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Wave 104 in 1990

V

viper452

I remember on trips to Myrle at elementary school age listening to Wave 104 around 1990. Man that station sounded so good through my walkman. Hell I remember the big hotel I stayed next to would blast Wave 104 by the pool area so loud. It just sounded like the perfect top 40 for a beach area. Tons of live remotes too. Do people here realize how big time it sounded? Like a top 40 for a really large city. I dont remember when it was an AC station before. Always as a full fledged top 40. The only top 40 that sounded as good at the time was Q94 in Richmond, imo.

I barely remember Power 98 though. Ive listened to a few old airchecks of that and that did sound good as well. Seemed like a rhythmic top 40. When did Power 98 switch over to Mix 97.7? I know Mix was originally an AC station.
 
WKZQ was also a great rock station at the time. It reminded me a little of WRDU 106.1 in Raleigh. I think KZQ's slogan was "The Home of Rock and Roll" just like RDU.

Granted its 70s heyday was before I was born. Wish I could have heard it then.
 
WGNI, only with late 1980s jingles, and with many of the same personalities that are still on today, like Mike Farrow.

GNI used to be almost daily reception in summer around Charleston before 102.5 turned on their IBOC. It was very audible as far south as Georgetown before.
 
viper452 said:
I remember on trips to Myrle at elementary school age listening to Wave 104 around 1990. Man that station sounded so good through my walkman. Hell I remember the big hotel I stayed next to would blast Wave 104 by the pool area so loud. It just sounded like the perfect top 40 for a beach area. Tons of live remotes too. Do people here realize how big time it sounded? Like a top 40 for a really large city. I dont remember when it was an AC station before. Always as a full fledged top 40. The only top 40 that sounded as good at the time was Q94 in Richmond, imo.
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For the most part, Wave 104 had always leaned toward Hot AC/Adult CHR during the off-tourist season, but AFAIK was never straight-up AC. The one exception was when Chris Ling programmed the station in 1990-1991 when they were balls-to-the-wall CHR. This was done as a response to the butt-kicking they were receiving from Power 98 in the ratings (Power 98 was the #1 station in the market at the time). When Chris Ling left Wave 104 for a station in St. Louis in the Fall of 1991, Wave went back to being a Hot AC by day/CHR at night hybrid where they pretty much remained until Wave 104 was sold and the format was changed to Classic Rock in late 1993.

viper452 said:
I barely remember Power 98 though. Ive listened to a few old airchecks of that and that did sound good as well. Seemed like a rhythmic top 40. When did Power 98 switch over to Mix 97.7? I know Mix was originally an AC station.
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Power 98 was Rhythmic CHR from their debut in 1989 until September 1991 when they adjusted themselves to Mainstream CHR. Although they were the top-rated station in the market, Power 98's biggest problem was selling advertising time during the off-season, which eventually led them to switch to Adult Top 40 as Mix 97.7 in January 1994.

The Power 98/Wave 104 CHR battle of the early 90s was, IMHO, the last great CHR battle in the Carolinas. While many larger markets were losing their #2 CHR (or in many cases, their only one). Myrtle Beach was fortunate to have 2 as late as 1993.

Robyn
 
Was Wave 104 ever number 1 from 1989-1993? That would be hard to believe because it seemed like Wave was everywhere. Seemed like in most beach stores Wave 104 was playing. Some of the hotels, ect.
 
Yeah I can remember Wave 104 playing over the speakers at the North Myrtle Beach Grand Prix around 1992, lol. I really dont remember hearing Power 98 at any public place.
 
BobbyV said:
WKZQ, with Greg Fowler as PD, was one of the best, if not the best small market station in he country.
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I can remember KZQ having the most ads and billboards in Myrtle in the early 90s.
 
Wave 104.1 was CHR before becoming what they are today a Classic Rock. So why aren't they still a CHR today instead of Classic Rock?

Also for a point KZQ had the most radio billboards when they were making the switch from 101.7 to 96.1
 
Wave 104 and Power 98 was too awesome CHR's that were way ahead of their time... Wave and Power were always on the streets... That is something that a lot of radio companies today could take a lot of lessons from. Check out Kahuna's web site "That Was radio". He has put a lot of work into all of those stations along the coast. As for the music I think Power and Wave always wanted to see who could pitch their music the fastest... It was always fun to hear Power 98 boom into Kershaw CO during the summer months before WCOS moved to 97.5 and always hearing those "Kick Ass Remixes"... I hope Kahuna will chime in as he worked at both Power and Wave as well as the 3rd TOP 40 station MYB had in the late 80's "Sunny 106.5" CC1
 
viper452 said:
Now Myrtle has 2 again.
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Yes, but this is the second time since 1993 that the market has had 2. In 1999 there was Mix 97.7 and the Hot 93 simulcast (WJXY 93.9 Conway and WXJY 93.7 Georgetown). Hot was then moved to 100.3 (WSEA) where it remained until it changed to Urban. The second time is when WSEA flipped from Urban to CHR as i100.

Robyn
 
I should have mention this earlier. Before Wave 104 signed on in 1984, Myrtle Beach was served by WKZQ (then Top 40 as Energy 102) which was on the air since 1973 and was regarded as one of the hottest small-market Top 40 stations in the country at the time. Although Wave 104 had a much bigger signal, KZQ (at 3,000 watts at the time) was very dominate at the time. It lasted until KZQ went Album Rock in early1989.

viper452 said:
When did Mix 97.7 go to full out CHR, 1995?
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Mix never really abandoned CHR, they just took the route that many CHR stations were doing at the time and became more Adult-leaning during the day and full-on CHR at night and on weekends.

Ken said:
Wave 104.1 was CHR before becoming what they are today a Classic Rock. So why aren't they still a CHR today instead of Classic Rock?
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Because they were losing market share to Power 98 as well as the then-current state of CHR. It made sense to go in another direction so they went Classic Rock in late 1993 (with Howard Stern in the mornings). This move did pay off well for them.

Robyn
 
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