It took very unique circumstances to bring the “Pop-Up” Hot AC “TJ 98.7” format currently running in New York and we’ll hopefully have a lot more on that coming in the next week or two. But this is not something that has never happened before. Somehow, it is something that seems to happen more often in New York than the rest of the country.
And for those that haven’t heard the brand yet, here’s a scoped sample from Tuesday morning:
By my count, “TJ 98.7” is the fifth placeholder or “Pop-Up” format to operate in New York. I’m defining a placeholder format as unique from stunting in that the programming is there as a filler while a new format is developed and/or new operator is found and that programming implemented. That eliminates seasonal flips to Christmas music as even when it was ahead of a format change as those were done to goose ratings ahead of a flip.
Let’s look back at the circumstances behind each of the pop-up’s in New York.
1988. A time when a radio group operator could still only own one AM and one FM in a market. This became problematic when Emmis acquired many of the NBC Radio properties across the country. In New York this gave them the opportunity to improve the signals of their existing brands in the market and divest their former facilities. Upon closing, Dance CHR “Hot 103” WQHT traded places with Country 97.1 WYNY and Sports 1050 WFAN replaced WNBC on 660.
The 103.5 facility and Country format were sold to Westwood One, while 1050 would become the first placeholder station in New York. Spanish Broadcasting System, which owned Spanish Tropical “Super KQ” 620 WSKQ purchased the license with the intent to then swap it to the Eugene Debs Foundation for its 97.9 WEVD. As the second swap was not approved until February 1, 1989 and LMA’s were not yet a thing, an FCC waiver was granted so SBS could operate 620 and 1050 until then. 1050 took on the WUKQ call letters and by FCC requirement operated commercial-free with a jockless Spanish AC format that would eventually evolve following its move to FM into the “Mega 97.9” we know today.
Just eight months into its New Wave heavy Modern AC format “105.1 The Buzz” WDBZ, Bonneville knew it had a problem. A decision was made in August 1997 to revert to the AC “Soft Rock 105” brand and WNSR call letters the station had in the late 1980s to compete with Chancellor Media’s “106.7 Lite-FM” WLTW. The call letter change took effect on August 5 and reports at the time stated the flip was to take place with a television advertising campaign purchased to start later that month. As WLTW had become the #1 station in 25-54 and 35-64 and Chancellor able to add a fifth FM under the much loosened ownership rules, to prevent a new direct competitor from launching the companies would quickly come to terms on a deal that would send WNSR, 104.3 KBIG Los Angeles and 94.5 KLDE Houston to Chancellor for 93.9 KZLA Los Angeles and the Washington DC pair of 1500 WTOP and 103.5 WGMS plus $60 million. It is likely that the deal was already in negotiations and Bonneville used the threat of the format change to get the deal to the finish line.
Either way, the deal gave “The Buzz” a few more months of life as it gradually evolved to a more tradiitonal Hot AC presentation. Come November 1997 by the time Chancellor began operating the station via LMA, branding was changed to “FM 105.1” and the station had settled into a Bright AC presentation (as heard here with current WNEW morning host Karen Carson) which would remain until Chancellor launched Hot AC “Big 105” WBIX cloning the format on one of the other stations it acquired from Bonneville in “K-Big 104.3” Los Angeles although like “105.1 The Buzz” before it, wouldn’t make it to the one year mark as it flipped again to Rhythmic Oldies “Jammin 105” in December.
The August 2002 firing of Opie & Anthony was the death knell of the Hot Talk format on 102.7 WNEW. While the format would make it through the rest of the year, on January 27, 2003 the station moved to a placeholder CHR format with a very narrow playlist. That would last until April 10, when the ahead-of-its-time pop culture focused “Blink 102.7” would debut. By the fall, the station would shift again to a more generic AC presentation before becoming one of the early stations to go all-Christmas leading to a December 26 format change to Rhythmic AC “Mix 102.7” partially attempting to fill the hole left by the demise of “Jammin 105“.
