City New Orleans, Louisiana | Branding Bayou 95.7 | |
Broadcast area New Orleans metropolitan area Slogan New Orleans' Classic Rock Frequency 95.7 MHz) (also on HD Radio)
95.7 HD-2 for Heavy metal "The Metal Channel" First air date February 1953 (as WWMT) | ||
WKBU, a.k.a. Bayou 95.7, is a classic rock radio station serving the New Orleans area in the US. The Entercom station is licensed to New Orleans, Louisiana and broadcast at 95.7 MHz with an ERP of 100 kW. The station's studios are located at the 400 Poydras Tower in New Orleans' downtown area, and the transmitter site is in the city's Algiers district.
WKBU has an HD-2 station which format consists of live concerts of "Bayou 95.7"'s classic rock artists.
History
Before October 2005, the station was oldies WTKL. WTKL was at one time beautiful music WBYU (called Bayou 96) before going through a succession of ill-fated formats from country as WQXY (Y-96) from 1987 to 1990 and adult contemporary as WMXZ (Mix 95.7) from 1990 to 1993 before settling on an oldies format that lasted for 12 years as Kool 95.7 FM.
In early October 2005, WKBU (Bayou 105.3 FM) and WTKL (Kool 95.7 FM) switched frequencies because according to Chief Engineer Kevin Duplantis "WKBU 105.3's original transmitter was badly damaged" during Hurricane Katrina. A subsequent filing with the FCC outlined that the station's transmitter was damaged by flooding from Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.
In May 2006, Bayou 95.7 changed its slogan from "Rockin' The Bayou" to "Everything That Rocks" and broadened its playlist as the station became the only terrestrial ROCK format in the Crescent City as the previous Modern Rock station KKND also suffered transmitter damage and was subsequently reformatted to country music. This all changed however on November 13, 2006, when Clear Channel Communications flipped KHEV to Active rock, thus giving the New Orleans radio market two rock-formatted stations, with KHEV targeting young adult (18+) male listeners and avoiding the older material WKBU currently plays.
Bayou 95.7 is an 1980s-based Classic Rock Station with some 1970s and 1990s music mixed in.
Bayou 95.7 is currently New Orleans' only classic rock radio station. The John Osterlind (with sidekick/producer Brewster) Morning Show combines talk, comedy and classic rock in the morning (live 6am-10am). Jason Ginty rocks the Midday from 10am-2pm. Kat hosts 2pm-7pm. Nights are hosted by Stoneman A.K.A. Stoney. Dee Snider hosts "House of Hair" Saturday nights from 9pm-midnight. Alice Cooper airs Sunday evenings, 7pm-midnight. The rest of the weekend is handled by Kat, Cassidy, Eric, Jason and Brewster.
Specialty programming includes; Two-fer Tuesdays (2 songs by each artist all day), "Get the Led Out" Led Zeppelin blocks weeknights at 6:45 pm, "Bayou 6 Pack" themed weekends, Bayou B-Sides and Ginty's Music Notes at Noon.