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NWA Radio Battle

Kent, thanks for filling in some my gaps. You are correct, AT 40 was on KC-105 and Rick Dees was on K106/Power 105.7.

I forgot that KC 105 become EZ 105. I remember they become country Beaver 105 about a couple of years later.

I also remember 96.7/99.5 had short stints as a rock/country hybrid and sports in the mid 90s.

I remember the KESE and KJEM call letters, but I guess I don't recall them ever being at 95.3. Perhaps they didn't have a clear signal where I was in Springdale or I just never realized it was there. What was the wattage and transmitter location before it moved to 93.3? Was it up by the MO border?

Do you remember what year 93.3 The Eagle came aboard and when Q102 flipped to Mix 101.9?
 
DIZ Guy said:
Other questions that I have........
Was "Scott Shannon's Rockin' America Top 30 Countdown" ever on in NWA?????
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"Scott Shannon Rockin' America Top 30 Countdown" was on in at some point in the mid/late 80s. I think it aired on K106.
 
wxman76 said:
Kent, thanks for filling in some my gaps. You are correct, AT 40 was on KC-105 and Rick Dees was on K106/Power 105.7.

I forgot that KC 105 become EZ 105. I remember they become country Beaver 105 about a couple of years later.

I also remember 96.7/99.5 had short stints as a rock/country hybrid and sports in the mid 90s.

KOLZ (Z 98.3) also had a short stint as a CHR. It tried to go head to head with Power 105.7 and failed. I will post an aircheck shortly.

I remember the KESE and KJEM call letters, but I guess I don't recall them ever being at 95.3. Perhaps they didn't have a clear signal where I was in Springdale or I just never realized it was there. What was the wattage and transmitter location before it moved to 93.3? Was it up by the MO border?

Do you remember what year 93.3 The Eagle came aboard and when Q102 flipped to Mix 101.9?
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wxman76 said:
I forgot that KC 105 become EZ 105. I remember they become country Beaver 105 about a couple of years later.
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Eazy 105 didn't last very long in Fayetteville. I believe it became Beaver 105 just over a year after switching to easy listening. A girl I dated when I was a freshman at the U of A loved country but hated that station because of the station name and the bumper stickers that said "BEAVER" in big letters with a smaller "105 FM" afterward! Of course, being a Texas girl, she didn't realize it was named after Beaver Lake. By the way, the Ft. Smith incarnation of Eazy 105 lasted a bit longer than the Fayetteville one. I know I heard it in the summer of '93 on my way to college in Memphis for my first semester of school. However, going from Tulsa to Memphis, I didn't want to hear easy listening for long!

I also remember 96.7/99.5 had short stints as a rock/country hybrid and sports in the mid 90s.
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99.5 The Rebel signed on sometime between November '93 and January '94. I went to Little Rock for the Fall '94 semester, and 99.5 was contemporary Christian "B-99" when I got back to Fayetteville in January '95. Sometime between Winter/Spring '95 and Fall '95, it became oldies "99.5 Cool FM." Shortly after that was when I first noticed the translator at 96.7. They started hitting it pretty hard because of all the problems the 99.5 signal had in and around Fayetteville. I remember talking to someone at Power 105.7 my first semester at U of A, and he told me they didn't expect The Rebel to do much in Fayetteville because of tower location and terrain. They said The Rebel was aimed squarely at the Springdale audience. Anyway, 99.5 Cool FM started carrying "The Fabulous Sports Babe" and began increasing sports programming on the station. I understand it flipped to sports when the oldies format moved to KAMO, which became Cool 94.

