Which Radio Stations Shaped your Taste in Music?

[DOB]

My interest in radio was born in 1985 when I first flew out to Phoenix and heard the legendary KZZP.
They were playing White Lines in the middle of the day and back then you would rarely hear hip hop on the radio.
I visited Phoenix from the East coast a few times every year, and even had tapes of the station sent to me.
Pop, Rock, New Wave, Rnb, and hip hop, KZZP was always playing songs that I never heard before and most of them from my tapes me and my friends had all to ourselves for the 3 to 6 months before they were played on our local stations. So many times kids at school would say our music sucked only to have those songs be their favorites months later. Eventually our click was known for being ahead of the curve, no one dared to diss our music, and then I was begged to do our school dances, which led to me doing everyone's parties, then the spill over to my friends doing parties and events too. I did my first wedding at 13, which worked out but I was way too young to be doing that

I'd say that KZZP built for me a foundation of knowing how to hear and feel which new songs would be hits. Then from so many events, I learned how to feel a crowd, build momentum, and to use the future hit songs in the right location since most people do need a few listens before they truly get to love a song that becomes a favorite.

 

[seatownmedia]

Not sure what you mean by "poor man's Seattle Tacoma top 40 station". I spent a couple years in the Seattle area in the mid-70s, and even though they didn't have the best signal where I lived, they were my favorite of the 3 top 40s by far.

Just meant their signal was sketchy in North Seattle where I grew up in the 70’s. But agreed a good sounding top 40 in its day.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

KIOI-FM San Francisco was a big one from my childhood years in the late 1980's-early 1990's

But KLLC and KFOG were big ones for me in my teen years in the early 2000's.

 

[spiritof67]

In the early 1970s, Top-40 stations like KXOK, KAAY, and WLS. I liked Soul stations KWK and KATZ too--often they were on hits earlier than the Top-40s,

Mid 1970s: Top 40 stations KSLQ, CKLW and XEROK (both stations reached me at night). WWL's "Road Gang" show was where some of my earliest Country music listening started.

Late 1970s-early 1980s: Adult Contemporary station KMOX-FM (similar to KNX-FM Los Angeles), Urban stations KMJM "Majic 108" and WZEN, AORs KWK (under Doubleday Radio), and college/Alternative 10-100 watt FM stations KCFV and KWUR. I also got a short wave radio during that time and listened to Latin American stations on 60 and 49 meters before the era of internet streams. Those included stations like Ecos del Torbes in Venezuela, La Voz del Llano in Colombia, and Radio Reloj de Costa Rica, along with major broadcasters like the BBC World Service, Radio Canada International, Radio Australia, and WRNO Worldwide.

Mid-late 1980s: Top-40 KHTR, MTV. Country: KUSA, KTJJ. Jazz, WMRY, KCLC, The Breeze (syndicated network).

Early 1990s: Alternative KPNT, KYMC, KCFV. Country: WKKX "Kix106.5"

Late 1990s: Cable services like Digital Music Express (DMX), and internet streams from anywhere.

Now, internet streams from outside the US introduce me to music I would not have known otherwise. Also, airchecks from past radio stations easily available now do that too--KHJ, WLS, WCFL, WABC, KMET, Radio Caroline, etc.

 

[jp1996]

For me........

WKSK 580 AM in Jefferson, NC (country)

WBRF 98.1 in Galax, Virginia (country/bluegrass)

WQUT 101.5 in Johnson City, TN (classic rock)

WTQR 104.1 in Greensboro, NC (country)

WKBC 97.3 in North Wilkesboro, NC (top 40)

WVTR 91.9 in Marion, VA (NPR)

WMEV 93.9 in Marion, VA (country)

WFMX 105.7 in Statesville, NC (country)

WFDD 88.5 in Winston-Salem, NC (NPR)

 

[Brandon1993]

I live Los Angeles so listening to stations like KJLH, The Beat and Power 106 made me love all forms of urban music.

