 sounded so good in stereo when they were KRQX, classic rock.

Yep... I still have 4 of the C-Quam AM Stereo radios I bought in the 80s to listen to KRQX... I have a cassette tape of some of that All Louie weekend somewhere in my collection.

 

[Horatio]

Nice to read this thread that recognizes the greatness of the old WFAA radio. Radio mixing contemporary music with smart on-air talent with something to say, plus quality news, and good specialty programs.

This type of radio still exists in Great Britain, with BBC-2 and others in the BBC family. NPR's missing a bet.