Tracey Bell’s Integrated Brand Marketing has announced that Adult R&B “95.1 FM Chicago” W236CF Chicago/W236CG Bolingbrook IL will move to streaming only at the end of March.
Bell began operating the translators in August 2019 replacing Lamont Watts’ R&B Oldies “Clubstepping 95.1“. A deal to acquire the two translators, fed by SBS’ 107.9 WLEY-HD3, from John Bridge’s Windy City Broadcasting for $3.5 million was filed at that time. Despite being approved by the FCC the deal never closed. The translators are currently listed for sale for a $2.8 million asking price.
The station’s current mix of R&B, Gospel, Smooth Jazz and House Music, led by Program Director/midday host “First Lady” will remain in place after the move. The station spins the shift as claiming to be moving to the European style Digital Audio Broadcasting transmission system, which is not correct, but rather to an app based platform. They claim that while the station was off-the-air for three weeks in May 2020 during the flood at the Willis Tower listenership grew 25%.
Owned by Tracey V. Bell, 95.1 FM, Chicago will become a 100% Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) station, at the end of March, 2021.
At the initial launch of the station, station officials developed and launched a digital App which can be accessed wherever there is Wifi direct from Apple and Android playstores. Unlike other streaming apps, it maintains audio in real-time even when switching between devices.
An unintentional dress rehearsal, in May 2020, 95.1 FM operated solely from its digital App, due to a flood at the Sears Tower, which stripped the station of its FM signal, for 3 weeks. During that month, the station’s audience grew 25%.
A 24-hour music station, 95.1 FM Chicago, now streams across the US, 79 other countries, and has more than 300K listeners. Its APP earns more than 2MM impressions a month and on average, the station adds more than 20K new digital listeners each month. Moreover, the station’s number of weekly digital listeners exceeds all competitors in Chicago, the nation’s 3rd largest market, who vie for the same listener.
As such, 95.1 Chicago is set to become the first Black-Female owned, radio station to proactively go ALL digital, and compete on the national scale, with international in its sight. Bell made the strategic decision so that the station can focus on enhancing digital solutions in this budding digital age. Immediately, the decision elevates the station to be considered with streaming leaders, Pandora and Spotify. Taking streaming to another level, the 95.1 Chicago App has become the first and ONLY to innovate audio AND visual via inclusion of a digital theater, within the same app. With successful performances in 2020 that included international Smooth Jazz artist Nick Colionne and the R&B legendary Whispers, the performances streamed coast to coast through the 95.1 Chicago App.
When asked about the impact to Chicago, the station’s birth city, Program Director, First Lady, who also dubs as Midday Personality and Mixer on the station, said; “New York has its fashions. LA has its movie stars and Chicago has its Music…like Curtis Mayfield, The Emotions, The Chi-Lites, Sam Cooke, Earth Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan, Jennifer Hudson, Minnie Ripperton, Common and the list goes on. It makes sense that we share this music with the world. That’s what it means to take Chicago around the world. We are the only station systematically playing this kind of music…and we go deep not just what charted. So now, we elevate our culture to the next level by launching on Digital Audio Broadcasting, aka DAB in Europe. 70% of our audience already listens via our App so we are just giving the people more of what they asked us for. As far as our local advertisers, small businesses with an online business model will receive incremental opportunities.”
Excited to lead Black-Female owned radio into the digital age, Bell emphasized that none of this is possible, without God. “He [GOD] combined music, message and mission. The timing of it all epitomizes Victor Hugo’s meaning of nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
