What were the radio stations of your youth that helped you on your music/audio journey?


I am older so my radio stations of influence were in their prime during the British invasion and many, many American singers and groups.  
The stations I listen to the most were WLS out of Chicago, KIOA out of Des Moines, KAAY out of Little Rock, Arkansas and KOMA  out of Oklahama.  When I was in the Air Froce I had a few stations near the main base I was stationed at outside of Rapid City, S.D.  
Of course systems and better and better systems and FM became the dominate source for broadcast/online music.  I did learn much of what I liked and eventually purchased through early radio listening.
I still listen to radio mainly for Jazz stations and NPR news. 

jusam
Radio Luxembourg (208?) on an old transistor radio pressed against my ear in bed when I was a kid. Loved it as it opened up a whole world out there.
WSL - Top 40 - Chicago, IL - 1960s
WCFL - Top 40 - Chicago, IL - 1960s
WXRT - Underground - Head Music - Chicago, IL - 1970s
WFMT - Classical - Chicago,IL - 1980s & 90s
Grew up in Queens, NYC. Mostly listened to WLIR, WNEW, and to a lesser extent WPLJ. Listened to thousands of hours of Jazz on WRVR in NYC, until it mysteriously disappeared one day...poof! Listened to a lot of Classical music while driving in the car with my father on WQXR. In college was a DJ at WPBX at Southampton College. I would sometimes do 8hr overnight shifts just cranking tunes all night long. Moved to San Francisco and did shows as a DJ at KSFS SF State University Radio. Radio certainly played a huge role in my lifetime musical education/passion 
All in L.A.
KFAC 1330 AM Classical. Later they simulcast on FM, but they still sometimes had commercials in between symphony movements.  KFWB AM. "Channel 98" -- Where I'd listen for hours for The Beatles and other British Invasion bands. While waiting for the Brit tunes, I got to appreciate a whole cornucopia of rock/pop/soul/country music -- from the Beach Boys to the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, the Byrds, the Stones, Them, Roger Miller and the Bobby Fuller Four. It truly turned this classical kid's head upside down.  In time, KFWB went to M.O.R and then all news. G'bye!  There was also KNOB, the "Jazz Knob," both on AM and FM. KROQ (called KCBA the early days?) opened my ears more than a tad, too. Velvet Underground. Lou Reed.

WMCA - the Good Guys, WNEW - Make Believe Ballroom and WABC FM, which morphed into WPLJ.
WXRT In Chicago, Still going today. And I still listen most days.WKQX in Chicago.WLS Chicago, Larry Lujack.
WCFL Chicago. Larry worked there too.
The Loop FM 98 Chicago Steve Dahl. (Disco Sucks!)


Growing up in the lower eastern shore of MD (Del-Mar-Va Peninsula) was somewhat isolated, especially for R&R music in the 50's & 60's. Any radio station which changed its genre to R&R usually lasted no more than 6 mos. if that. yes, we got some top 40 which was a mixed bag with some "softer rock" which didn't disturb the cattle or the chickens  and the older citizens (advertisers) the good stuff usually came by word of mouth. Because the AM signal can carry 1000 miles under the right weather conditions, we could often get WLS or WKBW at night. And  having my 1st car at 16 I spent many miles listening to WKBW at night since it seemed to come in more than others
http://wkbwradio.com/
- CFTR AM station in Toronto when I was under 13 (the hits)
- Q107 FM station in Toronto after 13 (rock statio)
- CFNY FM (I should have listened to this station instead of the POS Q107, new wave)

