Update 6/7: WNQW flipped to Classic Country as “Big Buck Country 106.9” at 3pm today. The station is focusing on music from the 70’s through the early 90’s, but stretching out a bit in both directions.
The station’s first hour consisted of:
Alan Jackson – Gone Country
George Strait – A Fire I Can’t Put Out
Kenny Rogers – Anyone Who Isn’t Me Tonight
Alabama – I’m In A Hurry
The Oak Ridge Boys – American Made
Elvis Presley – All Shook Up
Mac Davis – Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me
Hank Williams, Jr. – All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight
Clint Black – A Bad Goodbye
Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers Band – Broken Lady
Willie Nelson – City Of New Orleans
Martina McBride – Independence Day
Randy Travis – 1982
Dan Seals – Bop
The Statler Brothers – Bed Of Roses
Kenny Rogers – Don’t Fall In Love With A Dreamer
Frank Sinatra – Nice Work If You Can Get It
Jimmy Dean – Big Bad John
Mark Chesnutt – Bubba Shot The Jukebox
Alabama – Dixieland Delight
Update 6/6: As the Beatles stunting continues on 106.9, we’re starting to see a few domain registrations popping up in regards to a possible permanent format. Over the past few days the following domains have all been registered anonymously:
- BigBuck1069.com, BigBuckCountry1069.com, 1069BigBuck.com, 1069BigBuckCountry.com
- Moose1069.com, TheMoose1069.com, 1069TheMoose.com
- Q1069.com, QCountry1069.com, 1069QCountry.com
While we have no proof that these domains are connected to WNQW at this point, the fact that this many domains all with 106.9 and Country makes it pretty easy to draw your own conclusion. We have.
The Q name works with the new WNQW calls and could be a way of saving face there. The Big Buck moniker plays into the deer population in Wisconsin as well as Milwaukee’s NBA franchise. We’re a little less sure of the Moose connection, but those could be for use elsewhere as there is an Oldies station with that name in Moose Lake, MN and a country station at 106.9 in Muskegon, MI going by the name “107 The Moose“.
The only Country stations in Milwaukee proper is Clear Channel’s 106.1 WMIL, current ranked 4th in the market overall and Classic Country “920 The Wolf” WOKY.
Update 6/2: The unplanned stunting continues as WJZX is now running The Beatles A to Z running through the band’s library alphabetically on a 9 hour loop.
Update 5/29 11:00pm: At 7:00pm tonight the “Tiger 106.9” stunt gave way for a combination of military marches, patriotic music and songs including “America” in the title in dedication of Memorial Day. The station is now officially using its previously requested WNQW calls for “now”.
Listen to the sign-off of WJZX and debut of “Tiger 106.9” at FormatChange.com.
Update 7:00pm: Saga Milwaukee General Manager Tom Joerres tells the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the new format launch may not be anytime soon due to Clear Channel beating them to the punch. Clear Channel admitted that they had plans to flip 97.3, but had to expedite their plans based on Saga’s actions.
Update 5/28 12:00pm: Saga did register 1069theticket.com on Wednesday. Even with the flip of 97.3 WQBW to CHR circumventing 106.9’s plans, it appears this domain was a red herring at the time of registration.
Update 1:10pm: WJZX signed off at 12pm with an announcement from the station’s management explaining the reasoning for the change and promoting WJZX-HD2 and sister 103.5 WJZA Columbus, OH’s webcast as replacements. This led into a stunt as “Tiger Radio – Music For Cheaters And Those Cheated On”. We are more confident about CHR “106.9 Now” being the final stop as Saga requested the WNQW calls on May 21.
Original Report 5/27 12:00pm: OnMilwaukee.com’s Tim Cuprisin has tweeted that Saga Communications’ “Smooth Jazz 106.9” WJZX Milwaukee will be changing format at 12pm today. The current format will shift its the HD2 subchannel.
It appears the new format will be CHR as “Now 106.9“. 1069now.com and now1069.com were registered by Saga’s Director of Interactive Content in March and were transferred onto the servers of Saga’s hosting provider earlier today. More later today.
