A/C stations in the “D”During the 80’s

[Deleted User 14803]

I miss Z-ROCK we actually could use a hard edge Classic Rock station in the “D” playing 70’s,80’s and 90’s Hard Rock it could work only if they stay away from current material no 2K stuff at all.

[Y M Ionhere]

They sure did! they came on after the train wreck of CD102. They were all feed from TX and added some local day parts later, Mornings I know around 1995. They introduced to me to a lot of music, by the time I heard it, they had added a lot of mainstream stuff but still had a good edge, in 86-87-88 they were all metal. I think they, in part forced 98.7 out of the rock format, along with 88.7.

98.7 and 101.1 were still playing allman brothers, Elton John, and Brian Howe era Bad Company. 102.7 was Playing Pantera, Metallica, Megadeth, and stuff like that, Alice in Chains and stuff like that too.

I mostly listened to WCSX in the early-90s, until Z-rock came to town, and thats what brought me into the post-1981 world of rock.
There was a lot of classic rock crossover onto WLLZ and WRIF. WCSX never played AC/DC (now they overplay them) and only played "Dance the night Away", no other Van Halen songs. Wllz and Wrif played them more often. WLLZ seemed more likely to play more melodic stuff, while WRIF was heavier. When Z-Rock came, it leaned heavily towards glam/hair metal (Skid Row, Ratt, Cinderella) with major grunge acts thrown in. Once it became localized, it went full-out grunge or contemporary rock with a heavier vibe. eventually, WLLZ drifted toward alternative and WRIF was the metal station. Once glam rock died, they all struggled with their identity.
Ive been doing some work up in the Holly area, and listening to Banana 101. that station is a carbon copy of WRIF circa 2002, and the imaging sounds like it was done by the former Z-rock voiceover guy. Pretty interesting to hear bumper VO's announcing "The best songs from the biggest names in Rock" in between Days Of The New and Papa Roach.

[mikes]

WMJC 1979 to about 1982: Mornings Jeff and Jer. Followed by Tom Force, Peter Carey, Rod Pryhin,Paula Casey, Steve Trella. All were 3 hour shifts.

1982 to 1984: Jef and Jer,Tom Force, Steve (can't recall his last name) Eddie Rogers, Mike Sommers (me), Paula Casey, Then Dave Scott (from Wheels) a little while later. We also had Greg Bowman and Roberta Jasina doing news.

At that time there were 5 A/C stations: WMJC, WNIC, WOMC, WJR, WCZY. And then Class FM come on after Music Radio WABX around the start of 1984. It was back and forth with the ratings for WMJC and WNIC being top dog.

[Deleted User 10525]

Class FM, I think only lasted like a year and a half? WDTX came on sometime in 86 I think.

[Chris1980]

The Wave: 92.3 was all satellite fed, at least for most of its life, When they launched in late 1987, the format was provided by Metromedia. Which I believe was feed from Los Angeles, The same exact format 94.7 KTWV became on Valentines day 1987. 92.3 had a couple live hosts, I think near the end of its run. I've heard a couple of air checks and the one from mid 1989, The Host mentioned they had a section at Harmony House dedicated to the music played on the wave.

107.3 in Cleveland took the exact format in fall of 87 as did 106.7 in Chicago. The Wave was the precursor to Smooth jazz.

92 Music, wasn't that a reel by reel tape? Like they pre-recorded everything for the week and just ran a tape machine? This was 1986-87 so not sure.

92.3 did indeed drop the Wave satellite and go all local in its last few months. I found a Radio & Records article from September of 1989 (on AmericanRadioHistory.com) confirming this. I think much of the reason the Wave didn't last was that WJZZ was already playing much of that music and was quite popular at that time (I seem to recall they'd even make the top 10 on occasion). Also WJOI started tinkering with its easy listening format and adding in more new age music to replace the orchestral instrumentals, though that may not have happened until after the Wave disappeared. They were probably hoping it would attract younger listeners; all it did was piss off the older listeners who liked the orchestral instrumentals.

[Chris1980]

I used to liked when 107.3 from Cleveland would come in, drowning out 107.3 The Juice. Seems to me V98.7 had more of an AC feel to it, in the early days. Less R&B. They dabbled a bit more in New Age sort of.

The format was very much like that in the late '80s/early '90s - an eclectic mix of contemporary jazz, fusion, new age, soft rock, soft soul and "sophisti-pop" by acts like Swing Out Sister and Basia. 107.1 in Ann Arbor also had that format for a few years around that time as Mix 107 WAMX (and moved it to AM 1290 once the FM went oldies as Kool 107 in '92 or so). Billboard magazine first used the term "Adult Alternative" to refer to the NAC format, not the folk-rock/singer-songwriter sound we think of as Adult Alternative today.

There were some markets where the format never lost that "cool AC" orientation. I'd stream 103.7 KKSF out of San Francisco on occasion and noted that they'd play soft rockers like Sting and Steve Winwood and even some standards like "Fever" by Peggy Lee that you'd never hear on V98.7. I'd go up north and listen to the Coast FM trimulcast and later 92.9 The Breeze, which used Jones Radio Networks' smooth jazz format, and I'd hear a lot of mature adult pop and even some chill music in rotation. Smooth jazz enthusiasts on boards like Radio-Discussions often cite the Jones format as the gold standard of what smooth jazz should be.

[Deleted User 10525]

I found the article, yes and one stating that 92 Music was only at a 0.6 share.

[Deleted User 14803]

Chris 1980 ,Towards the end of WVAE the Wave era ,They hired Zak Burns aka Tom Force to host The Morning drive at The Wave ,playing more jazz at that point they dropped most of the A/C vocal and played fewer New Age tracks.At that point they tried to get listeners from JZZ but failed then after The Wave changed ,102.7 went Smooth Jazz with WXCD that failed less than a year.