On the weekend of July 4, 1997, it was finally possible to put together a good Northeast corridor CHR road trip. WHTZ (Z100) New York and WPST Trenton, N.J., were back from Alternative. WIOQ (Q102) Philadelphia was dance/CHR along the lines of WKTU New York, but finishing an evolution to Mainstream CHR. Longtime R&B outlet WXYV (V103) Baltimore had just flipped to CHR, inspired by WWZZ (Z104), which had made surprising inroads into Washington, D.C.—previously believed to be a “CHR will never work here again” market.

It was the weekend that confirmed that CHR was finally back as a “best of everything” format that could be viable in most places. In his reminiscence of the summer, Steve Greenberg correctly cites a series of hits that tipped the balance. You can also talk about a succession of additional music styles that each took hold. CHR’s comeback began as “Modern AC with jingles.” WKTU’s Eurodance broke up the earnestness. Now we had teen pop (Spice Girls/Backstreet Boys/Robyn) and pure pop made hip by a little quirkiness (“Bitch,” “Your Woman,” “How Bizarre,” “Lovefool,” “I Want You”). Hanson, Greenberg’s signing, ticked both boxes.

Inspired by readers’ obvious fondness for the summer of ’97, here’s a coast-to-coast “Throwback Listen” analysis of five airchecks from that summer, courtesy of Radioinsight’s Lance Venta and FMAirchecks.com’s Tanim Hussain (and click the links to hear them yourself). Driving down I-95, CHR was pretty much of a piece; only WSTW Wilmington, Del., was then, as now, still at the Hot AC end of the format. Around the country, with “The Freshman” also atop the charts, and “Butterfly Kisses” just running its course, different stations were in different places.

106.1 WBLI Long Island, N.Y., May 16, 9 p.m.

Through the doldrums, WBLI was a Hot AC. When it returned to CHR under PD Ken Medek, it was with a heavy dollop of the dance music heard on WKTU and Z104. On this Friday night in late spring, longtime APD/MD Al Levine and the station sound great. This hour features the “Fresh Five” countdown; the No. 1 song countdown is “Mmmbop” and Levine is still talking about them as if they’re new to listeners. Then there’s an interview with the lead singer of Livin’ Joy, Tameka Starr, in advance of a show in the market. The following hour is the Friday night party jam.

During the countdown, Levine does a phoner with then-jock, now broadcast owner Vic “Latino” Canales. He plugs the station’s upcoming “Summer Jam.” One amusing sidenote. Recently, I got into a Twitter exchange about the hits of 1997 in which a reader asked how he might play Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch” on a feature without actually saying the name of the song. A few days later, I heard this aircheck and there was Levine doing a music teaser and joking about the same issue. (When the song actually played, the break was about something else.)

Here’s WBLI just before the start of the “Fresh Five”:

• Paula Cole, “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”
• Dino, “Ooh Child”
• Faithless, “Insomnia” (No. 5 on the countdown)
• Mark Morrison, “Return of the Mack” (4)
• Jock Jam, “Jock Jam (New York Knicks Mix)” (3)
• Freak Nasty, “Da Dip” (2)
• Hanson, “Mmmbop” (1)
• 3^rd Party, “Can You Feel It”
• Livin’ Joy, “Don’t Stop Movin’”
• Bizarre, Inc., “I’m Gonna Get You”
• Meredith Brooks, “Bitch”
• Peaches & Herb, “Shake Your Groove Thing” (staged as a “Dance Classic”)

WXYV (102.7 XYV) Baltimore, June 27, First Hour

A year earlier, on a so-so signal, D.C.’s Z104 staked its claim to a market where mainstream CHR was fragmented in the ‘80s and non-existent in the ‘90s. In 1993, no pop CHR could have hoped to be cooler than Hip-Hop/R&B WPGC. By July 1997, WXYV’s GM was WPGC’s Ben Hill and he was the voice of the launch promo.

Z104 signed on playing a lot of the dance/pop hits accumulated in six months of WKTU (which, had itself, drawn on every viable Eurodance title of the last few years as a quasi-current). On July 4 weekend, its powers (getting 68x spins a week) included “Call Me” by Le Click and “Rhythm Of Love” by DJ Company. The new “’XYV” drew on that bank of music, too—the introductory hour has LaBouche, Le Click, Fun Factory, and Real McCoy.