I remember the KESE and KJEM call letters, but I guess I don't recall them ever being at 95.3. Perhaps they didn't have a clear signal where I was in Springdale or I just never realized it was there. What was the wattage and transmitter location before it moved to 93.3? Was it up by the MO border?
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I believe the station was still licensed to Seligman when it was at 95.3. It had 1,700 watts of power, and the transmitter was on Garfield Mountain, which I believe is near the MO border. I know they call the transmitter farm that houses 101.9, 94.3 and TV 51 "Garfield," and it's located in AR but just a stones throw away from Garfield, MO. So, I'm assuming it's the same place. Its studios were at 216 Main Street in Bentonville. It had two upgrades on power. The first happened in November '91, when it moved to 93.3 and raised power to 50,000 watts. It went to 100,000 watts in July '93.

Do you remember what year 93.3 The Eagle came aboard and when Q102 flipped to Mix 101.9?
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I left in '97 and moved to Kansas City. Q-102 flipped to Mix 101.9 right after I left. I left in May, and it was Mix by Father's Day. I think the Eagle flipped later that same year, but it might have been '98 when that happened. Elvis Lee Moody sold KJEM-FM to Capstar and KJEM 1190 to Power Radio Group.
 
wxman76 said:
KOLZ (Z 98.3)also had a short stint as a CHR. It tried to go head to head with Power 105.7 and failed. Here is an interrupted aircheck of Z 98.3 in June 1995.
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Yeah, I remember that, too. That was another one I noticed right after I got back to Fayetteville from Little Rock. I actually preferred waking up to Z-98.3 over Magic 107.9 and was disappointed in that flip. It didn't seem like Demaree ever put any real effort into that station. Z-98.3 was usually automated, and I can remember having to call KKEG multiple times to let them know the station was broadcasting dead air.

My first semester at Arkansas, someone on my floor in the dorm loved oldies and listened to KOLZ "Oldies 98.3" rather often. He was into radio and knew I had interned at KRMG and KWEN in Tulsa about a year earlier. So, he called me as soon as he turned on KOLZ and heard it looping Bonnie Raitt's "Something to Talk About." He also called me at midnight right after the format change. He said a legal ID played, and the station introduced itself as "Soft Rock Z-98.3."
 
What a great thread!

I live in St. Louis, and have relatives in Fayetteville. Northwest Arkansas is a place that is near and dear to my heart. I looked forward to my trips there, and the radio stations there appealed to me more than the radio stations in my area.

The first time I paid attention to the radio dial there was in the fall of 1975. Some of the stations I remember were:

KFAY--1250 kHz (Country)
KUOA--1290 kHz (A/C)
KBRS--1340 kHz (Full Service AC-MOR-Country)
KAMO--1390 kHz (Country?)
KHOG--1440 kHz (Top-40)
KSPR--1590 kHz (Full Service AC)
KUAF--88.3 MHz (Rock)
KKEG--92.1 MHz (AOR)
KAMO--94.3 MHz (Country)
KNWA--103.9 MHz (Easy Listening)
KCIZ--104.9 MHz (Full Service AC simulcast with KSPR)
KMCK--105.7 MHz (AC)

My favorite station at the time was KSPR and KCIZ. It was an unusual mix of songs that featured a lot of songs that were in the 70-100 range of the Billboard Hot 100 (including some "Bubbling Under's) and Easy Listening (now Adult Contemporary) charts. It had a local full service style that I really liked.

In 1976 that simulcast ended, with KSPR staying live and KCIZ being automated. They began carrying "American Top 40" sometime after April 1976 on KCIZ. By the summer or fall of 1976, KSPR went country, and kept that format until at least 1984. Dewey Johnson was the owner of the stations during this time, and some of the personalities I remember there were Dan Hentschel, Chuck Bushong, and John Judd.

Here are unscoped airchecks of KSPR and KCIZ recorded on 15 April 1976. The files are 192/44.1. The sound quality isn't great--it was recorded using a built in mike using a Panasonic portable tape recorder. I cleaned up a lot of midrange so it should at least sound listenable. Here are the links:

http://www.4shared.com/file/38766952/c71cffd3/KSPR_15_April_1976.html
http://www.4shared.com/file/38766949/49d5171a/KCIZ_15_April_1976.html

KBRS referred to themselves as "The Voice Of Springdale." It had a similar full service sound to KSPR, but was aimed at an older audience. They had a remote unit, which included turntables at a Ford dealership that was located on Meadow in Springdale (my grandmother's house was located on that street very close to US 71/62-B). The station shifted its format to Adult Standards in the 1980's, and must have closed down in the late 1980's.

