At 5pm on Christmas Day, WZTI flipped to Rhythmic Oldies “The Party“. Launching with Prince’s 1999, the stations are focusing on Rhythmic hits from the 1970s and 1980s.
Update 12/24: When 1290 WZTI Greenfield/100.3 W262CJ Milwaukee debuts its new format at 5pm on Christmas it will do so as “The Party“. MilwaukeesParty.com and 1003TheParty.com are now live.
Update 12/21: The Martini branding will not be returning to Milwaukee after Christmas. As it continues to stunt with Christmas Music as “100.3 The Elf“, 1290 WZTI Greenfield/100.3 W262CJ Milwaukee is running promos stating it will launch a new format on Thursday, December 25 at 5:00pm.
The promos state that “Something Big Is About To Start On 100.3 and 1290”. No domains have been registered yet that we can pinpoint for use at the stations.
Update 11/1: WZTI flipped to Christmas music “100.3 The Elf” at noon today.
While dropping the previous brand is usually a sign of format change after the holidays, Program Director Stan Atkinson told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that it will return to the Martini Radio format after Christmas.
Original Report 9/28: Santa Claus is sending his elves to Milwaukee as the Christmas Music season is about to start.
Milwaukee Radio Alliance partner Shamrock Communications has registered 1003TheElf.com and 100Point3TheElf.com for Soft AC/Oldies “1290 Martini Radio” WZTI Greenfield/100.3 W262CJ Milwaukee.
WZTI launched the FM translator in July and could use the Christmas Music stunt to draw attention to their new FM signal. We usually see the first Christmas music stunts begin in early-to-mid October. In 2013, 103.9 WNDR Mexico/Oswego and 95.3 W237AY DeWitt/Syracuse, NY flipped to Christmas music on October 5.
Scholarm1111 
only1moore 
James C. Woods 
Eric Jon Magnuson 
ksradiogeek 
C’mon Stan and Shamrock time to give up the Martinis. No one is going to listen on the FM translator either. They did better numbers with Christmas music last year but the same really lame numbers returned when they went back to their regular format.
I’m Surprised that they would drop Adult Standards for a new format after Christmas. Can’t wait to see what gift Milwaukee will be getting.
Classic Hip-Hop?
Given owner Willie Davis’ feelings towards Hip-Hop, that would be a miracle in itself.
Sounds more like a Dance Top 40. similar to what sister station WLUM used to carry before they flipped to Alternative in 1994.
The name would fit, but the logo that’s on the website may look too “old”; it even lists the two frequencies (FM and AM) equally. If that’s not a decoy, it may work better for something along the lines of Variety Hits.
Rhythmic AC, a la 103.7 pre-Kiss.
Just listened to the station. So far they sound good. From the way they launched it, they sound like the early days of WAWA and WLUM. Only time will tell if Milwaukee will be ready to “Party” with WZTI.
Even though I was personally holding out for a “Tailgate”-style Variety Hits format, this is probably a good fit–especially given how much they’re still depending on the AM.
According to Mr. Dudek (at http://www.duanedudek.com/blog/2014/12/25/wzti-switches-rhythmic-oldies-format-called-party), “A sampler sent to advertisers featured Aretha Franklin, Wild Cherry, Rick James, Donna Summer, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie and the Bee Gees.”
And, per his former employer (at http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/tvradio/rhythmic-oldies-replaces-martini-radio-on-wzti-am-1290-1003-fm-b99415250z1-286839151.html), “Staple artists in the format include Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Bee Gees, Barry White, Donna Summer, KC and the Sunshine Band, Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson, Madonna and more.”