Closed radio stations you miss

[The Bloo Lagoon]

Based on themidnightlore's thread, you can discuss here why do you miss closed radio stations.

I'll begin with my list (all of them are Hungarian).

1-2) Danubius* and Class FM. Danubius was the first private radio station in Hungary. Launched in 1986 as a German-language radio on Lake Balaton, between 1987-1989 it gradually expanded its availability to the whole country and became Hungarian-only. It was state-owned (!) until New Year's Eve 1997, this was when it was privatized. On 19 November 2009, Danubius was replaced by Class FM, which was on-air for exactly 7 years (Danubius continued as an online radio until 28 January 2010). I only listened to Danubius in June 2009, but I was a frequent listener of Class FM from 2012 until its 2016 analog closure. Class FM then continued as an online radio until 26 October 2018.
*Danubius was resurrected as an online radio under different ownership on 1 February 2021 by renaming Nonstop Radio.

3) Juventus. This was the 2nd oldest private Hungarian radio station and the first to play music around the clock, launched on 23 April 1989 as a local radio of Siófok (AM 810 KHZ). It started broadcasting to Budapest (89,5 MHZ then to 103,9 MHZ in 2012) in July 1993 and moved its HQ to the capital city 2 years later. It was a nationwide radio twice: 1993-1998 and 2001-2011, then it became Budapest-only. It was renamed as Sláger FM on 2 November 2015. I was a frequent listener of it from 2008 until 2013.

4) Rádió 6. This was Százhalombatta's local radio also available on South Pest, launched on 6 November 2007 replacing Rádió Junior on 101,3 MHZ. It had a really outstanding music variety as I heard many disco music which weren't played on any other radio stations. We also listened to it because of Gem-B Bar (a music-mix program by DJ Gem-B). Closed down on 20 February 2014, most of the programs were moved to Lakihegy Rádió or Érd FM (the latter launched in place of Rádió 6 three days later).

5) Cegléd Rádió 88. Cegléd's local radio, it was a sister to Szeged's Rádió 88. Launched in September 1997 on 92,5 MHZ. This radio made a Guinness World Record in 1999. Unlike its Szeged counterpart, it kept its "ident" package until its rebranding. In 2011 the Hungarian media commission made a competition for the frequency, which was won by another company. "88" was removed from the name on April Fools Day 2012 (not a joke!), thus ending the relations. I miss it in its old form because it felt like Rádió 88 was a network radio with different schedules, like Rádió 1 or Best FM does today, although I listened to it rarely between 2009-2010.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

Was the Juventus radio station in Hungary named after the Italian football club? Just curious.

 

[techyyt]

Was the Juventus radio station in Hungary named after the Italian football club? Just curious.

Short answer: no.

 

[Ghoster1987]

while I'm not Canadian i live in the Metro Detroit area and since Detroit is right scross from Windsor, Ontairo we get some Canadian TV and Radio stations. The two radio stations that I'm talking about were 89x CIMX-FM and 93.9 The River CIDR-FM which shut down and changed formats last November. It realy sucked because they would play the Canadian bands that wouldn't get played too much or get unnoticed in the states.

But thankfully the day when those two stations changed formats another station 98.7 changed from Adult radio friendly hits to Alternative type stuff like those two stations used to be.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

Short answer: No.

Fair enough.

 

[IlPuyoPuyotchi]

I remembered NU 107.5, it used to air rock music and hard rock, sometimes airing rock funk songs.

sadly, it closed on November 8, 2010

as of right now, that radio station is called Wish 107.5.

and strangely enough, at the last day of NU 107.5, many crowded the faculty where NU 107.5 DJs worked and waiting for NU 107.5 to sign off.

 

[Surreal Kangaroo]

I live in the Seattle area and we had a radio station called 97.3 KBSG which played oldies. As a kid (basically ‘90’s and early 2000’s) they played mostly ‘50’s and ‘60’s music with a few ‘70’s tossed in. They eventually started playing ‘80’s before they closed in 2008.

I forget the call sign, but 98.9 was a jazz station my dad listened to. As a kid, I always said I hated it, but in hindsight I wish it was still around because it will give me some more variety. They didn’t just play jazz because I remember a lot of songs by Phil Collins and Sting being on there, as well as Moby, Enigma, and possibly Enya.

There was also another oldies station called KMCQ 104.5 that popped around 2010. They were pretty cool because they played a lot of obscure songs and had something called “Novelty at Noon” where they would play a silly song like Purple People Eater. It didn’t last long.

