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What was the first radio station you grew up listening as a kid?

Wow...

As a military brat, I was all over the place.

1968-1970: WARWICK RI (WARV 1590), PROVIDENCE RI (WSVP 1450), the big dog was PROVIDENCE RI (WPRO 630)

1970-1973: MERIDIAN MS (WQIC 1390) and (WMOX 1010)

1973-1975: OXNARD CA (KACY 1520) and a little bit of L.A. (KHJ 930 - at the time, I didn't have FM capability...)

1975-1980: TUCSON AZ (KTKT 990) and (KIKX 580) among others

...and a GREAT synopsis of radio history in Tucson is found here: Broadcast History - Tucson Radio
 
firepoint525 said:
Hadn't it signed off by then? I was working at WHDM by then, and my mother used to listen to me when she would drive to visit her sister in Dyersburg about that time. Had WDSG still been on the air, that would have been almost impossible for her to do.
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Yeah, it may have been just a bit earlier. There was a period of time when my Dad and I were at odds and I came back home from Florida to escape and worked for Joann. She was a mess. I was loaning them my record library for their use and when I quit over pay I took everything I owned with me. They had like 100 45's of their own. She also had taped my shows and used me as the automation for the 10a-3p shift for a while after I was back in Florida. I know this because my Mom was shopping there one day and called me to say I was still on-air. I called them and informed them if the tapes weren't burned immediately I'd call the FCC and drop every little violation I had on them. They had a bonfire that afternoon.
 
Originally from Bay City Michigan @ 9-10 yrs old, it was WTAC. At 10 yrs old in 1959 moved to vicinity of Fresno CA and listened to KYNO/Fresno. In 1962 Ron Jacobs and Robert W Morgan hit town on K/MAKe and the war of all radio wars was ON! By 1965 KYNO's program director Bill Drake and Ron Jacobs quit competing and joined forces to create Boss Radio at KHJ. KYNO 'The Big 13'was the incubator and test market for Boss Radio.
 
exdjted said:
Yeah, it may have been just a bit earlier. There was a period of time when my Dad and I were at odds and I came back home from Florida to escape and worked for Joann. She was a mess. I was loaning them my record library for their use and when I quit over pay I took everything I owned with me. They had like 100 45's of their own. She also had taped my shows and used me as the automation for the 10a-3p shift for a while after I was back in Florida. I know this because my Mom was shopping there one day and called me to say I was still on-air. I called them and informed them if the tapes weren't burned immediately I'd call the FCC and drop every little violation I had on them. They had a bonfire that afternoon.
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I remember someone on here saying something similar to that. I just wonder how someone could make tapes of air shows and still make them sound "fresh." It seems like very primitive "AI."

I suspect that the former GM of a station near me did something similar with a kid that used to work for him, although not as suspicious as what Joann did with you. This guy used the kid's liners, and played them to make it seem like the kid still worked there. But the kid never said anything even remotely "live." This led me to believe that either the kid was really shy, or more likely, no longer working there, and the GM trying to make it look like he did, because he probably couldn't find anyone else desperate enough to work there!
 
For me:

WBAM 740 AM Montgomery (Country)
WALX 100.9 FM Selma (Beautiful Music and then Top 40)
WMBV 91.9 FM Dixon's Mills (Christian)
The CCM and SG part of WDJC 93.7 FM Birmingham
WDXX 100.1 FM Selma (For their block of SG)
WAQU 91.1 FM Selma (AFR) (Was my first radio gig)
WHBB 1490 AM and Now Defunct WTQX 1570 AM Selma (For their blocks of Black Gospel)​

These are some of the stations I grew up on and was influenced by. I could name more but I'll keep my list very brief.

Dan <><
 
So long ago. Currently I am a dinosaur, out of the target demos of any radio station, I started listening to cave man radio stations back in the early 60s when they transmitted off of stones piled high like a tower. My first memories are of the local stations to me, WGNY and WBNR at 1220 and 1260. 60 miles from New York City at a time of little AM noise and static to drown out the signals I discovered Dan Ingram on WABC pretty early on. I enjoyed looking around at the different formats and types of stations. I liked the jingles too. MOR WHN and WNEW come to mind for their jingles. When we traveled I drove my parents mad by tuning the radio station to station to hear who was on, what commercials were on and the all important jingles. I didn't really care much or listen for the songs. Good times. With relatives in Buffalo, I especially remember WGR through the years. I always favored it over the big 50,000 watt WKBW. I thought it was best in the mid 70s during the GR55 days. Generally every radio station was better then because they all had a distinct personality. Today my interest can't be held by "more music better variety" liners being repeated by a non descript voice with nary a mention of anything of interest.
 
KJR in Seattle 🎧📻🎶 60s rock format. DJ Pat O'Day was a legend. He passed away August 2020. He did the Seafair ⛵ broadcasts too. KJR is now a popular sports station.
 
