• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WZYQ Z104 and Today's CHR

T

theradioguy2004

Guest
1975 to some time, most likely in the early 80's, there was a station in Fredrick Md. that had a certain emotion that you could feel with its deep voiced, high energy sound that was loaded with lots of jokes and one liners. By today's CHR standards it would sound more like it should be an oldies station. A guy named Joe Johnson was the manager. The first PD was Bill Gamble, I think, but the PD who put the station on the map was a guy named Kemo Sabe Joe. The thing that impressed me about it was that it had a major market sound in a small market and they created an atmosphere that you could feel when you were listening.

That is rare today, but that was why I got into radio. I wanted to be part of making that joy happen. Anyway, the reason that I am writing is that this station is gone and, as dynamic as it was, I would like to know how and why it ended and if anyone knows what happened to the key people involved.. It would have been hard to compete with them but apparently they did not evlolve in to today's chr as I would have expected. My research tells me they changed formats but why? I read they have come back in a cotemporary for amt but what happened to the original sound and people?
 
I'm actually listening to an 'aircheck' right now from this station. You can hear it here: http://airchexx.org/wp-content/plug...-Adds/June/z104tapes.mp3&height=225&width=470

I started listening to this station around 1986. I didnt have a very good stereo till then. I live in Fairfax county VA. so you may be able to see why it took me so long to find this station. The sound you speak of for this station was still around in 1986, I'm not exactly sure when they strayed from this bubbly CHR, fun to listen to, station. I'll guess the late 80s. The station continued into the 90s. Lots of big name DJ's have gone thru their doors, including Buffalo Bill & Billy Surf. I remember they fired Billy Surf when they found out he was moonlighting weekend over-nites on WAVA dc. Which would seem to go against they earlier philosphy. Billy went on to headline in Richmond (Q94). As CHR faded in the mid 90s, Z104 only SLIGHTLY altered their format. They were more like a HOT AC station, during the day, and turned into a true CHR @nite. I have no clue what happened to all the staff, the station was bought out and it was finally turned off in late january 1995. 104.1 fm bought the frequency and started simulcasting its station on both fm's. They struggled to find a format and eventually flipped BACK to Z104 in July 1996. But this was a different Z104 but I still liked it. It was a cool CHR station for dc. The station lived on into the new mellenium, they switched formats to a HAC hybrid in or around 2002/3, shortly after, dropped the "Z" and became simply "104". then in 2005 brought the Z back and became Z104.1 or sometimes simply Z104. The broadcasting company that owns Z104 and a cluster of other stations, decided to finally kill the station at the end of 2005....they moved their classical station up from 103.5 to Z's frequencies, and added their #1 station, newstalk WTOP to 103.5 so they could open another newstalk on their old frequency 107.7. The classical music station was killed off about 6 months ago and enter a 'jack' format station called George104. Now they've sold the station to a religious network and its changed again to "Praise104".

I miss the old Z104. I have a few air checks still from the 80s & 90s.
 
I was part of the original staff, so I might be able to clarify a few things.

Steve, the first PD was actually Dennis Carpenter. He came along with GM Howard Johnson & afternoon drive ace Shotgun Mark Rivers from WQTC(FM) in Two Rivers/Manitowoc, Wisconsin. They learned their bag of CHR tricks at QTC and WNAM(AM), Appleton--a kick-ass Top 40 back then--and listening to the likes of KSTP, KDWB & WOKY in the upper midwest.

Carpenter went on to program KSTP in his hometown of Minneapolis-St. Paul and then became owner of a group of radio stations in the St. Cloud, MN market; Rivers went on to a number of larger markets on-air, and eventually morphed into an internet entrepreneur under his real name, Mike Lamb.

With all due respect to Kemosabe, Davy Crockett and the rest, Dennis Carpenter & Mark Rivers were the brains behind Hot-rockin', hit-crankin' Z104 (or 14ZYQ at birth)... and, of course, Howard Johnson.
 
Jeff Rivers said:
1975 to some time, most likely in the early 80's, there was a station in Fredrick Md. that had a certain emotion that you could feel with its deep voiced, high energy sound that was loaded with lots of jokes and one liners. By today's CHR standards it would sound more like it should be an oldies station. A guy named Joe Johnson was the manager. The first PD was Bill Gamble, I think, but the PD who put the station on the map was a guy named Kemo Sabe Joe. The thing that impressed me about it was that it had a major market sound in a small market and they created an atmosphere that you could feel when you were listening.

