WDOD Chattanooga Goes CHR
March 3, 2008
Update 3/3: At 10:00am, WDOD made the change from AAA/Modern Rock to CHR, while keeping the “96.5 The Mountain” name following a short swerve as Country.
Listen to the change at the Format Change Archive.
Original Post 2/29: With speculation running rampant regarding a flip to CHR, Bahakel Broadcasting’s AAA/Modern Rock “96.5 The Mountain” WDOD-FM Chattanooga is promoting a major announcement Monday, March 3 at 10:00am. Additionally, the station has begun adding in some non-format songs such as Amy Grant “Baby Baby”, Billy Joel “River of Dreams”, and Cher “It’s In Her Kiss” as well as blocks by core artists like REM, U2, and Pearl Jam into the normal mix.
Calgary Format Change
March 3, 2008
At 3pm Mountain time, NewCap Broadcasting’s Smooth Jazz “California 103” CIQX Calgary will change formats to Classic Hits as “XL103“. In accordance with Canada’s more strict licensing regulations, Newcap needed the CRTC to remove the clause in the station’s license requiring a specialty format in order to change the format. Newcap also owns Alternative CFUL “Fuel 90.3” in Calgary.
Listen to the change at the Format Change Archive.
Separating Truth and Fiction in Atlanta
March 4, 2008
Since Citadel’s massive layoffs of personnel in Atlanta and other markets on Friday, the rumor mill has been working overtime over the fate of “Eagle 106.7” WYAY Atlanta. The following domains were registered over the past couple days fueling speculation elsewhere:
trueoldies1067.com – This domain was registered on Friday, or so people thought. Network Solutions, the registrar with which this domain was researched, puts a hold on any domain that is looked up using their domain name search so that the person looking it up has to purchase it through them if they want it immediately. If it’s not purchased after a set amount of days it goes back into the available pool. This practice has been frowned upon by the rest of the domain name industry and is supposed to come to an end.
talk1067.com – A suburban Atlanta personality registered this domain anonymously in an attempt to get people to talk about him. Good idea, bad execution.
trueoldies1067fm.com and 1067trueoldies.com – We have a winner! These domains, registered on March 2, were both registered using the same registrar as trueoldies1059.com a week earlier. Many registrars use Domains By Proxy for private registrations, however they still list which registrar was used for the purchase.
We don’t know an exact date for WYAY to flip to Oldies, or whether Don Imus will come along for the ride, but there is a buzz in the market that the change will happen next week following the WYAY sponsored Nascar event this weekend.
As an aside, if anybody thinks 955thezone.com has anything to do with WPLJ, why would it be registered by a data analytics company in Germany?
The Fan Denver Moves To FM
March 6, 2008
Another Smooth Jazz outlet is gone as Lincoln Financial Media moved Sports “950 The Fan” KKFN Denver to the 104.3 signal that had been home to KJCD at 1pm.
KKFN will simulcast on 950 and 104.3 until the end of March, when a new format will debut on 950. The Smooth Jazz format will continue on 98.5 KYGO-HD2 and SmoothJazzDenver.com.
Coastal Connecticut Frequency Swap
March 7, 2008
On Monday, March 18, Citadel will swap the formats of two of its stations in the New London/Norwich region of Connecticut. Classic Rock “104.7 The Wolf” which originates from the Mohegan Sun casino resort will move to 102.3, while News/Talker WXLM will shift to the 104.7 signal that originates across the Long Island Sound in Montauk, NY but booms across the water to Connecticut.
106.7 WYAY Atlanta To Flip Sunday
March 7, 2008
As many have predicted this week, “Eagle 106.7” WYAY Atlanta will flip from Country to Oldies as “True Oldies 106.7″ following Sunday’s broadcast of the NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Just like sister WJZW in Washington, WYAY will carry Imus in the Morning.
Score Out In Providence
March 11, 2008
A double format flip in Providence as Citadel blows up Sports talk simulcast “790/99.7 The Score” WSKO. 99.7 will flip to a simulcast of sister News/Talk 630 WPRO on Tuesday 3/11, while 790 will retain Imus in The Morning, but join its sisters in Washington and Atlanta by flipping to True Oldies on Monday, March 18. For the rest of this week, 790 will air ESPN Radio programming.
