Richmond Radio 1998 News

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Richmond Radio 1998 News

12-22-98 - WPLZ (99.3 FM) changed its format this week. They now play "Soul Oldies" from the 50's - 80's. The on-air staff remains the same.

11-16-98 - While trying out my brand new CCRadio this weekend, I noticed WHAP 1340 AM was simulcasting WVNZ 990. Sure enough, I see that WVNZ bought WHAP so that they can be heard in Colonial Heights. They also announced a new political talk show to air from 2-4 PM weekdays. It will be hosted by Paul Goldman and Alex McMurtrie. Goldman is the former chairman of the state Democratic party, McMurtrie is a local lawyer and former State Representative.

11-13-98 - Latest overall Arbitron ratings for the period 7-2-98 thru 9-23-98

1) WCDX	9.5
1) WKHK	9.5
3) WTVR-FM	9.1
4) WRVA	8.8
5) WRVQ	6.3
6) WMXB	6.0
7) WKJS	5.4
8) WBZU	4.7
8) WKLR	4.7
9) WRXL	3.6
9) WPLZ	3.6

Interesting to note that the Buzz (WBZU, now WRCL) had its highest ratings ever during its last days. Also, I believe that this is the first time that WKLR has surpassed WRXL (I don't have the numbers from the last period).

10/16/96 - I found someone else running the Broadcast Station Locator. WWUZ is still without DJ's or commercials.

10/12/98 - WWUZ will be rock, it is set to debut October 15. They have a web site www.rock969.com.

10/11/98 - I actually heard an announcer on WWUZ (actually a liner, not a live announcer), all he said was "WWUZ Bowling Green Virginia 96.9 FM". Maybe we'll get an idea of their format soon. I'm guessing 6 am tomorrow.

10/10/98 - WWUZ (formerly WLMN) 96.9 in Bowling Green at 2.8KW is now on the air playing seventies and eighties music. I have yet to hear any announcements of any kind (including call letters...) They have a pretty decent signal on the Northside and in the West End. This one snuck up on me! I forgot about this station coming on.

10/8/98 - I missed the exact date, but 106.5 has changed call letters. They are now WRCL. The WBZU call is now available.

10/5/98 - I finally got around to importing the FCC databases into Microsoft Access. The text files have to be converted from UNIX format to DOS format. The FM engineering is in there and I have the import specs saved. Once I have the other import specs set up, I'll put a copy of the empty database here. You will have to download the actual database files yourself and import them. See link below for location of the databases.

9/29/98 - Smooth Jazz is gone. WSMJ signed off over the weekend and is now WJRV The River playing country. Not only did the format change, but so did the frequency. They swapped channels with WDYL. WDYL is now 101.1 and WJRV is now at 105.7.

9/28/98 - WKLR 96.5 "The Planet" is now broadcasting from their new tower near Fort Lee. They are still at 50 KW. The signal is improved, but I still can't pick them up inside the building where I work (in the Fan).

9/6/98 - The winner of the Q94 summer promotion turned out to be a roommate of the station's nighttime DJ, Paul Madison. Everything appears to be on the level, it was just a bizarre coincidence.

9/4/98 - 106.5 debuted its real format, oldies. They are now Cool 106.5. At least it will be a locally manned station, not a satellite outlet like 104.7 was a few months ago.

9/3/98 - At 6 am 106.5 was calling themselves "Sunny 106" and playing easy listening music, such as The Carpenters, Kenny G, Lionel Richie, etc. It was some kind of cruel joke; around 5 pm again they started playing TV tunes continuously. (whew!, I was worried.) If anybody knows why they did the "Sunny" thing for a day, please fill me in!

9/2/98 - The Buzz signed off around 5 pm today and started playing construction sounds, saying a new station was on the way.

8/28/98 - XL102 celebrates 25 years on the air (sort of). The call letters changed from WRNL-FM to WRXL in January 1972, but the format didn't change until sometime in 1974. I've never found out the exact date of the change, email me if you know!

8/25/98 - The new ratings are out for the period 4-22-98 thru 6-22-98, overall rankings are:

1) WKHK	10.8
2)WCDX	10.3
3)WTVR-FM	10.3
4)WRVA	7.9
5)WRVQ	6.7
6)WMXB	6.2
7)WKJS	4.8
8)WBZU	4.0
9)WPLZ	3.9
10)WSMJ	3.6

Also, The Buzz is still around, although not likely for much longer.

8/8/98 - Rumor today in the newspaper is that the Buzz will changing to oldies.

8/1/98 - The Broadcast Station Locator Internet page is now down. :-( You can still downlaod the actual text database file from the FCC FTP site. They are located in the directory
ftp://ftp.fcc.gov/pub/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Databases

5/13/98 - Winter ratings for the period 1-8-98 thru 4-1-98:

1)WKHK 10.6

2)WCDX 10.1

3)WTVR-FM 10.0

4)WRVA 8.9

5)WRVQ 7.0

6)WPLZ 5.6

7)WSMU 5.5

8)WMXB 4.9

9)WRXL 4.0

10)WKLR 3.6

1/30/98 - Ratings for the period 7-18-97 thru 12-10-97:

1)WKHK 10.3

2)WCDX 9.8

3)WTVR-FM 9.4

4)WRVA 8.3

5)WPLZ 6.4

6)WRVQ 6.0

7)WSMU 4.6

8)WBZU 4.4

9)WMXB 4.0

10)WRXL 3.9

11)WKLR 3.6

12)WSOJ 3.4

13)WVGO 3.3

14)WREJ-AM 2.1

15)WRNL 1.8