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Will Nashville Follow the Trend to Resurrect A Once Popular Format?

Actually, the last song that was played to end Rock 106 to my memory was: When the music ends, turn off the lights, buy The Doors.

When the song ended.....silence for 1 minute, then an old fart sounding guy gives a Legal I.D., "WKQB, Nashville".....silence for 1 minute, then the start of the Xmas music. I cried as it happen. I was at home due to I had ended my internship just before the format change. It was a very sad Xmas for me. :'(
It seemed that everything that was put into make the station a go went down the tubes.

If I recall, Black Sabbath was played during the last hour of Rock 106, 12/12/80 from 11 am to 12 Noon.

If any of you remember me on 91 Rock, Rock 88, 92Q, etc., I was known as "Scott The Rock" On 91 Rock, I always started my show with a song called "Denim and Leather" by a Heavy Metal group called Saxon. I've probably have talk to some of you on the phone durning my Rock Radio Days.
 
Rock 106 was first to introduce us to that Police album "Zenyatta Mondatta". I rushed out and got a copy. The Police was one of those bands that started out as alternative or new wave, but now I think everyone clearly places them in the classic rock category.

I know Rock 106 had a loyal following. Their jocks were in touch with the audience also. Tell me if I am wrong here, but the radio progressive rock legend, Bob Cole, was also @ Rock 106. I seem to remember one Sunday evening his playing a song by Blondie. The feedback was very negative on Blondie music. I do not think I ever heard Blondie music on there again. If Rock 106 played new wave material, it was usually material that did not clash too much with the other rock they were playing.
 
I volunteered my service as a volunteer DJ at 91.1 during the summer of 1981. I was pretty much told "Thanks but no thanks". LOL Oh well, such is life I suppose. Now that I think about it, what I would have played probably would have clashed with what you played at 91 rock. I would have dug out old Country Joe and the Fish records. That surely would have clashed with Saxon. lol
 
SwissVol said:
I volunteered my service as a volunteer DJ at 91.1 during the summer of 1981. I was pretty much told "Thanks but no thanks". LOL Oh well, such is life I suppose. Now that I think about it, what I would have played probably would have clashed with what you played at 91 rock. I would have dug out old Country Joe and the Fish records. That surely would have clashed with Saxon. lol
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I'll probably get kicked off here for saying this, but

WQKB, ROCK 106, was pure "KICK ASS ROCK-N-ROLL"! No doubt about it.....Today's Rock @ 105.9 can't come close to what was done in 1970-80. Don't get me wrong, I liked The Police and The Clash as well. They both sounded better then, than they did in the mid to late 80's.

You should have hung around when the students were on break from Vandy. It hardly left nobody to run the station. I had a key to the door. It took every able body we could find to keep a schedule and stay on the air 24/7. I trained people off the street at 91 Rock within 45 minutes to an hour, and put them on thier own during the holiday seasons and summer breaks.
 
Back in those days, I would have worked any shift and for free or just for the love of album rock radio. Since I come from a Midwest background, that twang accent was absent. I laways heard that DJs should sound like they were from somewhere out in a midwest cornfield. LOL I also knew (Not well) the manager at WMOT FM. I volunteered my services there to do a album rock type show. He was nice, but told me no way were they going away from Jazz.
 
Although 106 WKQB's mascot was a bumble bee (great work, Nick), IIRC their voice image announcer/character was a General Buzz Crankin. Help anyone?
 
I remember the KQBBB but i never knew that it was Nick Archer behind the mask until hooking up with the "Nash Radio Group". I wonder if Nick did any work behind the mic back then, I really can't remember his name, but it's been nearly 28 years since their demise. I was thinking Nick was at SM95 at the time. Maybe he was doing double duty if that's possible (at both stations) LOL, or he was at SM95 before or after Rock 106.
 
junebaby62 said:
I remember the KQBBB but i never knew that it was Nick Archer behind the mask until hooking up with the "Nash Radio Group". I wonder if Nick did any work behind the mic back then, I really can't remember his name, but it's been nearly 28 years since their demise. I was thinking Nick was at SM95 at the time. Maybe he was doing double duty if that's possible (at both stations) LOL, or he was at SM95 before or after Rock 106.
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Forgive me for answering this. If Nick Archer is lurking around over here perhaps he could give more detail, but I do remember Nick Archer doing an afternoon drive time show on Rock 106, but it might have been the time frame before the name Rock 106. I think 106 was still calling their station KQB 106.

