Update 10/3: Cumulus CHR “I93” KLIF-FM Haltom City/Dallas has relaunched as “Hot 93.3” under new PD Louie Diaz.
Launching with commercial free weekends, the station is promoting to have more music and fewer commercials per hour than iHeartMedia’s “106.1 Kiss-FM“.
Cumulus announces that Top 40-formatted KLIF-FM has become the all-new HOT 93.3. The former i93 and heritage Dallas CHR station debuted its new Hot Upbeat CHR format today at 5:00 p.m. Central. HOT 93.3 will feature all the hits, including music from artists such as Iggy Azalea, Pitbull, and Ariana Grande. The format shift will bring new opportunities, and Cumulus is currently seeking additional on-air talent for the station.
Dan Bennett, Regional Vice President for Cumulus Dallas/Houston said: “The new HOT 93.3 will bring to Dallas Metroplex listeners the next generation of contemporary music. We are incredibly excited about how it will serve both our listeners and advertisers.”
Louie Diaz, Program Director for HOT 93.3 said: “The New HOT 93.3 will bring an energy and feel that is unique and totally customized for Dallas/Fort Worth. We will be live and local from 6 a.m. to 12 midnight and all over the streets of DFW! We think listeners will love the new sound of HOT 93.3.”
KLIF-FM becomes the third station in recent Dallas/Fort Worth history to utilize the “Hot” branding. CBS’ used it on CHR “Hot 100” KRBV from 1998 to 2001 and just last year Univision operated “Hot 107.9” KESS-FM for just two months.
Original Report 9/7: A relaunch appears coming to Cumulus CHR “I93” 93.3 KLIF-FM Haltom City/Dallas.
Cumulus has registered Hot933DFW.com, Hot933FM.net, Hot933Hits.com, Power93DFW.com, as well as a few potential decoys for other formats including Big933DFW.com, GoldHits933.com, SmoothJazz933.com, and 933JamsDFW.com. The registrations follows the recent hiring of former “Live 95.5” KBFF Portland Program Director Louie Diaz for the same position at KLIF-FM.
While Clear Channel’s “106.1 Kiss-FM” KHKS continues to lead the market it is no longer dominating like it did prior to and in the aftermath of the premature passing of morning host Kidd Kraddick. In the August 2014 Nielsen Audio PPM Ratings KHKS led the market with a 6.1 share just ahead of Cumulus Country “99.5 The Wolf” KPLX’s 5.7. The two stations were tied for the lead as recently as May. KLIF-FM on the other hand has not been able to make up ground on KHKS as it continues to hover right below a 2 share.
sshuffield70 
bodorizzi87 
Bob cavanaugh 
Chris Huff 
Destructor
The only one you can rule out would be “Power 93”. KVRK – 89.7 Power FM still uses the moniker. Can’t believe some dumb programmer thought that was a good move.
It can happen. I live in the Lubbock area. We have a full power classic rock station branded as “Rock 101.1.” It’s been in the market for years. One of the stations (97.3) went HD and started broadcasting their HD2 via a low power translator on 96.9 and branded it as “Rock 96.9.” Although 96.9 has an active rock format. Either way it’s still odd. I do not think it is common at all for a market to have two stations that share the same moniker but broadcast different formats. But I guess the Lubbock market is proof that it can happen sometimes.
With the multiple Hot branded domains that would likely seem to be the direction Cumulus is heading in anyway, however I can’t blame whomever registered the domains to be unaware of KVRK. A suburban non-commercial rimshot that doesn’t subscribe to Nielsen may simply not have come up in their market research.
If it were a station that’s somewhat new, I could buy that. I can’t for a station that’s been around for 15 years.
What they really need is a full airstaff! Why is this station running jockless 90% of the time in a top 5 market?
I would tend to think that any relaunch of the station will include some form of on-air changes. However, the i93.3 brand has been destroyed by any previous neglect by the company so changing the name and relaunching is the proper first step.
So this would make the 4th appearance for the “HOT” moniker in DFW.. I wonder if that is some sort of record for one moniker’s appearance in a single market?
1989 – KKDA-FM briefly used “Hot 104” as its primary handle (while keeping the longstanding K104 brand in a secondary role) as it faced new competition in KJMZ (100.3 Jamz)
1999-2001 – KRBV (the former KJMZ) was “Hot 100” during the first two years of the outlet’s CHR run at KHKS (the last three years it was “Wild 100”)
2013 – KESS-FM was “Hot 107-9” during Univision’s 10 week long experiment as a Hispanic leaning rhythmic CHR.
I can think of two monikers that have been used three times as well.
“B” in Baltimore:
1980-1992 – CHR “B104” WBSB
1998-2001 – CHR “B102.7” WXYV
2002-2003 – Classic Rock “B104.3” WXFB
And more under the radar is “Y” in New York
1977-early 1980’s – AC “Y97” 97.1 WYNY
early 1990’s – Country “Y103.5” WYNY
1996-2002 – Country “Y107” suburban quadcast 107.1 WYNY/WWXY/WWYY/WWZY
One more came to mind (if this counts as three) is “Kiss” in Greensboro:
1985-late 90s – CHR, then Country, then CHR again “Kiss 98.7” WKSI
2006-2013 – UAC, then CHR “105.7 Kiss FM” WMKS, which then moved to the 100.3 facility
*fewer commercials per hour (not less)
I know that error came straight from the intro production piece and not from you, it’s just something that has always irked me.
I don’t see anything wrong with fewer, unless they plan to have longer commercials.
I really like the fact it plans to go LOCAL all day though!