What should be interesting is how ratings for 630/99.7 WPRO and sister CHR 92 Pro-FM WPRO-FM are calculated. Will the News/Talker lose ratings if a listener writes down WPRO-FM in their diary?
95.7 KHJZ Houston Flips To CHR “Hot 95.7″
March 12, 2008
Update 3/13/08 5:00pm: Hot 95.7 debuted at 3:00pm CDT as expected. The station has a Rhythmic lean, but will most likely be classified as Mainstream CHR. The first hour on the station consisted of:
Nelly – Hot In Herre
Rihanna – Don’t Stop The Music
Miley Cyrus – See You Again
T-Pain – Buy You A Drink
Mariah Carey – Touch My Body
Webbie – Independent
Fergie – Clumsy
Soulja Boy – Crank Dat
Chris Brown – With You
Cascada – What Hurts The Most
Flo-Rida – Low
Kanye West – Stronger
Jordin Sparks – No Air
Sean Kingston – Take You There
Sara Bareilles – Love Song
Update 3/12/08 7:00pm: At 5:37pm CDT, KHJZ began stunting with a loop of Freestyler’s “Don’t Stop” and Rhianna’s “Don’t Stop The Music” interspersed with announcements proclaiming something new Thursday March 13, at 3:00pm.
Original Entry 3/12/08 4:00pm: CBS Radio’s Smooth Jazz “95.7 The Wave” KHJZ Houston will be flipping to CHR as “Hot 95.7″. The logo above appeared on the CBS Radio webserver earlier today. Net Gnomes have discovered the anonymous registrations of Hot957fm.com and HotHits957.com, along with .net and .org variations which fit with the proposed format. When the flip occurs, Houston will join New York, Washington D.C., and Denver as major markets that have lost Smooth Jazz in the past few weeks.
The full version of the logo linked above can be seen on the CBS Server here.
Philadelphia Sports Shuffle
March 19, 2008
Update 3/20/08: The full lineup at “950 ESPN” is set. WPEN will air the first three hours of Mike & Mike from 6 to 9am. Current afternoon driver Jody MacDonald moves to 9am to 1pm. ESPN’s Mike Tirico Show will air from 1pm to 3pm. Mike Missanelli (formerly of crosstown 610 WIP and most recently co-hosting Stephen A. Smith’s national program based out of 1050 WEPN New York) will do 3pm to 7pm. Current midday co-host Harry Mayes shifts to 7pm to 11pm along with new co-host Dan Schwartzman, who was previously doing afternoons on 920 WPHY Trenton before they dropped ESPN in January.
Original Report 3/19/08: Greater Media Sports Talker “SportsRadio 950” WPEN will relaunch on April 1 as “950 ESPN” with the addition of the Mike & Mike morning show. Further lineup changes are pending. Current morning co-host Glenn Foley (former New York Jets Quarterback) will leave the station, while Michael Bradley awaits word on his new role according to PhillyGossip.com.
This move follows ESPN LMA’ing 1040 WJHR Flemington, NJ (now WENJ) to simulcast sister 1050 WEPN New York in January. The chain reaction there caused sister 920 WPHY Trenton to drop the ESPN affiliation as it had been targetting Philadelphia’s Northeast suburbs as the ESPN affiliate for the market. Trenton will regain its own sports talker on March 31 as Milennium Radio’s 1260 WBUD will switch to Sports as “Fox Sports 1260″.
Macon Moves
March 21, 2008
Update 3/21/08: It took a little longer than we thought, but the Macon flip occurred earlier this week. “The Peach” AC format is now on the to be spun-off 102.5 frequency, while Country “The Bull” has relocated to 96.5.
Original Post 2/6/08: As we noted last week in our report about a pending frequency swap in Bakersfield, if Clear Channel is going to go through with its privatization plan there are going to be frequency swaps in order to keep the formats it wants in the markets it must spin-off some stations.
Next up seems to be Macon, GA where Clear Channel looks to be swapping Country WEBL “102.5 The Bull” to 96.5 and Classic Hits “Peach 96.5” WPCH to the 102.5 frequency it will be disposing of. Towards that goal, peach1025.com and 965thebull.com were registered this week.
