Clear Channel has been granted a Construction Permit to move CHR “101.9 Kiss-FM” KIYS Jonesboro, AR to Crawfordsville, AR with full coverage of the Memphis market. To make the move possible, KIYS will downgrade from a Class C with 100kw at 1030 feet to a C1 with 11.5kw at 489 feet. KIYS has been operated by Bobby Caldwell’s East Arkansas Broadcasters, Inc under and LMA since January 2007, when Caldwell purchased the remainder of Clear Channel’s Jonesboro cluster.
KIYS will join 6 other stations in Clear Channel’s Memphis cluster when the move is complete: News/Talk 600 WREC, Urban AC 1070 WDIA, Gospel “Hallelujah 95.7” WHAL, Urban “K97.1” WHRK-FM, Urban AC “V101.1” KJMS-FM, and Classic Rock “Rock 103” 102.7 WEGR.
airchexx
Actually this has been expected for several years now. I remember back in ’04, a few of my co-workers who had worked at Kiss 101.9 saying that CC wanted to move it to Memphis.
Something about northeast Arkansas… lets see, KOTC, the former “Cotton Country 830” I think recently moved their TX closer to Memphis. When I was at what was then Barnstable owned WGKX, they moved 98.9 to Munson TN, a suburb of Memphis. And if memory serves, sometime back in the 90s, 98.1 came in from Arkansas, but that’s what I believe I was told, someone might have to check the history on that.
So, its really no surprise that Clear Channel wanted to move Kiss, my only question is, what is their ownership cap in the Bluff City? If this goes through, will they not have to spin off one of their other properties?