^ So mid-’90s it hurts.
KOKZ-FM 105.7 in Waterloo switched to oldies in late 1996 or early 1997*. That was the station the school bus radio was turned to, and for quite a while there was a one-hit wonder practically on repeat, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. After the format change, the bus driver found a different station, I started driving myself to school, and that was that.
But recently, as I was scanning the airwaves to find something other than bro-country, the dial landed on KOKZ again, and what I heard was “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and then “The Boys of Summer” – definitely not oldies.
So, KOKZ dropped contemporary (1981-96) to play music from 40 to 25 years ago (1956-71), and is now playing music from 45 to 30 years ago (1971-86). At this rate, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” will make its return to the station in about a decade.
(Filed under “The Oldies Station is Playing Van Halen.” Related blog post: 1990s country is splitting into its own genre)
*I wanted to be precise about this and was getting nowhere. I found archives for Duncan’s American Radio, 1976 to 2002, PDFs with searchable text. KOKZ is Top 40/contemporary in fall 1996 and oldies in spring 1997. Perhaps I should also point to NorthPine.com, which keeps tabs on Upper Midwest broadcasting like I do Iowa school districts.
UPDATE 12/13/22: The changeover was in February 1997.