The wizardry of Merlin Media would lead to our most recent placeholder brand before now, and the one that was the most successful. An argument could be made for the “101.9 FM New” branding utilized as the station (and its sister in Chicago) for the three weeks between the demise of AAA WRXP on July 18, 2011 following the purchase of the station from Emmis and the launch of “FM News” on August 12 as elements of the new brand were gradually added in, but we’re considering that a phased-in launch. What wasn’t phased-in was when Merlin Media killed the News brands eleven months later and launched Alternative “New Rock 101.9” bringing back the WRXP call letters. With a 0.6 share at the time of the flip, the Alternative brand saw quick success rising to a 2.7 share in its final monthly despite existing for 107 days. By October, Merlin Media announced a sale of the station to CBS Radio for $75 million with an LMA bringing Sports 660 WFAN to the FM band on November 2.
It is quite interesting on the bows tying all of these together. Emmis’ dealmaking was directly responsible for what brought 1050, 101.9, and 98.7 to placeholder formats. Both 105.1 and 102.7 had short-lived formats following the extenuating circumstances bringing on their placeholders. And the first and last were bookended by the departure and then arrival of WFAN.
I asked on my personal social media the other day of other examples of placeholder formats across the country, but nowhere has it happened on the scale it has happened in New York.
Jeremy Andrews mentioned the Chris Shebel programmed “Party 103.1” WYXX Morris IL playing Dance music for the cows in rural Illinois while the station was up for sale in 2003 and “Bill’s format”, an engineer programmed early Variety Hits on 107.9 WYSY Chicago during the sale of the station from CBS to SBS in the Spring of 1997.
Chip Kelley and Chris Huff both noted the brief “Alternative 96.5” format on KNRJ Houston in June and July 1990 ahead of the launch of Hot AC “Mix 96.5” KHMX as well as “93Q” KKBQ-FM moving to Rock 40 for a month ahead of its September 1991 flip to Country.
Tony Simon noted the “Smooth 104.3” WMSF programming from June to August 2012 as the former WEAT West Palm Beach as the station prepared to be moved into the Miami market where it would be sold to Lincoln Financial Media.
More recently we’ve seen the placeholder Hip Hop “Hustle” formats on Ed Stolz’ stations in San Francisco and Las Vegas.
And there’s Jerry Clifton’s infamous “Steve” on 103.9 KBZR as the station told the story of the station “moving in from the desert” into Phoenix over the spring and summer of 1996 with the Steve name eventually revealed to be an acronym for “Songs That Everyone Vociferously Enjoys” until it became Rhythmic CHR “Arizona’s Party Station” at the end of October.
It was also the sale of an Emmis station to Nationwide that gave us “Alternative 96.5” as KNRJ became KHMX (Mix 96.5). I loved that station, the most mainstream distillation of Alternative so far, and a precursor to other stations like WNNX (99X) Atlanta and WPLY (Y100) Philadelphia that entered the format with CHR sensibilities. It probably also hastened the decline of both KRBE and KKBQ (93Q), which were heavily Alternative leaving as well.
The concept of a “pop-up” station (or retail outlet) wasn’t in our vocabulary then. Radio people just referred to formats that weren’t meant to stay as a “stunt.” We didn’t really have any way of describing Alternative 96.5 as anything other than an extended stunt, although Nationwide was pretty clear that this was not the final format. And unlike other stunts, a ton of work went into this station.
We’re more used to pop-up stations now. We may not think of the Christmas format that way, but Mainstream AC nearly disappears for 5-7 weeks every year in favor of a station that shares a target audience but has little in common in terms of era, rotations, or core artists. “Yacht Rock Radio” was the most successful of SiriusXM’s LTO formats. Now, not only does it never really go away, but even “Yacht Soul” is sticking around on the SXM app.
