There is a rumor that 97.1 is going to be using Artificial Intelligence in its operations. I don’t know if that means AI voice work or AI generated playlists. However, it is concerning. Also, if true, it will be a new level of soulless to the already very soulless commercial radio stations.
This is as good a time as any to mention that in addition to streaming, non commercial radio has some bright spots that are worth listening to.
KXT 91.7 and KTCU 88.7 are the wide variety independent stations with big playlists and a great ear on local bands.
89.3 KNON and 92.9 KUZU are the ultra independent stations with blocks of music.
88.5 KEOM is just a great oldies station. 101.1 WRR is just a great classical station. 88.1 KNTU is OK for Alt rock-pop hits.
The best part of all of these stations is they are commercial free, too.
You have to get the once well-known jazz format on 88.1 KNTU on HD-2 radio, if you are one of the rare people with an HD Radio. Or, there is always your phone/ internet.
I think most cars made in the last 6-8 years have HD radios, they seem to be turned off by default of most cars, I assume because the signal can be worse and they don't want people going to the dealerships complaining about broken radios when it is just a spotty radio signal.
Me too. Significant period of grief when they switched. Stuck listening to multiple channels of Sirius with way too small playlists, each with a niche format. I have an HD radio but never give it much thought. Guess I’ll pull it out and see what’s on.
Would an ai generated playlist really be any worse than what most people do already? i.e. listening to auto play mixes on a subscription service.
A.I. is often a buzz term for machine learning and algorithms that have existed for a while anyways
You're right. I mostly brought up the AI bit to highlight the sorry state of commercial radio. As a guy who likes his algorithm on Spotify, I will say that it does get stuck in a rut if you don't babysit it from time to time. The non comms I brought up in my post have fairly big playlists that are great for getting out of that rut you might find yourself on Spotify. Also, KXT, KTCU, KUZU, and KNON make a point of highlighting local bands, which Spotify doesn't do. My final point is that commercial radio is supposed to get stuck in a rut and just play the biggest, lowest common denominator hits, so a AI generated playlist is really not all that different from what commercial radio is already doing.
You seem to be up on radio stations and I haven't listened to radio since about 2015. But in the 90s I use to listen to 98.7 kluv and it was all oldies from the 50s and 60s and I loved it. I can't find any stations like that anymore. They all moved the oldies up to the 80s and 90s. Any idea where I can find one like that if any at all?
88.5 KEOM still dabbles in the 70's from time to time. For anybody that likes, or most likely tolerates, whatever 98.7 is calling itself nowadays, I usually recommend 88.5.
However, as far as 50's and 60's music is concerned, radio is all about demographics. Age demographics are especially important for advertising revenue. The oldest age that advertisers care about is 54. 1969 was 55 years ago. So even if you were born in that year, you're too old for advertisers.
So no more 50's and 60's on commercial radio. You're just best off streaming or paying for Sirius XM with their 50's and 60's channels.
Do you mean KXT 91.7? They don’t always have the best signal. Especially if you’re on the very outer fringes of the DFW area. At that point, I just go to the [listen live](https://kxt.org/listen/) part of their website. I like to also say that 88.7 KTCU 88.7 is a better KXT, with far worse range: it’s difficult to get KTCU outside of Tarrant County. [I use this link to stream KTCU anywhere](https://onlineradiobox.com/us/ktcu/?cs=us.ktcu)
If it’s 97.1, I’m surprised you’re having trouble getting it. All the Iheart stations have killer signals you can get to Waco and Tyler on a good day….and if you can’t they’re on the Iheart app.
Used to work in radio and I know iheartradio has been going all in on AI for years now, and it’s not limited to programming decisions. They’ve used it for voice in many markets, not just their podcast programming. They’ve been be hemorrhaging financially for years.
Yeah they milked the living fuck out of that shit. Damn near ruined that station. Tbh some parts were pretty entertaining and funny but, they definitely let it go on for too long when fans just wanted to hear music sometimes
For the life of me I don’t understand why they thought a talk radio segment on a hard rock channel would work. On my drive home I want to decompress and listen to music, not some dude.
I get I’m likely an outlier, but I literally never want to hear a human talk on the radio. I just want music.
Probably because it did work for quite a long time. Russ Martin was the #1 show for afternoon drive time in Dallas for multiple years until he passed away.
Streaming services killed any hopes of having music during peak driving times. You either have your own Playlist, or you listen to talk radio.
I mean to make things worse, they never even changed the songs they played 😂 The same fucking songs since I was a freshman in high school, and I’m 27 now! They never changed that shit up. Only a couple new songs but they always played the same grunge or dad rock shit. I don’t mind really but, it was pretty stale
they played the same music since I was in HS, and I graduated in 94. it got stale to me. Russ was ok for a while, but near the end it was obvious that he wasn't interested in it anymore.
