iHeartMedia flipped CHR “93.1 The Party” KPLV Las Vegas to Variety Hits “93.1 The Mountain” at noon today.

The format change restores the Variety Hits format to the market for the third time. CBS operated “100.5 Jack-FM” KKJJ from June 2005 through August 2010, while Beasley Media had “107.9 Bob-FM” KVGS from October 2011 through January 2015.

David Black joins the station from sister “Z107.9” KDZA Pueblo CO as “Mountain Man Dave” to serve as APD and voice of the station. The two local hosts at The Party will move within the cluster. Roxy Romeo moves to sister “Real 103.9“, while Johiah becomes morning show producer for sister AC “Sunny 106.5” KSNE. The syndicated Kane Show is dropped from mornings.

In a crowded CHR battle, KPLV ranked 20th in the market with a 2.0 share in the August 2016 Nielsen Audio PPM ratings. The move to Variety Hits positions the station closest to Beasley’s market leading Classic Hits 96.3 KKLZ and Lotus’ second ranked Classic Rock “97.1 The Point” KKPT.

As an aside, we reported last week that the 931TheMountain.com domain was registered by Entercom for potential use at Country “93.1 The Wolf” WPAW-FM Winston-Salem/Greensboro NC. Why would Entercom register a domain for iHeartMedia? Entercom owns the national trademark for “The Mountain” for radio use. A successful swerve to keep us off the actual scent.