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K99.1 Heritage country for Dayton?

F

faaradar

I know that they have been around the longest and WHKO is consistently referred to as the heritage country station in Dayton. But as a young airman, I remember the day that WHKO came on the air. Who was playing country before WHKO signed on? Just curious.
 
WONE-AM 980 played country for many years before WHIO-FM changed to WHKO and Country.
 
103.9 was Country in the mid-90s for a couple years as WRVF "The River" before flipping to Alternative as The Edge in August, 1995.
 
I always thought Dayton was kind of late for getting a major FM country station, as K-99.1 didn't come along until 1989. When did WPFB-FM go country, and was it really a Dayton station yet back then?

What about Richmond, Indiana? What was their leading country station before WQLK?
 
I'm pretty sure the Rebel flipped around the same time as K99.1. I don't know when WIFE went Country, and I can imagine the Country choice in Richmond was probably WMDH.
 
I joined WIFE in 1987 & they were already country then...and I presume they had been for a while. Not just legend, I'm here to tell ya that my own pre-teen ears heard Moon Mullins playing country on 910 in the 1964 time frame. WCNW was country when they signed on (early-mid 60's). WCNW meant We're Country 'N Western. Not sure if the 1560 signal went north or not...but it did go toward Cincy quite well.
 
NoWayNoCC said:
I always thought Dayton was kind of late for getting a major FM country station, as K-99.1 didn't come along until 1989. When did WPFB-FM go country, and was it really a Dayton station yet back then?

What about Richmond, Indiana? What was their leading country station before WQLK?
Click to expand...

Dayton was late in getting a big stick country station. WJAI was the closest thing to it, but Great Trails dumped the format right before they had their best book ever against WONE. (figures for them, doesn't it?)

But, Dayton was not as late in getting a big stick country station as Columbus was...WCOL-FM flipped to country in 1995, making it the first country station in the area that could be heard over the entire market.

And Richmond? It was served by WQLK's AM sister, WHON (930 AM) for many years.
 
WQLK actually did an automated country format for a couple of years before flipping to top 40 in 1979, essentially flipping the formats of the two stations.
 
1250WTAE said:
I could swear I saw the Dayton book the other day with K99.1 at #1, only to see that book change a day later.
Click to expand...

K-99.1 seems right now to be flipping back and forth with sister newstalk WHIO AM/FM. for #1/#2 spots. Not a bad place for a company to find their stations.
 
I remember the beautiful music format WHIO 99.1 had before the flip to country. I hated WHIO FM because it was all the older folks in my life like my grand parents listened to; I was thrilled as a youngster when 99.1 went to country. 3 songs I remember K99.1 playing over and over in the early days were "I'm no stranger to the rain" and "I was country (when country wasn't cool)" and Alabama "Roll On". I don't live in the Dayton area, but on recent visits, I'm glad to hear K99 has picked up the tempo a little playing newer song’s, DJ's sounding a little more upbeat, a few years back I thought they were the sleepiest sounding country station around.
 
I, too, also remember the beautiful music format. As a young airman, we played the radio over the PA in the building. Each day was a different station. I believe Wednesday was beautiful music day for one of the "old" guys in the building. It was a strict "no-no" to ever change the station from the assigned station for that day. So as we returned from lunch and country was playing through the building; there was steam coming from the "head" office as they assumed someone had broken a cardinal rule meant to keep the peace. We were almost lined-up for interrogation and execution until it was determined that WHIO-FM had, indeed, become WHKO.

A long-lasting memory. Probably the best memory of a format flip that I'll ever have.
 
I've been told that "sleepy sound" was intentional in the beginning. The station was trying to mollify some of the younger-end WHIO-FM listeners by keeping the DJ's laid back and the music more of a "Lite Country".

Over the years, though...the music changed and the station found itself in a position of having to change with the times. Let's face it: in a day and age when, for right or wrong, you can hear Bon Jovi and Kid Rock on a country station, the music changes alone would drive a station's decision to be less "sleepy" and more uptempo.
 
Also keep in mind that K used to NOT talk over ramps, in addition to back announcing a laundry list of tunes just played. When they started talking up intros and only backsold the last song played, I think that greatly led to the station having a snappier, up-tempo presentation.
 
I remember their first commercial back in '89 with a guy talking in front of a studio full of records and saying that they didn't talk over the music and always announced every song played, and then the end of the commercial said, "K-99.1 FM...Listen as soon as you can!".
 
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