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Was there ever another "Q" besides 96.1?

P

purpledevil

Guest
I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable about the San Antonio radio market's history as I am Houston's, but an in-law of mine swears there was a station in San Antonio on the AM dial called "Super Q", prior to KSAQ/KSJL. I have looked for information on the web, to have verifiable proof that the only station ever branded "Q" in San Antonio was the old 76/96 combo in the 80's. According to my brother in law, this other Q preceded the combo by a decade (he believes it aired at 1100kHz), airing in the 70's. He was born and basically raised in the City, and I wasn't, so there's the whole "how would I know" aspect, being that I'm a native Houstonian, and he's as big of a radio geek as I am.

So, can someone rich in San Antonio radio history knowledge educate me? I'd love to read the story on this other version if it truly ever existed. Is he right? Was there another version of the "Super Q"?
 
The original "Super Q" was KSAQ 100.3 in the mid-70's with a CHR format that was actually pretty slick. It had a sister station, KQAM on 1150. The AM might have been a simulcast during morning drive, but IIRC it was separately programmed the rest of the day (1150 was a daytimer in those days.) Both stations had previously been Easy Listening KBER.

KSAQ was around for only two or three years. IIRC it was followed by KZZY, but my brain might be a little fuzzy on that...there was quite a bit of turnover on 100.3 in the 1970's and 80's. Wasn't there a "Class-FM" (perhaps KLLS) on the frequency at one time? I'd have to dig into my old radio stuff to check.
 
Well, I'll be! I thought for certain he was going senile on me. I had always thought Super Q was created when Inner City bought the 96.1 frequency. You mentioned the original Q's AM aired on 1150, which means he was pretty close on that, but leads me to another question. What happened to the 1150 dial position? Did it go dark or move out of San Antonio?

Thank you for the information, Mediafrog. That was most helpful.
 
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IIRC-- 1150 used to air an AC format using the name Q-A-M.
I remember the liner "At Q-A-M you've got a friend playing your kind of music."

The 1150 is now 1160 Radio Disney.
 
purpledevil said:
You mentioned the original Q's AM aired on 1150, which means he was pretty close on that, but leads me to another question. What happened to the 1150 dial position? Did it go dark or move out of San Antonio?.
Click to expand...

The 1150 license (1kw daytimer) was upgraded to the fulltime 1160 facility. I forget what year, but it was generally the same time that KDRY did a similar upgrade from a 1kw daytimer on 1110 to fulltime on 1100.

I don't remember much about the old KQAM as I would listen from Austin during visits. The old 1150 signal did very poorly to the northeast, to steer clear of (then) WTAW and KVIL. You also had the 1150 in Corpus Christi.
 
Froggy is correct. The original "Super Q" was 1150 and 100.3. However, I was too young to remember what it did as it literally went from KBER to KQAM/KSAQ on the day I was born (or very close to it). The Broadcasting Magazine edition that came out the day I was born listed KBER AM/FM as being sold, and KQAM/KSAQ launched immediately after the sale was granted. My father remembered listening to it, but he didn't remember anything about it other than that it was top-40 music.

I always remember hearing the station preceding the "Super Q" was a country station, but it's always possible he was thinking of another station. He used to always talk about how his friend Artie kept KBUC on at his house in his living room at a low volume 24/7. So, I know he wasn't thinking of KBUC.

Anyway, Froggy is also correct that 100.3 became KZZY, though the AM flipped before the FM. I'm not sure what it flipped to because, again, I was just out of diapers and living in Tucson or Tulsa when it happened. A friend of mine told me KZZY was top-40 and eventually became "Buzzard Rock" only to flip to AC as "Class 100." He said "Class 100" evolved to country more than flipped to outright, but "Class 100" didn't last long as country station before becoming KCYY "Y-100," which it remains today.
 
You are leaving out KCCW (1979?) which came after KZZY which was Country for a few years before flipping to KLLS in 1981.
IIRC 100.3 wasn't Super Q it was just on 96/76. It was K San Antonio's Q 100.3 and K-Q-A-M 1150. I only ever seen a Super Q bumper sticker just for 96/76. All Hit 76 flipped to Super Q around 1986 and lasted for 1 1/2 years if memory serves me correctly.
In 1988 it transistioned to 96.1 as KSAQ 96 and KSJL 76, then became Q96 and 76 became Z-Rock.
There is a video of KCCW 100.3 on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTlhfowp6Js KCCW was on AM 930 first then moved to 100.3

Here is a short timeline of the station
1987 KLLS becomes KCYY Y-100 switching from Adult Contemporary to Country.
1981 KCCW becomes KLLS "Class 100" airing an automated Adult Contemporary format(this information is not correct "class fm" was number one 25-54 and the number one biller in the market). For a short time it would simulcast on AM 930.
1979-1981 KZZY becomes Country KCCW 100.3
1977-1979 KSAQ becomes CHR/Top40 KZZY "Buzzard Rock" 100.3/1150
1974-1977 KSAQ 100.3 and KQAM-1150 "San Antonio's Q 100.3 and 1150" Top 40/CHR.
1966-1974 100.3 Signs on as KBER-FM as Country.
 