 

[boombox4]

Radio Australia, and their "Countdown" program (later changed to Soundabout). Hands down.

 

[Firey]

2011 - 2015 WSKQ, the stunt in between 105.9 La Kalle and X96.3 and 2010 - 2017 WADO shaped my taste in music. I love Spanish Tropical (mostly golden hits).

 

[Alan Smithee]

Easy- The Quake, KQAK in San Francisco (now KSOL.) Rock of the 80s a la KROQ which I never got to hear in the 80s as we didn't go to LA much. Gateway was actually on Sacramento's KPOP 93.5, where format creator Rick Carroll had worked early on- they had morphed to it from a regular top 40 format in summer 1983 running teaser promos saying "Rock of the 80s is coming August 1st!" I had no idea what it was but fell in love with it when it started, only for it to be killed off after 5 short months in favor of a very bad top 40 format. We could still get The Quake easy enough so stayed with that til it was sold and flipped in 1985.

Had listened to top 40 like KFRC before that, but this format was new and different yet with some familiar ties that didn't scare me off. A large part of it was British synth-pop, which has gone a bit out of style now but is still by far my favorite genre. KROQ is still around but most of what they play now is just garbage.

 

[Radio-Bored-Op]

Energy 108 - Toronto

 

[jlalande]

WPGU, Champaign, during their run as alternative "The Planet" in the 90s. I was in high school when they flipped to alternative, caught the stunting ahead of their launch and happened to be listening when they flipped to alternative. I loved the music, and "the Planet" was practically the soundtrack to my college years at Illinois.

Honorable mention to all the top 40 radio I listened to before that, especially WLRW, Champaign (I still remember calling in to talk to their evening DJ and recording songs off the air) and, KCMQ in Columbia, MO (Q97 was all my mom listened to in the car when we lived in CoMo).

There are so many radio stations I've enjoyed since then that have introduced me to great music since then (WXRT, WNRN, RadioBDC, BBC Radio 1), but as far as stations that most shaped my taste in music, I'd have to go back to those first few stations.

 

[JJSPC]

Growing up in Milwaukee, WOKY 920 first, then WNUW 99.1, WZUU/WZUU-FM 1290/95.7 and WKTI 94.5 plus a little of everything else.

 

[wildthangjim]

Mid-late '60s, as a pre teen, my mom listened to top 40 KAKC Tulsa nonstop. In the late 60's I started DXing and learned a lot about "underground" music from KAAY's Beaker Street program. I also loved WLAC and WOKJ Jackson, with their soul music.

In the early 70's, KTBA Tulsa was a great free-form FM, which really kickstarted my interest in diverse music. Unfortunately they only lasted a few years. I started college just in time for KATT in OKC to start up, one of the best FM rock stations ever.

In the early 80's, living north of Dallas, I learned a lot about punk/new wave from George Gimarc on KZEW's Rock and Roll Alternative program. KEGL switched to a KROQ-style "Rock of the 80's" format, which sadly only lasted a year or two. Thereafter, until I moved to Denver in the late 80s, radio didn't do much for me.

When I got to Denver, KBCO was a very eclectic AAA and KTCL was a similarly great alternative station. As they both were bought by larger companies in the mid 90s, they became more mainstream and less influential to me.

Nowadays, when I listen to the radio, it's usually a non-com such as KUTX Austin or the Colorado Sound.

 

[Loverofradio]

Definitely kroq

 

[bobdavcav]

It may also be interesting to add some information about the years you were listening as well.

I’ll start. Growing up in Seattle, I always listened to 102.5 KZOK for classic rock. I think this station had a significant influence on me from around 1995 to 2015 or so, as my parents listened to it all of the time (which led me to do the same). Unfortunately, this station began drop their focus on 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s rock sometime around 2016/2017 to focus more heavily on the 90’s. I still am a regular listener, but it hasn’t been the same. Other honourable Seattle mentions include KBSG 97.3 (which doesn’t exist), KIXI 880 (which barely exists), and KMTT 103.7 (which doesn’t exist).

