MattHolidaye: 89X had already been around for several years by the time WHYT tried that hip-hop/alternative hybrid (the format was called "Channel X" in the trades). WHYT flipped from CHR/Rhythmic to Channel X in the summer of '94; 88.7 FM became 89X in 1991. By the time I went back to school in the fall and started listening to 96.3 again (after having taken a break from them for several months), I don't recall hearing any hip-hop in the playlist, so they may have already dumped Channel X by then, although they still played some dance-leaning CHR hits like Ace of Base, Real McCoy, and even Madonna's "Secret" for a time. Within a year the mainstream dance music (except for "underground" cuts like "Juke Joint Jezebel" by KMFDM) was mostly gone and they were pretty much a straight Alternative.
MediaMaven - it was actually July of 1989 or so that Z95.5 was killed off in favor of Q95. IIRC, it started as an Adult CHR - not quite "Hot AC" because they played songs like "Oh Father" by Madonna and "Enjoy The Silence" by Depeche Mode that AC stations weren't playing - but by 1991 it had softened into a mainstream AC, which it remained for several years, before shifting to Hot AC c. the fall of 1994 and then finally to Adult CHR as Q95-5 in '96. There was at least one instance during that time when Q95 actually beat the market's incumbent AC, WNIC, in the ratings. Between Q95, WNIC, WLTI, and WJOI, which had evolved from easy listening to soft AC by the time it switched to Star 97 in the fall of '94, Detroit was quite an AC smorgasbord in the early- to mid-'90s. You might have found Q95 "boring", but for me it was the station that sparked my interest in pop music after years of listening mainly to easy listening and classical music... baby steps, I guess. So sue me, I was more interested in Elton John, Amy Grant and Celine Dion than in Color Me Badd or Guns 'N' Roses.
I didn't listen to Z95.5 much when it was around but I certainly was aware of its presence, being in the early stages of my radio geekdom at that point in time. From the airchecks I have listened to, I will agree, it did an awesome job of being a fun all-around CHR, but still more palatable to adult listeners than WHYT or WDTX/WDFX. (I have seen ratings from the late '80s where WHYT and WJLB were close to neck-and-neck tied for number one ratings in Detroit's teen demos, with Z95.5 a distant third.) Plus, their jingles were awesome!
I remember when Q95-5 had a weeknight hour-long '80s show circa 1998-99 and also had something called Time Warp Weekends where they played '80s music heavily, they reworked one of the classic Z95.5 JAM jingles.
The original jingle:
"[sung] The Motor City's [shouted] ALL HITS! [sung] Z95.5!"
The revised "'80s at 8" jingle:
"[sung] The Motor City's [shouted] HIT RADIO! [spoken interlude from VO guy] It's the '80s at 8! -or- It's A Time Warp Weekend! [sung] Q95-5!"
The "Q95-5" part was sung to the exact same melody as "Z95.5" in the original jingle but without the "point."
Speaking of 95.5, who remembers when they were in sort of their transition period between the "Cozy" AC format that replaced their former easy listening sound in the early '80s and Z95.5? From airchecks I've heard they used the JAM jingle package and were sort of Hot AC/Adult CHR at that point but still called themselves "Cozy FM." This would have been around 1983/early-to-mid 1984, up to the point when the station became Z95.5 in summer of '84.