That is rare today, but that was why I got into radio. I wanted to be part of making that joy happen. Anyway, the reason that I am writing is that this station is gone and, as dynamic as it was, I would like to know how and why it ended and if anyone knows what happened to the key people involved.. It would have been hard to compete with them but apparently they did not evlolve in to today's chr as I would have expected. My research tells me they changed formats but why? I read they have come back in a cotemporary for amt but what happened to the original sound and people?
Click to expand...

(Part Two) To answer your questions. Their bag of tricks was pretty full. High-energy presentation; driving music tempo; complete imaging toychest--jingles/liners/sweepers/produced promos; continuous interactive on-air promotion; guerilla/street marketing; and "above-market-level" air talent. They had figured out that, at that time--as baby-boomers were entering the on-air workforce--that there was a lot of very good, very young talent available to catch "on their way up"--who would kill to work at a cool-sounding CHR--for very little money--in exchange for the chance to knock-out a great legitimate aircheck to dazzle the majors. Big Don O'Brien, Steve Kingston and a host of future Hall of Famers went through the Z104 revolving door. Again, Dennis Carpenter & Mark Rivers anchored the drives while the other dayparts churned.

How & why did it end? The revolving door extended to the sales side, too--and all the instability didn't convey a positive image to the Frederick advertising community, so the place never made a ton-o-money. It did alright, but never came close to matching cross-town WFMD/WFRE, for example.

On the programming side, Carpenter & Rivers only stuck it out a couple of years, and the guys that followed weren't their creative equals: they kept it going, but lost something in the translation. HoJo left in the mid-eighties, if I recall correctly, and successors made adjustments that took WZYQ off-track. But CHR/Top 40 had also changed... radio had changed... and stations all across the country bailed from the format in the late 80's & early 90's. So they were hardly alone.

Then it got sold... sold again... and got turned into a full-power (Class A) repeater a decade-or-so ago, where it remains.
 
Jeff Rivers said:
1975 to some time, most likely in the early 80's, there was a station in Fredrick Md. that had a certain emotion that you could feel with its deep voiced, high energy sound that was loaded with lots of jokes and one liners. By today's CHR standards it would sound more like it should be an oldies station. A guy named Joe Johnson was the manager. The first PD was Bill Gamble, I think, but the PD who put the station on the map was a guy named Kemo Sabe Joe. The thing that impressed me about it was that it had a major market sound in a small market and they created an atmosphere that you could feel when you were listening.

That is rare today, but that was why I got into radio. I wanted to be part of making that joy happen. Anyway, the reason that I am writing is that this station is gone and, as dynamic as it was, I would like to know how and why it ended and if anyone knows what happened to the key people involved.. It would have been hard to compete with them but apparently they did not evlolve in to today's chr as I would have expected. My research tells me they changed formats but why? I read they have come back in a cotemporary for amt but what happened to the original sound and people?
Click to expand...

Hey, Jeff--sorry for calling you "Steve" above (the Alzheimers is kicking in)--hope I answered your questions satisfactorily. In 40+ years of working in radio, I've been fortunate enough to have been part of a half-dozen "legendary" radio stations and have found that most people forget those stations in about 18 months, give or take. We have very short Media Memories. But Frederick, Maryland's WZYQ is one that really made a lasting impression--on many, many people. Howard Johnson, Denny Carpenter & Shotgun Mark Rivers (Michael Lamb)--wherever they are & whatever they're doing--deserve to be remembered for creating & producing one of the great radio stations of all time.
 
I was one of the many people to pass through WZYQ. I did middays there in 1977. Years later, I owned a group of radio stations in Mississippi, one of which happened to be WZYQ (new owners in Frederick had changed the calls and I grabbed them). In 2003, The Real Howard Johnson came to work for me as GM of the stations as we were propping them up to sell, which we did in late 2003. Howard went on to manage a cluster in Meridian, MS; then to Bakersfield, CA; and is now in suburban Minneapolis. Howard is a true radio genius. There are few like him.

