In the very, very early 70's, when full time solid gold formats (1955 - 1967 target years) were poping up all over the country, on both AM and FM, close areas WMOD, WCAU-FM and WCBS-FM. I do not recall a full time oldies format in the metro area of the charm city. My question is, was their ever a station playing oldies full time on either AM or FM. I recall a standards/nostalgia AM signal around 1200AM, but no oldies.
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did Baltimore ever have a full time Oldies station
- Thread starter Gunsmoke
- Start date
I was fortunate enough to be raised in The City That Bleeds in the 80’s. If you take out 98Rock and HFS, Baltimore was a very stale town for radio. Lots of religion and as Silkie said, lots of classical (3 stations at one point)
There was no Baltimore FM station that played oldies as you’d think of the format in the 70’s-80’s until WQSR stopped their half-baked attempt at Top 40 (they were to be one of the showcase stations for ABC’s Superadio satellite Top 40 format in 1982). I think the owners expected a plug-and-play format and were not prepared to invest the time or money on Top 40 that they had to create and make sound decent.
So around 1985 (plus or minus a year), they dumped Top 40 and went Oldies. I’m not sure if it was automated, satellite delivered, or just a rough start, but it sounded cheap for the first few months.
Around that time (mid to late 80’s), you also had WYST-FM 92.3 which was the closest thing to oldies in the early 80’s (no Motown, lots of currents), WTTR-FM which stopped country around 84 and became one of (early, and few) adaptors of the pre-classic rock “Eclectic Oriented Rock” format as 100GRX. Signal was far worse than today, IIRC. Not really oldies, but it was good for a few pre-British Invasion tunes and some awesome B sides from 60’s rock artists. 95.9 tried R&B Oldies for awhile during that late 80’s timeframe
I coulda swore there was a rimshot AM (perhaps Annapolis) and a DC FM that did Oldies in Baltimore for a couple years before WQSR started. Definitely after WMOD became WMZQ in the late 70’s...maybe I’m thinking of WYRE and Xtra 104. I know DavidEdwardo’s website had a very detailed market report on Baltimore from circa 1988. That will give the definitive answer. It was fascinating reading the report to see 98Rock’s rise in the ratings...they quickly started in the top 5 ratings, destroying WKTK-FM in a matter of months and (I don’t think) has done worse than 5th place overall in the 6+ ratings since signing on in 1977!
Archie B.
There was no Baltimore FM station that played oldies as you’d think of the format in the 70’s-80’s until WQSR stopped their half-baked attempt at Top 40 (they were to be one of the showcase stations for ABC’s Superadio satellite Top 40 format in 1982). I think the owners expected a plug-and-play format and were not prepared to invest the time or money on Top 40 that they had to create and make sound decent.
So around 1985 (plus or minus a year), they dumped Top 40 and went Oldies. I’m not sure if it was automated, satellite delivered, or just a rough start, but it sounded cheap for the first few months.
Around that time (mid to late 80’s), you also had WYST-FM 92.3 which was the closest thing to oldies in the early 80’s (no Motown, lots of currents), WTTR-FM which stopped country around 84 and became one of (early, and few) adaptors of the pre-classic rock “Eclectic Oriented Rock” format as 100GRX. Signal was far worse than today, IIRC. Not really oldies, but it was good for a few pre-British Invasion tunes and some awesome B sides from 60’s rock artists. 95.9 tried R&B Oldies for awhile during that late 80’s timeframe
I coulda swore there was a rimshot AM (perhaps Annapolis) and a DC FM that did Oldies in Baltimore for a couple years before WQSR started. Definitely after WMOD became WMZQ in the late 70’s...maybe I’m thinking of WYRE and Xtra 104. I know DavidEdwardo’s website had a very detailed market report on Baltimore from circa 1988. That will give the definitive answer. It was fascinating reading the report to see 98Rock’s rise in the ratings...they quickly started in the top 5 ratings, destroying WKTK-FM in a matter of months and (I don’t think) has done worse than 5th place overall in the 6+ ratings since signing on in 1977!
Archie B.
Somebody was telling me WKTK or WTKT something like that around 105.7 or 9 tried oldies for awile. I remember visiting my cousin in DC around 1973 where there was WMOD Classic Rock and Roll and WASH the station with a heart of gold two great oldies stations but WMOD was clearly the best I have ever heard. Did these two signals make it into the Baltimore metro city grade to be listened to like locals.
WASH-FM had (and has) a very good signal the further South and West one goes from downtown. I lived in NE Baltimore City (kinda high up) and had no problem picking up either 98.7 or 97.1.
That being said, by the time you got past Middle River, the signals degraded quick. Of course, then you were starting to get Philly stations at that point. So no, I wouldn’t consider them locals in the sense that you had to do a little adjustment on the antenna to get them well in the city. I’d imagine office workers in downtown buildings had an even tougher time...though a lot of friends would make the effort to tune in DC101 (which has similar coverage to 98.7). It was more eclectic than 98Rock and more approachable than WHFS’ freeform format when they first moved to 99.1. Plus...the Greaseman!
And yes...105.7 did try Oldies. WKTK after 98Rock decimated them dropped rock, did kinda disco top 40, then light rock, THEN the WQSR calls and the aborted Superadio format. It took em 10 years of rotating formats to get things straight. QSR moved the oldies to 102.7 in the late 90’s.
That being said, by the time you got past Middle River, the signals degraded quick. Of course, then you were starting to get Philly stations at that point. So no, I wouldn’t consider them locals in the sense that you had to do a little adjustment on the antenna to get them well in the city. I’d imagine office workers in downtown buildings had an even tougher time...though a lot of friends would make the effort to tune in DC101 (which has similar coverage to 98.7). It was more eclectic than 98Rock and more approachable than WHFS’ freeform format when they first moved to 99.1. Plus...the Greaseman!
And yes...105.7 did try Oldies. WKTK after 98Rock decimated them dropped rock, did kinda disco top 40, then light rock, THEN the WQSR calls and the aborted Superadio format. It took em 10 years of rotating formats to get things straight. QSR moved the oldies to 102.7 in the late 90’s.
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