# Radio stations you listened to as a kid **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2012, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714 "2012-06-20T04:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/81 "2012-06-22T03:26:47Z")
KLOL overnight had Outlaw Radio. You could really hear some out there stuff. KFMK (Houston) was an interesting take on album rock in the 70s. Overnight and on weekends, they would play entire albums from start to finish. My friends and I had lots of tapes from over the air albums. In the 60s in L.A., we listened to rock on KRLA - AM 1110 ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/82 "2012-06-22T03:33:44Z")
In the 80s, with my dancing shoes on and a cool car, we listened to a lot of KMJQ on the way to the clubs on Westheimer. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/83 "2012-06-22T07:22:56Z")
I’m not sure about all the reasons that CKLW was so popular from about the mid-1960’s to the mid-1970’s: > **[CKLW](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKLW)** > > CKLW (800 AM) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, serving Southwestern Ontario and Metro Detroit. CKLW has a news/talk format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with syndicated Canadian hosts in middays and evenings. Evening newscasts are simulcast from CHWI-DT Channel 16 CTV Windsor. > CKLW is a 50,000-watt Class B station, using a five-tower array directional antenna with differing patterns day and night. Despite its high power, it must protect Class A ... Partly it was because it was a powerful radio signal. Partly it was because the Motown Sound was very influential during this period. Partly it was because it adopted a format (now referred to as Boss Radio) that worked very well. Partly it was because it was playing a mixture of black and white artists that wasn’t that common. The documentary on CKLW that Leaffan refers to is probably _Revolution Radio: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8_. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/84 "2012-06-22T13:36:58Z")
From under the smogberry trees in Pasadena California: Dr. Demento ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/85 "2012-06-22T14:19:50Z")
On what station? Dr. Demento was syndicated: > **[Dr. Demento](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Demento)** > > Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941), known professionally as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present. Hansen created the Demento persona in 1970 while working at Pasadena, California, station KPPC-FM. He played "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus on the radio, and DJ "The Obscene" Steven Clean said that Hansen had to be "demen Hanse... ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/86 "2012-06-22T14:28:09Z")
> [@Sir\_Prize](#): > > WLIR on Long Island (NY) during the late 70’s/early 80’s. Alterrnative, New Wave, punk and general rock. What a great station it was. … and WDRE. Shriek of the Week. I taped a couple of hours on chromium oxide cassette and then I stopped because it was that good every day. When the format ended an era ended. [SIZE=“1”]…and when those tapes finally wore out, a part of my youth was just gone.[/SIZE] ---
**Author:** ![jvpbos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f8ce5/32.png) [@jvpbos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jvpbos)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/87 "2012-06-22T14:44:39Z")
Grew up in north central Indiana in the 60s and 70s. Another vote for WLS. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/88 "2012-06-22T14:58:02Z")
My parents listened to WBZ, 1030 AM, out of Boston, and therefore so did I, for quite a while ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/89 "2012-06-22T14:59:12Z")
WDGY (WeeGee) out of the Twin Cities, MN with Sandy Shores. WLS, Chicago. KOMA, Oklahoma City. And my favorite late-night music, Bleecker Street Radio, KAAY, Little Rock. Heard The Wolfman on a seven week trek through the southwest in the early seventies. I like the thought of all us young people in bed late at night with our little transistor radios hearing new music from far away places. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/90 "2012-06-22T15:19:10Z")
WKDA Nashville, the treacliest bubblegum AM rock imaginable. The Archies and Three Dog Night were in heavy rotation. 1967-71. WPGC in Washington, my first FM station. 1971-74. Casey Kasem was a highlight. Pop, rock and soul, top 40. I seem to remember Cher in heavy rotation. DC-101 1975, slightly edgier album rock. This was my station until college in 1979. A decade passed before WHFS had a strong enough signal for me to detect. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/91 "2012-06-22T15:34:40Z")