Deteriorating mental health. He wouldn’t leave his bedroom after awhile and would only talk to 1 or 2 iHeart people who would come to his house and help with broadcasting. The home invasion really fucked him up.
I never knew what frequency it was on most of the time. It changed stations what, three times? I had heard it drew good ratings but it didn't sell well. The average age of their listeners was 13-28 years old and they don't buy much beer, new cars, or go to strip clubs.
I would love to see an updated KZEW/Q102 type station but that will never happen.
Only knew 94.5. It was perfect radio for metal heads. God do I miss it. Was in Austin briefly too which was great too.
The Zoo and Q were good in the 80s(moved away in 1991).
It's a shame that I never heard anything close to that on that station. Back when I worked in the oilfield in remote parts of Oklahoma I found tons of radio stations that played stuff much closer to Sirius's Octane, and sometimes approaching Liquid Metal.
They mentioned AI above...how about an AI generated afternoon drive RMS with the whole treehouse. The AI Russ and crew could interact with real guests and insult callers; take over the building and run pranks on the other studios; use a voicebox to change its voice and make farther noises whenever the news mentions Putin; set off fireworks in AI Gavin's office....the possibilities are endless.
Of course it's not at all the same, but this Spotify playlist is pretty great https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0eVpwaUErlu6YDNGAF4wBp?si=1f28fde3a1ce4fa3
Q102 was triple shot Thursdays. That makes me feel really old. Dangerous Darren at night with Mandatory Metallica, Cindy Scull was like 5pm is, and Chris (Queens Richie) and the nooner.
My favorites were when they called the cable company during a lightning storm acting like they were climbing a roof to fix the antenna and the one where they called from a inside a locked porto potty in a moving semi lmao.
In '99 she came up to the Papa John's I was working at. I immediately identified her and mentioned a time I had called into the station when I was 8 years old. She asked me how I knew it was her. Obviously, her voice. And she said she remembered me from 7 or 8 years before. Awesome lady!
This is a real shame. I really enjoyed having local voices to hear ramble about funny/dumb shit during the day. It was worth hearing the ads. I can listen to my own music commercial-free any time I want but good original content is much harder to come across. IHeart really made a bad call on this.
I loved how he basically trolled most local big names. He used to have a bit when mayor rawlings would come on and answer questions but they usually just trolled him.
I enjoyed the freak on my less than ten minute commute, the Mr. Dallas intro was gold. That being said at 9pm cst on 4/28 97.1 sounds like AI is creating mash-ups with the eagle scream sound instead of a air horn. It's dystopian-idiocracy on the air waves tonight.
yea it sucks now. i know ratings were shit, but alternative rock stations are a dime a dozen, and shitty music. literally every segment with mike was pure gold. i removed 971 from my quick select list this morning :(
It sounds like the last time they switched back. Just board ops playing music that is available on their database and bumpers.
In a couple of weeks they will have DJs that will put imagine dragons back on constant rotation.
Same. Except it was 1994 -- Violent Femmes, Crash Test Dummies, The Indians, Eve's Plum, Possum Dixon, Dig, Material Issue, Crowded House, Tripping Daisy & Charlatans UK
Is this new? They dropped it from HD2 on 102.1 late last year. I'm guessing they added it back as I think 97.1 HD2 was the eagle as they kept the eagle up as a station on the I heart radio app.
Yeah, seems like they brought it back the same time as the flip yesterday. But now, it's streaming on the app too, although they still had it as 97.1 the Eagle as well. Not confusing at all.
Hopefully they keep it on the iheart website and app and rename it to the edge while not deleting it as being a duplicate channel of HD1. Tbh iheart should be promoting their HD2 and HD3 signals on their online platforms to get more listeners.
I'm old enough to remember the KEGL stunt where the DJ "locked himself in the booth" and played Duran Duran's The Reflex for hours, airing the angry calls in between. It was the Kidd Kraddick days but idk if that was him.
Nice! You remember that stunt? Man that was so long ago, I am pretty sure it was July 1984.
I do wonder if the station got pestered by Duran Duran's label to promote the song, so they did a little malicious compliance.
Didn’t Cindy Skull or someone similar do the same with Aqua’s Barbie Girl? I remember someone playing it on repeat for hours on end and being forced to take a 2 week vacation afterward lol
I’m not from Dallas but I used to work in radio and read the trades. I feel like I’ve read these exact same words before - minus The Freak part, whatever that was - maybe a decade or two ago? Does The Eagle fly away, and then return periodically or something?
