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Rock and Roll Radio Stations in the 50's and 60's

stewie

stewie

Star Participant
I operate an Internet oldies station and I'd like to pay tribute (as part of my "legal ID") to radio stations that were on the air in the 50's and 60's playing Rock & Roll.

Can you all help me create a list?

One name that comes to mind (being from the San Francisco Bay Area) is the Big 610, KFRC.
 
Other Bay Area RnR stations of that era would be KYA and KEWB. Nearby you would have KLOK and that Oklahoma flame thrower KOMA. KRIZ in Phoenix was a biggie as was KTKT in Tucson. Whole bunch of them in SoCal including KRLA, KHJ, KFWB.
 
landtuna said:
Other Bay Area RnR stations of that era would be KYA and KEWB. Nearby you would have KLOK and that Oklahoma flame thrower KOMA. KRIZ in Phoenix was a biggie as was KTKT in Tucson. Whole bunch of them in SoCal including KRLA, KHJ, KFWB.
Click to expand...

If you include the 50's, then you need to add KOBY for San Francisco.

50's in PHX was Leland Bisbee's sister station to KTKT, KRUX. Then for the 60's to early 70's, KRIZ and KUPD as well as KRUX.
 
stewie said:
I operate an Internet oldies station and I'd like to pay tribute (as part of my "legal ID") to radio stations that were on the air in the 50's and 60's playing Rock & Roll.

Can you all help me create a list?

One name that comes to mind (being from the San Francisco Bay Area) is the Big 610, KFRC.
Click to expand...

If you are talking 50's and through the 60's and early 70's your core will be the McLendon and Storz stations.

KLIF Dallas
KTSA San Antonio
WAKY Lousiville
KELP El Paso
KILT Houston
KEEL Shreeveport

KOMA Oklahoma City
WDGY Twin Cities
KOWH Omaha (the place the Top 40 format originated)
WTIX New Orleans
WHB Kansas City
WQAM Miami

Other stations that began in the format in the 50's that are notable are

WERE Cleveland (in the market where "rock & roll" was coined)
WINS & WMCA New York
WCAO Baltimore
WEAM Washington DC
WQXI Atlanta
WSGN Birmingham
KIMN Denver
WHK Cleveland
KGB San Diego
... and many, many others.

Big stations but not yet rock & roll till the 60's were WABC and WLS as well as RKO's CKLW, KHJ, KFRC, WRKO.
 
Last edited:
DavidEduardo said:


If you are talking 50's and through the 60's and early 70's your core will be the McLendon and Storz stations.

KLIF Dallas
KTSA San Antonio
WAKY Lousiville
KELP El Paso
KILT Houston
KEEL Shreeveport

KOMA Oklahoma City
WDGY Twin Cities
KOWH Omaha (the place the Top 40 format originated)
WTIX New Orleans
WHB Kansas City
WQAM Miami

Other stations that began in the format in the 50's that are notable are

WERE Cleveland (in the market where "rock & roll" was coined)
WINS & WMCA New York
WCAO Baltimore
WEAM Washington DC
WQXI Atlanta
WSGN Birmingham
KIMN Denver
WHK Cleveland
KGB San Diego
... and many, many others.

Big stations but not yet rock & roll till the 60's were WABC and WLS as well as RKO's CKLW, KHJ, KFRC, WRKO.
Click to expand...

Incredible. I wasn't expecting such a quick response.

Thank you all.
 
stewie said:
I operate an Internet oldies station and I'd like to pay tribute (as part of my "legal ID") to radio stations that were on the air in the 50's and 60's playing Rock & Roll.

Can you all help me create a list?.
Click to expand...

I can't help you with the '50s (I was too young), but in the 1960-75 era, this is my own personal recollection, in no particular order. Note that many were short-lived, and some have already been mentioned.