Beyond Seattle, I also listened to CISL 650 in Vancouver B.C. for their mixture of 60’s and 70’s hits (another station that is gone), and CHBM 97.3 in Toronto for classic hits. CHMB is still around and features a great playlist of 80’s tracks.

I'm not much older than you, so remember all those stations. My first favorite was KBSG, but then switched to to KYPT when that came on. Other stations on the car radio were KLSY, KJR especially after going back to Classic Hits in 2002, and later KCMS. Although my radio was set on 105.3 for a good six years, I wouldn't say that was an influential station for me. Although I have a good amount of Christian music, most of it I either don't listen to or discovered post-2010. In 2008, I started seriously tuning around and though I had known about Star 101.5 for years, I didn't begin listening until then. That was also when I started listening to KBKS, now a station I can't stand. When I was 16 in the summer of 2010, I started listening to stations from other markets regularly. Interestingly, KKCW was a favorite when I was down here over the summers, but never got into it when listening online. When I started streaming, my favorites became KHKS/Dallas, WDAY-FM/Fargo, KKMG/Colorado Springs, and KWXS/Bend at various times over the next five years. With Maverick gone from KWXS, there's not much holding me there anymore, and the others have gotten boring over the years. These days, if I had a default it's probably going to be WINK-FM/Fort Meyers, FL.

 

[fordranger797]

I'm not much older than you, so remember all those stations. My first favorite was KBSG, but then switched to to KYPT when that came on. Other stations on the car radio were KLSY, KJR especially after going back to Classic Hits in 2002, and later KCMS. Although my radio was set on 105.3 for a good six years, I wouldn't say that was an influential station for me. Although I have a good amount of Christian music, most of it I either don't listen to or discovered post-2010. In 2008, I started seriously tuning around and though I had known about Star 101.5 for years, I didn't begin listening until then. That was also when I started listening to KBKS, now a station I can't stand. When I was 16 in the summer of 2010, I started listening to stations from other markets regularly. Interestingly, KKCW was a favorite when I was down here over the summers, but never got into it when listening online. When I started streaming, my favorites became KHKS/Dallas, WDAY-FM/Fargo, KKMG/Colorado Springs, and KWXS/Bend at various times over the next five years. With Maverick gone from KWXS, there's not much holding me there anymore, and the others have gotten boring over the years. These days, if I had a default it's probably going to be WINK-FM/Fort Meyers, FL.

Good to hear the perspective of another Seattleite! I should have included KJR in my list as well.
My family listened to KJR all of the time when I was growing up as an alternative to KZOK and KBSG. I still listen to the “new” KJR (now “The Jet”) most frequently of all radio stations in Seattle. I think a lot of people around our age would cite KBKS as being one of the most influential on them. I can’t think of anybody who didn’t listen to 106.1 in the 2000’s. I’ve never really liked pop music all that much, so it wasn’t really for me. Though I feel like I still have a little nostalgia since I now listen to Bender every morning on 95.7, and he was a fixture of that station.

When I stream, it’s always CHBM 97.3 all day (usually at work in the office where I can’t stream American stations and don’t have a radio).

 

[Mark Roberts]

