So, how about a KZEW air check?

Labella and Rody, June 30, 1981.
https://soundcloud.com/air-checks-jingles/kzew-fm-dallas-tx

Awesome. Even now, when I hear certain songs, at the end, in my mind, I still hear "98 (elephant) KZEW Dallas-Fort Worth."

newsmark said:

Awesome. Even now, when I hear certain songs, at the end, in my mind, I still hear "98 (elephant) KZEW Dallas-Fort Worth."

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Great station! I remember waiting for the stupid 97.9 in Odessa to sign off at night, so I could receive KZEW out in Midland.

I could hear The Zoo in my hometown as a teen. As a young adult in Tyler, I discovered the cable company carried them on FM (along with a few other DFW stations). I don't know whether any cable companies have FM stations now.

newsmark said:

I could hear The Zoo in my hometown as a teen. As a young adult in Tyler, I discovered the cable company carried them on FM (along with a few other DFW stations). I don't know whether any cable companies have FM stations now.

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They did that in Midland as well. Unfortunately there was a high frequency buzz on them that made them almost unlistenable. They didn't have either KZEW nor KLUV. They had "safe" things like KWXI which was 97.1 in a soft rock incarnation, token country station of some sort, etc. They did have KERA, but over the air they were actually clearer late at night. I listened for some of their overnight music shows.

newsmark said:

I could hear The Zoo in my hometown as a teen. As a young adult in Tyler, I discovered the cable company carried them on FM (along with a few other DFW stations). I don't know whether any cable companies have FM stations now.

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In the 70's and early 80's a number of DFW FMs were distributed all over West Texas for cable FM: I recall KERA, KZEW, KLUV, KSCS, WRR, KDKA, and KPLX showing up on the Cable FM dial. Most of these signals were eventually replaced on Cable FM by satellite delivered services such as Music In The Air, Ray-Tel Cable Radio, Classical WFMT, Jazz KKGO, plus stereo soundtracks for MTV and various movie channels. Those in turn were replaced by fully digital offerings such as Music Choice.

The Cable FM stations were sure appreciated in areas where there was very limited choice in OTA radio.

Mediafrog+ said:

In the 70's and early 80's a number of DFW FMs were distributed all over West Texas for cable FM: I recall KERA, KZEW, KLUV, KSCS, WRR, KDKA, and KPLX showing up on the Cable FM dial. Most of these signals were eventually replaced on Cable FM by satellite delivered services such as Music In The Air, Ray-Tel Cable Radio, Classical WFMT, Jazz KKGO, plus stereo soundtracks for MTV and various movie channels. Those in turn were replaced by fully digital offerings such as Music Choice.

The Cable FM stations were sure appreciated in areas where there was very limited choice in OTA radio.

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It was something, I think our cable offered a limited version of it - but the high frequency buzz just killed the listenability. Over the air sounded better. The biggest problem I had was late afternoons where thermal currents caused fades. Mornings and late evenings, overnights were great over the air.

Here's another 45 minutes of the KZEW

Here's another 45 minutes of LaBella and Rody, June 30, 1981.


https://soundcloud.com/air-checks-jingles/kzew-fm-dallas-tx-part-2

rbrucecarter5 said:

It was something, I think our cable offered a limited version of it - but the high frequency buzz just killed the listenability. Over the air sounded better.

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I recall the "high frequency buzz" you are talking about--sort of a high pitched whine. It was very low level on the cable provider I had, and I learned to ignore it. The "whine" was due to some bleedover from the microwave video signals that the FM's were multiplexed upon, such as KERA-TV, KTVT, and KXTX, which were also carried on the cable system.

The DFW stations on cable FM were picked up OTA in Dallas and microwaved all over West Texas. Whenever any of the stations would sign off late at night for maintenance, the receiver would sometimes pick up tropo from distant stations. For instance, when KERA-FM was off, You could hear KPFT on the cable FM. When WRR was off, a station in Shreveport got sent down the line.

Slight correction to my earlier post: It would have been KNUS back in the day, not KLUV...getting my eras mixed up...

Mediafrog+ said:

I recall the "high frequency buzz" you are talking about--sort of a high pitched whine. It was very low level on the cable provider I had, and I learned to ignore it. The "whine" was due to some bleedover from the microwave video signals that the FM's were multiplexed upon, such as KERA-TV, KTVT, and KXTX, which were also carried on the cable system.

The DFW stations on cable FM were picked up OTA in Dallas and microwaved all over West Texas. Whenever any of the stations would sign off late at night for maintenance, the receiver would sometimes pick up tropo from distant stations. For instance, when KERA-FM was off, You could hear KPFT on the cable FM. When WRR was off, a station in Shreveport got sent down the line.

Slight correction to my earlier post: It would have been KNUS back in the day, not KLUV...getting my eras mixed up...

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Agreed - I have some of those old KNUS bumper stickers. I think the cable towers for the DFW stations, FM included, were somewhere between Abilene and Eastland. There was a hill with quite a view towards the East, right by I-20. I have many a tape with that high frequency buzz on it, when I could get the stations over the air, the absence of that buzz was wonderful. Of course, KNIT Abilene on 105.1 was very strong in comparison to Dallas stations, at night they played album rock - since at the time there was no "classic rock" format. They played some pretty raunchy stuff for conservative Abilene. But my favorites were KNUS, KZEW, and KERA. KAFM was kind of a holy grail but was usually jammed by a local 92.3 in Midland. I didn't know the narrow ceramic filter trick at that time. And KZEW was blocked by this awful, mono country station in Odessa that thankfully signed off at night. KDNT was also pretty good on 106.1, I don't think the cable carried it at all, nor KAFM.

You wouldn't happen to have any Kevin McCarthy from his KNUS days or maybe some Mike Selden laying around would you?

Gopher said:

You wouldn't happen to have any Kevin McCarthy from his KNUS days or maybe some Mike Selden laying around would you?

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I have hours and hours recorded on old reel-to-reel tapes, I am sure I have a lot of KNUS stuff. The last time I fired up my reel-to-reel was over 20 years ago. I don't know if it even still works. I am slowly digitizing everything, those reel-to-reel are on my list, probably in a year or so. I will try to remember and let you know. I know I have stuff going back to the KLIF days - before I knew FM would go 300 miles I was an expert at pulling in KLIF.

We had cable FM in Longview. KZEW, KERA, KVIL, KOAX, and WRR.

I still have some cassette recordings of full albums off of KZEW from the early 80's, and you can clearly hear the high frequency whine on these tapes.

What a great station! During the 1980's when I lived near Lake Charles, LA - I remember picking up KZEW easily on my outdoor directional FM yagi antenna, which was on a 60 foot tower in my parent's back yard. I could pick up KEGL as well.

gbranch said:

We had cable FM in Longview. KZEW, KERA, KVIL, KOAX, and WRR.

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Those sound like the same stations we got in Tyler. I wonder if they were brought in via the same microwave system that brought us TV (KDFW, KXAS, WFAA, KTVT, KERA and KXTX) from DFW. The TV signals, though, were usually pretty clean.

The hill you refer to is Ranger Hill.

gbranch said:

We had cable FM in Longview. KZEW, KERA, KVIL, KOAX, and WRR.

I still have some cassette recordings of full albums off of KZEW from the early 80's, and you can clearly hear the high frequency whine on these tapes.

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I also got the same stations on the FM in Kilgore (same cable company) but I moved here in the late 80's, by that time KZEW was falling fast due to Q-102, The Edge and Z-Rock. BTW your tape sounds great but it's a little slow.