As with Alternative on 101.9, there’s a certain cruelty in giving a format to an established constituency and then taking it away again. Emmis chose not to do that. It’s also worth noting that a company that has been on the receiving end of previous iHR spoiler attacks is doing a Hot AC format that falls directly between iHR’s WKTU and WLTW (and also goes up against Audacy’s WNEW).
We wonder if it means anything to take a format out of a given market in this time of satellite and streaming. But when KITS (Live 105) brought Alternative back to San Francisco, there was a demand. Country WWWF (The Wolf) Long Island is at a four-share after 2-1/2 months , after several years when it seemed nobody need rush to replace NYC’s former WNSH. Bloomberg doesn’t have much motivation to actively pursue WCBS (Newsradio 880’s) recently displaced audience, which is too bad, because they most have the signal and resources to do so.
Streaming means that there could be pop-up stations all the time. Top 40 Capital Radio in the UK’s “Taylor’s Version” station wasn’t just online but on DAB radio. If broadcasters had used HD subchannels to help create a viable digital tier, there could be topical and specialty formats all the time–a channel for everything, not just a playlist. To even consider that is one of the things that being in survival mode has taken from us.
The keywords in Sean’s comment our survival mode, but I won’t lament on the radio industry and instead keep it positive. What is also interesting, not knowing much of the previous history that you just stated here, as that often these formats would be tied to emerging burgeoning sounds of a format. In essence, what we are seeing now is a brand new version of hot AC, but unlike stations in Chicago in Sacramento, it is not specifically identifying as playing music from the 90s and 2000s, rather it is keeping it a primary core focus and adding in the occasional modern titles. I think this gives hot AC another option, some companies a way to steer away from classic hits stations that are moving forward, or even the ones that want to stay in the 80s, and it also provides a way to have a gold format while not being completely stuck or having to identify with nostalgia directly. I’m sure I’ll be checking my email and there will be an article on Emma soon. I don’t know what’s next, but this is a really great marketing opportunity for TJ, in this odd to score him several more affiliates. I think gold may be a thing moving forward, especially because you don’t necessarily have to blow up a brand to make it happen which matters these days and survival mode. Plus, there may not be the same mistake made in the last decade where the hot AC station sounds a little too much like the CHR station. I agree with Sean, though, grateful that it wasn’t a rock format, at this point people are just rubbing it in by launching any version of alternative there. although if it were up to me, and I would fail in this market because uniqueness seems to not pay off, I would lean into the rock and dance heritage and keep the Hot AC format.
There was a “pop-up” station of sorts in Philly back in the early-80’s IIRC. In between the “Mellow Rhythm” days and “Hot Hits,” WCAU-FM had slowly evolved into an Adult T40 (“adult” in presentation; music was still straight T40), not unlike WIFI at that time. I seem to remember this lasting almost a year before “Hot Hits” came to be. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was part of Mike Joseph’s plan for the station. They couldn’t keep going with “Mellow Rhythm,” so let’s see what happens with an adult-ish T40. Plus, it would throw WIFI off it’s game a bit (they’d just hired Don Cannon for mornings), destabilizing them just enough to make ‘CAU’s “Hot Hits” debut a killer. After fighting with “Hot Hits” for a while, “Wi-Fi-92” flipped to “I-92, the Rock of the 80’s” under Rick Carroll, and left ‘CAU alone in T40.
…joe patti
Around the country, there was also 103.1 iHeartAustin, which started out as a pop-up station promoting artists playing in that year’s SXSW with promises of a return of the Jammin’ 103.1 Rhythmic AC format after the festival ended. However, 103.1 iHeartAustin remained with an Alternative shift for several years.
Don’t forget about when Radio Aahs went bankrupt back in 1998 and Beat Radio (based out of Minneapolis) took over the 8 or so AM stations replacing the satellite fed children’s programming with dance music until the stations were sold. AM 1090 WCAR was one one of those stations in my neck of the woods. It was really interesting to hear dance music on AM Radio. Eventually the stations were sold off and the “pop up” format was over.