the ever changing face of DC radio

[acroyear]

Today's changeover marked the end of the oldest consistent format station in DC history, and even then, it had moved frequencies several times.

WMAL is, as far as I know, now the oldest station (or darn close to it) as far as the combination of format and frequency goes - it was around  as a news-talk station (with slight conservative bias) when I arrived here in 1984.  WASH FM has been "adult contemporary" since the 70s.

Pretty much everything else has changed.

• WTOP changed frequencies.  Twice.
• WGMS changed frequencies and disappeared.  Its final frequency, 104.1, was a kids pop / top40 station through the 90s.
  
• WAVA, once the #1 station, is now Christian radio
• WCXR, at the forefront of classic rock, is now light jazz
• 106.7 wasn't even consistent back then - it was pop, then new-age/jazz, then some obscure rock crap until it picked up Stern and went talk-humor with Don & Mike (who hit #1 in the mornings back in the 80s though constantly fighting the Greaseman to hold it)
  
• 107.3 was pop/40, WAVA's then biggest competitor, and at some point became adult-pop ("best mix", meaning its in competition with the new 104.1 "George")
  
• WGAY 99.1 was the muzak station for *decades* (though originally a country station) before finally giving in and turning into light adult contemporary (translation: mellow ancient history) - the call letters now belong to an internet radio station that does "pro-homosexual" music, and the station itself was bought by Bonneville (go fig)
  
• WARW (94.7) is now the classic rock station, but it was light rock when i was here.
• 95.5 (now one of the highest-rated *music* channels - which shows how much more popular "talk" is around here) went through phases of top 40 into adult contemporary before its current urban sound
• DC101 was always contemporary rock and so didn't change as such - the music did.  It gave up on what was then termed "AOR" as that format died utterly in 1991 and by 1993 it was in full competition with WHFS, whose form of "alternative rock" had suddenly become the mainstream.  DC101 was, once, the last independent station in the area, but sold out in 2001.  (Nearby Baltimore's 98rock has also gone through the transition from AOR to "modern" rock)
  
• and of course, we all know what happened to 99.1 WHFS...

*sigh*

is there nothing constant?

didn't think so.

Comments

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Pop didn't dissapear, it just got re-branded into "alternative". I miss the days when "alternative" meant "music that isn't profitable".

I feel so out of the loop now. I get my radio from space, and I don't even know what the local stations are anymore. It'd be interesting to try to map those radio stations we remember from days gone by on to the satelite radio providers. The 98 rock of old "the station that doesn't suck" would be either octane or buzzsaw on sirius.

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

The 98 rock of old "the station that doesn't suck" would be either octane or buzzsaw on sirius.

Buzzsaw is probably the closest, tho you'd have to mix in the smattering of local artists that 98 Rock used to play. It was nice to occasionally hear a Crack The Sky cut, or Laughing Colors, or Jimmie's Chicken Shack.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

True. Maybe that's why I was thinking faction. The music mix isn't right, but faction does play some real no-name stuff sometimes. Can't really be local when the music comes from space though.