Great radio station rivalries?

[rjc]

There is, WKLO vs WAKY.....WQMF vs WLRS and even post 85' you had new upstart WTFX (The FOX) going after WQMF. What other great radio rivalries were there around Louisville?

[bruiser]

Before WAKY v WKLO, it was WHAS v WAVE.

[robynwatts]

In the mid 80's you had upstart WDJX (the former WKJJ) going up against WLRS (even though it was brief since LRS went back to Album Rock within a year or so).

Meanwhile in Lexington, there was WLAP-FM vs. WFMI. LAP-FM won that battle in 1988 when WFMI became AC WLFX. WLFX briefly went back to Top 40 in 1991 as X-100, but was gone a year later.

Speaking of WDJX and WFMI, will both stations be included into the site? I myself would love to hear examples of both stations during this time.

BTW John, thanks for this site. I've never lived in KY, but had vacationed there twice (in 1985 and in 1992) and enjoyed listening to the stations.

Robyn

[John Quincy]

Thanks for the nice words Robyn.

I'd love to include WDJX and WFMI here...but I have to get content first. As soon as somebody submits airchecks, photos, promotional material, etc. those stations will have their own page.

The same goes for any other pre-1990 station from the Louisville and Lexington markets who don't have pages on this site...yet.

[radiorob]

Actually Power 94 ½ and WFMI were never really rivalries. Once 94 ½ dropped TM Stereo Rock and began live programming in 1987, FMI’s days were numbered. WFMI’s tower sat on the Clark-Fayette County line and the city grade just made it to New Circle Road beyond that was at the mercy of ridges located on the eastern and southern part of Lexington. The hits being played on a 100,000 watt FM with a tower located a few miles north of New Circle Road won the war. WFMI was gone a year after Power’s debut. Ironically, there was a construction permit to upgrade 100.1 to a C3. It was never fulfilled until Trumper purchased the station and it became a sister to 94.5 who was AC (I believe) by this time.

There was always a friendly rivalry between WVLK and WLAP but the rivalry that was fun to watch happened in the fall of 1985. WFMI announced they were going to help you win the other stations’ contest. WLAP-FM (TM Stereo Rock) had a book promotion where you had to identify the sounds (sfx) of the seasons to win some kind of prize. WFMI announced if you sent them a self address stamped envelope they would send you the answers to win that contest. Meanwhile, WKQQ was doing a song of the day promotion. Somebody at WFMI was monitoring WKQQ for the song and when it played programming on WFMI stopped and it was announced to call 280-ROCK to win cash from the other station. Double-Q tried to outsmart FMI by altering the promotion. The winning caller had to say something to the effect of “Double-Q is Kentucky’s home of rock and roll”. WFMI announced to call them and they would tell you the phrase that pays over the phone.

[rjc]

robynwatts said:

(even though it was brief since LRS went back to Album Rock within a year or so).

I'm sure nobody here will agree with me, but that version of WLRS was the best ever! I loved their "Hair Metal" slant, it was great!!! ;D

Anyone remember that (stupid) computer countdown when "LRS 102" became AC "Mix 102"?

[rjc]

A few more radio rivalries:

WDJX vs KISS 104.....I can't remember the main guy on Kiss's morning show, but Tony Cruise was the other guy, and Mason Dixon wound up as part of that morning show, before KISS 104 went off the air.

WTFX vs WQMF....When The FOX hit the airwaves, they really went after QMF, IIRC, they even got a few of QMF's jocks.

Today we have.....

WQMF vs WSFR

And the often talked about on the WAKY site.....

WRKA (RIP) vs WASE (Now WAKY-FM). Guess we know who won the WRKA vs WASE war, don't we?

[rjc]

radiorob said:

but the rivalry that was fun to watch happened in the fall of 1985. WFMI announced they were going to help you win the other stations’ contest. WLAP-FM (TM Stereo Rock) had a book promotion where you had to identify the sounds (sfx) of the seasons to win some kind of prize. WFMI announced if you sent them a self address stamped envelope they would send you the answers to win that contest. Meanwhile, WKQQ was doing a song of the day promotion. Somebody at WFMI was monitoring WKQQ for the song and when it played programming on WFMI stopped and it was announced to call 280-ROCK to win cash from the other station. Double-Q tried to outsmart FMI by altering the promotion. The winning caller had to say something to the effect of “Double-Q is Kentucky’s home of rock and roll”. WFMI announced to call them and they would tell you the phrase that pays over the phone.

That's a great story!!! Thanks... ;D

[Matt Sorrell]

I Remember Kiss104. The morning man you were trying to remember was Frosty Stillwell. I also find it strange, that eventhough they were rivals, that when Kiss went off the air, they simulcasted Wdjx for a while.

