This week’s playlist rewind is influential modern rock station 99X, in the year the world came to Atlanta, 1996.
30 years ago, ATL was about to begin its biggest global event yet, the 1996 Summer Olympics. In that same year, WNNX was in its third year of being the local home of alternative rock, and the radio station alt-rock and even some top 40 stations around the country tried to emulate. 99X was (and still is) where Atlanta discovered Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Silverchair, and local stars Collective Soul.
99X launched the first time around on October 26, 1992, after several years as Top 40 WAPW Power 99. The genesis of the station was when Will Pendarvis was brought in to host the alternative show Power 99 On The Edge on nights. The feedback was so positive that the station decided to switch formats to alternative a few months later.
The station was anchored by legendary music director Sean Demery, with a crew of personalities like morning show hosts Steve Barnes, Jimmy Barron, Leslie Fram (who would also become an executive at the station), Steve Craig (the current music director), Pendarvis, Axel Lowe, Jill Nelson, Matt Jones, and more.
| “As predicted last week, Susquehanna CHR Power 99 /Atlanta has incorporated a New Rock direction as 99X, with new calls pending FCC approval. The shift, which took place at noon Monday (10/26), was preceded by a six -hour open forum during which PD Rick Stacy, APD Leslie Fram, and morning man Domino fielded live calls to explain where the station was headed. 99X’s jockless debut was set to end Wednesday (10/28), with the station retaining its pre- change on -air lineup, but Stacy told ST 99X will feature “a more natural, non -hyped delivery.” Stacy reports initial audience reaction is spectacular. No reaction thus far from crosstown adult CHR Star 94, considered a likely bet to gradually fill some of the mainstream void.” |
| -From “Street Talk”, Radio & Records, October 30, 1992 |
The station didn’t just play music, it highlighted the music with groundbreaking programming such as Live X (the live performance radio show), Organic X, which spotlights adult progressive-leaning music, and Resurrection Sunday, which spins older modern rock and new wave songs from the 80’s and 90’s. Weekdays would begin with Barnes, Leslie, and Jimmy on The Morning X, a show as funny and controversial as it was popular.
99x would continue on the 99.7 frequency until January 11, 2008, where it would land on several HD and low-powered radio stations, while its 99.7 frequency would go to Top 40 Q99.7. The classic 99X would return to the former Rock 100 frequency at 100.5 in December 2022. Barnes, Craig, Pendarvis, Nelson, and Jones have returned to the station (Fram left the station earlier this year, and Lowe is doing mornings on 97.1 The River)
There is a lot of 99x content (including this clip from their first week on the air) on YouTube and also on their website.
These are the top 30 hits played on 99X on June 7, 1996:
- Bush – “Machinehead”
- Dishwalla – “Counting Blue Cars”
- Fugees – “No Woman, No Cry”
- Dave Matthews Band – “Too Much”
- Nixons – “Sister”
- Primitive Radio Gods – “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money In My Hand”
- Soundgarden – “Pretty Noose”
- Jewell – “Who Will Save Your Soul”
- Stone Temple Pilots – “Trippin’ On A Hole in a Paper Heart”
- Jars Of Clay – “Flood”
- Freedy Jones Band – “In A Daydream”
- Refreshments – “Banditos”
- Paul Westerberg – “Love Untold”
- Tracy Bonham – “Mother Mother”
- Goldfinger – “Here In Your Bedroom”
- Smashing Pumpkins – “Tonight, Tonight”
- Collective Soul – “She Gathers Rain”
- Imperial Drag – “Boy Or A Girl”
- Marry Me Jane – “TwentyOne”
- 311 – “Down”
- Lenny Kravitz – “Can’t Get You Off My Mind”
- Solution AD – “Fearless’
- No Doubt – “Spiderwebs”
- Tracy Chapman – “Smoke And Ashes”
- Butthole Surfers – “Pepper”
- Cranberries – “Salvation”*
- Everclear – “Hearspeak”
- Why Store – “Lack Of Water”
- Self – “Low”
- Beck – “Where It’s At”
*The Cranberries’ first hit, “Linger,” got its first national exposure on 99X in 1993 when music director Sean Demery began playing the track before other stations did. His push helped “Linger” become a top ten hit in the U.S. and go gold.
Data used in this post is from Radio & Records dated 6/7/96 from World Radio History.com.
