Update 10/29: Clear Channel has flipped 12 stations to Comedy today running the 24/7 Comedy service. The new Comedy affiliates are:
1420 WACT Tuscaloosa AL (Was News/Talk simulcasting 105.9 WRTR)
800 KBFP Baskersfield CA (Was simulcasting Spanish Oldies “La Presciosa 105.3” KBFP-FM)
92.3 W222AF Atlanta GA (Was simulcasting “ESPN Deportes 640” WGST)
1460 WHAL Columbus GA (Was Sports “Fox Sports 1460“)
1280 WIBB Macon GA (Was Gospel “Hallelujah 1280“)
1470 KWSL Sioux City IA (Was Classic Country “The Whistle“)
1580 WWTF Lexington KY (Was Urban AC “Groovin 1580” WGVN)
1210 WLRO Baton Rouge LA (Was Gosepl “Hallelujah 1210“)
1470 WJDY Salisbury MD (Was Sports “Fox Sports 1470“)
1370 WJIP Ellenville NY (Was simulcasting News/Talk 1450 WKIP Poughkeepsie)
107.1 WLRX Ironton OH (Was Rock simulcasting “X106.3” WAMX Huntington WV)
1400 WBBD Wheeling WV (Was Oldies “Real Oldies 1400“)
Update 8/13: A document on the Clear Channel server gives away 12 of the stations that Clear Channel will be flipping to Comedy. In case the document gets purged we’ve archived it here and here.
Going through the previous domain registrations we can lock down the following:
Comedy925.com: Conservative Talk “92.5 The Patriot” KRPT San Antonio
Comedy1045.com: 104.5 KKMY-HD2 Beaumont TX (Which is heard on 103.3 K277AG Beaumont)
Comedy1073.com: Country 107.3 KFXR-FM Gallup NM
Comedy800.com: Spanish Adult 800 KBFP Bakersfield whose Spanish Adult “La Preciosa” format will remain on 105.3 KBFP-FM
Comedy850.com: Sports “South Sound Sports” KHHO Tacoma WA.
Comedy960.com: The site lists Sports “ESPN 960” WTGM Salisbury but the site listed redirects to sister “Fox Sports 1470” WJDY
Comedy1370.com: News/Talk WJIP Ellenville NY which currently simulcasts 1450 WKIP Poughkeepsie
Comedy1420.com: News/Talk WACT Tuscaloosa AL, whose programming is also heard on sister 105.9 WRTR.
Comedy1440.com: The first affiliate of the network “Funny 1440” KFNY Riverside CA
Comedy1460.com: “Fox Sports 1460” WHAL Columbus GA
Comedy1470.com: Classic Country “The Whistle” KWSL Sioux City IA
Comedy1580.com: Urban AC “Groovin 1580” WGVN Lexington KY
Stations listed without any matching domains are 1350 WCHI Chillicothe OH and 107.1 WLRX Huntington WV, which both simulcast sister stations in their markets.
We still don’t know the status of the following domains, with our thoughts on each:
Comedy640.com: Three Talk stations owned by CC on 640: KFI Los Angeles, WHLO Akron, and WGST Atlanta. Is this related to the coming frequency shuffle in Atlanta?
Comedy930.com: WPKX Rochester NH which currently simulcasts 1380 WMYF Portsmouth or WFXJ Jacksonville whose programming is heard on 106.9 W295AZ in the market.
Comedy1210.com: Only one option here. WLRO Baton Rouge, which dropped Sports for Gospel earlier this year.
Comedy1280.com: Gospel WODT New Orleans, whose format is duplicated on sister 940 WYLD is likeliest of seven possible options.
Comedy1450.com: Five possibilities including KTZR Tucson, which dropped the format in a market shuffle last fall, WILM Wilmington DE, WHNK Parkersburg WV, WKIP Poughkeepsie NY, and WSDV Sarasota FL.
Comedy1590.com: WZRX Jackson MS and WSRW Chillicothe OH (which simulcasts its sister FM)
Comedy1600.com: KATZ St. Louis, KXEW Tucson, and the Aloha Trust’s WZZW Milton WV are the options there.
Original Report 8/12: Along with the registration of Comedy1200.com for use on the now stunting WXKS Boston, Clear Channel appears to be preparing as many as 20 stations total to flip to Comedy in the coming weeks.
As we first mentioned on Friday in out report about the coming flip in Boston, Donkey Comedy Network’s 247Comedy.com ownership was transferred to Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks. Clear Channel appears ready to go all-in with the format as it has registered domains for Comedy branded stations on 19 frequencies in addition to 1200 for Boston.
For some of these frequencies there are too many options in Clear Channel’s holdings to venture a guess, for others its fairly obvious.
Clear Channel has also registered a second domain featuring the frequency and band for each, such as Comedy925FM.com and Comedy850AM.com.
Adam 
John Davis 
MattParker 
Joseph 
My first thought on this is really Clear Channel? All comedy?
My second thought(because I live in the Seattle market) is why flip 850? The station has a great presence of local sports(carrying the Tacoma Rainiers and high school football and basketball tournament games) and carries most of the Fox Sports Radio lineup(including Dan Patrick and Jim Rome).
The third thought i had is this: if CC did flip 850, what happens to the Tacoma Rainiers and 850’s programming? The Rainiers could only go to one station(KLAY AM in Lakewood, which is South of Tacoma), and some big name national shows would go uncarried in Seattle-Tacoma if 850 were to be flipped(again, Dan Patrick and Jim Rome plus most of FSR’s programming).