LF
 
Wow it's like a reunion!! I worked at Z-104 when I was 16 in 1986. It was AMAZING. I was hired by Cat Michaels and worked with Buffalo Bill Murphy who is now "Downtown" Billy Brown. In my days at the station people like Loo Katz ,Eric Mason (Vince "the Prince" Miller) Ann Duran and MANY other Major Market talent came and went through those doors. The funniest thing I remember is having like 10 "Hollywood" Sean Phillips because we would hire a new jock and he would have to use the Pre-produced "Hollywood Sean Phillips" jock shout that the previous jock used!! We had at least 3 Chris Foxx's that I can remember. The station was a virtual who's who in the radio business. I eventually followed Howard Johnson to Albequerque NM. where he started Power 105 KIVA a direct rip-off of 105-WAVA in DC. Brother Bear and Doc where there too. I started my career in radio with some of the best and brightest people in this industry. "Downtown" Billy Brown and I remain great friends to this day and we often talk about how much fun that little LEGENDARY radio was.
 
Where is Howard, now? I had talked to him a few times post-Frederick and recall (in no particular order) Santa Fe-Albq, Fayetteville (NC), Albany (GA) and Meridian-or-Hattiesburg (MS). Did someone say he's back up around the Twin Cities? I hope he's still in radio. Don'tcha wonder if his 2007-2008 version of radio still retains some of the Z104 style?
 
This was a great station. One thing that stands out in memory was that they referred to Frederick as "Fred-rock," while playing the theme from The Flintstones in the background.
 
I worked very briefly at Z104 in the 90's....did part-time weekends and fill-ins for the full-time staff...it was right before they were sold...my remembrance of that time was one day I had done overnights at my full time gig and was doing mid-day fill in for Dianah Gibson (God, she's hot)...I was good until I put a tune on that was about 5 minutes long and leaned back in my chair...next thing I know...I get jostled by the PD..and the entire building is standing in the air studio...I had fallen asleep while the song was playing! Thank God it didn't have dead air...as soon as they woke me up...everyone gave me a round of applause...and I went on about my business of the day....but everybody was very cool about it....they got sold soon after that and I was told they didn't need me anymore, but it was great to work there at least for a little while! Loved the reverb :)
 
Just curious, but what became of Kemosabe? He left Frederick for Ocala/Gainesville, back in the late 80’s. I interviewed for an opening they had..dressed in coat and tie..in he walks in shorts and a bandana! Long story short, I had to pass on the gig. He gave me a call a couple years later when he was on “da beach”..and that’s the last I ever heard of him. Anyone?
 
Until recently, Kemosabe was doing mornings at Oldies outlet Sunny 106.5/WSYN in Myrtle Beach, SC. He was let go when the station changed formats.

Robyn
 
Jeff Rivers said:
1975 to some time, most likely in the early 80's, there was a station in Fredrick Md. that had a certain emotion that you could feel with its deep voiced, high energy sound that was loaded with lots of jokes and one liners. By today's CHR standards it would sound more like it should be an oldies station. A guy named Joe Johnson was the manager. The first PD was Bill Gamble, I think, but the PD who put the station on the map was a guy named Kemo Sabe Joe. The thing that impressed me about it was that it had a major market sound in a small market and they created an atmosphere that you could feel when you were listening.

That is rare today, but that was why I got into radio. I wanted to be part of making that joy happen. Anyway, the reason that I am writing is that this station is gone and, as dynamic as it was, I would like to know how and why it ended and if anyone knows what happened to the key people involved.. It would have been hard to compete with them but apparently they did not evlolve in to today's chr as I would have expected. My research tells me they changed formats but why? I read they have come back in a cotemporary for amt but what happened to the original sound and people?
Click to expand...

"and Today's CHR." What about today's CHR? I'm not sure there really is such a thing. Thirty years ago Top 40/CHR was a variety format comprised of the best songs from lots of different genres (pop, rock, urban, country)--today all those subsets are very segregated. Yes, there's still a category of radio programming called CHR, but it's boiled down to pop & hip-hop tunes for girls in their late teens and early twenties.

But it wasn't really the music that made ZYQ great. It was the presentation. High energy, dynamic production, high-profile promotion, compelling personalities--fun!

Radio has always gone in cycles. We've been in the other cycle a long, long time now. Logic says that the style of radio exemplified by 14ZYQ/Z104 is ripe for a comeback. Maybe in Hot AC or Adult Hits?

So who's game?
 
Kemosabie is at the Oldies station in Ocean City MD. I broke bread with him 4 years ago while I was on vacation at Ocean City. I also worked with Joe at 14ZYQ. We first worked together at WXIL in Parkersburg. Great talent..great guy!
 
BTW, Patti Johnson is in St. Cloud Hospital in St. Cloud, MD in intensive care. She has some of serious gastro-intestinal issue. Howards says she doing a little better and may be moved to a private room soon.

LF
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom