Update 7/24: As expected “101.7 The Harbor” debuted with Variety Hits this afternoon.
Just after 4:00pm, 101.7 cut out of Florence + The Machine’s “Shake It Out” and went silent as the station transferred operations to Clear Channel. After a three loops of Dirty Water by The Standells, The Harbor debuted just before 4:30 with Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” followed by Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer” and Madonna’s “Into The Groove”.
The station will be running commercial free through Labor Day weekend.
Original Report 7/20: As 101.7 WFNX Boston gave its farewell earlier tonight in preparation of Clear Channel taking over the frequency following its purchase of the station, we now know the identity of the station that will soon take its place.
We’ve already seen multiple decoy domain registrations, especially after the filing by Clear Channel for the WHBA call letters. Clear Channel has finally registered a domain of its own for the station.
TheHarbor1017.com was registered today for use with the station after many of the similar domains for that name were claimed by someone at Greater Media’s cluster on Wednesday. Additionally private Facebook and Twitter accounts have been created for the station.
Update 7/22: In addition to TheHarbor1017.com, Clear Channel has also registered 1017TheHarborBoston.com, 1017TheHarborRadio.com, TheHarbor1017Boston.com, and TheHarborBoston.com.
Format wise this seems to indicate Variety Hits, a format that Clear Channel has launched in multiple markets (Charlotte, Jacksonville, and Miami among them) over the past few months. It would also return the format to the market for the first time since Entercom flipped “93.7 Mike-FM” WMKK to Sports last September.
Joseph 
homerjay 
The Fat Man 
baseball 
Could “The Harbor” be a stunt and that a few days hence, the “real” format of 101.7 will be unveiled??
How is a format that’s not on the air yet a stunt?
The Harbor is what 101.7 will become when Clear Channel assumes control. Plain and Simple.
Seriously, not everything is a set up for some other grand plan. There isn’t always another shoe to drop, nor some elaborate ruse.
Makes a lot of sense. Mike-FM did decent ratings. People even speculated Entercom’s WAAF being dumped to bring WEEI to FM in the wake of mass dropping of rock stations across the country over the last few years. I actually thought WODS was going to be replaced with Jack-FM.
I believe that’s why we didn’t know the new format until now. Clear Channel wasn’t sure until they absolutely knew nobody else was going to do it. Talk 101.7 was a back up plan should another company launch a station with the same format.
Variety hits would be fine, but the musical selection so far has been horrible–tertiary market stuff. They have it all wrong and haven’t researched playlists from this market correctly.
Considering the format is five songs old at the time of this comment, I think its a little early to analyze.
That said, this is what the Variety Hits format ala Clear Channel is. No discernable difference between 106.5 The Lake Cleveland, 102.7 Jack Baltimore, She 103.5 Miami, etc…
True, but several songs later, I stand by my comment (and I’m in their demo). This is not well executed. The sweepers are unfunny; there is nothing to draw you into this station. Very poor first impression (and I’m putting my affection for WFNX aside). I listen to variety hits CHBM (Boom 97.3) when I’m in Toronto, which has a great presentation and great ratings to boot.
These songs are not what 40-somethings listen to in this market. For example, they should have looked at Mix 98.5 playlists from the late 90s; I’m not hearing that. Go to Legacy Place mall–a money mall where upper-end-$ Gen X’ers shop. What do you hear? New Wave, not hair music.
No stream though. Or I can’t find it.
Surprised iheartradio doesn’t have it yet.
Stream is now up:
http://www.iheart.com/live/5772/?autoplay=true
Format change audio. I can scope it later; this has full songs (Dirty Water 3 times, intro bit, Sweet Emotion)
http://raccoonradio.freehostia.com/Air/harbordebut.mp3
Much appreciated. Will be on FormatChange.com shortly.