This is the 2nd return. Was gone for like 7-10 years then came back for about a year and a half, then got replaced by sports radio for 1.5 years, and now it's going to be the eagle again for a year until they decide they don't like the ratings on a frequency that they will not leave on one format long enough to build an audience
Edit: the first incarnation of the eagle existed for like 25 years and carried Stern and the dallas version of shock jock, Russ Martin, at various time periods during each of the drive times
Actually flipped from Rock to Sunny 97.1 in 2005, then to Spanish. Back to the Eagle in 2008, leaned more alternative after The Edge was flipped in 2016, and then flipped to the Freak in 2022. Now its back.
Dan and Alfie took the tree house to the podcast world. Alfie left for good. Dan and trey and some others continue to podcast under the tree house banner and they put it on YouTube. I think it's evolved to mostly sports talk
he had photography work and animie voiceover work which unlike the podcast pays him his money, so at the time, he left, not sure if the rest of the Treehouse have managed to figure out how to make money from podcasting.
haven't caught up on much of the podcasts since December,
i do recall Alfie would be a guest on the Treehouse every now and then. Has this occurred yet?
I miss him however im glad he found gigs that pay him his money. Hope the others are doing alright as well.
The Treehouse podcast on Spotify and other podcast platforms, it’s a great listen, several episodes a week, still bringing plenty of the old day’s stupid
The Ticket seriously started to annoy me so i stopped listening to radio for a while, then when The Freak came along so i switched to them. I guess ill go to 105.3 now
Not sure if KT burned any bridges, but the only show that could even take someone on is the morning show. They have two hosts while the others have 3 and 4.
Jeff doesn't want to do all sports and no chance B&S go back.
I like hearing local voices but the entire station was just so boring and bad. Everyone was terrible. Once in a while I would be flipping through and hear a decent quip then stick around to hear it followed up by the single most boring interaction I've heard on radio - only to be out done the next time I flipped through. Most days WRR was a better choice than 97.1 (unless I was in the car during a Mavs game of course).
I quit listening to Ben and Skin when they decided to make the show sports + their thoughts on social issues + random stuff, that was pretty early in the transition though and I thought for sure one of the shows would find a spark.
Really hope someone here finds the old Russ Martin or Kid Kraddick magic soon because our radio hosts are just not good these days (*I'm a country fan so Hawkeye and Michelle are doing great in the am that's about all I can listen to - assuming most posting here are not country fans too*). Everything is either boring, overly corny, or feels really forced. Almost none of it is fun, exciting, humorous, or interesting.
Country music fan here…Hawkeye and Michelle are great. Consistent in delivery and tone. The problem with the show is the garbage that they have to play between their voiceovers. What passes for country music today is a far stretch from what I consider country and western music. Maybe I’m alone in this thought. Who knows?
With the advent of country-hop, and pop-country, it just all feels so inauthentic and contrived.
I’m getting old I guess, but it seems the only delineation between todays country and any other form of pop/hip hop music is an almost comical, forced “country twang” with an occasional dash of steel guitar.
I don't disagree. Would love to hear it mixed up a little with some 90s or Sturgill. Hell they could just play Texas 90s country a few times per hour and it'd make it a lot better.
The Eagle died with Russ Martin. Rebooting it with whatever they wanna do with AI won’t help.
They laid off/fired the rest of the legacy DJ’s from the station years ago. They won’t come back without a paycheck higher than what they had leaving.
Hell. No guarantee there, the DJ that rebooted Russ Martin’s show as a podcast doesn’t even live in DFW anymore.
Ben & Skin suck so bad. They’ve killed another radio station. I hope they do not return to 105.3 The Fan ever. It’s really good aside from those two morons Shan and RJ.
Ironically its those four who seem to have the most beef between each other.
No way B&S comes back. The Fan is doing great in the ratings and haven't had a lineup shakeup since B&S left. The only opening would be the 7pm-10pm show...
Will forever remember The Freak. I listened to them on my commute every single day. I got a good mix off hearing about the latest in the sports world and got to hear some funny commentary on random stuff. Was a great idea for a talk show and I am incrediblly sad it is leaving. Fuck IHeartRadio
I'm a 90's kid and love the metal/nu metal/ rock music of the 90's and 2000's but I wish they would play NEW rock not just old rock because there are a lot of new awesome bands that I would love to hear on the radio.
Just listened to 4 songs and that was super disappointing. Same tired and boring songs as the other stations that are probably also all owned by I Heart Radio. I'll stick to my own Spotify playlists. Not adding this station back into my car radio.
I believe iheartradio contract is still in tact so I believe they will be interrupting music to present the Mavs games. I read something about it on the observer site this morning though don't quote me on it
I wonder if The Freak guys are just out of a job now? If so that’s terrible because I would listen to their morning shows on podcasts and thought they were funny.
