WTIX-FM

WTIX-FM
City of license Galliano, Louisiana
Broadcast area Galliano/New Orleans, Louisiana
Branding 94.3 WTIX-FM
Slogan "New Orleans' Oldies Station"
Frequency 94.3 (MHz)
First air date 1995
Format Oldies
ERP 100,000 watts
HAAT 299 meters
Class C1
Facility ID 8382
Callsign meaning The WTIX calls came from the legendary Top 40 AM station in New Orleans from the 1960s and 1970s, but the FM is not related to the original station.
Owner Fleur de Lis Broadcasting
Website www.wtixfm.com

WTIX-FM is an oldies outlet serving the New Orleans area. The station is owned by Michael A. "Michael In The Morning" Costello (under the name Fleur de Lis Broadcasting) and operates at 94.3 MHz with an ERP of 100 kW. Its City of License is Galliano, Louisiana.

Contents

History

Costello was Program Director at WRNO-FM from 1976 to 1991 and also hosted the morning show as "Michael In The Morning" (M&M),also hosted the Sunday night edition of The Rock 'N'Roll Hall Of Fame, acquired the former KLEB-FM from the Harold Callais family which was a country music outlet in 1995, flipped it to its current format. The station is modeled after the original Top 40 AM station WTIX, which was a very successful Top 40 outlet in New Orleans from the 1950s through the 1970s. He increased the transmitted power and moved the antenna from its original location to its present location in 1998 to better serve the New Orleans metro area. Mike Costello also handles GM, PD, and also hosts the morning show. Many of the jingles used on WTIX-FM are the originals used by WTIX-AM in the 1960s and 1970s. WTIX-FM also adapts a time-honored feature from the old WTIX-AM: the "Chime Time", wherein a chime rang whenever jocks gave the time on the air. (Coincidentally, "Chime Time" was also the staple of Musicradio WABC in its heyday.)

Interestingly, WTIX-FM's format, Oldies, is patterned after half of WTIX-AM's late-1980s hybrid Talk/Oldies format (before the latter switched to All-Talk in 1988). Four of the WTIX-FM disc jockeys, "Hot" Rod Glenn, Bobby Reno, "King" Bob Walker and Terry Knight, also had ties to the original 'TIX on AM. Knight and Walker have since left TIX-FM, though Walker (a 'TIX staple since October 1967 who also hosted The 'TIX Original Oldie Hour on The Mighty 690 at noon between 1979 and 1984) has returned briefly in December 2005, resuming the humorous afternoon traffic routine with Sergeant T-Ben Boudreaux that was originally a staple on KQLD-FM Oldies 106.7 from 1989-1992; this resurrection lasted through August 2006. Mighty 690 alumnus Bobby Reno currently covers Walker's former 3:00-7:00 p.m. time slot.

Sgt. T-Ben's daily segment, "The News You Need Now!," which debuted in June 2004 and airs 3 times during the Michael In The Morning show (at 6:35, 8:05 and 9:35 a.m.), is a tongue-in-cheek mock news report concerning local politicians, national celebrities and various topical news stories, concluding with his signature catchphrase, "Nobody cares!" And "JD The DJ," J. Douglas, veteran DJ at such stations as WPTR in Albany, KIRL in St. Louis, and WIXO-FM, WNOE-AM and WRNO-FM in New Orleans, pilots the "Rock and Roll Flight to Midnight," Mondays through Fridays at WTIX-FM.

WTIX-FM 17 Choice Oldies, an album originally released on LP by The Mighty 690 in 1967, had been reissued on compact disc in 2005. Another CD, WTIX At The Beach, a compilation of summertime-themed oldies, was released in 2008, and there is a new disc, WTIX Back To The Beach, released in July 2011.

Its current slogan is "New Orleans' Oldies Station, TIX-FM."

Jocks

Former Jocks

External links