Hutton Broadcasting flipped Talk “101.5 The Voice” KVSF-FM Pecos/Santa Fe NM to Jazz “101.5 The Cat” on September 15.
Positioned as “Santa Fe’s Community Jazz Station”, the station is featuring a mix of modern and classic Jazz tracks from the past century. “The Cat” name was previously utilized in the market by then Clear Channel owned 101.1 KSFQ during its run as a Smooth Jazz station from 2005-2007.
Richard Eeds, who had hosted mornings on “The Voice”, stays in mornings for “The Cat”, but adds a new talk show from 1-5pm on sister Liberal Talk 1260 KTRC/103.7 K279CX. Nacha Mendez will host middays from 11am-3pm and Ira G afternoons from 3-7pm on KVSF-FM.
Except fort the fact that they have local morning, midday, and afternoon shows, I was tempted to think that this was a stunt or “placeholder” format, since there are very few commercial jazz stations of the type that KVSF-101.5 appears to be.
Most FM stations that cover Santa Fe are actually based in the Albuquerque metro–even if they’re licensed to Santa Fe itself. Therefore, a station that can’t really cover Albuquerque well would be more predisposed to a niche format.
And there is a 101.3 and a 101.7 in Albuquerque. Not a chance for reception in Albuquerque.