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The Zone Returns To Phoenix

ted chittenden said:
Yes, especially KSTM. It was KSTM that first put the translator on 99.3 mHz in Glendale, AZ back in, I believe, 1982. Jeff Parrots was the program director and Andy (I can't think of his last name now) was the music director. For many years, KSTM was the closest thing that Phoenix had to an alternative rock station except it was adult album alternative.
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Andy Olson now runs Radio Free Phoenix out of Globe. He's really passionate about his creation!
 
ted chittenden said:
Yes, especially KSTM. It was KSTM that first put the translator on 99.3 mHz in Glendale, AZ back in, I believe, 1982. Jeff Parrots was the program director and Andy (I can't think of his last name now) was the music director. For many years, KSTM was the closest thing that Phoenix had to an alternative rock station except it was adult album alternative.
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Wasn't KSTM the only other station (besides KDKB) that would have played longtime local fixture Jerry Riopelle?
 
ted chittenden said:
KTWC (what was first at 103.5 during the mid-1990s) had the same problem. With the exception of the local morning show, all of the announcers were voiced-tracked and the same music you heard during midday was played in the same order overnight. No wonder ZSpanish (later Entravision) bought them out!
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KTWC failed because it was a pet project from its original owner, and was all over the place. I never really listened, but from descriptions I remember, it was kind of like what MeTV FM is now, but unstructured. Then they were sold to MAC America (Channel 3/KEZ, which was handling the sales and back office functions for the station) and placed the second Smooth Jazz station on the air, when in the targeted audience areas, the signal was shielded by North and Camelback Mountains. After that failed, MAC sold half its interest in their radio stations to Owens, which created "Wild Country" as a "flanker" to protect KNIX's ratings from KMLE. That also didn't catch on.
 
EricStein said:
KTWC failed because it was a pet project from its original owner, and was all over the place. I never really listened, but from descriptions I remember, it was kind of like what MeTV FM is now, but unstructured. Then they were sold to MAC America (Channel 3/KEZ, which was handling the sales and back office functions for the station) and placed the second Smooth Jazz station on the air, when in the targeted audience areas, the signal was shielded by North and Camelback Mountains. After that failed, MAC sold half its interest in their radio stations to Owens, which created "Wild Country" as a "flanker" to protect KNIX's ratings from KMLE. That also didn't catch on.
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Thanks for the interveening owners and formats of KTWC--I had forgotten those! Unlike you, I very much enjoyed KTWC's music format--it played a lot of oldies that KOOL-FM wouldn't touch at the time! I think the station's biggest problem (beyond the format issues you noted) was that it couldn't be received very well by less-than-perfect radios even in downtown Phoenix. To protect the 103.9 signal licensed to Gilbert, the station was required to place its transmitter in the White Tank Mountains (where it remains today) and that location, even at 100kw, only serves the western parts of the Phoenix market well.
 
ted chittenden said:
Thanks for the interveening owners and formats of KTWC--I had forgotten those! Unlike you, I very much enjoyed KTWC's music format--it played a lot of oldies that KOOL-FM wouldn't touch at the time! I think the station's biggest problem (beyond the format issues you noted) was that it couldn't be received very well by less-than-perfect radios even in downtown Phoenix. To protect the 103.9 signal licensed to Gilbert, the station was required to place its transmitter in the White Tank Mountains (where it remains today) and that location, even at 100kw, only serves the western parts of the Phoenix market well.
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103.9 was still licensed to Coolidge when KTWC signed on, so the tower placement on the White Tanks was probably due to protecting the then KAZR. 103.9 didn’t make the move to Gilbert (and its current San Tan Valley tower) until late ‘96/early ‘97.

I think 103.5 should have come in well in downtown Phoenix. It was Scottsdale and Paradise Valley that had signal issues, especially when they tried to compete with KYOT for that one year as KOAZ.
 
The station "twice as nice as the others", KTWC. They even had TV ads. They tried to complete with KOY, and during the holidays of 1994, flipped to Christmas music, thinking they could take the holiday music crowd away from them by having the advantage of being on FM. Didn't work. They were voice tracked by two different announcers with a more MOR sound than KOY.
 
EricStein said:
103.9 was still licensed to Coolidge when KTWC signed on, so the tower placement on the White Tanks was probably due to protecting the then KAZR. 103.9 didn’t make the move to Gilbert (and its current San Tan Valley tower) until late ‘96/early ‘97.

I think 103.5 should have come in well in downtown Phoenix. It was Scottsdale and Paradise Valley that had signal issues, especially when they tried to compete with KYOT for that one year as KOAZ.
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I was working at the time for a hotel franchising company whose location was the corner of 40th Street and Van Buren in Phoenix. I can also tell you that, when I took my less-than-perfect Walkman-style receiver in to work (the company allowed that at my second position there), the bleedover from the South Mountain stations was so bad that listening to KTWC was often difficult, at best. Even when I changed the local/distance switch to "Local", what I heard on the frequency was often very fuzzy. (Fortunately, at my house in north central Phoenix, the reception was much better using that same receiver.)
 
ted chittenden said:
I was working at the time for a hotel franchising company whose location was the corner of 40th Street and Van Buren in Phoenix. I can also tell you that, when I took my less-than-perfect Walkman-style receiver in to work (the company allowed that at my second position there), the bleedover from the South Mountain stations was so bad that listening to KTWC was often difficult, at best. Even when I changed the local/distance switch to "Local", what I heard on the frequency was often very fuzzy. (Fortunately, at my house in north central Phoenix, the reception was much better using that same receiver.)
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Is that the same Walkman style receiver you have now? Those things were built to last, with good reception.
 