Rock 106 had it's loyal following. Based on the posts I have read, I was far from being alone in being the fan of Rock 106. I think Rock 106 avoided some songs and artists that 103.3 KDF had on it's playlists. I think if Rock 106 fans would have ben quite upset if they had played some of the stuff KDF played. KDF was still playing "I shot the sheriff" by Clapton. Even back in 79 and 80, many people were sick of "I shot the sheriff" by Eric Clapton. I think KDF was playing Daniel by Elton John also. These are just two examples of tunes Rock 106 avoided in building their loyal audience. Not to bash those Artists by any means,but those songs were beaten death at that time. I am a huge fan of Clapton's bluesier song material.

When 106 pulled the plug on the album rock after the Joy of Nashville, KDF just never took the ball and ran with that. I guess they had their own way of doing things as well. I can see where a station would not want to copy what another station had been doing.

Rock 106 was missed dearly. I knew the guys at Vandy were trying to fill the void. God bless em for that!! LOL
 
I've heard alot of good things about Thunder 94, but I did'nt know they were on the air at the time so i don't know much about the music they played. I had friend of mine that loved the station, she said they used to go to the station and shoot the sh## with the DJ's. I also read that it was'nt a pretty sight the day they flipped formats, some of the DJ's were heard on air cussing up a storm.
 
Deltas69 (Pat Julian) did work at Rock 106 I have never worked at a nashville radio station..(well there was a 6 week period at 1510 back in MARCH, but that doesn't count..after all it's talk..not real radio, and in six weeks i was not allowed to utter one word.)..I was at WHIN AM/FM from late 70 to '76. WMRL/WQSI same station in portland tn, from '80 til it went dark the first time in '84, this is where the CMA for some reason considered me a DJ of the year nominee in 83, WAMG gallatin, for about a year in '88 doing a morning show with tim cathcart and ed reasonover as the beaver. WAIT !!! UPDATE !!! CUE STINGER !! I did work for about 2 weeks at power country (the buzz) with coyote, lulu, etc...but that can't count as i never got a check..just can't get the hang of nashville radio..too many rules, regulations, i didn't see anyone having fun...i STILL get people asking me to this day how things are at WHIN...so much for their book.. ;D
 
deltas69 said:
Deltas69 (Pat Julian) did work at Rock 106 I have never worked at a nashville radio station..(well there was a 6 week period at 1510 back in MARCH, but that doesn't count..after all it's talk..not real radio, and in six weeks i was not allowed to utter one word.)..I was at WHIN AM/FM from late 70 to '76. WMRL/WQSI same station in portland tn, from '80 til it went dark the first time in '84, this is where the CMA for some reason considered me a DJ of the year nominee in 83, WAMG gallatin, for about a year in '88 doing a morning show with tim cathcart and ed reasonover as the beaver. WAIT !!! UPDATE !!! CUE STINGER !! I did work for about 2 weeks at power country (the buzz) with coyote, lulu, etc...but that can't count as i never got a check..just can't get the hang of nashville radio..too many rules, regulations, i didn't see anyone having fun...i STILL get people asking me to this day how things are at WHIN...so much for their book.. ;D
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Most of this discussion predates my living in Nashville (as I said before), but I have some memories of my own involving that time period.

