Ahead of Thursday’s impending format change at 94.5 WKTI Milwaukee from Country to Sports, Magnum Broadcasting has flipped Variety Hits “92.1 The Shore” WVTY Racine WI to Country “92.1 VTY Country” at 10:00 last night.
The flip brings 92.1 full circle to where it was prior to WKTI’s flip to Country in May 2015. Hours after WKTI launched, Magnum flipped then Country “Q92” WMKQ to 94.5’s former Variety Hits brand “The Lake“. A battle over the “Lake” IP led to it being rebranded as “The Shore” one month later.
WVTY serves the southern half of the Milwaukee market. Its co-owned “Buzz Country 92.5” WMBZ fills the same hole for the northern and western portions of the market.
Eric Jon Magnuson
This doesn’t surprise me in the least–although I didn’t think that Magnum would’ve moved this quickly. (Also, I should’ve remembered that brief run as Country, pre-Lake/Shore–which, in turn, wasn’t even the station’s first time in that format.) That said, I’m not sure what might be gained by (again) aping 94.5’s departing logo and branding–especially since “VTY” has no heritage, and no real meaning other than “Variety”.
As a slight update, the Journal Sentinel’s Chris Foran got official confirmation from Magnum that WVTY and WMBZ would be separately programmed…
https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/television-radio/2018/10/31/radio-station-switches-back-country-after-wkti-shifts-all-sports/1836041002