Happy Birthday 103.5 WKTU, 17 years Old

[♛ The Manticore ☯]

Yep, exactly 17 years ago on Feb 10, 1996 the new KTU launched (same call letters from the original 92 Disco KTU 1975-1985) and made a big impact in its early years. They played a little of everything like dance, trance, house, eurodance, progressive, pop, latin freestyle, Hi NRG, 70's disco, remixes, rhythmic, etc. I remember when I was in high school in 1996 everyone else was into Hot 97 and hiphop at that time while I was into KTU.

But the new KTU was my type of station because I was really into 90's eurodance and latin freestyle. I also liked the on air personalities at that time like Broadway Bill Lee, Efren Sifuentes, RuPaul, Hollywood & Goumba, Vic Latino, Michelle Visage and more.

2006 was when WKTU went downhill and changed/tweaked formats and no longer played the current EDM and instead went rhythmic AC and old school dance golds. Currently, I wish KTU was like the way it was from 1996-2006 with the rise of EDM's popularity right now but since they are currently doing good in ratings, they much rather play it safe and only add the ones that crossed over (Swedish House Mafia, Calvin Harris, etc.)

What were your favorite songs on WKTU and do you miss the 1996-2006 era?

My favorite songs that was played on the station (1996-2006) were:

ATB - 9PM (Till I Come)
Perpetuous Dreamer - The Sound of Goodbye
Fragma - Toca's Miracle
Motorcycle - As the rush comes
Andain - Beautiful things
Everything but the Girl - Missing (Todd Terry Mix)
Melanie C - I Turn To You (Hex Hector Radio Mix)
Dannii Minogue - I begin to wonder
Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby
Kristine W. - One More Try
Opera Trance feat. Emma Shapplin - Spente Le Stelle
Amuka - Appreciate Me
The Roc Project - Never (Past tense) & Deja Vu
Armin van Buuren feat. Justine Suissa - Burned with desire
Funky Green Dogs - Fired Up!
The Blackout Allstars - I Like It (Like That)
Ian van Dahl - Castles In The Sky
Modjo - Lady (Hear me Tonight)
Dirty Vegas - Days go by
The Original - I Luv U Baby
Gigi D'Agostino - I'll Fly Away
The Goodmen - Give It Up
Ace of Base - Beautiful Life
The Bad Yard Club feat. Crystal Waters - In de ghetto
La Rissa - I do both Jay & Jane
Tiesto feat. BT - Love Comes Again
David Morales feat. Lea Lorien - How would u feel
Stonebridge - Put Em High
The Sicilians feat. Angelo Venuto - L'Italiano

Aircheck:
Erfren Sifuentes WKTU Summer of 1996
soundcloud.com/efrenradio/efren-sifuentes-aircheck-wktu

Vic Latino & the Top 8 at 8, WKTU 103-5 “The Beat of New York” | June 25, 2002
airchexx.com/2011/02/09/vinnie-latino-the-top-8-at-8-wktu-103-5-the-beat-of-new-york-june-25-2002/

WKTU (103.5 The New ‘KTU) – New York – 12/1/96 – Al Bandiero
fmairchecks.com/2012/12/02/wktu-december-1-1996-al-bandiero/

[beach1]

I miss the era from early to mid 90s to around 2002-2003. The era from 99 or 2000 to 2002, is probably my favorite time for dance music since that's around the time that I first really started avidly getting into a lot of it. Some of my favorites from around that time are Perpetuous Dreamer - Sound of Goodbye, Fragma - Toca's Miracle (one of the songs that first got me into trance, even if it isn't necessarily trance), Melanie C - I Turn To You (Hex Hector remix, especially the radio edit, since the awesome bridge part in it is missing from the full club mix, I think), and Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby (always loved hearing this on the radio while driving home from school).

Edit//Just listened to the soundchecks, didn't recognize a lot of the songs played tbh, but love the ones that I did, like Kylie Minogue - Love At First Sight (lol at Kylie's "Holla!"). Really, really love the Above and Beyond remix of Perpetuous Dreamer - Sound of Goodbye as well. That type of trance from around that time is one of my favorite types of trance ever. Also love Lasgo - Something.

[TechnoKelvin]

I myself grew up listening to dance in the 90's, I was born in 1985, but didn't go full on into dance until Party 93.1 in 2002.

After that it was dance or nothing.

Still is.

[TechnoKelvin]

Actually, does anyone have any charts or any other way to show what was played during WKTU's golden years?

Besides memory.

[♛ The Manticore ☯]

Feb 22, 2013 9:42:25 GMT -5 TechnoKelvin said:

Actually, does anyone have any charts or any other way to show what was played during WKTU's golden years?

Besides memory.

Sure thing TechnoKelvin. Only thing missing is the 1997 chart and the 2005 and 2006 year end chart weren't impressive since new music was getting fewer and fewer. But the rest were great and personally the 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 were my favorites. The 2004 chart on page 2 is OK.

103.5 KTU Charts
pulsemusic.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=dance&action=display&thread=15999