In the early '80s, when I was in high school, there was an FM station in rural northwest TN (where I lived at the time) which had a format I would call "rock 40" (sort of a top 40/rock hybrid). In the '70s, this station had been an easy listening station, and was largely ignored. When they went rock in 1980, this marked the first time many of us had listened to FM on any type of a regular basis. (This was about an hour from Jackson, and two hours from Memphis, so competition from the album rockers there was minimal.) It was my understanding that one guy (who is the GM of that station now) quit that station rather than blend in the top 40 mix that they wanted. Fast forward to the summer of 1982. That station suddenly went country! But more importantly, they cut back from a 24-hour broadcast day (which they had started when they went rock) to an 18-hour day. One Sunday morning (about 3:00 a.m.!) right after the format change, that station mysteriously burned down! Somebody called the manager of the other station in town (the AM station) to tell him about it because they apparently either didn't realize it wasn't his station, or didn't know who to call. (I should point out that at that time, the station's studios were on a rural two-lane state highway about half-way between two small towns. And this particular highway had been superseded by a four-lane federal highway, so any traffic passing through that area that night would have been using the four-lane road.) After the fire, they returned to the air in a new studio near downtown! (They were off the air for about three months.) But when they returned to the air, they had bomb threats called in for a while there!) Meanwhile, the local AM station added an FM, and I was hoping that it would be a new rocker, and that they would keep their top 40 on AM, but as luck would have it, they shifted the top 40 to the new FM, and made the AM more of an AC station. This was probably around 1983. It was about this time that even in rural areas, FM began to become more popular than AM!
 
deltas69 said:
Deltas69 (Pat Julian) did work at Rock 106 I have never worked at a nashville radio station..(well there was a 6 week period at 1510 back in MARCH, but that doesn't count..after all it's talk..not real radio, and in six weeks i was not allowed to utter one word.)..I was at WHIN AM/FM from late 70 to '76. WMRL/WQSI same station in portland tn, from '80 til it went dark the first time in '84, this is where the CMA for some reason considered me a DJ of the year nominee in 83, WAMG gallatin, for about a year in '88 doing a morning show with tim cathcart and ed reasonover as the beaver. WAIT !!! UPDATE !!! CUE STINGER !! I did work for about 2 weeks at power country (the buzz) with coyote, lulu, etc...but that can't count as i never got a check..just can't get the hang of nashville radio..too many rules, regulations, i didn't see anyone having fun...i STILL get people asking me to this day how things are at WHIN...so much for their book.. ;D
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I could have swore you were at ROCK 106 before Portland signed on in 1980. WHIN-FM had a whimpie playlist until Michael St. John came in to take it to Kicks 104, and made it a success. I hated listening to 104 in the 70's, as it appeared they were afraid to rock, due to I guess they felt like they had to cater to that older Gallatin audience of the day, and was still more of a Gallatin Station, than a Nashville Area Station. 104 did a "Rock Hits" format in the mid to late 80's, calling it "Rock Hits 104". I knew that was going to be a failure. They had to take it back to Kicks 104, unitl "The Fox" Format came along as a boring Classic Rocker. Today, 104 has the contents to be a Kick Butt Rocker, and kill 105.9. I not a sports fan, so expect me to say that.

WMRL/WQSI/WHRP/WQKR......whew, that place was a joke until Ron Simpson got a hold of it. Ron was suscessful with it. Lee is doing a good job with it. During the 80's, I think everybody in radio back from 1980 to 1989 (pre Ron Simpson days) had taken a stop at that place and had a drink! I did love that old McMartin Transmitter, and I'm trying to find on to restore at the house.

Thunder 94 had and always had a weak signal. Being a Class A, Engineer Jim Turavaville found a site to move 94.1 to the transmitter site to and upgrade it to a Class B, but it was out in the middle of the lake, so that won't work. Thunder 94 was o.k., but too much of a mix with Lighting 100. I kept hearing the same songs over and over.