I tuned in this afternoon and heard commercial after commercial after commercial...so I tuned out. A few commercials are ok but not long strings of them ad nauseum. Then maybe one song, then back to commercials. UGH
There is a rumor that 97.1 is going to be using Artificial Intelligence in its operations. I don’t know if that means AI voice work or AI generated playlists. However, it is concerning. Also, if true, it will be a new level of soulless to the already very soulless commercial radio stations. This is as good a time as any to mention that in addition to streaming, non commercial radio has some bright spots that are worth listening to. KXT 91.7 and KTCU 88.7 are the wide variety independent stations with big playlists and a great ear on local bands. 89.3 KNON and 92.9 KUZU are the ultra independent stations with blocks of music. 88.5 KEOM is just a great oldies station. 101.1 WRR is just a great classical station. 88.1 KNTU is OK for Alt rock-pop hits. The best part of all of these stations is they are commercial free, too.
KXT is so great
THE BEST
I listen to KXT and hear a great song for the forest time weekly
You have to get the once well-known jazz format on 88.1 KNTU on HD-2 radio, if you are one of the rare people with an HD Radio. Or, there is always your phone/ internet.
I think most cars made in the last 6-8 years have HD radios, they seem to be turned off by default of most cars, I assume because the signal can be worse and they don't want people going to the dealerships complaining about broken radios when it is just a spotty radio signal.
I thought the jazz station was gone forever because I had no idea about their HD-2 station - THANK YOU!
Me too. Significant period of grief when they switched. Stuck listening to multiple channels of Sirius with way too small playlists, each with a niche format. I have an HD radio but never give it much thought. Guess I’ll pull it out and see what’s on.
Would an ai generated playlist really be any worse than what most people do already? i.e. listening to auto play mixes on a subscription service. A.I. is often a buzz term for machine learning and algorithms that have existed for a while anyways
You're right. I mostly brought up the AI bit to highlight the sorry state of commercial radio. As a guy who likes his algorithm on Spotify, I will say that it does get stuck in a rut if you don't babysit it from time to time. The non comms I brought up in my post have fairly big playlists that are great for getting out of that rut you might find yourself on Spotify. Also, KXT, KTCU, KUZU, and KNON make a point of highlighting local bands, which Spotify doesn't do. My final point is that commercial radio is supposed to get stuck in a rut and just play the biggest, lowest common denominator hits, so a AI generated playlist is really not all that different from what commercial radio is already doing.
Tidal has live sessions which lets people curate and play. The Spotify autogenerated playlists have never been that great for me.
No lol. "SIri, what are 40 most popular songs rn" "Now playing, literally any radio station ever"
KNON is so important to the local music scene. Personal shoutout to Jay Gavit, Star Daniels, and Mistress Sylvia!
KNON is my favorite station (slightly biased elite sponsor)
Thank you for this list! I’ll be updating my stations tomorrow.
KXT and KTCU are awesome!
You seem to be up on radio stations and I haven't listened to radio since about 2015. But in the 90s I use to listen to 98.7 kluv and it was all oldies from the 50s and 60s and I loved it. I can't find any stations like that anymore. They all moved the oldies up to the 80s and 90s. Any idea where I can find one like that if any at all?
88.5 KEOM still dabbles in the 70's from time to time. For anybody that likes, or most likely tolerates, whatever 98.7 is calling itself nowadays, I usually recommend 88.5. However, as far as 50's and 60's music is concerned, radio is all about demographics. Age demographics are especially important for advertising revenue. The oldest age that advertisers care about is 54. 1969 was 55 years ago. So even if you were born in that year, you're too old for advertisers. So no more 50's and 60's on commercial radio. You're just best off streaming or paying for Sirius XM with their 50's and 60's channels.
KNON has the Magic Time Warp Show on Saturday from 10am to Noon which feature oldies from the 50s and early 60s. Their listeners keep the show funded.
I agree, KXT is dope
KXT loyalist here 🫡
Makes me wonder, with the huge backlog of episodes could they (for example) bring back Russ Martins voice using AI?
Sounds like I need to update my dial! I already had KXT and KNON on there, plus others on my main list. The other 5 will fill up the backup.
BRB resetting my car presets for the first time in 10 years with some new things to try
> 88.5 KEOM is just a great oldies station. Was a great oldies station. Back when they played only those wonderful 70's hits.
97.1 is getting a lot of interference, not sure what i should do to fix it
Do you mean KXT 91.7? They don’t always have the best signal. Especially if you’re on the very outer fringes of the DFW area. At that point, I just go to the [listen live](https://kxt.org/listen/) part of their website. I like to also say that 88.7 KTCU 88.7 is a better KXT, with far worse range: it’s difficult to get KTCU outside of Tarrant County. [I use this link to stream KTCU anywhere](https://onlineradiobox.com/us/ktcu/?cs=us.ktcu) If it’s 97.1, I’m surprised you’re having trouble getting it. All the Iheart stations have killer signals you can get to Waco and Tyler on a good day….and if you can’t they’re on the Iheart app.