Right now KJR simulcasts on 950 AM and 102.9 FM, and from what i’ve heard they are quite happy with their simulcast. So, if Clear Channel pulls the trigger on this flip, Fox Sports programming from about 5:30 AM in the morning to 7 PM at night(plus Jim Rome) goes uncleared in the 11th or so largest market in the country(Seattle).
There is KRKO up in Everett, but they only stream local programming and their over the air feed doesn’t reach Tacoma. So I would suggest Clear Channel seriously look at what could happen if they flip KHHO to all comedy.
Although(and this is a longshot), would Clear Channel consider doing what has been done in many markets and move the local shows to FM and put Fox Sports Radio on AM? Or keep the local shows on AM and put FSR on FM?
All in all(and this is just coming from a casual observer to the radio buisness, as I have no stake in it at all, it just seems like a dumb idea to flip KHHO to all comedy when it’s been at least a decent sports station for quite a while now.
There’s nothing that says that they wouldn’t continue to clear some of those local sports games after a flip, especially if the airtime is paid. KHHO is a no-show in the Seattle book. If they really care about clearance of Rome/Patrick and the rest of their FSR lineup, they’ll split apart the simulcast on KJR and put the local staff on FM and the network on AM.
Flipping WGST back to FM (I’m presuming the 105.7/94.9 combo, whereas “WiLD” moves to 96.1) in favor of all-comedy on 640 makes the most sense. (IMO, WGST never should have left 105.7 in the first place… and with WYAY, WSBB and CBS’s soon-to-be sports talker, they have no choice but to go back to the FM dial.)
WERC-AM also is a no-brainer. Bear in mind 960 was used as the feeding station for “103.1 The Vulcan” for six months or so before it was yanked back into a simulcast of WERC-FM. It really is a redundant signal in more than one sense.
Probably not WILM. Clear Channel would loose clearance in Wilmington for Premiere’s right-wing talkers (and WWIQ doesn’t provide that good coverage of New Castle County) – unless they could get Delmarva to take back Beck-Rush-Hannity, which doesn’t seem likely either. In some ways, that move would make business sense: WDEL saves the cost of local talkers and gets a format monopoly, but still it probably goes against the grain for Booker, et al.
@John: I was thinking the same thing about KJR and Fox Sports Radio as well.
Problem is the reason why KJR started an FM simulcast in the first place is to reach some places the AM signal supposedly can’t penetrate(in this case areas of Southwest Washington, Thurston County, etc.).
So I don’t know if they would consider just running network programming on AM, and local shows on FM.
However, with internet streaming technology, specifically I Heart Radio, if people truly want to listen to the AM, without local programming, or the FM in areas where you can’t get an over the air signal, you can.
It all really depends on how Clear Channel truly feels about carrying FSR in the Seattle market.
Which reminds me: anyone know any non-clear channel stations that carry Fox Sports Radio in large markets?
I ask because if 850 flips, and they need a place to carry FSR, what about 1150 locally, or 1300? Just a thought…
As of this afternoon (August 13th), Comedy 24/7 had posted a list of affiliates on http://www.247comedy.com/pages/allstations.html .
That list also includes WCHI/1350 (W224BR/92.7) in Chillicothe, which currently runs the Premiere Choice “Cool Oldies” format. WCHO/1250 Washington Court House also runs “Cool Oldies”; neither station has a night signal that goes beyond their COL.
Don’t know where that leaves WSRW/1590 Hillsboro, which has simply simulcast WCHO-FM/105.5 Wash. Court House after WSRW-FM/106.7 moved to Chillicothe and became WQLX/106.5 (a side effect of CC’s moving of WMRN-FM from Marion to Columbus).
Now, I’m kinda wondering if WCHI’s “Cool Oldies” format moves to a subchannel of either WKKJ/94.3 or WQLX, thereby keeping it on W224BR. The station has been identifying as “92.7 WCHI” for awhile. Or does the translator switch to relaying WBEX/1490? Kind of a waste to have all-comedy on both frequencies in a market like that…
@Joseph: I saw that. And it looks like KHHO is on the list; so now it’s not a matter of if 850 in Tacoma flips, it’s when.
If they were smart, they would wait at least until the day after Labor Day to let them air the rest of the Tacoma Rainiers schedule.
Although now I’m wondering what if anything will happen to the FSR programming KJR doesn’t carry. I guess since people can listen to the programming online, KJR will probably stick with their current lineup for the time being, especially with football season starting up soon.
Could KHHO-850 go all-comedy now, but still air the remaining games of the Tacoma Rainiers??
Good question. I don’t know if any of the other all comedy stations carry sports play by play or not, so if KHHO did, it might be the first station to be all comedy and carry sports broadcasts.
Well, we know comedy1590.com won’t be the Jackson, MS station – Clear Channel just turned in the license.
Unless WSRW/1590 Hillsboro (not on the affil list) and WCHI/1350 Chillicothe (on the affil list) plan on a simulcast as “Comedy 1590…”
You can now add WCHI/1350 Chillicothe to the list. Flipped from classic hits to “Comedy 1350 AM” at midnight last night. WCHI’s translator W224BR/92.7 switches to relaying news/talk WBEX/1490 full-time.
The classic hits format was obviously duplicated by WODC/93.3 in Columbus (ironically, the former WFCB/94.3, WCHI’s former FM sister station) as well as WCHO/1250 Washington Court House, which shared the same talent and playlists as WCHI via CC’s “Cool Oldies” Premium Choice format.