Former Wilmington radio stations we wish were still on the dial

Just like all media formats, the radio industry has changed quite a lot over the past 20 or 30 years, more or less since the rise of the Internet.

A few Wilmington radio stations -- adult contemporary channel WGNI, public radio WHQR and AM stations WWIL and WMFD -- have been around for decades, but many, many more have faded into white noise. Here's a look at just five we wish we could have back for a day.

Surf 107

1990s "modern rock" radio in Wilmington -- think bands like Soundgarden and Candlebox -- was dominated by Surf 107, aka WSFM 107.5 FM. With a popular morning show, "The Morning Disaster," hosted by Brian Keith and Jim Whitmeyer, Surf 107 was a high-visibility station that often had a presence at concerts, festivals and other local events. After a corporate shake-up in the mid-2000s, Surf moved to 98.3 FM on the dial, where it was later replaced by the popular Penguin radio station. 107.5 FM is now WAZO, a Top 40 station.

WHSL

Perhaps the most lamented of all of Wilmington's former radio stations -- it's "where I discovered the Devil's music," one fan quipped -- WHSL 97.3 FM was a local titan of the old album rock format of the 1970s and '80s. ("More than just the hits," their bumper stickers proclaimed.) WHSL also hosted Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" program on the weekends for years.

B100

Fans of Top 40 hits in Wilmington in the mid-to-late 1980s tuned in to this local powerhouse at 99.9 FM. It's where you'd hear artists as diverse as Prince, Madonna, Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, Simple Minds and Robert Palmer. In the 1990s the station would change to a country format. It's been "Jammin' 99.9," an R&B oldies station, for the past two decades or so.

WLOZ

If only the walls at this former University of North Carolina Wilmington student radio station could talk. The stories are legend, how it was either shut down by university administrators or lost its FCC license (or both) in the early 1980s after student disc jockeys were allegedly selling drugs over the air. Later in the 1980s, according to Michael Plumides, who spoke to the Radio Survivor website in 2009, WLOZ returned as a "'cable radio station," requiring a special hookup to your cable TV. You had to go to Radio Shack and buy this coaxial antennae device to rig to your receiver. Needless to say, we had a deeply disturbed following." WLOZ later went to a low-power format that could only be heard on or very near campus before the WLOZ name was retired altogether in the early 2000s. Since 2007, UNCW has had Hawkstream Radio, a student-run radio station that can be streamed from the Internet.

WLGX

Believe it or not, Wilmington used to have a jazz radio station, although short-lived. In the early 2000s, WLGX occupied the dial at 106.7 FM with a "smooth jazz" format. It was later replaced by The Penguin, which is now at 98.3 FM. Wilmington musician Lan Nichols remembers late, golden-voiced Wilmington DJ Wayne Bradley, who also worked at the Penguin in the station's early days, being on the air for WLGX.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Former Wilmington NC radio stations