The Arrival of Country Format Radio 40 Years Ago

[John1]

Today (September 7th) marks the 40th anniversary of the arrival of Philadelphia's first full time country music station, WRCP AM-FM. I have a long tribute post on the Philadelphia board if you're interested in reliving that radio history

Does anyone else remember listening to country radio before it was a full time format in their market, and memories of the first full time station starting up there? There were some legendary country stations back in the beginning of the format, which came in most areas in the mid to late 1960's. Please post your stories of the arrival of country radio in your area!

 

[semoochie]

KWJJ Portland OR has been airing Country continuously since 1965, first on AM, then FM.

 

[vchimpanzee]

WFMX Statesville, NC was said to be one of the first country stations in about 1960. Of course it's urban now.

 

[Gatekeeper007]

One of the first FM country stations I remember in south Florida was WIRK 107.9 FM. I checked the FCC call sign history, It said 1978 but that is not correct. I left south Florida in 1978 and use to listen to them when I was up in West Palm Beach between 1972 and 1978.

 

[Wazzie]

WJJD-AM Chicago, a division of Plough Broadcasting. Mid 1960s. While my friends were listening to the Beatles & Motown, I got the twang bug in me. And no, I don't regret it.

 

[WPPCProductions]

Hi ya'all , As I remember, in the 70's Merv Griffin's WIOF 104.1 here in Connecticut was on the air,with the Great American Country jingles which I have in my aircheck collection,as I read on one website the call was WWCO FM C/W music started in 1967 and it ended in feb 1978,I remember I went to bed that night listening to the station and got up in the morning hearing this Magic 104 crap in my ear, and I said oh "What the f^$#k" I was about to throw my clock radio out the window.So I had 10 years of
DXing, AM stations like WSM,WWVA and some others at night.WHN Came in good anytime here in CT,Today I still miss this station, in the 80's WSCR 1220 Hamden,Now Quinnipiac's 1220 WQUN" not WSCR 670 in IL, was on for a couple of years.WNTY 990 was playing country with Rick Shea,
as the host of the countdown show, to this day I like to know where is Rick is these days.On the FM side which sucks here in connecticut I could not pickup WCTY 97.7 Norwich with their peawatt power would peter out in my home town,which reminds me of WPKX 97.9 FM Enfield and a another peawatt
to the collection.which came on the 90's I believe.ok still in the 80's on the fm dial.
106.7 WKHK New York City,Now Lite FM 106.7 WLTW.Not WKHK K95 Country in Richmond, VA.In 1987 WHN Died,throw out the country and changed to Sports Radio WFAN.ok the Country tunes took a awesome ride to the FM dial to WYNY FM 97.1,103.5, later 107.1 .In 1988 Godsend here in Connecticut after 10 years of tuning through the static of the am/fm band here in CT, But which I had fun Dxing the radio band for C/W stations during the dead FM Country format time here in CT.Wow it's about time ,WWYZ Natural 92 become Country 92.5 ,popped up on the dial in 1988.now 20 years later still going strong.I wish they will play some more classic country tunes. butI have 100's of hours of airchecks of them in the heydey.oh I love playing my old WIOF,WHN.WWVA,WSCR,WYNY,WKHK. airchecks.Now Thats Classic Country....


P.S. Please feel free to correct me. this is coming out of my memory of 30 plus years. Thanks...

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I realize that by definition some of you are talking about the formatted style of country music that came into being in the mid 1960's... but to some of us that was just city boys putting lipstick on a pig.

I am old enough to remember the day that FDR died.... and I can't ever remember a time when there was not a station devoted to playing country music somewhere on my dial. Now, I grew up in the shadow of the King Ranch in Texas in a time when Bob Wills was KING. And later moved to Arkansas. Wall to wall country music was not uncommon in the late 40's and the 50's. We just didn't know that it was a format.

Anybody else remember Hank Locklin and Lefty Frizzell back to back, live, during the noon hour on KLEE in Houston?

Gordon McClendon had not invented Top 40 radio yet... he was sitting in a studio reading baseball info from a teletype, smacking a bat with a little mallet and doing 'virtual' play-by-play baseball.

 

[cheapman]

I saw a mention of Plough Broadcasting. In the 60's they were also doing country on WCOP in Boston. The studio/transmitter was just a few miles from my home.

 

[Gatekeeper007]

I was born in the east Tennessee mountains in the mid 50's and for me as a boy it was WSM 650 over in Nashville that was our country station, there wasn't what you called a country format back then just good country music.

 

[thirdtickket]

Growing up in Arizona we had several full time country stations in the mid-60's and beyond. Country Music obviously was and is still BIG in the southwest!

In the early 60's in Tucson, Arizona, the first full time country station was KMOP-1330 AM....it was a daytimer. In 1963 a full time AM country station hit the airwaves with the arrival of KHOS. (A station I would later work at as a DJ) KHOS was 24 hours and soon buried KMOP in the ratings......By 1969 KCUB AM hit the air as country and subsequently became the ratings king when they raided most of the air talent from KHOS....! ( I also worked at KCUB in 1977).....KCUB was Billboard Magazine station of the year in 1976 as a country station !!! Since the 80's and into today the big country station in Tucson is KIIM FM.