- KCRW FM today out of Santa Monica, CA. The very best station I have ever heard. I bought a Magnum Dynalab 108T last month just to hear this station. Last week I also bought a Accuphase T-101 for my headphone system. Tomorrow I get a Sansui 9900 tuner for my living room system. I like hearing great music from all over the world that I have never heard before.
WHFS - Bethesda, MD
WCMF - Rochester, NY
KOME (from '74 - '75 - all prog rock, all the time) - San Jose
WAPL in Wisconsin ...70's and 80's....the allure was even greater due to the fact it was so far away...we could only get it to on good days.  Played album sides, King Biscuit...etc. 
Detroit Michigan rock stations-WKNR Keener 13. And, CKLW I think from Windsor Canada.
Keener played a lot of Bob Seger back then as he roamed the area. "Heavy Music"
I also remember the Underdogs-"Loves Gone Bad" , MC5- "Kick Out The Jams", and the Question Mark and the Mysterians "96 Tears".

A lot of real rock music during those days...

ozzy
@jerryg123 - I wonder if Terri Hemmert is still working there?
@valinar - I spent the summer of '75 in St. Lou and listened to KSHE quite a bit. I wanted to invite Sweetmeat to a BBQ but never got around to it...
Houston stations, KILT AM (My introduction to the beginnings of the British Invasion thru Post-Woodstock/Pre-Donny and Marie), KLOL 101 FM “The Air Corps” (Aforementioned Post-Woodstock thru rehab “aka the aftermath of the late ‘70s into some indeterminate point-in-time involving the 1980s”), and KPFT Pacifica 90.1 (My intro to music genres beyond Top 40 Pop/AOR with emphasis on the Austin Scene)
All Detroit area

CKLW-the big eight, AM800,  out of Windsor Canada, jingles sung by Johnny Mann Singers, Robin Seymour-dj, also hosted TV show-Swingin Time, something like American Bandstand
WKNR-keener 13, AM1300, Detroit
A bit later on WXYZ, 1270AM Detroit, had tv dance show called Club 1270WABX  99.5FM, free form or undergroundWRIF 100.3FM, slightly more formatted rockWXYZ 101.1 for a short time similar to WRIF
Also a big fan of WLRH public radio in Huntsville Alabama back in the 1980s. Classical (Karl Haas Adventures in Good Music in particular) and “Just Jazz”. Good radio was slim pickings there back then.
Don’t remember the station but on late nights with Wolfman  Jack
was classic , Casey Kasum , and even talk show host 
like Paul Harvey , and Howard Stern when he was starting out 
entertainment which I would listen to ,
and in New England Stone man at WPLR, and WCCC at midnight 
stairway to heaven would be on every weekend . I lived in the suburbs and would Blast it where People coming to our keg parties + other party goods could hear over 1/4 mile away which speaks for it self 1970s,Great memories If I were only young again! 
WNEW NY - Allison Steele, and the rest of them. There was a great college station WFMU. 
audioman58 
Thanks for sharing your memories.  I remember all the people you mentioned, it was a very good time to be young.

And as one of them would say....."Good Day"

Little bit of heaven
94.7 KMET
Tidweedledee

Beat out KLOS which but eventually replaced with KROQ 106.9 which played more progressive rock but didn't have a jingle.

LA stations of the 80s 


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WLYV Fort Wayne In late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Also WOWO in Fort Wayne.  Also, as others mentioned, listened to  CKLW in Windsor Canada at times. I thought it was cool to listen to a station from Canada at the time.
I grew up in Florida, so I used to surf the late night airwaves of pirate radio hundreds of miles away. Don't remember any of the call letters.
WDVE Pittsburgh (early 1970s) — Dad rock
WRTI Philadelphia/Temple University (late 1970s) — Jazz
WBCN Boston (early 1980s) — rock and many surprises
WPAQ Mt. Airy, NC  (1990s) — old-time stringband + bluegrass

Glad to see quite a few members influenced by Chicago radio stations.  In the early and mid 70s, a time brokered station in Chicago, WXFM, had a show on Monday through Friday, 8 PM to midnight, called Triad Radio.  The music was way beyond the rock and pop of the early 70s.  I got my first taste of The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Frank Zappa, Can, Kraftwerk, Babe Ruth, IF, Aphrodites Child, PFM, Heartsfield, Faust, Magma and so much more.  Each month a "schedule" was published showing some of what would be played each day.  The schedule was called the Triad Radio Guide and it was available at sponsors of Triad Radio.  I still have a few copies of the Triad Guide and they are pushing almost 50 years old.  It's fun to look at them every now and then.  My musical appreciation and tastes were certainly shaped by Triad.

