This morning “Mix 107.3” WRQX Washington DC morning host Jack Diamond confirmed that the station will be signing off on Friday along with the other Cumulus Media stations being sold to Educational Media Foundation.
The WRQX change to “K-Love” will take place at 7pm on Friday evening. The station will spend the day paying tribute to the “Mix” and CHR “Q107” identities the station has held. Diamond will also host the final hour of the station from 6-7pm on Friday.
Diamond did state that his show will be moving to another unannounced station following the change at WRQX. The announcement was nondescript about the future of the Mix brand. As we reported yesterday, Cumulus is parking the WRQX call letters on what is now 600 WSOM Salem OH.
Jack Diamond is too good to remain on the beach. At the very least he should be hired by Entercom (WIAD?) or iHeart (WASH?).
A pretty good source has said the hot a/c format will continue. Keep listening.
Interesting – I wonder where on earth the format of Mix would move to? The most obvious choice would’ve been 105.9, but given all the secrecy I imagine another legendary station owned by another company (PGC?) will be biting the dust. Or would Entercom kill off “The Drive” after only seven months? From my radio listening experiences when visiting DC, 99.1 or 107.9 seem too far away from the city to justify them as viable options. Also – Jack mentioned “Fresh” while discussing ratings – I wonder what data he’s using? “Fresh” has been gone since October.
99.1 is not an option. The contract with Bloomburg is too lucrative that Entercom would be absolutely foolish to break it. 107.9 is a even worse rimshot that also serves the Spanish-language population with the only commercial FM format in town. 94.7 walking away from classic hits so early on would be a massive waste of time and effort, especially when iHeart easily can move Big100 back to classic hits.
Cumulus has basically waved away 105.9 as an option, they’ll monetize WMAL as an AM/FM combo and cut their losses.
God only knows.
Jack Diamond for Baltimore–Washington Broadcasting Hall of Fame
Well… what has been WSOM 600 is now embracing the WRQX calls outright, including a new logo and new liners cut for the station.
For a parking move, it’s really looking like a long term one, and WSOM (Wonderful Sound Of Music) may be on 107.3 Washington well beyond today.
107.3 has already applied for new WLVW calls (which they began using a week too early immediately when they launched). WSOM will never be heard on-air despite legally being attached to it until this upcoming Friday.
I made that comment before seeing that WLVW 105.5 Salisbury MD quietly filed to change to WLSW, freeing up that callsign.
I’m still perplexed why they even did a callsign swap with WSOM in the first place. People knew the now-dead Mix IP almost universally by “Mix 107.3,” not WRQX, and with the IP now dead, there’s as much value for it now as WYNY would have in NYC. Meanwhile 600 WSOM has effectively rebranded themselves as “600 WRQX” …