Tuesday, 7/30

The question is a reasonable one. Unfortunately, I can’t find a reasonable answer.

A couple of weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a listener wondering when Q107 became “Q107”; in other words, when this station became the type of station it is today. While I know generally, I can not get it any closer than a certain part of a certain year. And that’s been irritating me a little.

Here’s the backstory--WMQT signed on the air in 1974, calling itself “Stereo 107” and playing what was then oxymoronically called “beautiful music”. You know. . .elevator music, if you were being truly honest; music for old people, if you were being truly brutal. That lasted until sometime in 1981, when the decision was made to change things.

And oh, what a change it was. It was almost WKRP-like; the switch was made from “beautiful music” to a rock format called “Q107-Hot Stereo Rock”. There was even a Johnny Fever-like character named “Marcus Marquette” who took over the airwaves, taking calls from ecstatic kids and bewildered older people, sometimes pitting them against each other on the air. A vote was set up for several weeks after the change; whichever format received the most votes--rock or elevator music--would determine the format for the station.

Needless to say, you haven’t heard a lick of beautiful music on this station since. And that’s the HOW of how Q107 became “Q107”!

It’s the exact when of it that’s a mystery. The person who sent the e-mail remembers living in Marquette at that time and taking part in the vote, and she recalls it as being either 1981 or 1982. I remember being a very young worker at another radio station in Marquette at the time, so I know the year was 1981. I thought it was summer, but she recalls the vote as falling on a snow day from school, so I’m guessing I was wrong about it being summer (although some years, you can never be quite sure). So as closely as we can determine it, the switch happened probably in either March or April of 1981.

But that’s as close as we can get. I know that seven or eight months after the switch the format was fine-tuned from rock to the poppier music we now play, but as to when the exact switch happened. . .well, that’s up in the air. If you guys have ANY idea and can help us narrow it down, I know at least one listener would appreciate it, and I’m sure I would, too.

(jim@wmqt.com)