Someone asked about Terri Hemmert from WXRT in Chicago.  She retired after 40+ years at the station.  "Aunt Terri" does fill in work once in a while.  WXRT had one of the most loyal followings in radio and the jocks built 25+ year careers at WXRT.  It is still a great rock station.
When I was very young it was WCFL AM Chicago I could pull it in on a tube radio from Chicago about 200 miles South--clear as a bell.
                                                 WLS AM Chicago
Teenage years:
WIXX album rock, no commercials--Green Bay WI
WAPL album rock, no commercials--Appleton WI
My go to for the last 40+ years KGON 92FM now 92.3 KGON. One of the few good things left of Portland OR.
"I grew up in Florida, so I used to surf the late night airwaves of pirate radio hundreds of miles away. Don't remember any of the call letters."

One of those might have been WMUM (Mother) in Lake Worth. Around 1970. First night I listened to them they played the just released "In The Wake Of Poseidon" in its entirety, no breaks. Awesome.
I was lucky to in the late 1960’s live within reception of the San Francisco stations. On AM were KYA and KEWB (it’s sister station in Los Angeles was KFWB). Then in 1967 Tom Donahue---one of the KYA disc jockeys and co-owner of Autumn Records, home of The Beau Brummels---launched the first "underground" FM Rock ’n Roll station in the U.S.A.---KMPX. The station was staffed by renegades (as opposed to the fast-talking "Key kids!" AM jockeys), the playlist not 45 RPM singles, but LP cuts, or whole LP sides, or even entire LP’s. When Sgt. Pepper was released they played the complete LP non-stop.

In 1968 (iirc) some problem developed between the station owner(s) and Donahue, who took his staff and relocated to KSAN radio, which continued the free-form programming style. A VERY influential station, copied all over the U.S.A.
I always enjoyed Lester the Nighfly, broadcasting from the Foot of Mt. Belzone.
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CFNY FM in Toronto... 

Mind you this before they were bought and then radically changed their programming to sound like every other radio station.

Great in the 70-80's timeline.
KISW-FM 99.9, seattle- progressive rock station that veered amazingly far into frothy pop. this was back in the glory days of album-oriented rock and they would play the whole album. it was where i first heard the rick wakeman album, "rhapsodies" [very late-70s cheesy synths].
KING-FM 98.1, seattle- back in the 70s a "progressive" classical and jazz station, at night they’d play jazz. it is where i was first exposed to Canadian bandleader rob mcconnell.
KLAY-FM 106.1, tacoma- a progressive/new-wave station where i first heard those kinds of tunes, where i first heard punk, late 70s.
KNBR-680AM- san francisco, late 70s then a progressive news station, where i first heard left-wing politics. i heard this station via atmospheric "skip" for the first time.
KSL-AM 1160, back in the 70s the originator of a late night call-in talk show called "Nightcaps" hosted by herb jepko. very laid-back informal format, adult in a very calm way. reasoned discourse. i miss it.
SF Bay Area

KSAN   SF  The best of all, free form. They would broadcast concerts
                    live from Winterland and the Record Plant in Sausilito. 
KOME  San Jose
KLIV     San Jose
KFRC   SF
KYA      SF 

Not a radio station but a Philadelphia program called Folklore with Gene Shay began in the mid 1960s on Sunday evenings although it moved from station to station over the decades. I aleays loved folk music and Gene was at the forefront of the genre often introducing later to be great performers before they ever recorded. How many of you knew about the duo Chuck and Joanie Mitchell and the list goes on and on.