I don't think in this day and time no radio station will ever come close to what ROCK 106 did.
 
they were afraid to rock, due to I guess they felt like they had to cater to that older Gallatin audience that was not the case..bill,jack, and i begged the owners to go rock or oldies, as there was no other mega watt FM at the time other than kda playing rock. the owners were afraid that their personal circle of fiends, albiet a tiny one , would complain. at the same time, the owners, all over 50 at the time and very straitlaced, were griping about it not making any money, yet they would not allow us to format it to make any money. we did make a ton on gallatin football doing it live on friday nights, and eventually, we did go oldies from 6 till midnight, but they would not let us play anything heavier than sergio mendes and brasil 66, during the day. we knew the listener audience for a 50k watt rocker was there, but the owners, could not fatham selling spots in the nashville mkt..might was well been the moon, for all their thinking. if one of the owners friends heard something they did'nt like, they called them at home or work and complained..literally a dozen people calling the playlist through the owners. for example, richard fenker, owned rail oil co. a shell station. he liked nothing but montavani, and sponsered the "shell dinner hour" from 6 to 7 pm. he actually thought everyone in town sat down, had dinner, and listened to that like he did. you played a carted intro, at 6:30 you read" you are listening to the xxxxx consecuctive shell dinner hour, the longest running dinner music program in tennessee"..then back to mantavani. this was 7 days a week..he was paying FIVE DOLLARS A SHOW, for this..35 friggin dollars a week..and went through the roof when we prempted it on football fridays..threatening to cancel the entire show..PLEASE WE ALL BEGGED..CANCEL THE THING...which eventually he did..there were maybe 10 sponsers on the entire station...all pretty much paying the same for spots..it wasn't the entire older audience of gallatin..just a dozen or so who couldn't get their rock on..or off..bledsoe did what we wanted to do..rocked it, sold it for 10 mil or so..and the whin owners,nearly croaked..they thought they hung bledsoe when they sold it to him for around 800k...after buying the station, 88 acres of land which included a 50k house, inground pool, and a couple of cars for 161,000. WHIN AM didn't borrow any money to buy it..just wrote them a check...i guarentee they couldn't do that today
 
Classic Rock the Fox 104.5 was one of my favorite stations back in the late 80's and early 90's. They played alot more variety than these Classic Rock stations of today (105.9 and 97.1). They played stuff from bands like Traffic, Blindfaith, Cream, Santana and Badfinger, stuff that 105.9 or 97.1 want touch. I always thought their Jocks did a good job also, they were "laid back" sounding. Steve Sellers, Charlie Walker, Chris Romer (ya thats the one) Marc Daman, Tommy and Paul, Tom Bootle, Chris Corley, Sam Kornet, and from the earlier years their was Kat, Moon, 'The Butcher", Mike Thomas and others. They were all good in my opinion. I always liked the little jingles they used in between the music, i thought they were cool.
 
Radio Lightning is a icon to the music community in Nashville.. Small and faithfull.. By their image and promotions, you'd think they were the cream of the crop.. But a strong TSL and small cume show their the darling of the recording community.. Always trying to play to an audience that recorded, wrote, sang and did BGV's and production on today's country, rock and pop hits, two years prior, when they were in development..
 
junebaby62 said:
Steve Sellers, Charlie Walker, Chris Romer (ya thats the one) Marc Daman, Tommy and Paul, Tom Bootle, Chris Corley, Sam Kornet, and from the earlier years their was Kat, Moon, 'The Butcher", Mike Thomas and others.
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actually...Moon and Butcher were there reasonably late in the FOX days of 104.5...Damon was there very late in the post-FOX days. original line-ups included Tommy & Paul...Charlie Walker...Corley...Tom Peace...Kat...and Sam.
Sellers and I did weekends...Bootle was there only briefly. The overnight weekender at the start (I won't name him)
had a different woman in the control room every Saturday when I came in at 5a...usually semi-clothed. Biggest problem: they were almost always aged and ugly.... Oh yeah... I think Peace, Charlie and I were the only ones to make the transition from KX104 to FOX.
20 years ago...damn...so I could be wrong about a lot of this.
 
Chris, since you were there i'm sure your right. Unfortunately back then I was doing some things I should have not been doing, and my head was alittle cloudy. Man, I'm glad I give that stuff up!
 
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