What station would you bring back?

[StrayKats]

Agreed on 98.1 Surf FM - you could listen clearly from Greenville to Atmore on 65 and never get bored.

Another station I liked because there were rarely commercials and no other station which played that type of music was the predecessor to 95.1 the Fox in Prattville - WQIM (pronounced KIM) FM, at 95.3 from inception until a very short interruption with an urban format pre- Hot 105.7 before the upgrade and frequency change to 95.1

 

[the golden boy]

107-7 the X
WZBQ (when it was on 102.5)
K104.9
Power 93 WTUG (before it was urban AC, though I do like their urban AC format now)
WENN (when it was on 107.7)

Someone mention New Rock One Zero Seven, despite it being a Pensacola station. Good choice!

 

[Nate Wesley]

I would definitely bring back WWSF "The New 98 Surf FM," which was a Ft. Walton Beach, FL station but was licensed to Andalusia. Their top-of-hour was "The New 98 Surf FM reaches the beaches and rocks the docks from Pensacola to Panama City with 100,000 watts of power, loud, clean, and clear!" They were around in the late '80s and early '90s... they played CHR with a more rock-oriented playlist and did not play as much urban and R&B artists. They also played lots of older hits especially from the early and mid '80s.

Back then you had a really good selection of CHRs... WABB 97.5 in Mobile, WWSF 98.1, WJLQ 100.7 in Pensacola, and even WKSM (Kiss FM) 99.3 and later 99.5 in Ft. Walton Beach in their pre-rock days.

Weren't they more of a Hot AC in the late 90s before Clear Channel and sports radio came in? They had a good sound (to me) then, they certainly weren't staid and sleepy like Lite Mix could get with some of the soft 70s/80s stuff they played.

Of course, I stuck around for the sports radio stint, really enjoying both Tony Kornheiser's old ESPN show and Jim Rome, two hosts who could not be more of a polar opposite in style, audience appeal, etc. With so many talk stations now moving to FM, "98.1 The Ticket" was ahead of its time. But Clear Channel and whatever goobs that came after them ruined it with all sorts of stupid tweaks (firing local hosts, dropping/losing ESPN affiliation, Max Howell, being suckered by Scott McKinney, Max Howell, the move to Holt, FL).

I wonder if it wouldn't have been better for 98.1 to stay a faux Pensacola outlet licensed to Andalusia, sticking with music. It had tremendous reach north and south of the Ala/Fla line--I enjoyed the station in Monroeville, and took it with me past Greenville on trips toward Montgomery and/or Birmingham. And none of 98.1's owners have done much with it since the exclusive move to the Fort Walton market. A shame.

 

[Brian Voice Guy]

1550 WAAY and 95.1 WNDA Both were in Huntsville.

 

[oldradiodj]

I would bring back one of the following:

WOWL 1240 AM in Florence....incredible talent passed through that place...Mark Thompson, Rick Fossett (Shane), Sam Darwin (Rusty Walker).

Magic 96 Birmingham in the early to mid -80's.

K-99 Birminghamin the AOR days.....absolutely must listen to radio.

 

[T-townpete]

I'd bring back (WZBQ) Z-102 in Tuscaloosa. Some great talent has been showcased there. Jocks like Steve & DC, Steve Russell, Coyote J., and Louie Linguini. Even when WZBQ changed to 94.1, it was still a great station. That is, until Cheap Channel took it over and changed it to a clone of 103.7 The Q....Which too, used to be a good station until Cheap Channel took it over. CC really knows how to run station's, don't they?

 

[Charles1]

I'd bring back (WZBQ) Z-102 in Tuscaloosa. Some great talent has been showcased there. Jocks like Steve & DC, Steve Russell, Coyote J., and Louie Linguini. Even when WZBQ changed to 94.1, it was still a great station. That is, until Cheap Channel took it over and changed it to a clone of 103.7 The Q....Which too, used to be a good station until Cheap Channel took it over. CC really knows how to run station's, don't they?

It's hard to believe that 25 years ago, the Birmingham area had four really good top 40 stations (I-95, Kicks 106, Z-102 on the west side of the metro, and Q-104 on the east side of the metro. Now we have one cookie-cutter corporate clone. Let's hear it for deregulation that allows corporate monoliths to own virtually as many stations as they want.

 

[WBGR FM 93.1]

At least Clear Channel doesn't operate Rock 995. In Cullman, I could be listening to 1061 TAK, and about 2 minutes later the same song played on Rock 1059 in Tuscaloosa, same song after another. Sometimes I could hear 102.7 in Memphis, same way. 105.9 Nashville, same exact playlist. CC, in my opinion, is the king of cookie cutter.

At one time I enjoyed 98 TXT. Now, one can hear the same programming that's on 102.5 the Bull. It's all a load of garbage...

Travis

 

[passtheword]

I tell my kids that radio has become a "vast wasteland". They can quote it on cue now,

At least Clear Channel doesn't operate Rock 995. In Cullman, I could be listening to 1061 TAK, and about 2 minutes later the same song played on Rock 1059 in Tuscaloosa, same song after another. Sometimes I could hear 102.7 in Memphis, same way. 105.9 Nashville, same exact playlist. CC, in my opinion, is the king of cookie cutter.

