Growing up in the 1980s, I listened most often to KZ93 (WKZW), a top 40 station in Peoria, IL. They’ve since changed their format several times, and the call letters are now used by a station in Mississippi. I also remember there being another top 40 station called Q105 until they changed it into a fucking hillbilly music station.
My dad went to college in Fort Wayne in the late 1940s and he used to listen to WOWO when he studied. He said before they signed off they’d play “Back Home Again in Indiana” and then the National Anthem. When I was little I’d take the transistor radio into the downstairs bathroom in the late evening and once in a great while I could get WOWO.
In Cleveland in the '60s it was very cool to be able to get CKLW.
Chicago in the 60s–89, WLS (I’m singing the jingle…). Larry Lujack, Dick Biondi. WCFL AM 1000 was the red-headed stepchild that you listened to if the music set on LS sucked.
New York in the 70s was WPLJ. Played mainly what we now call “classic rock” – then, we called it “music”.
It was taken over by aliens, and so WNEW occupied its musical and cultural space for most of the 1980s. (I seem to remember a WAPP filling in some gaps for a couple of years).
The aliens swooped down and obliterated WNEW as well, I think around 1990.
San Diego Top 40 AM radio in the '60s (actually both stations published a Top 30 chart):
KCBQ (“Eleven-seven, KCB-kyoooooo!”)
KGB (“One-thirty-six KGB!” often followed by “Golden!” if they were about to play an oldie, or “Hit-bound!” if they were about to play a new song.)
WLS 890 and WCFL 1000 out of Chicago. Rock music almost all the time. I remember being upset on Christmas Day when they played Christmas music, which is funny because now I start listening to the Christmas stations right after Christmas.
I must be a lot older or a lot younger than the poster above - and my guess is older.
I’m old enough to remember music on AM radio!
I first started listening to radio in the early Seventies in New York City. The first stations I listened to regularly included WNBC AM (when Don Imus was new… so I know first hand that he was saying MUCH worse things than “nappy headed hos” 40 years ago!) and WABC AM (featuring “Daaaaaaaan IN-gram”), as well as WXLO (aka 99X), where Jay Thomas (later a popular actor on TV shows like “Cheers”) was the top DJ.
Anyone from New York remember when everyone was answering their telephone with “99X is my radio station” to win a big cash prize?
That was when I was still a grade school pop/top 40 fan. As I got older and gravitated to rock, I listened mainly to free form FM rock stations like WPLJ (which later switched to a pop/Top 40 format) and WNEW.
CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, as has already been mentioned a couple of times. This was in the late 1960’s. I lived in Ohio about a hundred miles south of the station.
WCBS (before it went all news) did a great job of music, with Pat Summerall (before he started announcing football games) was my favorite morning DJ.
WABC was ubiquitous when I was a teen. Everyone listened to it; and it was the archetypal top-40 station (in Midnight Cowboy, its jingle told Joe Buck he was near New York*). I was fan of Dan Ingram and disliked Cousin Brucie immensely.
*Though the signal could be picked up easily 100 miles from the city.
Remember Jerry Blavat (“The Geator with the Heater”) and Hy Lit on Philly radio?
1970s, grade school - KOMA - a top 40 AM station out of Oklahoma City
1980s, junior high, part of high school - WVBR - a top 40, slightly college rock station in Ithaca NY
late 1980s, early 90s, late high school & college - WICB mixed format, but switched to alternative/college music at 4pm every weekday
Be the first caller and win a Boss Kahuna Beach Towel!
A few years later, it was WMMR and WDAS (for the hippie stuff). 
1400 in Wheeling, WKWK. It was the Top 40 station when I was in high school and the DJs all ran dances in the different communities in the area.
Before that I listened to WWVA. I lived about five miles from their towers and it was the only station I could pick up on my crystal radio. Country, Gospel, radio preachers and WVU basketball.
This is such an intriguing and perplexing topic that I went looking for the names of some of the stations I must have listened to in my early days. This website may supply similar data on those stations you may remember: http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=175898.30
I can remember a few specific announcers and their shows but the stations themselves have become a blur, thus the lookup. I do recall WSFA, WCOV, WJJJ, WBRC, and if pressed might come up with a few more.
Worth mentioning is that before I moved to Nashville in the late 50’s there was WLAC that everybody in Central Alabama listened to for R&B and early RnR. Of course, WSM had been the Country go-to for decades by then. Those and New Orleans and Chicago on the “clear channel” stations were the big deals of that day.
One of may favorite shows (can’t remember the station) was “Flyin’ with O’Brien” in the afternoons. Earliest exposure to the up-and-coming RnR stars. O’Brien even had a Saturday morning show at the Paramount theater where nobodies like Bobby Darin appeared! All I can find on him so far is http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~bozeman/photos.html
A.M., WHUT, out of Anderson, WERK from Muncie. Later, with F.M. radios being available to me, WLBC, Muncie, WNAP, Indianapolis, and the then up-and-coming station WFBQ, Indianapolis. WFBQ had the good fortune to later hire Bob and Tom.
Two lousy stations that I was forced to hear (parents’ radio, on the school bus, in stores and offices) were WHBU and WLHN, from Anderson.
My dad would listen to talk radio at night. Larry King mostly, before his TV days. I used to listen along. So when I lived in Albuquerque, I had a radio and no TV, and I’d fall to sleep listening to Larry King.
Some of the programs were about the Golden Age of Radio, during which my father grew up in Hollywood.
I recall staying up to midnight one New Year’s Eve just to find out what the top song of the year was, as they were counting them down on the radio.
CKLW AM 800, Windsor/Detroit
Those were my formative years music stations.
I HAD a copy of that May 1971 hit list featured on the WKNR website, and listened to every tune on it.
CKLW when we could get it. Dick Purtan and the big voice of Byron Macgregor
WOWO, which we could always get. Bob Sievers and the world famous fire escape.
The local station WBNO SUCKED but my dad listened to it.
For FM, WIOT 104.7 Toledo.
NW Ohio late 70’s early 80’s.
It’s time for… Animal Stories!
When I was in 5th grade onward in high school, it was all about the Z95 vs B96 rivalry (Chicago radio). Both played the same Top 40 stuff. These days, 94.7 is oldies/classic rock and 96.3 is still Top 40 stuff so I guess they “won”.
Another WLS fan…lived near Chicago and that was my link to the big city and all of the hits I could buy at our local record store. I can remember getting those Top 40 lists and counting how many songs I knew by heart…and would often buy the 45’s.
I do remember being really pissed at them when the brand new Beatles tune came out, “Hey Jude” and they cut the song when the chorus started. I must not have been the only person pissed off as they never again cut that song off before it ended.
But yeah, falling asleep listening to WLS with my crappy little AM radio tucked under my pillow, sound down so my parents wouldn’t hear it.