Major influences for me:
High school through early 20s - KSHE. At first, it was KADI, but then KADI had a fire that knocked it off the air for a few days and left it with a weakened signal for a while. So, at my suburban location, I switched to KSHE. I still have many LPs that were "KSHE Klassics". When I moved to Columbia after college, I put up an FM antenna at my house specifically to receive KSHE. In addition, there was KCOU at the University of Missouri for more alternative music, and for a couple of years when the conditions were right, I could pick up a CBC alternative-rock program on Saturday nights called, variously "Neon" or "Neon Nights". I still have a few tapes of that, noisy as they are. The host was J.B. Shine who, I found out much later, was something of a legend in Vancouver radio. He was sarcastic, or about as sarcastic as a Canadian could be. Moreover, his music selections have held up over time (whenever I listen to those tapes). In the mid-1980s in Houston, a big influence was Rice University's KTRU, which furthered my introduction to the world of alternative music. Then it was back to graduate school, when I had little time for radio, and then to Kansas City. Kansas City radio was dismal in the early 1990s, but then KLZR from Lawrence, Kansas switched to a modern rock format. After that, up went another antenna...but what really blew me away was something I discovered on a business trip: San Francisco's Live 105. It was an amazing radio station with music I had heard nowhere else, not even KLZR. On a subsequent trip, I brought lots of tapes and made some airchecks of KITS. Then there was a move to Chicago. There I discovered WXRT, which I still listen to occasionally online. At Y2K, there was another move to San Francisco. By that time, KITS had lost the sparkle it had before CBS bought it - it was a more run-of-the-mill rock station or, as I once phrased it, the favorite radio station of angry tatooed restaurant workers. I finally settled on KFOG, despite its many deficiencies and cloying promotions aimed at "Fogheads". These days, with the (non-HD) radio dial strangely devoid of AAA in the Bay Area despite demographics that would suggest otherwise, I mainly listen to online AAA and classical alternative outlets - KINK (I just finished working for a company in Portland), KBXR (Columbia, Mo.), KBAC (Santa Fe, NM), WXPN, 91X from Tijuana, WTTS (Indianapolis), and others. I do find the online experience to be frustrating at times: too many ads that are clearly junky. I occasionally sample KOIT-HD2 but find that, without personalities, it's not that great an experience. I also have a lot of (purchased) MP3 files that I listen to on shuffle. Often that's the best choice of all for me. For news/talk, I listen to KCBS and to KQED-FM. I used to listen more to KALW when they aired the CBC's "As It Happens", but they started burying it later and later in the evening and finally dropped it altogether, so I gave up on it and quit giving them money.

 

[bobdavcav]

Good to hear the perspective of another Seattleite! I should have included KJR in my list as well.
My family listened to KJR all of the time when I was growing up as an alternative to KZOK and KBSG. I still listen to the “new” KJR (now “The Jet”) most frequently of all radio stations in Seattle. I think a lot of people around our age would cite KBKS as being one of the most influential on them. I can’t think of anybody who didn’t listen to 106.1 in the 2000’s. I’ve never really liked pop music all that much, so it wasn’t really for me. Though I feel like I still have a little nostalgia since I now listen to Bender every morning on 95.7, and he was a fixture of that station.

When I stream, it’s always CHBM 97.3 all day (usually at work in the office where I can’t stream American stations and don’t have a radio).

It would either have been 106.1 or 93.3 on radios of people our age until 92.5 went CHR in 2010. As far as I was concerned, it was over for 106.1 by February of 2012, though it took me some time to actually consider what I was hearing on 92.5 as CHR. I would switch to 106.1 on weekend mornings though because they had and still have the count down shows. The only count down show on 92.5 was and still is the nightly 7 at 7.

 

[fordranger797]

It would either have been 106.1 or 93.3 on radios of people our age until 92.5 went CHR in 2010. As far as I was concerned, it was over for 106.1 by February of 2012, though it took me some time to actually consider what I was hearing on 92.5 as CHR. I would switch to 106.1 on weekend mornings though because they had and still have the count down shows. The only count down show on 92.5 was and still is the nightly 7 at 7.

I remember when 92.5 first flipped to “Movin.” It was kind of a strange format because it was somewhat of an amalgamation of CHR and danceable older hits. Didn’t really seem like a recipe for success at the time, though what did I know, I wasn’t really old enough to know better. It makes sense that it morphed into CHR. It is clear that 92.5 is the “go to” station for CHR in the puget sound, and it’s not even close.

 

[bobdavcav]

I remember my first reaction when I finally found out 92.5 had changed, what the heck? KLSY was a good station! Then again, I had moved away from them mostly by that point. I remember that I thought the station on the car radio was Jack since they used to play a bit of everything, and was surprised to learn that it was 92.5. This was a good six weeks or so after the format change.