Alpha Broadcasting Country 98.7 KUPL Portland will rebrand as “98.7 The Bull” at 12am on Thursday.
Keeping its position as a younger skewing Country outlet, the station will play 10,000 songs commercial free. With the relaunch comes a staff overhaul. Morning hosts Scott Simon and Jolynn Winter and midday host Lola are out and night host Danny Dwyer remains in an off-air position. Afternoon host B-Dub will return after the 10,000 songs in a row conclude. Alpha has placed an ad looking for CHR style personalties to fill the now vacant dayparts.
In the December PPM’s KUPL was fourth in the market with a 5.5 share. The other Country station in the market, Entercom’s “99.5 The Wolf” KWJJ trailed in eight with a 4.4. As recently as October KWJJ led KUPL 5.8 to 5.2.
This is Bull! Simon, Jolynn and Jake were the reason I listened to this station. Everything has to change for the “younger” crowd. What about us 60-somethings who like things the way they were?! Not happy with KUPL. If I wanted something hip, I would have changed over to “The Wolf”, which I have tried and always came back to KUPL.