> [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](#): > > When I got older and started listening to FM and the more rock oriented stuff - I can’t really remember what station that was. 98 something, maybe? 98 Rock. Technically, they are 97.9, but I guess “97.9 Rock” just doesn’t sound as good. Back in the day I used to listen to 98 Rock, DC101, HFS, and WAVA 105.1, but WAVA changed to a religious station in the early 90s. There was also Classic Rock 94.7, but they went Top-40/Adult Contemporary a few years ago. Now I only listen to the AM sports station on the rare occasions I listen to the radio. ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/92 "2012-06-22T16:09:21Z")
Early 80s, North Shore of Long Island: Mostly I-95 (WRKI) out of Connecticut. Also WBAB. Amazingly, both are still pretty much the same programming thirty years later. WNBC sometimes before it became WFAN. Late 80s, Philly: WMMR. Pierre Robert. John DiBella. Both still around; Robert still at WMMR. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/93 "2012-06-22T16:10:18Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > On what station? Dr. Demento was syndicated: > > [Dr. Demento - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Demento) I listened to the show thru my braces and fillings. Time to change, time to rearrange. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/94 "2012-06-22T16:23:47Z")
WLS 890 am… Chicago… Larry “Superjock” Lujack, miss animal stories with Uncle Lar and Little snot nosed Tommy… WXRT 93.1 Chicago’s finest rock… use to break new bands… and on Wednesday at ten they had a show called “Rock over London” where i first heard Fergal Sharkey… XTC and the Pet Shop Boys… Herb Kent the “Kool Gent” on WGCI… 107.5. played quiet storm at night before it became the quiet storm… ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/95 "2012-06-22T16:31:13Z")
I grew up in a south suburb of Dayton, Ohio. As a teen in the 1980s I would listen to two stations: **WOXY** (Oxford, Ohio) and **WDJX** (Dayton, Ohio). WOXY was a college station (Miami University in Oxford), and a great one at that. Played alternative music that no one else would touch. WOXY also syndicated the Dr. Demento show. WDJX was a rock station. Played the same 20 rock songs, but still a cool station. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/96 "2012-06-22T16:52:27Z")
Funny this thread came up… I was just lamenting in the ride this morning… how bad local (Atlanta) radio is. The Bert Show is what I’m pretty much stuck with… or Sports talk radio which at this time of the year is redundancy on top of redundancy… Anybody got any stations i can jump on with tune in radio? Any recommendations?? ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/97 "2012-06-22T19:20:56Z")
> [@JpnDude](#): > > From 1990: > > - KITS-FM 105.3 “Live 105”, since I couldn’t catch KROQ in the Bay Area (I attended Alex Bennett’s morning show many times wearing my LA Dodgers cap. :D) Does anyone remember Alex’s “Radio Obituaries”? He played background music appropriate to the deceased whenever possible. After over 100 movies to her credit, when Margaret Hamilton passed - his musical choice caused me to laugh so hard I almost made a mess of the 101 commute. Any idea what he played? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/98 "2012-06-22T19:22:26Z")
Ding dong the witch is dead? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/99 "2012-06-22T19:25:25Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > When I did get FM I listened mainly to KZEW (the zoo!) and KNUS. I used to listen to KZEW, and Q102(KTXQ) too. I started with a little hand held. But by the time I was 10, I had inherited a GE console stereo from somewhere and lugged it into my room. It sounded seriously great. It was all tube, and had a headphone jack for listening when I wasn’t supposed to be. I wish I had never been lured away from it by inheriting my sister’s stereo with a cassette player. Every day while I browse the radio on my way into work, at some point I lament how short (and terrible) current radio station’s playlists are, completely lacking any variety. While browsing the thread and listening to old clips of the Zoo, I’m kind of shocked of how right I am. The same station that I remember introducing me to Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath on their overnight shows was playing Linda Ronstadt, Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart on their morning shows. That seems like it would be almost impossible with the narrow 300 song play lists radio stations have these days. There are a few stations (college, non-commercial) in DFW that actually play a variety of music, but the commercial stations are ghosts of their former selves. Thanks, radio deregulation :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/100 "2012-06-22T20:24:36Z")
Growing up in the mid 80s in the suburbs of Chicago, the first radio station I glommed onto was FM100. This was a “lite FM” station that played the typical easy listening nonsense, but at the time their playlist still included Muzak. I’m sure it’s never been cool to like Muzak, but I always (even as a kid) found it inexplicably charming. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714.md?page=6)