Sirius Lineup Changes
November 12, 2008
On Wednesday, November 12 Sirius XM Radio will launch a new lineup that includes the merger of a number of duplicated music formats on both platforms. The following lists the changes listeners will expect to hear tomorrow.
XM Lineup Changes
November 11, 2008
On Wednesday, November 12 Sirius XM Radio will launch a new lineup that includes the merger of a number of duplicated music formats on both platforms. The following lists the changes listeners will expect to hear tomorrow.
Fan Blowing in Baltimore?
November 2, 2008
Is CBS getting ready to move its sports talker in Baltimore from AM to FM? A few new domain registrations seem to point in that direction as the company registered sportsradio1057.com, sportsradio1057thefan.com, and 1057thefan.com last week.
105.7 is currently FM Talker WHFS, which has attempted to reinvent itself a few times from its beginnings as a local outlet for Howard Stern and Don & Mike to its current mix of locally based Hot Talk and Issues talk and Sports. 105.7 is currently the Flagship station for Baltimore Orioles baseball and University of Maryland Football and Basketball along with local sports talk at night.
CBS currently operates “ESPN 1300” WJFK in Baltimore with local midday and afternoon hosts flanking the ESPN network programming. Combining all the local sports programming on the FM signal could be a strong cornerstone for a new station.
Talking Big in Washington
November 2, 2008
Update 11/2/08: Some snooping on the CBS Webserver has brought us the above image showcasing some of the hosts coming to WPGC. WPHT Philadelphia (which happens to use the same Big Talker branding) morning host Michael Smerconish is featured along with syndicated hosts Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Lou Dobbs, and Dr. Laura. We wouldn’t be surprised to see the new format launch in time for Tuesday’s election.
Original Post 10/21/08: 1580 WPGC Morningside, MD/Washington, DC has always been the bastard child of the CBS cluster in the Washington market. Bouncing in and out of simulcasts with FM sister 95.5 WPGC-FM, the station had seen some success in recent years as a gospel outlet until Radio-One launched that format on 104.1 WPRS. That led WPGC to shift to Black Talk and last month back to a simulcast of the FM.
However, a new format seems to be in the works as CBS has registered BigTalker1580.com, DCBigTalk.com, and DCBigTalker.com. Our guess is we’ll see some of the syndicated talkers recently dropped by the failure of 1500/107.7 WWWT on the powerful 50kw daytime and flea powered 270 watt nighttime signal of 1580.
Beating The Energy Away in Phoenix
October 21, 2008
Sierra H Broadcasting has announced that it will pull the plug on Dance “Energy 92.7/101.1” KNRJ Payson/Phoenix, AZ at 5pm on 10/31. Following a weekend of stunting, a new format will debut on Monday, November 3 at 9:27am.
We’ve discovered a domain registration that seems to point to a new format for the station. 927TheBeatAZ.com was registered anonymously last Friday. Now, we’ll go into speculation mode. “Krazy” Kid and Ruben, longtime Phoenix area personalities were let go earlier this month from CBS’ KZON “101.5 Jamz” in a budget cutting move. Sierra H quickly gave the pair a chance to do a “farewell” show on sister 104.3 KAJM. Bringing them to KNRJ would give the station a big publicity boom in the market. Whether this will happen we shall see in two weeks.
KCBS San Francisco To Add FM Simulcast
October 21, 2008
CBS Radio has announced that All-News 740 KCBS San Francisco will begin simulcasting on sister Classic Hits 106.9 KFRC on Monday, October 27 at 7:40am. The entire KFRC staff has been let go, but the format will continue on 106.9-HD2.
106.9 will retain the KFRC call letters as KCBS-FM is used by sister “93.1 Jack-FM” in Los Angeles.
Memphis Changes In A Snap
October 17, 2008
Update 10/17/08 3:00pm: That was quick. At 2:00PM local time, WSNA became “Classic Hits 94-1 KQK” launching with Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll”.
Original Post 10/17/08 2:30pm: A format change is imminent at Entercom Rhythmic AC “Snap 94.1” WSNA Germantown, TN/Memphis. Call letters as of today have been changed to WKQK and a domain registration of 941kqk.com has been made by Entercom.
Additionally, sister “FM100″ WMC-FM morning co-host Karen Perrin has posted on her blog that she will be moving across the hall to 94.1 with former partner Steve Conley for the morning slot there starting this monday.
Now 97.5 Philadelphia
September 8, 2008
Greater Media flipped Smooth Jazz 97.5 WJJZ Burlington, NJ/Philadelphia to AC as “Now 97.5” at 9am EDT today after a weekend of teasing “Something New. Something Now.”
The station is targetting crosstown AC WBEB “B101″ with a “younger approach to soft rock” and commercial-free workdays. While not as younger-skewing as “Fresh” branded stations in New York and elsewhere, WJJZ is cut from the same mold, while having to protect sister Variety Hits 95.7 Ben-FM.
Discussions of the implications “Now 97.5″ will have on the market are taking place right here.
The first hour of Now 97.5 consisted of:
Pink - Who Knew
Lee Ann Womack - I Hope You Dance
Mariah Carey - Always Be My Baby
Jimmy Buffett - Margaritaville
Daniel Powter - Bad Day
Tina Turner - What’s Love Got To Do With It
Bonnie Raitt - Something To Talk About
Lifehouse - You And Me
Fleetwood Mac - Don’t Stop
Jesse McCartney - Beautiful Soul
Genesis - Hold On My Heart
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
John Mayer - No Such Thing
Kelly Clarkson - Because Of You
Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Max Knows Bakersfield
August 4, 2008
Last week, Lotus Communications completed its swap with Clear Channel of 104.5 KZEP San Antonio, TX for 101.9 KWID Las Vegas, NV and 96.5 KBKO Bakersfield, CA. With the swap complete, the Country format of KBKO signed off and the station began stunting towards the debut of a new format on Tuesday, August 5 at 12pm local time. What will the new format be?
On July 23, Greg Holcomb registered 965maxfm.com. Who is Greg Holcomb? He just happens to be the newly appointed General Manager of KBKO. The Max-FM branding is mainly used these days on Variety Hits or Rock oriented stations, although has been used on formats diverse as Hot AC and Sports in the past as well. Holcomb was quoted on Friday in The Bakersfield Californian stating the new format would be “family-friendly adult format with no controversial content”.
970 WWDJ New York to go Talk
July 25, 2008
After 34 years as a Christian station, Salem Communications will flip 970 WWDJ Hackensack, NJ to Talk as “970 The Apple”. On July 25, the WWDJ call letters were swapped with sister 1150 WTTT Boston. The WTTT calls in New York will be short-lived, as Salem requested WNYM, which can also be seen in the station logo above. As a historical aside, WNYM were the calls of Salem’s first New York outlet on 1330 until the purchase of 570 WMCA in 1989.
970theapple.com and am970theapple.com were both registered on June 13. While the domains are not active, the site for the future format can be found at http://am970theapple.townhall.com.
A look at the schedule listed on the website includes Fox News Radio’s John Gibson from 5 to 8am, The Wall Street Journal Report from 10am to 11am, Bill Bennett from 11am to 2pm, Mike Gallagher from 2pm to 5pm, Dennis Prager from 5pm to 8pm, Michael Medved from 8pm to 11pm, Hugh Hewitt from 11pm to 2am, and Dr. Laura Schlessinger from 2am to 5am. Jim Bohannon is listed without a timeslot, while no program is listed from 8am to 10am. Bennett, Gallagher, Prager, Medved, and Hewitt are all syndicated by Salem.
