wdb2003 said:
Yeap pretty sad the Lazer died years ago but its obivous the change was needed to bring in revenue. People want Hot AC they got KZPT, KKJO and somewhat KMAJ. I stopped listening to KLZR when they flipped to Hot AC in 2003 but it served as Kansas City only Hot AC station for years. Years ago KQTP 102.9 was CHR and its signal would come in to Kansas City sometimes hardly any talk about that station. The new sound has the same image as a Clear Channel KIIS minus the big blah over Iheartradio.com. Let just pray Ryan Seacrast will stay away.
Keep in mind that Lazer has rarely, if ever, tried to be a Kansas City station, at least as a primary market. Almost 30 years ago, it moved its tower from Lawrence to Lecompton to get a better signal into Topeka. For all practical purposes, it hasn't worked. Its signal got worse in Kansas City, thus eliminating any chance it had at becoming much of a Kansas City station. Its signal is okay in most of JoCo, but you can pretty well forget getting much of a reliable signal out of it in Missouri, with the possible exceptions of the Waldo and Brookside areas.
In return, KLZR got a signal about as close to Topeka as WIBW-FM, its main competitor at the time, had, though WIBW's tower used to be west of Topeka rather than east as KLZR's was. Cementing itself into the Topeka market was a mistake as Topeka has always been a tough place to make money. WIBW AM/FM and KTPK were about the only stations to consistently make money, and WIBW-FM started dropping badly in billing after the CHR format started declining in '88 or '89. So, in '90, WIBW-FM dumped its top-40 format and became "97 Country," which eventually forced KTPK out of the top spot. Eventually, WIBW took over the operation of KTPK, which is how you have classic country there now. Anyway, going back to KLZR, the fact that it was a Lawrence station, too, helped keep it from being a total loser after the move to Lecompton. Really, the only other stations to try to make a move in Lawrence were KLZR's sister, KLWN, and KHUM/KZTO 95.7, now KCHZ, of course. I remember taking a trip to Lawrence in '01 right before I left Kansas City to have one last visit at Free State Brewing, and there was still a "96 Hum FM" label outside one of the buildings on Massachusetts St, roughly 10 years after KHUM left the air. The sign isn't there anymore, and I don't know when it finally came down.
As for Q-103, I remember it, too. Before being a top-40 station, it was "Oldies 102.9," which ran mostly satellite oldies while the top-40 format was on KWIC "Hot 99.3." Cumulus swapped formats on the two stations after buying them from Sunrise Broadcasting. I believe that happened in '98 as Cumulus bought KMAJ and KTOP/KDVV from Midland Broadcasters in '97. Ironically, KWIC, I believe, picked up ABC/SMN's hot AC format a few years after KLZR dropped it for modern rock. Cumulus decided to move the top-40 format to 102.9 and do it locally. KQTP and KWIC occasionally made it into Kansas City, but not very often. I had better luck getting both in Eudora, though KWIC was iffy there, too. Q-103 never really did very well in Topeka, which is part of why it didn't last very long. I'm thinking it went country even before Cumulus got KCHZ, which beat the pants off Q-103 in Topeka without even trying. By the way, driving along either I-70 or 470 in Topeka, there was a building with the old "Oldies 102.9" and "Hot 99.3" logos on the sign out front years after the swap and long after they vacated it.
