SummitMedia has flipped Variety Hits “106.7 The River” KRVI Mount Vernon/Springfield MO to Classic Rock.
Branding as “Classic Rock 106.7” to match the company’s other stations in the format, KRVI is running the same lineup as the stations in Birmingham, Knoxville, Louisville, Omaha, Richmond, and Wichita. The Richmond based Rachel ‘Ray-Gee’ Gellar and Cory ‘Kobe’ Fargo host mornings, Louisville based Michale ‘MJ’ Stevens hosts middays, followed by Birmingham based Ricky Aaron in afternoons, and Wichita’s Phil Thompson at night.
The new format creates a direct format competitor to Mid-West Family Broadcasting’s “104.7 The Cave” KKLH, while also competing with iHeartMedia Rock “US 97” KXUS. KKLH ranked third in the Fall 2023 Nielsen Audio ratings with a 6.8 share, while KXUS was tied for twelfth at a 2.4. KRVI was tied for eighteenth with a 0.7 share.
Brandon Charles
Kobe is a personal friend so this comment will definitely contain some bias, while it’s definitely concerning to see less local personalities on the air, it’s cool to see in 2024 that someone has invested in the classic rock format and making it personality intensive. Rather than just replaying fact of the day and trying something new in an elder conservative leaning format. I think the fact summit doesn’t believe in podcasting in 2023 is a bit antiquated, but it’s interesting to see somebody invest heavily in redefining the classic rock format, without necessarily having to redefined the parameters of it. this will be an extremely competitive market situation, but I suppose it’s definitely better than being an automated jukebox of random pop and rock titles.