KHOG was the dominant Top-40, and KFAY was the dominant Country formatted stations of the time. KKEG was some version of AOR and Top-40 throughout the 1970's. KNWA was a very popular Easy Listening station (my aunt was on a bowling team sponsored by the station).

KMCK went from 50 kW to 100 kW and flipped to CHR and adopted the "K-106" slogan in the fall of 1979. It was the first 100 kW station of the region. It was known as the "Friendly Giant." I first heard them in the summer of 1980 and was hooked immediately. It was one of my favorite stations of the region from then on. Their studios were in Siloam Springs and their sales offices were in Fayetteville. Both KUOA and KMCK were still affiliated with John Brown University until 1983 when it was sold to Apple Broadcasting. I remember hearing Dr. Demento on 105.7 on several visits there. That station had a great format. They were breaking artists months ahead of St. Louis.

On the AM side, KURM signed on in 1979. KHOG flipped from Top-40 to Country in the early 1980's (they may have been Oldies for a time). They went from 1440 kHz to 1030 in 1984 and was the first to adopt AM stereo in the region. Eventually KFAY and KHOG swapped frequencies in the late 1980's, and for a time referred to themselves as "Country-Rockin' KFAY). Does anyone remember KFAY running 24 hours on the Fayetteville cable system when they were a 1250 kHz daytimer? KSPR eventually changed formats and calls to KQXK as Oldies' "Sweet 16."

KUAF dropped their student run format and became an NPR affiliate, although there was a student station on the cable system, which I heard in 1985.

KCIZ kept their automated AC format until 1983 or 1984, and adopted their KC-105 slogan. I could not believe they actually went dark before they went on as an Easy Listening station.

KNWA was sold in 1983 and became KKIX. They (and KNWA) operated out of an old gas station in their early years. I saw that building in 1985, and it was a cool building. I could not believe this 3 kW FM could dominate a market like they did in 1985.

KEZA went on in 1982, and I believe KBVA (106.5) did that year or not long after. KBVA was available on C-Band satellite receivers for decades. With all the changes going on in NW Arkansas, I'm surprised that station is still doing an Adult Standards format.

While K-106 may have changed to Power, the spirit of the station didn't really change all that much. They still played a very different mix of CHR compared to other markets. I liked their "Arklahoma" simulcast with KZBB Poteau from 1991-2. That concept opened the door to Music Channel One, which was Power's format syndicated nationally.

Even though KZBB was a Ft. Smith station, I got it easily in Fayetteville. I remember it as KLCO-FM as a CHR with a 2000 ft. tower. For a while they were religion as KLUP, and then were known as "Z-98," playing a lot of alternate mixes of CHR hits. Eventually they became "B-98" before and after their simulcast with Power.

Northwest Arkansas has always been a unique place. The conneciting highways and its proximity to Tulsa, Joplin and Springfield (MO) play a role here. So did the cable systems, carrying more stations from the above cities than Ft. Smith or Little Rock. On my last trip to the region in 2005, I was stunned at how the area has changed and grown. Besides Wal-Mart, Interstate 540 has probably changed the landscape of the region as well. I only hope the area retains its history and hospitality over the years.
 
spiritof67 needs to write a book and call it "The History Of Radio In NWA"!!!!!!!!!

Good stuff man....

BTW....someone mentioned above about when Q-102 flipped from rock to CHR....

It happenned in early June of 1997...and was very surprising...

At the time, the X had been on for about a year, and was playing ALL alternative music, almost sounding like KROQ out of LA, but with a local feel to it........

