At 12pm today, Townsquare Media flipped Country “104.9 The Hawk” KQCS Dewitt/Quad Cities IA to Classic Hits “Kick 104.9“. Jeff Lynn, Operations Manager of the Townsquare Quad Cities cluster is serving as Program Director.
The format change comes one day before Regional Media Classic Hits “Rewind 93.9” WYEC will flip to Variety Hits “Jack-FM“.
INSTANT INSIGHT: For a company like Townsquare that describes itself as a “Media, Entertainment and Digital Marketing Solutions Company” you would think they would understand the importance of having some form of web and social media presence ready for the new station at launch. You know, for digital marketing purposes. Yet as I write this only the now-defunct Hawk website exits to promote the brand.
Original Report 8/29: Stunting is underway at Townsquare Media Country “104.9 The Hawk” KQCS Dewitt/Quad Cities IA.
The station is running a loop of songs with “Talk” in the title and promoting a new format to debut Wednesday, August 31 at 12:00pm.
“104.9 The Hawk” debuted in July 2014 to go up against iHeartMedia’s market leading 103.7 WLLR. The station failed to make any inroads as it registered a 2.0 share in the Spring 2016 Nielsen Audio ratings to WLLR’s 18.1 share. A flip to Talk would put the station up against iHeart’s 1420 WOC. That station registered a 5.4 share in the Spring ratings.
Owen McCormick 
elcartero
It is KIIK 104-9, referring to the former KIIK 104 which occupied 103.7 in the 70s and 80s. KIIK was a pop-leaning CHR in the 80s IIRC.
Ironically this move leaves KQCS with no direct competitor, whIle WYEC will compete with fringe-signal KMCN (Mac 94.7, Clinton) for the Adult Hits listeners.
And you can listen, for now, via the Hawk website. Oddly, when I tuned in the song playing was The Alarm’s ’89 mid-charter*, “Sold Me Down the River”.
* Quite literally so: it peaked at #50.