iHeartMedia will flip Country “92.5 The Bull” KBEB Sacramento to Soft AC “92.5 The Breeze” on Monday, November 12 at 3:00pm.
Promoting Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Whitney Houston, Michael Bolton, Vanessa Williams as core artists and debuting with 10,000 songs-in-a-row commercial-free, the station’s launch will come after Bonneville AC “Mix 96” 96.1 KYMX moves to Christmas music for the holiday season.
The Country format of “The Bull” and the Bobby Bones Show will move to 107.1 K296GB North Highlands replacing the Smooth Jazz Network. The translator covers the eastern side of the Sacramento market. KBEB is currently one of three Country outlets in the Sacramento market holding a 2.3 share in the October Nielsen Audio ratings. Bonneville’s 105.1 KNCI held a 4.3 share, while Entravision’s “101.9 The Wolf” KNTY held a 2.0.
We first teased the potential of a “92.5 The Breeze” launch in a PPM market in our 10/30 Domain Insight report.
iHeartMedia Sacramento announced today the launch of 92.5 The Breeze, Sacramento’s #1 For Relaxing Favorites at Work.
92.5 The Breeze will launch Monday, November 12th at 3 p.m. by playing 10,000 commercial-free songs in a row. The new station will broadcast a soothing blend of music from artists such as Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Whitney Houston, Michael Bolton, Vanessa Williams and more. The full talent line-up for 92.5 The Breeze will be announced in the upcoming weeks.
“The timing is perfect to bring 92.5 The Breeze to our iHeartMedia Sacramento market,” said Sara McClure, Market President for iHeartMedia Sacramento. “We’re taking our powerful 50,000-watt signal back to when it was a powerful adult contemporary station playing familiar favorites for today’s listeners.”
“No doubt many in Sacramento will remember the station 92.5 for its decades- long heritage as an Adult Contemporary station and one of the top stations in the market,” said Curtiss Johnson, Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeartMedia Sacramento. “I’m happy to say we’re bringing that format back to Adult Contemporary. 92.5 The Breeze is the perfect station for relaxing to favorites while you work, unwinding after a long day or just for getting into that weekend frame of mind.”
As a part of this move, programming on 92.5 The Bull and The Bobby Bones Show will be moving to iHeartMedia Sacramento’s 107.1 FM. And, beginning today, Sacramento’s Smooth Jazz Network will now air exclusively on the iHeartRadio app.
philradio
I believe the new format will do well, however, I would have branded it differently. I know it’s not uncommon for iHeart stations to use the same branding with formats, which is the case here using the same as 98.1 in the Bay Area. If it were up to me though, I would have brought back the B92.5 name used prior to The Bull with the slogan “#1 for relaxing favorites at work” followed by a jingle “B92.5 …. Sacramento” to match the KBEB call letters, as well as making it more unique to the Sacramento market.
As for The Bull, I would have moved it on 93.1 instead and see how it did there, rather than on 107.1 which doesn’t cover very well. Then again, it would be nice to see 93.1 go back to where it came from in Modesto and fix one of the dumbest business decisions ever made in the history of radio.