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Airchecks from D.C. Top 40 War 1986

S

Scholarm1111

A great era of DC radio. Really like the Ernie Anderson liners from B-106. Any station still use him for their liners? I know somehow they can still be produced. What is sad is that none of these stations still exist. Sure, there is still Mix 107.3. But it has been heavily Citadel-ized and it is definitely a shadow of its former self. Some of the greatest DC jocks were on these stations - TK Tom Kent, Sandy Weaver, Celeste Clark, Don Geronimo & Mike O'Meara, Flash Phillips, Chris Jagger. The way they intro'd the songs and interacted with the audience will not ever be duplicated. Somehow I don't see 25 years from now listening to airchecks of Hot 99.5 and saying, "Wow that was great radio!"

On another note - how come the 80s formatted stations do not try to recapture the delivery of these airchecks? Most of the Cox-owned stations have some really low key presentation with very little jock interaction. And, musically speaking, even the variety hits stations (Jack, Sam, Bob, etc.) ignore most of these songs often opting out for more of the rock based artists (Bryan Adams, Journey, The Cars, etc.)
 
I agree, I just visited D.C. for a conference last weekend. Nothing against 99.5 but it is a poor substitute for these stations back in the 80s.
 
How would you rate the greatest CHR stations in Washington's history?

1)WPGC (The original)
2)WAVA
3)WRC The Great 98
4)Z104 (Washington)
5)Q107
6)B106
7)Hot 99-5

I'm curious how others might rank these. Perhaps you may want to throw in WEAM, WEEL or WINX. Unfortunately I'm not old enough to have a clear memory of those stations as Top 40.

A side note about WAVA. They may be the only station to come close to WPGC as Washington's best CHR. The DJs, Don & Mike, the imaging, the music, even going so far as to having WPGC's original reverb unit in the processing chain.
 
I might put Q107 ahead of Z104 though my exposure to both was limited. I thought B106 sounded great but obviously it didn't last as long as several of the others.
 
My reason for putting Z104 ahead of Q107 was the fact that Q went through so many phases. For a couple years they were trying to be the "anti-chr" chr. Not talking over music, playing mostly rock cuts. They were definitely a unique radio station during that era. When they were going up against WAVA they were a better sounding CHR. Z104 came on the scene after a 5 year absence of CHR in the market and they sounded so fresh. They had a little bit of that Z100 edge to it. I thought they sounded great.
 
I can't comment on WPGC or WRC because they were a little before my time.

1) WAVA - ANYONE growing up in the 80s in DC will remember this station. Radio stations come and go but to still be in the minds of people when it has not been on the air for 20 years should make its status legendary. It was the imaging, the jocks, the contests, the localization. This was, and is, what CHR radio should be .

2) Q107 - Always was the alternative to WAVA. They always seemed to lean more adult contemporary and less likely to add the newer music. Still, they had a great jingle package and played a heck of a lot less commercials than WAVA.

3) B106 - This was the station for Northern Virginia. They had that big inflatable Bee that I remember being in our high school gym. You saw that thing everywhere in Northern Virginia. This station was not even on for that long of a time, and again, for people to even remember it, says something about it.

4) Hot 99.5 - Was absolutely god awful the first two years or so it was on the air. They leaned far too rhythmic to counterbalance Z104. Some songs were burned out at 100+ spins a week. Lady Marmelade every hour, anyone? They had the Mark & Kris show, Albie Dee, and others that were good on the air but it just wasn't that great musically. Fast forward to now and the talent is not as good, but musically the station is right on track. They are getting all kinds of demos that a CHR really shouldn't be getting.
 
5) Z104 - Bonneville had no business doing CHR. It leaned too heavy into the mid 90s dance songs. They neglected about half of the charts. They edited songs. Two or three hours of the day the entire CHR chart was ignored for Lisa's Lunchtime workout, or some such crap. Imaging was okay, but the station only got noticed because DC had been without a CHR for so long. Jocks sounded bland and boring and they handed the CHR format to Crap Channel after they became a modern a/c / CHR hybrid the last year or so.

I gotta add a few other short lived CHRs and fringe markets too. Currently, Z104.3 is sounding great in Baltimore. In the past, Fredericksburg had a decent syndicated CHR on 95.9 as Q96. Martinsburg's legendary CHR 97.5 KMZ came in well in the western DC suburbs. And, am I the only one that remembers when WINX tried CHR again in the 90s on 1600 AM? North of town, Frederick's ORIGINAL Z104 was one of the best smaller market CHRs ever. Add OC/Salisbury's 99.9 KHI, Cumberland's GO 106 and York's 98 YCR to that list too.
 