KilowattKat said:
The station "twice as nice as the others", KTWC. They even had TV ads. They tried to complete with KOY, and during the holidays of 1994, flipped to Christmas music, thinking they could take the holiday music crowd away from them by having the advantage of being on FM. Didn't work. They were voice tracked by two different announcers with a more MOR sound than KOY.
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Actually, there were five announcers, three of which were voice-tracked. Mike Del Rosso's morning show was live as well as the afternoon show hosted by Theresa (I can't remember her last name) who also provided the news for Mike Del Rosso's show. The others, as you say, were voice-tracked, and I believe that at least one of those voice-tracked announcers, the overnight guy, may have been working for KTAR-AM at the same time. (And that means that I'm amending my last comment on the localness of the station I made earlier.)
 
ted chittenden said:
Actually, there were five announcers, three of which were voice-tracked. Mike Del Rosso's morning show was live as well as the afternoon show hosted by Theresa (I can't remember her last name) who also provided the news for Mike Del Rosso's show. The others, as you say, were voice-tracked, and I believe that at least one of those voice-tracked announcers, the overnight guy, may have been working for KTAR-AM at the same time. (And that means that I'm amending my last comment on the localness of the station I made earlier.)
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Did you think they were ' twice ' as nice as the others?
 
Let's face it, if this was just a launch of an HD2/translator with voice tracking or an automated jukebox, there would be nowhere near the amount of attention and listening that The Zone has been getting, both locally and nationwide.

So hats off to Zelus for a clever and attention getting method of launching a new station. The novelty will eventually wear off, but kudos for a brilliant way to get noticed.
 
ted chittenden said:
Actually, there were five announcers, three of which were voice-tracked. Mike Del Rosso's morning show was live as well as the afternoon show hosted by Theresa (I can't remember her last name) who also provided the news for Mike Del Rosso's show. The others, as you say, were voice-tracked, and I believe that at least one of those voice-tracked announcers, the overnight guy, may have been working for KTAR-AM at the same time. (And that means that I'm amending my last comment on the localness of the station I made earlier.)
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I was surprised when KCCF 1100 went on the air in 1997 as a full service MOR with live DJs all day long. Now, that was a station 30 years too late!
 
EricStein said:
I was surprised when KCCF 1100 went on the air in 1997 as a full service MOR with live DJs all day long. Now, that was a station 30 years too late!
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KCCF was intended to be KOY, the second coming. They even had Bill Heywood in the morning, the MOR playlist, and even talked Jim Spero out of retirement, and back to Phoenix to do afternoons. Of course, it failed. KCCF was my mom's favorite station back then, she recorded hours of it to be able to listen when out of town. KOY was our household's station of choice growing up in the 70's.
 
I am enjoying the mix of music on the station. It reminds me of KPRI in San Diego as it played a lof the same artists. I think The Accoustic Storm would fit on the station on t I can't seem to get the station to play on my Elexa device even though its on Tune in. It always tries to play KOAI instead. he weekends. ot of
 
KilowattKat said:
Is that the same Walkman style receiver you have now? Those things were built to last, with good reception.
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Sorry for the late reply, but the answer is no; that one had a cassette deck which my current one does not. I've actually had five Walkman-style receivers during my life with the first and second being the now-discontinued BIT Talkmans, receivers with cassette players that could play the 4-track tapes at slower speeds produced by the National Library Service (NLS) for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Of the receivers I've owned, those BIT Talkmans had the best radios, particularly FM radios, I've ever owned.

Usually, it was the cassette players that gave out first followed by the jack that the earphones were plugged in to. (The headphones didn't usually last that long but, unlike the other items, they were very easily replaceable.)
 
ted chittenden said:
I agree with this analysis. Also, keep in mind where else Wow's signal goes. From its perch near Crown King, you can hear the signal clearly through Prescot, throughout most of the Verde Valley, Sedona, and even to the southern outskirts of Flagstaff. The signal also makes it (using a radio with good distance reception) into Payson, Pine, and Strawberry. These are certainly places nowhere near as large as the Phoenix market but which do have a lot of older and retired folks living there.

My only real concern about Wow is the lack of advertisements on the station. As I pointed out in another thread, Hubbard's KAZG, which serves the market through a weak 1440 and a not-so-great translator at 92.7 mHz, still manages to have commercials even during the 2am hour when Wow doesn't have them. And KAZG skews older than Wow (no tracks released beyond 1979 are currently played there). As I also noted on that thread, I suspect that Hubbard is piggybacking KAZG as part of its combo to ad agencies that include three of the top-rated FM stations in the market: KSLX, KDKB, and KUPD.
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Not since late 2025, has "the WOW factor" been listenable in Yavapai County...
I tried a few times but not anymore.
Definitely NOT Prescott. My faithful CCRadio2 and FM car radios no longer have a push-button set to 95.1 FM. It's useless noise w/o intelligence!
 
fusejockey said:
Not since late 2025, has "the WOW factor" been listenable in Yavapai County...
I tried a few times but not anymore.
Definitely NOT Prescott. My faithful CCRadio2 and FM car radios no longer have a push-button set to 95.1 FM. It's useless noise w/o intelligence!
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Wow! Last time I was up there (2011, long before the station became "Wow!"), I could hear the 95.1 frequency quite well going into Prescott. I wonder what the issue is nowadays.
 


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