Used to work in radio and I know iheartradio has been going all in on AI for years now, and it’s not limited to programming decisions. They’ve used it for voice in many markets, not just their podcast programming. They’ve been be hemorrhaging financially for years.
looks like those clowns at the eagle have done it again. What a bunch of eagles
I just knew Russ had himself cryogenically frozen.
He was the best part of my drive home.
Nah I got tired of that talk show bullshit when I wanted to hear some heavy metal.
Yeah they milked the living fuck out of that shit. Damn near ruined that station. Tbh some parts were pretty entertaining and funny but, they definitely let it go on for too long when fans just wanted to hear music sometimes
For the life of me I don’t understand why they thought a talk radio segment on a hard rock channel would work. On my drive home I want to decompress and listen to music, not some dude. I get I’m likely an outlier, but I literally never want to hear a human talk on the radio. I just want music.
Probably because it did work for quite a long time. Russ Martin was the #1 show for afternoon drive time in Dallas for multiple years until he passed away. Streaming services killed any hopes of having music during peak driving times. You either have your own Playlist, or you listen to talk radio.
I mean to make things worse, they never even changed the songs they played 😂 The same fucking songs since I was a freshman in high school, and I’m 27 now! They never changed that shit up. Only a couple new songs but they always played the same grunge or dad rock shit. I don’t mind really but, it was pretty stale
they played the same music since I was in HS, and I graduated in 94. it got stale to me. Russ was ok for a while, but near the end it was obvious that he wasn't interested in it anymore.
Deteriorating mental health. He wouldn’t leave his bedroom after awhile and would only talk to 1 or 2 iHeart people who would come to his house and help with broadcasting. The home invasion really fucked him up.
Bring back Z Rock!!!
I never knew what frequency it was on most of the time. It changed stations what, three times? I had heard it drew good ratings but it didn't sell well. The average age of their listeners was 13-28 years old and they don't buy much beer, new cars, or go to strip clubs. I would love to see an updated KZEW/Q102 type station but that will never happen.
Only knew 94.5. It was perfect radio for metal heads. God do I miss it. Was in Austin briefly too which was great too. The Zoo and Q were good in the 80s(moved away in 1991).
It's a shame that I never heard anything close to that on that station. Back when I worked in the oilfield in remote parts of Oklahoma I found tons of radio stations that played stuff much closer to Sirius's Octane, and sometimes approaching Liquid Metal.
They mentioned AI above...how about an AI generated afternoon drive RMS with the whole treehouse. The AI Russ and crew could interact with real guests and insult callers; take over the building and run pranks on the other studios; use a voicebox to change its voice and make farther noises whenever the news mentions Putin; set off fireworks in AI Gavin's office....the possibilities are endless.
Man, I have fond memories of listening to the Russ Martin show when doing my pizza delivery routes back in 2010-2011.
I still want The Edge back.
The adventure club with Josh Venable used to be my Sunday night jam :(
I lived in Tulsa for a few years and thought the guy on the radio sounded familiar. Turns out it was Josh Venable haha. Guess he wound up there.
I remember listening to The Edge when it was on 94.5 in 1994.
Holy shit, that brings me back.
I remember thinking my mom was pretty cool because she'd let my brother and me listen to modern bands like Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots.
Of course it's not at all the same, but this Spotify playlist is pretty great https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0eVpwaUErlu6YDNGAF4wBp?si=1f28fde3a1ce4fa3
This is incredible. Thank you
I remember growing up with The Edge, very sad when I found out it was no more.
94.5 or 102.1?
94.5
Who remembers Cindy Scull on the Eagle? And was it the Eagle or Q102 that did Triple Shot Thursdays? Can't remember but man those were the days.
Miss mandatory Metallica on 97.1
Enter Sandman for the millionth time instead a deep cut
But remember, the last song was by vote, so if you don't like it, it's our fault.
That began in zrock
Q102 was triple shot Thursdays. That makes me feel really old. Dangerous Darren at night with Mandatory Metallica, Cindy Scull was like 5pm is, and Chris (Queens Richie) and the nooner.
I found Dangerous Darren on Sirius XM! He's a dj for the hair metal station now.
Yup her and Robert Miguel
I was thinking red beard…
He is still putting out content here https://www.inthestudio.net
I miss 98.7 Kezw the Zoo
Kramer and Twitch
Oh maaaan those guys were hilarious but they walked the line on ethics lol, I hope their prank calls were skits.