I too am enjoying that Ernie Anderson liner from B106. I have so many airchecks from lots of other cities but virtualy nothing of DC stations, and I grew up here! Sad. Its hard to find chex from DC in the mid 80s.

the greatest? I would probably lean towards WAVA. Q107 was always second fiddle and as good as B106 was, which was definitly my favorite when it burst onto the scene and boy did they ruffle some feathers, only being on the air for 3 yrs, you can't really put them in a 'greatest' column. They did change the face of DC radio. "New music" was a New concept when B106 came along, and from that moment on, every station competed to get the new songs on the air 1st. Which lead to the point that when one listened to the National Countdown shows, the top10 sounded so 'stale' since everyone was now a 'new-music-ite'.

I do remember the legends of CHR too, I'm sure I had heard PGC an certainly Kasem but didn't really get into the medium until PGC was on the outs. WRC I don't remember at all, and WEEL I only know cuz their tower was a mile away from me and sometimes gave out 45's. WINX I listened to in the late 80s and early 90s (did they ever really leave CHR? until 1990 somethin).

I think I listened more the Power97.5 KMZ, Z104 (Frederick), & Q96 (Fredricksburg) more than the main DC chrs. Q96 was the syndicated "All Hit radio", later renamed "The Heat", beaming via sat out of Dallas (ultimatly changed to 60s music in 1991). Go106 an 98YCR didn't really come in for me except during tropo's. I do remember WASH Fm as a CHR very breifly in 1984, the 1st time Rick Dees graced the DC airwaves. B104 in B'more was another good CHR, w/ a couple of stations that 'treid' to compete, Hot Hits K-106 and Hot 95.9. Z104 in Fredrick was probably the best lil station in the world, but they too sanked to a dayparted HOT-AC/CHR at Night station in the mid 90s. Until Bonneville bought em out in 1995, that was a sad day, Of course they brought it back a year an a half later as WASHINGTONS Z104, but it defintly wasn't the same. I did like the 'new' Z104 as it was very dance friendly and am still puzzled as to how or why they lost their edge when WIHT burst onto the scene. WIHT was programmed by the great Jeff Wyatt, but the direction he took IHT, I certainly didn't aggree with. It was basicaly a CHR Rhythmic. Once Jeff left, the station has become a really good sounding CHR. KHI I used to listen to when I went down to the Northern Neck, another good station on a killer frequency, as well as listening to Power 97.7 WMDM Lexington park and the 'other' Z104 from Norfolk (they were a great station too until they moved Rhythmic). And lets not forget Q94 in Richmond, the most powerfull signal on the USA. They were a jugernaut back in the day and have sunk into a funk of late by crap channel. This station is the perfect example of why we will never hear the great personality radio of the 80s. The owners groups just can't afford to keep local talent employed, voice tracking is how they survive to pay the bills making all the great stations of the past, a shell of their former selves. And I can't see an end to this trend soon, can you?

I would love to hear some more airchecks of DC from the 80s, especially an Joe Kelly liners/sweepers from Power 105 WAVA. I'm going to post some I have from Z104 Norfolk soon..
 
WINX, for the better part of the 80s and 90s was a classic top 40 if you will. They played 60s and 70s mixed in with currents. Not adult contemporary currents, but top 40. It was unique. In the early 90s they went all oldies, but Don O'Brien started in mornings and took the old 1600 back to full blown CHR on AM. At the time we had Z104 and 102.7 XYV from Baltimore too.

The main problem with Q96 was their automation. Often local ads would run over national "filler" songs for stations that did not take the break. Jason Taylor was the afternoon jock on the old Heat/All Hit Radio service and he sounded good for a non local, syndicated jock.

Z104 in Frederick before they went hot a/c dayparted, used to run a liner that said "Mix ... this" followed by a more upbeat urban leaning song. An obvious jab at the numerous hot a/c stations in the area.

Yes, I almost forgot Power 97.7 down in Lexington Park. They had the Mitch Craig liners that were so popular at the time. "We put the competition on full alert..., Friends don't let friends listen to ..." A lot of CHRs used the same scripts.