KKEG was all classic rock at this time, with an occasional Counting Crows tune or Wallflowers tune thrown into the mix...the main personality basically being John Williams in the morning, who is still very popular as of today...

Then we have Q-102....that station had been all classic rock for a couple of years, but in early 96, they added "The Frye Zone" to the station, and began throwing in more new rock...

By the time 1997 arrived, Q-102 was pretty much an active rock station, playing heavier new rock while the X continued it's original alternative sound..

I used to listen to the Q alot, and I remember this VERY WELL...

Early in the morning on a Friday in June of 97, they started playing "A Change will do you good" from Sheryl Crowe until at least 4pm....they then launched "Mix 101.9"....

This kind of sucked, because we no longer had a new hard rock station in town...

933 The Eagle then appeared in the Fall of 1997....

Things have changed alot since then, but it sure is fun to remember..
 
spiritof67 said:
KBRS referred to themselves as "The Voice Of Springdale." It had a similar full service sound to KSPR, but was aimed at an older audience. They had a remote unit, which included turntables at a Ford dealership that was located on Meadow in Springdale (my grandmother's house was located on that street very close to US 71/62-B). The station shifted its format to Adult Standards in the 1980's, and must have closed down in the late 1980's.
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I know it lost its license from being silent for quite some time in 1993. However, I'm not sure when it went off-air.

KMCK went from 50 kW to 100 kW and flipped to CHR and adopted the "K-106" slogan in the fall of 1979. It was the first 100 kW station of the region. It was known as the "Friendly Giant." I first heard them in the summer of 1980 and was hooked immediately. It was one of my favorite stations of the region from then on. Their studios were in Siloam Springs and their sales offices were in Fayetteville. Both KUOA and KMCK were still affiliated with John Brown University until 1983 when it was sold to Apple Broadcasting. I remember hearing Dr. Demento on 105.7 on several visits there. That station had a great format. They were breaking artists months ahead of St. Louis.
Click to expand...

By the way, something else not commonly known about KMCK is that Fred Baker, owner of KISR in Ft. Smith, tried to buy it from Apple Broadcasting in the mid to late 80's.

KCIZ kept their automated AC format until 1983 or 1984, and adopted their KC-105 slogan. I could not believe they actually went dark before they went on as an Easy Listening station.
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I didn't hear about them going dark before signing on as an easy listening station. However, it seems like I heard something similar happened on the Ft. Smith side. The difference is that KBSS was at 92.1, and it had to move to 104.7 to launch as KEZU. I don't think the Fayetteville and Ft. Smith sides were a simulcast. I know the commercials were separate whatever.

KEZA went on in 1982, and I believe KBVA (106.5) did that year or not long after. KBVA was available on C-Band satellite receivers for decades. With all the changes going on in NW Arkansas, I'm surprised that station is still doing an Adult Standards format.
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KBVA went on the air in April 1993, or at least it did at 106.5. That was when they filed the license to cover with the FCC, and I remember it was about that time as KYQQ from Wichita used to show up in the Tulsa Arbitron. It stopped showing up after KBVA signed on because it created too much interference in Tulsa.

While K-106 may have changed to Power, the spirit of the station didn't really change all that much. They still played a very different mix of CHR compared to other markets. I liked their "Arklahoma" simulcast with KZBB Poteau from 1991-2. That concept opened the door to Music Channel One, which was Power's format syndicated nationally.
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As I recall, the change from K-106 to Power 105.7 was to emphasize the increase in power to 100,000 watts. They really hammered KCIZ on that point calling it "The Powerless Station" and boasting that they were 100 times more powerful as KCIZ only had 1 kw of power during the KC-105 years. I believe it raised power as either Eazy 105 or Beaver 105. That might have actually been the reason the station went dark before going to easy listening.