But Z104 signed on with female-voiced sweepers and an earnest/ironic almost Modern AC feel. ‘XYV came in hot with Randy Reeves stagers. It’s frenetic in a way that you can’t imagine a CHR being these days–or at any time in recent years. Here’s the station in its first hour:

• Jock Jam, “Jock Jam” (medley begins with 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready for This”)
• LaBouche, “Be My Lover”
• Crystal Waters, “100% Pure Love”
• Hanson, “Mmmbop”
• Ace of Base, “Don’t Turn Around”
• White Town, “Your Woman”
• Fun Factory, “Close To You”
• Wallflowers, “One Headlight”
• Diana King, “Shy Guy”
• Le Click, “Tonight Is The Night”
• Spice Girls, “Wannabe”
• Mark Morrison, “Return of the Mack”
• Real McCoy, “Another Night”
• Freak Nasty, “Da Dip”
• Gina G., “Ooh Aah, Just A Little Bit”

WMGI (100.7 Mix-FM) Terre Haute, Ind., July 16

At a time when CHR had been decimated in both major- and smaller-markets, 100.7 Mix FMs was one of the first format launches and an instant success in early 1995. In summer ’97, a few weeks after the WXYV aircheck, Mix is where a lot of its secondary-market brethren were at this time, still heavily invested in Modern AC but starting to filter in everything else.

This is an aircheck of a live overnighter with promo and sweeper cameos from PD Steve Smith and the Dave & Wendy morning show. The live overnighter part is hard to imagine now; the morning show promo is for a prank phone call, that part endures. Here’s WMGI at Midnight on July 16:

• Alanis Morissette, “Head Over Feet”
• Puff Daddy, “I’ll Be Missing You”
• Hootie & the Blowfish, “Only Wanna Be With You”
• Hanson, “Where’s The Love”
• Jewel, “You Were Meant For Me”
• Dishwalla, “Counting Blue Cars”
• Cece Peniston, “Finally”
• Shawn Colvin, “Sunny Came Home”
• Monaco, “What Do You Want From Me?”
• Amber, “This Is Your Night”
• Tonic, “If You Could Only See”
• Wallflowers, “One Headlight”
• No Mercy, “Where Do You Go”
• Sister Hazel, “All For You”

WBBM-FM (B96) Chicago, August 13

In the time before WKTU’s 1996 relaunch, B96 was the station that held it down for dance/pop. In this snapshot from summer ’97, as dance/pop takes over the coasts, and makes inroads elsewhere, they’re leaning more R&B/Hip-Hop. But there’s also Shawn Colvin. There’s also Jewel, according to the station’s printed playlist (which also shows more dance/pop than is heard in this stretch). And the positioner is still “Chicago’s Dance Beat.”

This is a great aircheck of recently named WFNZ Charlotte, N.C., PD Terry Foxx in a commercial-free hour. The station is giving away a “brand new life,” which Foxx describes as “a brand-new beautiful home, $15,000 and a dog.” As with everything from this era, there’s something to make you wistful. In this case, it’s the promo for a bar remote, sponsored by Corona. Here’s B96 just after 3 p.m.

• Shawn Colvin, “Sunny Came Home”
• Changing Faces, “G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T.”
• Salt ‘N’ Pepa, “Whatta Man”
• Blackstreet, “Don’t Leave Me”
• Nice & Wild, “Diamond Girl”
• Spice Girls, “2 Become 1”
• God’s Property, “Stomp”
• Robyn, “Show Me Love”
• Prince, “1999”
• Timmy T, “One More Try”
• Notorious B.I.G., “Mo Money, Mo Problems”
• TLC, “Waterfalls”
• Toni Braxton, “You’re Makin’ Me High (Dance Remix)”

102.7 KIIS-FM Los Angeles, August 29

Night jock Jojo’s first break on this aircheck is a three-artist teaser—Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and Hanson, a perfect capper for this discussion of the format comeback. Then he solicits a qualifier for a trip to the MTV Music Awards. At the end of the segment, there’s also a casually great opening break from Chris “Lear Jet” Leary, shortly before his career moved him into syndication and TV hosting, that definitely belongs in the “they don’t jock ‘em like that anymore” pile.

“The most-listened to station in Western America,” KIIS upholds its reputation here as the show-biz capital of the CHR format. That said, it’s also one of the CHRs that have taken the “police radio” sound of Alternative radio and made it just slightly friendlier. There are also a number of sweepers that are just “102.7 KIIS FM.” It’s a sneak preview of the format’s coming presentational starkness. The “world premiere” sweeper before the Janet Jackson show is a sneak preview as well.

Here’s KIIS in the 9 p.m. hour on Aug. 29. While many major-market CHRs were spinning their powers about 65x that week, KIIS was at 87x on its most-played song, “Men In Black.”

• Everything But The Girl, “Missing”
• Janet Jackson (f/Q-Tip & Joni Mitchell), “Got ‘Til It’s Gone”
• Will Smith, “Men In Black”
• Spice Girls, “Say You’ll Be There”
• Third Eye Blind, “Semi-Charmed Life”
• Crystal Waters, “100% Pure Love”
• Backstreet Boys, “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)”
• Hanson, “Mmmbop”
• Mr. President, “Coco Jamboo”
• Robyn, “Do You Know (What It Takes)”
• Puff Daddy, “I’ll Be Missing You”

Want more? Here’s a summer ’97 Spotify playlist, courtesy of Josh Hosler’s Pop Music Anthology site.