Q94 musically is still sounding good. Too bad it is neither live nor local save for a few hours a day. Z104 although leaning rhythmic has found its niche for the market. Dont know why cross town Hot 100.5 must lean so rhythmic though.
 
I had the pleasure of working at Z104 in Frederick doing nights as "Grizzly Adams" back in 1986. I was also doing weekends at B104 in Baltimore from 84-87 as "Charley Hoffman". They were great stations. Howard Johnson and Kemosabe Joe at Z and Steve Kingston at B.
 
Wow, I didnt know DC had 3 top 40 stations at one time? Thats nuts. How long did B 106 last? It was a little before my time. I remember listening to WAVA mostly in the early 90s and a little bit of Q 107.

Actually B 106 sounds the best to me from those airchecks. Pretty cool how the call letters were BMW as well.
 
I wish I was old enough to hear WPGC in its top 40 prime. Im only 29 but thank god Im old enough to remember when top 40 was fun.

99.5 is probably the worst top 40 station Ive ever heard. Z104 back in the mid to late 90s was decent. B 102.7 in Baltimore was a really good top 40 for the late 90s actually.
 
Others are probably better informed than an out of market person like myself, however I think B106 was around for 2-3 years. If I remember correctly, the station's ratings were fairly decent despite not having the signal of the other two.
 
Technically there were 4, if you count 1600am WINX which played some top40. And depending on where you lived you could hear more. The ORIGINAL Z104 beamed down I-270 into Gaithersburg and Bethesda and you could also hear B'mores B104 from the northern part of the Capital Beltway. As well as K106 B'more. They became Mix106.5 somewhere in the late 80s, '88?


Q107 was the longest running station, started I believe in 1980 an lasted 10 years.
WAVA was a rock station until changing to pop either in 1983 or the tail end of 1982 until Feb 1992.
B106 WBMW started in the spring of 1985 but were mainly a NoVa station w/ their tower outside of Fairfax city, they succesfully petitioned to move it to the Merrifield complex and was finally able to penetrate the northern Beltway. The beginning of the end was in 1988 when 2 DJ's were arrested for sexual activity w/ a minor (Crockett and Marty w/ the party). They were fired and the station limped on for a while but management I believe felt they needed to distance themselves from CHR and dumped the format almost 3 yrs from the day it began. Crockett later popped up on WKHI Ocean city after they had moved to 95.9 and presumably after being released from prison. No idea what became of Marty. I remember hearing Ed Munster (another former jock) down in southern VA after the demise, it was either Q94 or K92.
WASH fm was a CHR but only in 1984, pre-B106.

After the demise of the last CHR WAVA in '92, you could still hear Z104 from Frederick in parts of NoVa and around the northern Beltway. In fact, someone in Vienna, VA won 1 of the contests on the nationally syndicated radio show "Future Hits", and Joel Denver mentioned the winner got his future hits on WZYQ Frederick MD. Xtra 104 took over Z104 in Janurary 1995, revived it in the summer of 1996. A year later WXYV blew up V103 and became 102.7 XYV, later adopting the B102.7 moniker.

A good history of WPGC can be found on that website above, they were THE station of the 70s. How Q107 was able to stab them to death I do not know.
 
102.7 has really good penetration into the DC market. Their 50,000 watt tower just northwest of B'more pushes into NoVa largely cuz there are no other frequencys competing w/ it nearby. When WIHT hit the air, both Z104 and XYV left. Z104 switched formats, XYV traded frequencies w/ WQSR and became X105.7 HipHop. WQSR would become Jack fm in '05, but according to Wikipedia, WXYV 102.7 DABUED in 1995?! I find this hard to believe. I'm sure they were on the air prior to '95. Anyone else know the truth?


hmm, I actualy found another reference on wiki to WXYV beginning in the early 1980s. That sounds more like it.
 
I was doing afternoons at WINX from 1984 to 1986 and they were leaning top 40 then. They never really dived into it. They would play the Adult-leaning top 40. They played one song from Duran Duran which was "New Moon On Monday". I remember playing Prince "When Doves Cry" but they edited out the electric guitar intro and jumped straight to the keyboard and drums. Lots of AC stuff like Tina Turner and Sergio Mendes "Alibis". They dumped CHR for oldies sometime in late 85. I left in January of 86 for nights at Z104 in Frederick. That station lived up to it's legend and it was a blast!
 
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