1990s: Format Change To Rock
In early 1991, WFYR-FM (103.5) was sold by its parent company Summit Communications to Major Broadcasting of Chicago. Major, a newer company, had success with a high-energy hard rock format in Salt Lake City at KBER-FM. With alternative rock stations WKQX (Q101) and WXRT, talk/comedy WLUP, and classic rock WCKG, there was a need for a straightforward rock station. On March 29, 1991 the sounds of "soft hits" and the early evening program "Love Songs on Fire" gave way to 24 hours of Rock Rock ('til you drop) by Def Leppard. At noon on April 1, the station "snuffed the fire and stoked The Blaze!" The Blaze featured acts such as Skid Row, Billy Squier, Ratt, Ozzy Osbourne, Slaughter and other hard rock and quasi-metal bands. With the change, the call letters became WWBZ. The abandoned WFYR call letters eventually came back into use in downstate Peoria's 97.3 FM "River Country".
The initial on-air staff consisted of Steven Craig in the mornings, Steve Seaver in middays, Brian Kelly in afternoons, music director Kevin Lewis and Leslie Harris at night, as well as several personalities from WFYR and some new hires including Jimmy Novak, Brad Jeffries, "Major Tom" Johnson, Scott Childers, Todd Maverick and Ryan (Cherry) Meiers. In addition to the Blaze DJs, helicopter reporter Major Tom was a hit with listeners with his irreverent morning and afternoon traffic updates. Tom also buzzed a Jonathon Brandmeier (Johnny B) remote in Lincoln Park which was live on The Loop, WLUP. When Johnny B figured out what was going on, he went to a commercial. 1992 brought Blazefest, a rock memorabilia show and concert at the Odeum Expo Center in Villa Park, with bands such as Kiss, Saigon Kick and Warrant.
By 1994, Major sold the station to Evergreen Media, parent company of WLUP (97.9 FM) and WMVP (1000 AM). Glam rock had started to run its course and Major made a minor sum on the sale. They moved into television, producing "The Mort Downey Show," and continued radio with syndicated formats. Evergreen held onto the rock format, and the Blaze name was kept through the spring, at which time they changed their name to "Rock 103-5," featuring a commercial free "A-Z" kickoff around July 4. The call letters then became WRCX.
Musically alternative artists were now mixed in with metal artists, but the format was simply a current AOR or active rock format. Mancow Muller was added to mornings and soon began receiving the highest ratings on the station.
Evergreen owned the WRCX until 1997 when they merged with Chancellor Media. On June 26, 1998 Mancow Muller left WRCX and joined Q101 (WKQX) on July 27 (a station he previously talked badly about on a regular basis). By then, WLUP had been sold to Bonneville and returned to a rock format with a lean on harder edged classic rock and WKQX was becoming musically closer to WRCX, mixing a moderate amount of active rock.
With Mancow's morning ratings lead-in gone, (Bob & Tom were briefly aired on WRCX after his departure), Chancellor opted to shut down WRCX in November 1998. Chancellor had been rolling out "Jammin Oldies" formats on many stations in other markets and decided to put this format on 103.5. The call letters became WUBT, which represented "103-5 The Beat, Chicago's Jammin' Oldies". The format featured '60s Motown, '70s and '80s soul and disco, '80s dance, and rhythmic pop hits from the '70s and '80s. It was marketed as "Not Your Father's Oldies Station." Chancellor merged with Capstar in 1999, becoming known as AMFM Inc. Radio legend Doug James did mornings on the station. The most well known personality on WUBT was Larry Lujack. Lujack was hired out of retirement by program director Jay Beau Jones. Lujack had been off the air (WLS, WCFL) for many years but was still very well known in the market. Lujack did his Saturday show from his home in New Mexico while his co-host, Matt McCann was in the Chicago studio. Lujack's show out performed the rest of the station.
Famous quotes containing the words change and/or rock:
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