Now, up in Phoenix being a bigger market there were several country stations....and future COUNTRY STARS that got their start on local Phoenix radio.....in the late 40's a young BUCK OWENS would have a 15 minute radio show on KTYL-Mesa, Ariz. In that same time frame MARTY ROBBINS, another local boy would be heard on KOY radio and later KPHO radio and television where Marty Robbins hosted his own TV show called COUNTRY CARAVAN. By the early 50's Marty became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and was recording for Columbia records.

Into the 1960s country radio in Phoenix would start full time on a couple of daytime stations....KRDS and KHAT, "Kards" and KHAT would dominate the early to mid-60s country ratings until country singer BUCK OWENS came back to town, this time as a radio station owner. In 1967, Buck purchased another small daytimer and named it KTUF playing country music....a year later in 1968 Buck Owens purchased KNIX-FM (for a reported $75,000 !!!!!! ) and by the late 60's had taken the FM station country as well simulcasting with the AM station...!

Ray Odom, the owner of KHAT radio would put on his own AM-FM combo as KJJJ by the 70's and compete against KNIX...!
KNIX would become a formidable competitor and would dominate the market. I was fortunate to start working at KNIX by the late 70's and was in the right place at the right time as the ratings exploded in 1980 and KNIX AM & FM became the number one station in Phoenix for at least the next 18 years or more !!! Buck and his sons and program director Larry Daniels ran the station so well it won many industry awards and was well respected across the country as a legendary radio station. I spent 8 great years working for the Owens family at KNIX. What an incredible ride it was. By the late 1990's it was one of the last great "mom and pop" type stations before being sold to Clear Channel for about 84 million !

Another country competitor, KMLE (Camel Country 108) changed over to country in late 1988 and today KMLE competes with KNIX for the Phoenix country audience.

 

[chrish]

Got my first AM-FM radio (GE table radio) in 1963 and listened to WHIL-FM 107.9 in Medford, MA which was 24 hr/day s..t kickin country, I would later find straw left from the hay bales brought in when they had live barn dance type events in one of their very large studios. WHIL 1430 was a clone of Beautiful Music KABL San Francisco.
I would later (1975) become the Chief Engineer of this station which first evolved
into Bonneville Beautiful Music and in 1978 became Kiss 108

 

[Ed_Salamon]

The first fulltime Country radio station in my hometown of Pittsburgh was daytimer WAMO from 1956-58. Abbie Neal did mornings and Slim Bryant, his brother Loppy Bryant, Carl Stuart and Marty Kraus were also on staff. They were mostly local Country entertainers. The station did hold over one R&B music show (Porky Chedwick) from its previous variety format as WHOD. After WILY abandoned its R&B format to become Pittsburh's firsat fulltime Top 40 station, WEEP, WAMO then dropped Country for R&B. We didn't get another fulltime Country station in Pittsburgh until 1966, when WEEP picked up that format.

 

[RI Radio Nut]

In Rhode Island in the early 60's country music was heard on AM 1220 WRIB in Providence. The station was staffed by members of the local band "The Hayloft Jamboree" which consisted of Eddie and Cousin Richie Zack amongst others.

In the mid 60's WYNG AM 1590 in Warwick began playing country music at "The Big 16" with the "Country Wide" format.

Then, in 1966 WHIM 1110 AM which had played popular music for many years in Providence switched to country and became "The Country Giant". So at one point for a couple of years we had 3 country stations to listen to in Rhode Island. Even though they were all daytimers it was great !

Soon WHIM AM was joined by WHIM 94.1 FM a 50,000 watt powerhouse and we had country radio all night.


WRIB and WYNG could not compete with WHIM and would soon switch to other formats. WRIB switched to religion and foreign langauge and WYNG became WARV playing standards and is today a Christian station.

In the late 70's WHIM FM 94.1 flipped to a beautiful music format as WHJY "JOY" while 1110 AM remained country. Not long after, the beautiful music format was dumped for the format that is still on 94.1 today, hard rock.

WHIM played traditional country music faithfully through the 60's 70's 80's and 90's going through many many changes of owners as well as frequencies.

In the 80's the 1110 AM frequency was sold and became 1110 CNN (WWRX) an all news station. The staff and music library from WHIM moved to 550 AM WICE playing what was called "Whim Country On Ice"

Eventually WHIM returned to the 1110 frequency still playing traditional country although by now facing stiff competition from "Cat Country" 98.1 FM which played "Today's Country Hits". (and still is)

Facing financial difficulties in the 90's, the 1110 frequency was again sold and is today WPMZ, a Spanish format. WHIM moved to a very poor signal at 1450 AM in West Warwick and was eventually swallowed up by Radio Disney in 1998.

For over 30 years WHIM provided southeastern New England with real traditional country music. I still miss it.