 

[IlPuyoPuyotchi]

I forget the call sign, but 98.9 was a jazz station my dad listened to. As a kid, I always said I hated it, but in hindsight I wish it was still around because it will give me some more variety. They didn’t just play jazz because I remember a lot of songs by Phil Collins and Sting being on there, as well as Moby, Enigma, and possibly Enya.

That callsign was......

 

[Surreal Kangaroo]

That callsign was......View attachment 292973

Thanks.

I thought of another one. 103.7 was known as The Mountain and it played “album rock”. It was a radio station we listened to on my school bus in high school. It’s now a hip hop/rap station.

 

[LinusFan303]

I didn't know this thread existed, I listen alot of stations around the country/world and at home. I think I'll mention KEZW in Denver. Up until this year they played Standards (older music from the 40's and 50's 60's ) it was pretty nice to relax too. It was replaced with Sports Betting talk this year.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

I remember the time when Absolute Radio was the original incarnation of Virgin Radio UK before it was rebranded to its current name 13 years ago.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

I also recall the time when Radio X used to be called XFM.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

Now that it's no longer on AM/FM radio and thus now DAB/digital-exclusive, I miss Absolute Radio on said frequency.

 

[entransify]

One station I miss is Phoenix's old alt rock station, KZON.

It was a popular station but it got rebranded by the company known at the time as ClearChannel. They turned it into a talk station full of terrible shock jocks. It was not a success.

They killed a great station for nothing. I've yet to find another station as good as KZON was.

 

[Perla Magica]

Planeta FM, Polish radio station that had electronic music (both house and trance) and mainstream pop. I listened to it back in 2008 until 2013 when it got replaced by Radio Zet Gold (now Meloradio).

 

[prpis]

Radio Disney, they used to be so fun. Even though as a kid I didn’t recognize many of the songs it was so cool.

 

[Surreal Kangaroo]

This might be a tad premature, but I am going to see myself missing Star 101.5 (from Seattle). On Monday they switched to a country station. It was an adult contemporary station, and to be honest it was my least favorite of the big three AC stations in Seattle area (the other two being Warm 106.9 and 94.1 The Sound), but it was different in that it played “edgier” fare. On Monday morning I turned the station on in the morning and instead of the morning talk show, it was sounds of construction work. I chalked it up to an April Fool’s Prank but by that afternoon they were all country.

 

[entransify]

Radio Disney, they used to be so fun. Even though as a kid I didn’t recognize many of the songs it was so cool.

I actually listened to Radio Disney when I was in high school, well after the point I should have stopped listening to it.

A couple of former Funimation voice actors (Kyle Hebert and Susan Huber) both got their start at Radio Disney.

 

[AllenJ]

I seem to be one of the few people on earth who remembers KidStar, a kids-only radio network that lasted from 1993 to 1997 with only a handful of stations across the country (one of which, WDOZ Detroit, happened to be in my area). I loved listening to it as a kid and was very upset when they went off the air, which I've since found out was due to too much competition (mostly from Radio Disney, who ended up buying them out). However, I discovered a while back that they have a Facebook page with some neat photos and a few audio samples, including their Houston launch from 1996. Listen to it and you'll hear quite a few familiar voices (Lorenzo Music, Weird Al, Billy West, Rob Paulsen, Nancy Cartwright). It's really a shame this station never took off.

 

[Golden Geek]

Radio Disney, they used to be so fun. Even though as a kid I didn’t recognize many of the songs it was so cool.

They were around for quite a long time (2021 would've been their 25th anniversary if they'd made it through the year).

It's interesting to see how the station shifted in later years. My primary original years of listening were in the late 2000s/early 2010s, either on the Music Choice channel (which I remember at some point got switched to "Kidz Only!") or on the AM affiliate. The majority of the playlist by this time was Disney stars, boy bands/girl groups, etc.

In the very early days of the station, it was basically a grab bag of whatever was clean enough - The Beatles to Britney Spears to "Weird Al" Yankovic wouldn't even be an unusual song pattern.

I started listening again a lot more in 2019 and 2020, and the station was definitely skewing more teenage. I was surprised to hear them not only to play Miley Cyrus' cover of "Head Like a Hole" from Black Mirror, but the DJ comment on the show where it came from. The majority of their playlist was Top 40 music, though they did also showcase some more obscure artists. (Kim Petras has hardly gotten any radio play besides "Unholy", but RD played several of her singles beforehand.)

Ironically, I think 2021 wouldn't been a great year for Radio Disney, had they stuck around. A certain Disney's star debut album took the spotlight for a lot of the year.