At one time I enjoyed 98 TXT. Now, one can hear the same programming that's on 102.5 the Bull. It's all a load of garbage...

Travis

 

[omglol]

Dothan:

WTVY - Late 1980's

Roy Fox - Mornings
Alan Rice - Middays
David Sommers - Afternoons
Steve Crosby - Nights
Charlie Gilmore - Overnights

WKMX - 80's and 90's
BJ Kelly - Mornings
Holly - Middays
John Houston - Afternoons
Rod Conner - Nights
Tim Godwin - Overnights

 

[T-townpete]

At least Clear Channel doesn't operate Rock 995. In Cullman, I could be listening to 1061 TAK, and about 2 minutes later the same song played on Rock 1059 in Tuscaloosa, same song after another. Sometimes I could hear 102.7 in Memphis, same way. 105.9 Nashville, same exact playlist. CC, in my opinion, is the king of cookie cutter.

At one time I enjoyed 98 TXT. Now, one can hear the same programming that's on 102.5 the Bull. It's all a load of garbage...

Travis

I think that's because Clear Channel had the same guy doing TAK's logs was doing WRTR's (Rock 1059) logs. Why work harder than you have to? That's got to be Clear Channel's mantra. Now, they've flipped RTR to a talk format which is a simulcast of their AM Station (1420), which in turn is pretty much a simulcast of WERC out of Birmingham. (Which now has their AM station simulcasting on the old Vulcan). So essentially, you have 4 station's running (more or less) the same thing! Again, why work harder than you have to?

I agree about 98 TXT. It used to be such a powerhouse of a station, and now Clear Channel has managed to water it down with that "Premium Crap" programming of theirs. It also no coincidence that Clear Channel has the same Bozo programming both The Bull and 98 TXT...Again, why work harder than you have to?

 

[jwgreek8606]

Cool 104.3 Good Times Great Oldies out of Montgomery. Had such a very strong signal. Hear all the way to Georgia and to Florida. I remember April of '02 going to Atlanta I remember flipping the radio dial up in Valley going up I-85 through 104.3 to 105.7 the 80s station in Atlanta. I was so sad when it flipped to a black gospel format in 2005.

 

[WBGR FM 93.1]

I have to agree, I liked Cool 104.3. I'm not sure if it was cookie cutter, but It probably had the same programming as Cool92/94 in Huntsville. Although 104.3 - now with their urban gospel format- doesn't fit my tastes as I'm into Southern Gospel, but they have great ratings so they won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

-Travis

 

[hound989dog]

WABB during the reign of the Goofy White Boys
The old G100 of the late 70's when it was the NEW G100
Any of the old stations in the Mobile/Pensacola market with Dick Hylton, Gary Mitchell, Charlie Ocean, David Page, Luke McCoy, me, Dan Ingram, Jeff Stevens,Gary O'Brian, etc

 

[OutOfTheBiz]

Without a doubt - Magic 96 circa 1986-87 - when Smokey Rivers was the PD.

This was a station that fired on all cylinders, and had a format that could be broad enough to fill several gaps in a market that was severly under-radioed at the time. If I remember correctly, the key players were

Burt & Kurt in the morning (they were actually topical AND funny then)
Scott Michaels
Alex Stone
Julie Golden (Classic Hits at night - killer show)
David Tinsley

I know there were others on the lineup I'm forgetting, but I'll never forget how well executed this station was during this run. It's never lived up to that peak since.

 

[ruger22com]

JAMMIN G-100!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just cause I had so much fun doing rock back then!

 

[ChadSt07]

I guess I'm late on this one - I'd bring back WSGN with Dave Roddy. What a great station that was in the mid-sixties! WYDE, WVOK and even WAQY were good too!

 

[MetNet]

KIX 106 in Birmingham was an average station with below average air talent! Bring back...

Birmingham...
WSGN 610 from 60s-70s (Incredible talent passed though here - Jan Jeffries, Rick Dees, Barry James, Bill Thomas, Tommy Charles, Neal Miller, Kevin McCarthy, Ron Roddy, and the list never ends)
WVOK during 'Shower of Stars' days
WCRT 73-78 when they were 'No Bach - No Rock'
WQEZ The world still needs a beautiful music station
WBRC Adult MOR

Muscle Shoals...
WLAY

Montgomery...
WBAM The Big Bam... Rocker 60s - Country 70s

Mobile...
WABB 1480 of the 60s-70s
WKRG Adult MOR

 

[passtheword]

[Raising my hand] Ummmm...that's already been taken care of by me...well...at least via the internet...

http://www.qezradio.com

 

[Tom0B1]

Showing my age: WIRB-FM Enterprise in 70's AOR/T40 days, WDIG-AM Dothan in 60s and 70s, WTVY-FM Dothan before country format in late 60s early 70s, PC's The Great 108 WPFM 70s, WKLH Montgomery in AOR 70s, WLSQ-AM Montgomery, WDLP and WGNE Panama City.