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Earliest: KFRU in Columbia, Mo. when I was 4 or 5 years old. That was it was the station my mom had on all day and because it was one of two local stations in what was then a city of about 36,000. Now it's over 100-thousand. KFRU was a full-time station that went to 24-hour broadcasting in 1962, an unusual move for a small-market station at the time. The competition was daytimer KCGM, which featured "good music" that no one listened to. Each station was owned by former newscasters at St. Louis's KXOK: Mahlon Aldridge at KFRU; Bruce Barrington at KCGM. KCGM was sold in 1967 to a group of businessmen, who flipped it to KTGR, finally bringing Top-40 programming to college students thirsty for the format and adding the city's first commercial FM station at the end of 1967. KFRU, by necessity, tried to be all things to all people. It retained elements of a block-programming format into the early 1980s, by which time I had grown up, graduated from the University of Missouri, and ended up becoming KFRU's news director.
 
It retained elements of a block-programming format into the early 1980s, by which time I had grown up, graduated from the University of Missouri, and ended up becoming KFRU's news director.
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Mark -- if you don't wish to answer, that's okay. But were you part of the School of Journalism at University of Missouri? That's probably the #1 journalism program in the nation, next to Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. Congratulations on all your accomplishments.
 
Daryl Lynn L.A. said:
Mark -- if you don't wish to answer, that's okay. But were you part of the School of Journalism at University of Missouri? That's probably the #1 journalism program in the nation, next to Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. Congratulations on all your accomplishments.
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Yes, I was - thanks. It was a very competitive environment post-Watergate. It got pretty intense from time to time.
 
The one that grew on me was KIMN 95 bacl in the 1980s however when the Denver Bears (Triple A farm club of the Montreal Expos) were playing, I'd tune over to KOA to listen to them

When I wasn't listening to either one of them, I was Broadcast DXing stations like WLS & anything else I could get (the more obscure, the better) This was WELL before I even realized what I was doing WAS Broadcast DXing (Keep in mind, I was only a kid with NO outside exposure to radio AT ALL (Not even Ham Radio, where I would've likely made the connection)

When I spent a year in Utah, I tried to Broadcast DX KOA like I was able to DX KSL from Denver at times but it didn't work even though both have locals on adjacent frequencies (1150 in Denver & 860 in Salt Lake City) & was closer to Ogden than SLC

If I had the knowledge I have now back then, I likely would've spent some of my hard earned $$ from my after school job on some cassette tapes doingf some airchecking from afar or something :D
 
Early/mid 1980s: I remember hearing Casey Kasem's American Top 40 on "Hot Hits!" 96 WHYT, Detroit. I remember being a big fan of songs like "Gloria," "Mickey," and "Flashdance... What a Feeling," which leads me to believe WHYT must have been played quite a bit in my household. However, the first station I actively remember listening to regularly was a Beautiful Music station - Joy 97, WJOI (now 97-1 The Ticket). My parents played it to calm me at night and help me fall asleep, and I ended up developing quite an attachment to the music.
Other favorite stations during that time: AC 100.3 WNIC (especially with Pillow Talk at night), Classical 105.1 WQRS, and 91.7 WUOM from U of M when they played classical. At the age of 10, my music taste was already that of a 45-year-old of the era. :ROFLMAO:
Eventually I grew more attached to contemporary pop music, but the Hot AC of WKQI (Q95), circa 1991-94, was about as hip as I dared to get... until I began to appreciate some R&B, hip-hop and alternative rock as well.
 
CCBInMI said:
Early/mid 1980s: I remember hearing Casey Kasem's American Top 40 on "Hot Hits!" 96 WHYT, Detroit. I remember being a big fan of songs like "Gloria," "Mickey," and "Flashdance... What a Feeling," which leads me to believe WHYT must have been played quite a bit in my household. However, the first station I actively remember listening to regularly was a Beautiful Music station - Joy 97, WJOI (now 97-1 The Ticket). My parents played it to calm me at night and help me fall asleep, and I ended up developing quite an attachment to the music.
Other favorite stations during that time: AC 100.3 WNIC (especially with Pillow Talk at night), Classical 105.1 WQRS, and 91.7 WUOM from U of M when they played classical. At the age of 10, my music taste was already that of a 45-year-old of the era. :ROFLMAO:
Eventually I grew more attached to contemporary pop music, but the Hot AC of WKQI (Q95), circa 1991-94, was about as hip as I dared to get... until I began to appreciate some R&B, hip-hop and alternative rock as well.
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On a mildly similar note, when one of my brothers was approaching puberty, he started listening to KBPI. Back then, KBPI was Rockin' The Rockies with a more Heavy Metal style of Rock which I wasn't crazy about & my parents didn't really approve of but didn't know how to deal with it

Luckily I did

Without Mom OR Dad even ASKING me, I managed to get him to spend more time listening to KIMN

Eventually he gave up listening to KBPI & his music tastes during this time of his life changed for the better. Je did however go back when he was a bit older & wiser though

My other brother however was A DIFFERENT story. There was NO helping him. Musically, he was into Z Rock. That meant wherever Z Rock was on the dial, he would go there. Beyond that, he was into witchcraft. Need I say more??
 


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