[jameskay]

radiorob said:

Actually Power 94 ½ and WFMI were never really rivalries. Once 94 ½ dropped TM Stereo Rock and began live programming in 1987, FMI’s days were numbered.

Wow!! Somebody forgot to tell us the Power Station wasn't a rival!

I was the Chief Engineer of WFMI during it's "glory" days. Bud Walters basically took a local Class A, short stick, FM MONO station, added some very talented people, which included Larry Trimmer (GM), Charlie Fox (PD), an energetic young air staff, CHR format, many technical improvements which included the latest audio processing, and we kicked the devil out of some 100KW signals for a while!

As I remember it from the front lines, it got so competitive that Bud was buying new audio dynamite right off of the NAB show floor. (we had the first Optimod in town, 1st Audio Prism processing, 1st replacement cards for the Optimod, etc) If it made it better, we had it on the air in weeks. I was hiding the processing equipment IN THE ATTIC away from "visiting" eyes and had some junk rack mounted around in the studios. I later heard that someone commented at one of the "real" Lexington stations as to how the heck we could get a UREI BL-40 AM processor to sound like that on FM!

Rumor was that little 1200 watt teakettle was the reason 94.5 finally went live!

Phase issues with music was not a problem at WFMI. We continued on with 45's on audiophile turntables and tonearms, and I changed styli every 2 weeks like clockwork and well before ANY distortion set in. While the other BIG stations were still using carted music and plugging the fact they were playing a few cuts an hour from the audio medium of the future, we were on with CD's full time early in the game.

I know I have at least one piece of tape here somewhere and will get it to John Q. soon so we can at least start a page on this "little engine that could and, for a while, darn well did".

JP

[johntravolta]

I could tell y'all a lot about the glory days of POWER 94.5 in the late '80s/early '90s, as a loyal listener. It was truly a legend in its day.

I always felt that the drop in ratings over at 100.1 wasn't only due to the decline into AC in 1989-90, but also due to the decline in quality of radio receivers. Most receivers up until then could get 100.1 anywhere in the Arbitron-rated metro. After that, due to the quality of the receiver, you'd have a hard time even getting 100 FM in downtown Lexington.

Granted, the switch to AC did cause a lot of the ratings woes. Receiver quality was undoubtedly a factor though...after 100 FM went back to top 40 in 1991, its ratings went back up, but not nearly to what they should have been or what they were. Even after 94.5 drifted off into AC-land, the ratings for 100.1 were still much weaker against them than they were before 1989.

[johntravolta]

Few more things about old LAP-FM...

Weren't they one of the last remaining (possily THE last) "Stereo Rock" stations? The mid-'80s was very late to still be doing that format. I know the WLAP combo was very late in putting its resources into the FM, still concentrating more on AM even then.

I was always under the impression that the "Power" version of WLAP-FM was kind of a "continuation" of what WLAP-AM was like in the '70s....with a gap of 6 years or so. I remember on Power 94.5 they always talked about how they began in '74 or '75, but they were tracing that to the start of the "Stereo Rock" era.

Remember in the early years of "Power" when Barry Fox used to do a weekly music countdown from Power's own survey? I believe it was a top 30. It aired on a weekday afternoon, I recall. I remember that song "Little Walter" being a big hit on 94.5 even though it missed the top 40 nationally. I think they ran into problems with this countdown, because a lot of the songs on their own survey were dayparted to nights. (They were a VERY heavily dayparted CHR.)

[hotpatrick2004]

I remember that countdown on lrs when it went from rock 102 to mix 102 and they said new year brings new radio station.It was 1990 to 1991.

Another big rivalry right now is the fox vs lrs

But lrs 105 does not sound right.I truly believed wlrs are cursed call latters today and should be permanetly retired.

[rjc]

hotpatrick2004 said:

I remember that countdown on lrs when it went from rock 102 to mix 102 and they said new year brings new radio station.It was 1990 to 1991.

This was the second saddest time in my life (WKLO changing to KJ100 AM, was the first), in my radio listening life. I guess the powers that be at 102.3 saw the writing on the wall with the change of rock music at that time, and decided to get out.

Todays WLRS is a cheap immitation of the original, and unless it is on 102.3 it's not really WLRS.

[robynwatts]

Thanks James Kaye for the story on WFMI. I remember stopping in to WLFX in the summer of 1992 and briefly meeting the PD Dennis Dillon. While I was there, I saw the stained-glass skylight with WFMI and WWKY's old logos. Should have got a photo of it!

Another question, did WLAP-FM at least have a live morning show by the summer of 1985? I'm wondering if the station I was listening to that summer was LAP-FM or WFMI?


Robyn