Update 8/6: Programming of the station is now being handled by the Seattle based Ohana Media Group. Tom Oakes, the company’s Vice President of Programming and Operations Manager of their Anchorage cluster is overseeing programming of KMCQ.
Original Report 8/5: 104.5 KMCQ Seattle, which had generated a cult following for its broad 60s/70s Oldies format has shifted to 70s/80s Classic Hits and rebranded as “Q104.5“. The move places the station in more direct competition with Clear Channel’s 95.7 KJR-FM, which has straddled the line between Classic Hits and Classic Rock since the beginning of this year.
ClassicHitsQ1045.com was registered by station owner Queen Cities Broadcasting in June.
Actually(and this is a good thing which hopefully will stick around for a while) i’ve listened to KMCQ in the past couple days and they still play a random 60s tune. Happy Together, For What It’s Worth, and many Beatles tunes come to mind.
Frankly this a mistake because you can already hear the same tunes on KJR FM, but until KMCQ came along a lot of 60s and 70s music was ignored.
I don’t know if i’m going to stick with KMCQ because I can listen to other, better stations with larger music selections online.
I don’t know how long this format will stick around on 104.5, but I have a feeling it won’t get great ratings and it won’t be around for very long.
right—–no need for a second KJR-FM in the market
But since adding Bob Rivers, KJR-FM has skewed towards Classic Rock. KMCQ is looking to get the traditional pop leaning Classic Hits. If done right they should increase their market share in the sellable demos, but there being enough of an audience for both is the big question.
It won’t get ANY ratings(released to the general public)because it doesn’t subscribe to Arbitron, which no longer publishes non-subscribing stations. Because they don’t subscribe, they can’t use that information anyway.
Jay Kelly a well known and awesome Seattle programmer is programming the station and I think it is a great move for the signal.
KMCQ went south fast when that switch was made. The reason KMCQ was so popular was because it was different, now it’s generic with no real life to it. It looks like there was some problem at the station because shortly after the change, their website shut down, their facebook account went away and a new station went up with all the things that made KMCQ great.
It’s called Vinyl Radio ( http://www.vinylradionw.com ) and is a streaming only station, but it’s based in Seattle and I’m pretty sure it’s run by the same people who made KMCQ popular.