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Longest running hot AC station?

S

Sneako Sizzle

Guest
I'm wondering if it's KDMX Mix 102-9? I wonder why other hot ACs haven't worked like Mix 102-9 does in Dallas. I don't understand how Now 97-5 in Philly didn't work. That wasn't even on the air for very long either. Does Philly not have a hot AC audience?

They should just have Mix 102-9 everywhere - it's one of the best hot ACs I've heard.
 
I thought I read in an article a while back that KHMX in Houston was sort of technically the first station with a "Hot AC" format back around 1991. I could be wrong on that.

Now 97.5 in Philly failed because there were too many changes. They started as Mainstream AC with song tags, then quickly went all-Christmas, then morphed into a CHR-ish Hot AC, then into an 80s 90s and Now Hot AC. That's WAY too much change for under a year.

People wonder why Hot AC doesn't work in Philly. There's two factors:

1.) Fringe market signals. WSTW in Wilmington, DE is an Adult Leaning CHR, and WPST in Trenton is a Hot AC. Both stations put decent signals into the Philly market and get some ratings.

2.) No one who does Hot AC STARTS with Hot AC. Look back at all the Philly Hot AC stations. Star 104.5 morphed from AC to CHR to Hot AC (or some variation of it.) Then failed. Alice 104.5 started as a before-the-curve Jack FM, then morphed into Hot AC and flipped. 96.5 The Point started as all 80's, morphed into Hot AC, and flipped. Now 97.5, started as Mainstream AC, morphed, and flipped. The only two stations to START as Hot AC were Max 95.7 and Mix 95.7. Max was killed to beat CC to the Jammin Gold format, and Mix 95.7 went through too many changes to build an audience. If someone started as a Hot AC, and kept with it... it could work.
 
WBMX/Boston started out as a Hot AC in, IIRC, 1992. It's been there ever since. It leaned rhythmic in the early years, but then switched the lean towards Modern AC when the Lilith music got popular in the mid 90's. Today it's still leans rock, but is definitely a pure Hot AC and has been that way since the beginning.

A year earlier, Scott Shannon transitioned WPLJ/New York from CHR to Hot AC and it's been in the format ever since. WTIC-FM/Hartford did the same thing right around the same time, and they've also stayed in the format.

There's a few other long running Hot AC's out there. Mix 107.3 in Washington DC has been at it since 1990, although their conservative stance makes them sound closer to a Mainstream AC nowadays. They still report to the trades as Hot AC though. WWMX/Baltimore has been around a long time as well.
 
WMMX/Mix 107.7/Dayton has been Hot AC since 1993 I believe...maybe sooner. Randy James took them from sleepy AC Star 107.7 WWSN to Hot AC as Mix 107.7 back then...the PDs have been Randy James(93-96), Jeff Ballentine(96-98), and current PD Jeff Stevens(98-present).
 
fmradio1 said:
WBMX/Boston started out as a Hot AC in, IIRC, 1992. It's been there ever since. It leaned rhythmic in the early years, but then switched the lean towards Modern AC when the Lilith music got popular in the mid 90's. Today it's still leans rock, but is definitely a pure Hot AC and has been that way since the beginning.
Click to expand...

What about WXLO in Worcester? They were a pretty up-tempo AC even in the mid 80s. Maybe the term Hot AC didn't exist then, but they were a lot hotter than most ACs which were still playing Barry Manilow, etc. back then.
 
92.5 WINC-FM in Winchester, Virginia since January,1 1982
and they are still HOT AC to this day.
 
WZPL in Indianapolis has been some form of pop/adult pop for a very long time. Not sure if they would have ever truly fit the definition of a HotAC though (although that's what they report as).
 
I'd have called any number of stations Hot A/C before the 1990s. WENS, Indianapolis would have fit that bill in the mid 80s (uptempo hits, but not with the hard rock and soul edges that the CHR would play). For that matter, a lot of AMs after the mid 70s, CKLW being one of them.
 
SilverTonicFree said:
I thought I read in an article a while back that KHMX in Houston was sort of technically the first station with a "Hot AC" format back around 1991. I could be wrong on that.
Click to expand...

KHMX was Nationwide's second "Mix". The first station that company did under that formula was WOMX Orlando.
 
WAYV in Atlantic City has been Hot AC since its shift from Disco in 1981. It arguably has shifted close to CHR on a number of occasions, particularly in the evening hours, but at its core it's been Hot AC the whole time.
 
KYSR/L A, KFMB/San Diego & KHMX/Houston were among the first Hot AC stations out there, dating to the early nineties; there certainly weren't any Hot AC stations in existence until the late eighties, when top 40 stations started loading up on rap music after getting decapitated in numerous markets by CHR/Rhythmic stations, sending the adults, and especially the baby boomers & 'soccer moms' out there to other formats.

One very well used positioning statement for Hot AC stations back then was 'today's best music without the rap and hard rock'.

IIRC, Hot AC charts started in 1994 or thereabouts at both R&R & Billboard when it became obvious that the format was a solid one and wasn't going to go away.
 
fmradio1 said:
Mix 107.3 in Washington DC has been at it since 1990, although their conservative stance makes them sound closer to a Mainstream AC nowadays. They still report to the trades as Hot AC though.
Click to expand...

I did a double-take when I saw this post lol, cause Mix 107.3 is pretty close to Modern AC right now, and probably one of the most liberal HACs, at least on the East Coast - weird how much things have changed in a year - I'm thinking it might be cause a year ago Washington had a AAA station, which has now flipped?

As far as longest running HACs, almost anything with the "Mix" logo has been around since the format charts were introduced (WBMX, KDMX, KHMX, WRQX, WWMX, etc.)
 
I would have to say that KSTP-FM/Minneapolis-St. Paul is the oldest in a major market. That station dates back to the late 70s/early 80s as a Hot AC.

Robyn
 
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