Oh, man, where to begin. I moved here in '94 and -- except for a few months in Houston -- have been her ever since.
At that time, only Tom Light Chevrolet, Fred Brown BMW, Bossier Dodge, and Allen Honda were on the bypass. Gary Stevenson's Quality Pontiac, Varsity Ford, Allen Olds-Cadillac, Douglass Nissan, and University Toyota were all on Texas Avenue. Most of the buildings are still there.
There were no HEBs, only HEB Pantrys. One was where Harmony Academy is now, the other is where DSW is now, and I think the third was north, near Texas and 21 where the current HEB is now. I remember thinking First National was crazy for building at Rock Prairie and 6 because nothing else was out there except Brazos Valley/Columbia/College Station Medical Center and the Exxon. (And that, my friends, is why I don't have a future in development.)
El Chico in College Station was at Texas and Holleman. The parking lot was huge because that site had a car dealership at one time. Across the street used to be Innovations Furniture (worst radio jingle ever) and Kokopelli's restaurant.
My lack of studying prowess forced me to take classes at Blinn in both the old Townshire Shopping Center (where Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market is now) and the Woodstone "Party" Center, as it was billed then. That's where The Tap is now and always has been.
KBTX has always been on 29th. I applied at KTEX 106 in late 1994 because they had a sales office in the shopping center at Briarcrest and Kent. I was "guaranteed" that they would be moving their studios from downtown Brenham to Bryan in 1995. It's nearly 20 years later and they're still in Brenham. Aggie 96 was in a building on Texas near the relocated Buddy's, which was in the aforementioned Townshire Center. (I understand Buddy's old location was a Sears once upon a time.) I helped move Mix 104.7 from Manor East Mall to one of the small Galleria Village buildings between the tower and AppleTree, now Village Foods. That was in April or May of 1997. The next year, I helped move Aggie 96 from Crystal Park Plaza to the same location.
WTAW was once on Mobile Avenue in Bryan, and still owns the property. That's where the transmitters are, plus the old studio building is still standing, that right behind the old Triangle Bowl, which is now an indoor storage facility. The 'TAW relocated to the Galleria Tower, along with KTSR in the 80s or 90s. Big Daddy Downs would know for sure. They later moved into Crystal Park, where they are to this day. Shortly before I joined Bryan Broadcasting, WTAW was on the 1150 AM frequency, but moved to their current 1620 and increased power. That allowed them to add KZNE. When I started there in October 2000, we had WTAW, The Zone, and KTSR. Now, KTSR is gone, Candy 95 has proved to be VERY lucrative (haters gon hate), Peace 107 has filled a very nice niche in this market. Plus, they have KWBC in Navasota and KAGC, which used to be near College and Carson in Bryan, where KEOS is now.
Atmos Energy built our current location in the 90s, next to the former Bossier (now Lithia) Dodge. Our old building (Lone Star Gas) is in downtown Bryan, just down from the courthouse on 26th Street. It's now the location for Brazos County IT but you can still identify the building. Lone Star built mosaics into the facade of the building, including blue flames, representative of natural gas. That facade is still there.
OK, my fingers are tired. It's someone else's turn now! And, if I got anything wrong, please correct me. Love these threads. I am a total history nerd and wear it as a badge of honor!