Even though KZBB was a Ft. Smith station, I got it easily in Fayetteville. I remember it as KLCO-FM as a CHR with a 2000 ft. tower. For a while they were religion as KLUP, and then were known as "Z-98," playing a lot of alternate mixes of CHR hits. Eventually they became "B-98" before and after their simulcast with Power.
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I didn't have much trouble getting most Ft. Smith stations in Fayetteville. Z-98, by the way, was KZZE. After the simulcast with Power, they became Star 98 and later Zebra 97.9. Capstar flipped it back to B-98 almost immediately after buying it from Westark. Kind of ironic that Westark killed top-40 in Fayetteville and beefed it up in Ft. Smith before taking it AOR as Zebra 97.9.

Northwest Arkansas has always been a unique place. The conneciting highways and its proximity to Tulsa, Joplin and Springfield (MO) play a role here. So did the cable systems, carrying more stations from the above cities than Ft. Smith or Little Rock. On my last trip to the region in 2005, I was stunned at how the area has changed and grown. Besides Wal-Mart, Interstate 540 has probably changed the landscape of the region as well. I only hope the area retains its history and hospitality over the years.
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It even looks a lot different from what it was like when I was there. I know TV and radio from Joplin and Springfield were pretty easy to get in Fayetteville. Some of my neighbors could get Tulsa off-the-air, but I didn't have any luck with those stations except for the brief time I had cable.
 
:D I worked in the Fayetteville market from 1999-2003. I first worked for Cumulus at the KEG and what is now Sam 98. After working in a C.F. operation there, I was out of work for about a year, then went to work for the Eagle and Kix, part of the CC cluster. The time spent at CC was a lot of fun and at that time there were good people in Ops and PD's. They fired the OM that put KIX on the air and made it a powerhouse and put the Eagle on the map. Tom Travis left after the Market Manager Dale Daniels (a good dude) left the market. Corporate programming really took the BEST edge off the Eagle by making them conform to CC corporate programming. We once had the freedom to program locally with the music which no longer exist. I know that Anastasia (middays) is also VTing Little Rock and Ft. Smith. Last I heard Chester P is still doing afternoons on the Eagle. I still don't think thier nite VTer has posted the 22.1 share I did in the Fall book of 2002. It is a shame that they took the local edge out of our product. I can tell you if you can get in with the Butler stations, you will have more creative freedom, plus they are locally owned. If you like working for a company that all brands across the nation sound all the same, then CC and Cumulus is your place, but if you want to do radio the way it was intended, go to a market that has local or small corporate media company that wants to REALLY compete with CC and Cumulus. Otherwise, do what I did. Just get out of the business until you have rejuvenated your radio soul. After being out of the biz since the end of 2003, I think I am rejuvenated to the point that I can give a company my best. So I am now looking into options and have even considered going back to the Fayetteville market. I just don't know anything about the programmers in the market. I would love to be able to take the Legendary, Heritage rocker The KEG, OOps I think they are now using a LAME image. I know how to beat The Eagle. If you are a programmer of REAL classic rock and know the music forgotten by radio, and you feel you could get Cumulus to give you the freedom to make it a legend again, contact me and I will come work for you.
 
I can't say that I have one. I do recall that though. I think that was the original bumper from when they signed on 1989. I guess they put the .7 in a different color to seperate themselves from the other CHR at the time called KC-105. I don't remember seeing one with a plug though.
 
From what I remember as a kid growing up in Fayetteville in the 80's it was pretty easy to get Joplin and Tulsa on the TV with just rabbit ears. I remember also getting easily KSYN from Joplin, KISR, KMAG and whatever 98.9 was that year from Ft. Smith, KWTO-FM from Springfield, KMOD from Tulsa, and others. And this was just with my walkman in my backyard. (in fact, in the late 80's and early 90's my two favorite stations were KMYZ 104.5 and KQLL 106.1 both from Tulsa!)

I'm pretty sure KCIZ switched from AC to Top 40 in 1983. I don't remember them going dark eithier when they switched to EZ 105, I just remember one day it was easy listening, and I never turned the station on again until it was the X.
 
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