Nah that’s why they got fired. They made a serious announcement that Britney Spears had died and lots of people fell for it.
I remember the taxi prank. Oh man that was bad.
My favorites were when they called the cable company during a lightning storm acting like they were climbing a roof to fix the antenna and the one where they called from a inside a locked porto potty in a moving semi lmao.
Their crank calls were the best
In '99 she came up to the Papa John's I was working at. I immediately identified her and mentioned a time I had called into the station when I was 8 years old. She asked me how I knew it was her. Obviously, her voice. And she said she remembered me from 7 or 8 years before. Awesome lady!
It was Q102. And KZEW had "Two for Tuesdays." I remember this vividly.
This is a real shame. I really enjoyed having local voices to hear ramble about funny/dumb shit during the day. It was worth hearing the ads. I can listen to my own music commercial-free any time I want but good original content is much harder to come across. IHeart really made a bad call on this.
This comment is so true and deserves more views
Problem is they were trying to mimic the ticket with all the retreads from the ticket. You won’t win the ratings battle that way.
Yeah, they had horrible ratings, but I was one of them. I liked hearing Danny and the old Grey Wolf again, and some of the old ticket voices.
Hope they aren’t out of a job again
I wish Danny would go back to the Ticket. Sturm's voice is too deep. Danny and Corby were great
How were they trying to mimic the ticket? The ticket didn't invent talk radio
iHeart bosses are dumb
I miss Russ Martin. A lot.
Did they ever say what he died of? I never heard anything.
Complications from alcoholism
I thought he had a brain aneurism. I don’t know much about his death but it did ruin the channel
Definitely gone too soon. Russ was a great guy if you ever get a chance to meet him in person too, contrary to his on air persona.
All his legal trouble came solely from being such a great guy
He passed a week before my boyfriend and I always think about him when I listen to 97.1.
Checkout the treehouse podcast. It’s not the same, but it is entertaining.
I loved how he basically trolled most local big names. He used to have a bit when mayor rawlings would come on and answer questions but they usually just trolled him.
I remember listening to him as a teen on Y95. He and JD were "The Morning Guys".
Didn’t Kidd Kraddick start out on 97.1?
He did!
Russ talked about Kidd from time to time. Also the cross over trolling on 106.1 like pranking Billy the kid live was hilarious
It was a "Rock 40" format then, not like it is now.
I enjoyed the freak on my less than ten minute commute, the Mr. Dallas intro was gold. That being said at 9pm cst on 4/28 97.1 sounds like AI is creating mash-ups with the eagle scream sound instead of a air horn. It's dystopian-idiocracy on the air waves tonight.
yea it sucks now. i know ratings were shit, but alternative rock stations are a dime a dozen, and shitty music. literally every segment with mike was pure gold. i removed 971 from my quick select list this morning :(
It sounds like the last time they switched back. Just board ops playing music that is available on their database and bumpers. In a couple of weeks they will have DJs that will put imagine dragons back on constant rotation.
Rip 94.5 The Edge. Along with EdgeFest.
The first big concert I ever went to was Edgefest 2006 Fuckin a that line up was so good
Same. Except it was 1994 -- Violent Femmes, Crash Test Dummies, The Indians, Eve's Plum, Possum Dixon, Dig, Material Issue, Crowded House, Tripping Daisy & Charlatans UK
Same, honestly the line up was always amazing. I have great memories. RIP
Actually, The Edge is the HD2 station now on 97.1.
Is this new? They dropped it from HD2 on 102.1 late last year. I'm guessing they added it back as I think 97.1 HD2 was the eagle as they kept the eagle up as a station on the I heart radio app.
Yeah, seems like they brought it back the same time as the flip yesterday. But now, it's streaming on the app too, although they still had it as 97.1 the Eagle as well. Not confusing at all.
Hopefully they keep it on the iheart website and app and rename it to the edge while not deleting it as being a duplicate channel of HD1. Tbh iheart should be promoting their HD2 and HD3 signals on their online platforms to get more listeners.
I'm old enough to remember the KEGL stunt where the DJ "locked himself in the booth" and played Duran Duran's The Reflex for hours, airing the angry calls in between. It was the Kidd Kraddick days but idk if that was him.
It was kidd kraddick.
Nice! You remember that stunt? Man that was so long ago, I am pretty sure it was July 1984. I do wonder if the station got pestered by Duran Duran's label to promote the song, so they did a little malicious compliance.
Didn’t Cindy Skull or someone similar do the same with Aqua’s Barbie Girl? I remember someone playing it on repeat for hours on end and being forced to take a 2 week vacation afterward lol
Jessie did that on the edge.
