Clear Channel Country “Kix 97.9” WPKX Springfield, MA has begun simulcasting on 100.9 WRNX displacing the former AAA format.
The long awaited move is the first step in the process of WPKX leaving the Springfield market for Hartford, CT where it will gain a new format and identity. With this move, the stations are beginning to emphasize the ne “Kix 100.9” identity. WRNX, licensed to Amherst, MA has a construction permit to improve its signal in Springfield proper.
No word yet on how long the simulcast will last before 97.9 completely hands the format to 100.9.
Joseph 
Bill 
Leigh 
Bring Back RNX 
Donna 
Scott 
Michelle 
DJ 
I suspect this simulcast will continue until WPKX’s transmitter moves to the Hartford area (which apparently won’t be very long).
If the relocated WPKX goes talk, it (being A Clear Channel Property) will likely to take away Rush Limbaugh from WTIC-1080 (and other Premiere Network shows now airing in Hartford) as soon as PKX goes talk.
So is my beloved 100.9 WRNX quality rock gone for good?
If so I am a very unhappy camper!
What happened to100.9 WRNX quality rock!?!
The format was dropped in favor of the Country format previously heard on 97.9. Following a brief simulcast period, 97.9 will be moving its tower to downtown Hartford.
A noticeable void is now left in the radio programming in the Pioneer Valley. WRNX was the only station that played contemporary quality music (that wasn’t cheesy pop…they actually played singer-songwriters like Amos Lee and Mat Kearney). As a huge country fan myself, I am disappointed that the people at Clear Channel found the need to remove a rock station for yet another country station. I live in Northampton, and sometimes I can get 5 country channels on my radio (95.3, 98.7, 97.9, 92.5, and 104.something). RNX was my go-to station along with Bear Country, Kix, and Rock 102. I’m definitely going to listen solely to Bear Country now in protest to Clear Channel destroying one of the best stations in the Valley. You guys suck.
As we came out of the darkness of the power outage I thought someone had been messing with my radio. I soon realized that I was indeed tuned to 100.9, but it was now a country station. Wait…. what? I am so disappointed that I will not be hearing the quality rock that RNX played. I am a long time listener from the Hartford area Please tell me that RNX has moved to another frequency…??
I can not believe country took over “rnx”. I loved that station because you could hear your favorite artists all the time and it wasn’t the same song time after time like every other mainstream station plays. Every station plays the same songs every 3 to 4 hours. It’s terrible. I am so pissed off at this change. It was our station. It was local with a Holyoke, Amherst, Northampton feel. Not some country western crap station. I could hear U2 every two hours and it wasn’t the same song all the time. I honestly thought the storm knocked the station off the air and they were playing country crap until rnx was fixed. Well now it’s broken and frankly it SUCKS.
So in the long term, KIX is moving to Hartford and losing it’s country format leaving Clear Channel with one country station, 92.5, in the area. Am I interpreting this correctly?
97.9 is moving to Hartford. Kix moved from 97.9 to 100.9 to continue serving the Springfield area.
Just think: all of this never may have happened had Clear Channel held onto 104.1 FM in Hartford.
Not quite. Clear Channel had to sell off 104.1 to remain under the market caps at the time. The move of 97.9 will increase the total number of stations in the market allowing CC to have an additional station in their cluster.