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Re: Anon

Or... Was until recently.

Had to do that. :p

1150 moved to 1160 back on 8-26-1991 as Spanish KVAR 1160. Which was 22 years ago.
 
Further to Willdav's timeline above, the '77-'79 Buzzard Rock era was run by Dave Noll, formerly the GM of General Cinema's WGCL Cleveland (and much more recently a Cumulus Regional Manager)....hence the "Buzzard", inspired by Cleveland's WMMS. I can't remember much about the airstaff other than the PD was Sundance Shane, and the news director was W.D. Sandeferd, who had been with Noll at 'GCL and later worked at WDHF Chicago.
 
I don't believe KLLS FM was ever automated.

As I recall, Fair West, that owned KVIL in Dallas at the time, was offering station owners the opportunity to build a KVIL in their city. KVIL was a major player in Dallas/Fort Worth at the time. As I recall, Cat Simon, originally of KVIL, was spearheading things in San Antonio as per a fellow employee I worked with in the 1980s at KTAW in Bryan/College Station.

I recall the top of hour was "San Antonio spells class K-L-L-S". I called it a lite and lively adult contemporary station.

I don't think they created any new KVILs out there but they did get noticed and certainly were popular but I doubt any lead the pack for a long stretch like KVIL did in Dallas.

I liked the Class FM presentation even though the music was too mellow for me. I could easily hear 'KVIL' in all they did. It had that 'Ron Chapman' formatics.

I recall KSJL at 760 with a Hot Hits format in the early 80s. I recall they had about a 70 minute rotation on almost every song and the recurrent each hour was a custom mix medley of several songs. I remember hearing Oh Sherrie by Steve Perry over and over and over.
 
willdav713 said:
IIRC 100.3 wasn't Super Q it was just on 96/76. .
Click to expand...

The "Super Q" slogan was indeed used on 100.3 in the mid 70's. I am aware of but never really paid any attention to the later incarnation on 96.1.

Super Q on 100.3 even worked the "Q" into its request line number. I seem to recall the last four digits were 3432 which they read as "thirty-four thirty-Q."
 
Well how be darn, here is an aircheck of Super Q back in 1975. KSAQ 100.3. It didn't mention the AM counterpart, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKTBvx-vDYs

Funny thing about the 100.3 frequency. It would flip as KBER Country to Top 40. KSAQ Top 40, KZZY Rock, KZZY Top 40 KZ-100, KCCW Country, KZZY Top 40, and in 1983 KLLS Adult Contemporary, back to Country in 1987 as KCYY.
 
willdav713 said:
Well how be darn, here is an aircheck of Super Q back in 1975. KSAQ 100.3. It didn't mention the AM counterpart, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKTBvx-vDYs
Click to expand...

That's one rough sounding voice on that aircheck. But it does confirm my 40-year-old memory of the last four digits of the request line being read as "thirty-four thirty-Q."

The 1150 AM frequency (KQAM) wouldn't have been mentioned as it was separately programmed (except perhaps morning drive) and was a daytimer back then.

Funny thing about the 100.3 frequency. It would flip as KBER Country to Top 40.
Click to expand...

KBER was Easy Listening before the flip to KSAQ. Perhaps you are thinking of the old KBUC ?
 
Mediafrog+ said:
That's one rough sounding voice on that aircheck. But it does confirm my 40-year-old memory of the last four digits of the request line being read as "thirty-four thirty-Q."

The 1150 AM frequency (KQAM) wouldn't have been mentioned as it was separately programmed (except perhaps morning drive) and was a daytimer back then.



KBER was Easy Listening before the flip to KSAQ. Perhaps you are thinking of the old KBUC ?
Click to expand...

Never stated Easy Listening. But it is interesting that they would flip from Country to Top 40 and back to Country and then back to Top 40.

KBER 1972.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22XuVOLmBlc
Barry White followed by Sly and the Family Stone isn't by any means Easy Listening.
 
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