In July 1986, Beautiful Music-formatted KQYT “Quiet 95” flipped to Adult Contemporary as “KOY 95.5 FM”. The station eventually began to call itself “Y95” and evolved to Mainstream CHR. This is an unofficial composite of the station about 2 to 3 years after the initial change. With varying degrees of success, Y95 attempted various permutations of Mainstream CHR until September 2, 1993. On that day, it began stunting in preparation for a format change the following day.
In the late 80’s, and the very early 90’s, Phoenix was one of the best markets for fans of the CHR format. Nationwide Communications’ heritage KZZP found itself in a heated battle with The Broadcast Group’s Power 92 (KKFR) and Edens Broadcasting’s Y95 (KOY-FM). KZZP dominated for most of the 80’s. But with changes in management, personalities, and pop music tastes — ratings dropped significantly in the early 90’s, leading to a format and name change in April 1991. Y95, capitalizing on the changes and later demise of KZZP, enjoyed ratings success at the start of the decade. But by 1993, ratings had fallen well below those of Power 92, which had begun to establish itself as the market’s preferred CHR (a title which it held through the ...
As a follow-up to yesterday’s posting of Tim & Willy on Y95… Here’s a Youtube video of a commercial featuring Y95’s morning show in 1986: Glenn Beck (yes, you read that correctly) and Tim Hattrick!
Official station composite of Y95 (KOY 95.5 FM Phoenix), 1992.
Unofficial station composite of Y95 (KOY 95.5 FM Phoenix), January to November 1992.