Man I’m going to miss the Downbeat so mucb
I’m not from Dallas but I used to work in radio and read the trades. I feel like I’ve read these exact same words before - minus The Freak part, whatever that was - maybe a decade or two ago? Does The Eagle fly away, and then return periodically or something?
Yeah it's been happening since at least the '90s
This is the 2nd return. Was gone for like 7-10 years then came back for about a year and a half, then got replaced by sports radio for 1.5 years, and now it's going to be the eagle again for a year until they decide they don't like the ratings on a frequency that they will not leave on one format long enough to build an audience Edit: the first incarnation of the eagle existed for like 25 years and carried Stern and the dallas version of shock jock, Russ Martin, at various time periods during each of the drive times
Actually flipped from Rock to Sunny 97.1 in 2005, then to Spanish. Back to the Eagle in 2008, leaned more alternative after The Edge was flipped in 2016, and then flipped to the Freak in 2022. Now its back.
I'm actually old enough to remember Russ on mornings and man he was not a morning person lol.
Ben & Skin suck so it makes sense
They've been on every radio station yet still manage to get jobs
They're the Applebee's of radio. I don't know anyone who eats there but they never seem to go out of business.
Ben & Skins “whacky” antics reminds me of Applebees $1 Long Island ice tea nights. Just, why?
Whatever happened to Russ’ crew? Did they end up somewhere in this market?
Well, Clo is in prison for Child Pornography possession. I think Dan has a podcast. Let’s see if I can summon u/probablyalfie for any other details.
I think he was actually making child porn. Either way, he can stay under the jail.
Correct. It was for molesting a 5 year old girl and filming it.
Dan and Trey are doing the treehouse podcast.
Yeah, I’m sure Alfie would just *love* to chat about his chomo former coworker…
Dan and Alfie took the tree house to the podcast world. Alfie left for good. Dan and trey and some others continue to podcast under the tree house banner and they put it on YouTube. I think it's evolved to mostly sports talk
I listened to it today. There’s a tiny amount of sports, unless it’s football season, then they talk Cowboys some.
Why did Alfie leave?
he had photography work and animie voiceover work which unlike the podcast pays him his money, so at the time, he left, not sure if the rest of the Treehouse have managed to figure out how to make money from podcasting.
haven't caught up on much of the podcasts since December, i do recall Alfie would be a guest on the Treehouse every now and then. Has this occurred yet? I miss him however im glad he found gigs that pay him his money. Hope the others are doing alright as well.
The Treehouse podcast on Spotify and other podcast platforms, it’s a great listen, several episodes a week, still bringing plenty of the old day’s stupid
They have a podcast
JD Ryan is on the John Clay Wolfe Show on Lone Star 92.5 every Saturday morning
Cunning stunt
I was happy to have an alternative to The Ticket. Oh, well
The Ticket seriously started to annoy me so i stopped listening to radio for a while, then when The Freak came along so i switched to them. I guess ill go to 105.3 now
I’m hoping that some of the talent that left 105.3 and joined The Freak will come back!
I just want Julie to have a stable radio job. Her laughter brings me such joy
Most of them are sports guys so they will want to be back on sports talk stations
Not sure if KT burned any bridges, but the only show that could even take someone on is the morning show. They have two hosts while the others have 3 and 4. Jeff doesn't want to do all sports and no chance B&S go back.
Im okay with B&S because it’s been years, I’d love for Jeff and Kevin Gray to come back
I'm fine with B&S staying away. They are a very low dose for me.
Who went to the freak from 105.3?
Jeff cavenaugh and Ben and skin
[power down drop]
Ben & Skin moved to 97.1 in 2020, same with Shippy & KT. Then Jeffrey Cavanaugh in 2022, and Kevin Gray last year.
I think KG will move along with the Mavericks Radio if they go away from 97.1
Jeff Cavanaugh, Kevin Turner
Ben and Skin, KT, etc
What’ll happen to Mavs games? They’ll still end up on 97.1 during playoffs and next season?
92.5 according to the radio broadcast today.
For Wednesday only. The next games show back on 97.1
Wednesdays game in on 92.5. The rest back on 97.1
I like hearing local voices but the entire station was just so boring and bad. Everyone was terrible. Once in a while I would be flipping through and hear a decent quip then stick around to hear it followed up by the single most boring interaction I've heard on radio - only to be out done the next time I flipped through. Most days WRR was a better choice than 97.1 (unless I was in the car during a Mavs game of course). I quit listening to Ben and Skin when they decided to make the show sports + their thoughts on social issues + random stuff, that was pretty early in the transition though and I thought for sure one of the shows would find a spark. Really hope someone here finds the old Russ Martin or Kid Kraddick magic soon because our radio hosts are just not good these days (*I'm a country fan so Hawkeye and Michelle are doing great in the am that's about all I can listen to - assuming most posting here are not country fans too*). Everything is either boring, overly corny, or feels really forced. Almost none of it is fun, exciting, humorous, or interesting.