New York: WABC 770
Chicago: WIND 560, WLS 890, WCFL 1000, WJJD 1160, WYNR 1390, WDHF 95.5
Los Angeles: KHJ 930
Indianapolis: WXLW 950, WIBC 1070, WNDE 1260, WIFE 1310, WNAP 93.1
Milwaukee: WOKY 920, WRIT 1340, WRKR 1460/100.7
Phoenix: KUPD 1060/97.9, KRIZ 1230, KRUX 1360, KBBC 98.7
Louisville: WOKY 790
Little Rock: KAAY 1090
Detroit/Windsor: CKLW 800
El Paso/C. Juarez: XEROK 800
Kansas City: WHB 710
Oklahoma City: KOMA 1520
Waterloo IA: KWWL 1330
Terre Haute IN: WBOW 1230
Ft. Wayne IN: WOWO 1190
 
I noticed WQAM was mentioned. Nice memory there, riding with my father to get a milkshake. It seemed that station was playing on just about all of the cars at the drive-in.
 
Silkie said:
I noticed WQAM was mentioned. Nice memory there, riding with my father to get a milkshake. It seemed that station was playing on just about all of the cars at the drive-in.
Click to expand...

All the other cars were playing WFUN.
 
Could be, but our family listened to WQAM, and so did just about everyone else wherever we went.
 
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TheBigA said:
All the other cars were playing WFUN.
Click to expand...

But WFUN did not go Top 40 until considerably later than WQAM. And, while it briefly beat WQAM, the departure of Dick Starr and then the arrival of WMYQ doomed it and its very deficient signal.
 
Don't forget Buffalo's WKBW and Virginia's WLEE, WROV and WGH.."...in old Virginia !!".

Pittsburgh's KQV
 
Yet no one has yet to mention the most melodic calls in all of top 40 radio history, KIOA 940 Des Moines. And their nemesis throughout the 60s, KSO 1460.
 
KIOA is still on the air going strong, far as I know.
 
KRUX 1360, KRIZ 1230, KRDS 1190, KUPD 1060 were Phoenix area r&r most notably. KRUX and KRIZ dominated and made each other better in tuned with us listeners.
In Nebraska area, my relatives enjoyed KLMS 1480, in Lincoln. KOIL 1290 in Omaha, KWBE in Beatrice. Nighttime brought in KOMA, WLS & KAAY the mighty 1090 in Little Rock.
Not sure when XERF in Del Rio, Texas played Wolfman Jack, but it seems like the mid 1960's. XERF was a huge blowtorch transmitting from just across the border in Mexico.
 
Some from the NW US:
Seattle: KJR 950, KOL 1300, KING 1090
Tacoma: KTAC 850
Spokane: KJRB 790
Yakima: KMWX 1460
Portland: KISN 910, KGW 620
Nampa, ID (near Boise): KFXD 580 (station now moved to another frequency)
Kelso - Longview WA: KLOG 1490
Vancouver BC Canada: CKLG 730, CFUN 1410
Victoria BC Canada: CJVI (can't recall the frequency, 900 I think -- station doesn't exist anymore)

There are undoubtedly others from that era, but those are probably the main WA and OR rock stations of the AM era.
 
The Northeast was flooded with Top 40 stations back then......Blowtorches AND regional outfits......to name a few:
Manchester, NH --- WKBR (1250), WFEA (1370)
Laconia, NH -- WEMJ (1490)
Westbrook (Portland), ME -- WJAB (1440)
Hartford, CT -- WDRC (1360), WPOP (1410)
Boston -- WRKO (680), WMEX (1510)
And a surprisingly large number of LOCAL stations that jumped on the bandwagon (or is that "Bandstand"....??!)....
Boy, I sure miss this era .....No $$ to be had programming "oldies" in MOST markets...
Luckily, I have a pretty decent music library.....and can "return to those thrilling days of yesteryear" frequently!!:)
 
Let's not forget KXOK (630) out of St. Louis. It was a Storz radio station during the 60's and beyond, and for the first several years of its existence, no other St. Louis Top-40 station could compete with it. It was even too much for FM at that time!
 
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