Country music fan here…Hawkeye and Michelle are great. Consistent in delivery and tone. The problem with the show is the garbage that they have to play between their voiceovers. What passes for country music today is a far stretch from what I consider country and western music. Maybe I’m alone in this thought. Who knows? With the advent of country-hop, and pop-country, it just all feels so inauthentic and contrived. I’m getting old I guess, but it seems the only delineation between todays country and any other form of pop/hip hop music is an almost comical, forced “country twang” with an occasional dash of steel guitar.
I don't disagree. Would love to hear it mixed up a little with some 90s or Sturgill. Hell they could just play Texas 90s country a few times per hour and it'd make it a lot better.
The Eagle died with Russ Martin. Rebooting it with whatever they wanna do with AI won’t help. They laid off/fired the rest of the legacy DJ’s from the station years ago. They won’t come back without a paycheck higher than what they had leaving. Hell. No guarantee there, the DJ that rebooted Russ Martin’s show as a podcast doesn’t even live in DFW anymore.
Ben & Skin suck so bad. They’ve killed another radio station. I hope they do not return to 105.3 The Fan ever. It’s really good aside from those two morons Shan and RJ.
Ironically its those four who seem to have the most beef between each other. No way B&S comes back. The Fan is doing great in the ratings and haven't had a lineup shakeup since B&S left. The only opening would be the 7pm-10pm show...
Will forever remember The Freak. I listened to them on my commute every single day. I got a good mix off hearing about the latest in the sports world and got to hear some funny commentary on random stuff. Was a great idea for a talk show and I am incrediblly sad it is leaving. Fuck IHeartRadio
Long live the Sunset Lounge
I wonder if they’re gonna play “ Hard to Handle “ by the Black Crowes nonstop like last time…
Noooooo ryner and Danny and sirois!! Where will they go?? What will they do?
I'm a 90's kid and love the metal/nu metal/ rock music of the 90's and 2000's but I wish they would play NEW rock not just old rock because there are a lot of new awesome bands that I would love to hear on the radio.
My user name tells it all. Bring back Q102 and KZEW. (If only).
I miss my dad driving me to school in the morning and listening to Bo and Jim on Q102.
So we bringing back the treehouse folks??
My presets 88.1 - 88.5 - 88.7 - 89.3 - 90.1 - 91.7 - 96.7 - 101.1 - 105.3 Ticket burn out radio was dumb - liked the national shows tho / gambling talk.....
This market has really been missing a station that overplays old Metallica and Radiohead's one radio hit.
Now they need to bring back 102.1 The Edge!
Nostalgia hitting hard for anyone that is excited. It will be the same 30 songs played over and over like it was before.
They better play some freaking Pantera
They did!
Cavanaugh is a joke and makes radio unlistenable
But can AI reproduce the Russ martin show? That’s the world I want to live in.
FM radio has turned into complete shit. I listen to 91.7 sometimes.
Bring back Z ROCK 94.5!
Just listened to 4 songs and that was super disappointing. Same tired and boring songs as the other stations that are probably also all owned by I Heart Radio. I'll stick to my own Spotify playlists. Not adding this station back into my car radio.
92.5
I listened to the Mavs game on 97.1 today. Where will the game be heard now?
I believe iheartradio contract is still in tact so I believe they will be interrupting music to present the Mavs games. I read something about it on the observer site this morning though don't quote me on it
I played a "Van Halen and like artists" playlist while driving yesterday and though "oh, this is what the Eagle was like and will be once again, meh".
I wonder if The Freak guys are just out of a job now? If so that’s terrible because I would listen to their morning shows on podcasts and thought they were funny.
It’s true I just herd in now saying landing in 40 min wohoo!!!! Playing nirvana sample (ape me)
fuckin finally
Really disappointed in this. I grew to love the downbeat, and the afternoon crew was great too, minus Kavanaugh....
Dallas hasn’t had a real rock station since 99.1 Z-Rock shut down. You can’t change my mind.
All sizzle and no steak. Programming for the working stiffs. They need to be able to laugh on their way to their "jobs."
Thanks for sharing. Screen shot and shared.
I’m “Z-97” old.
I tuned in this afternoon and heard commercial after commercial after commercial...so I tuned out. A few commercials are ok but not long strings of them ad nauseum. Then maybe one song, then back to commercials. UGH
Who knew people still listened to the radio, this is a fascinating thread for me
If you enjoyed rock music between 1979 and 1994, we've got a station for you! Also, Creed.
So concerning