For the third time in its history, 97.1 KEGL Fort Worth/Dallas has flipped to Rock “97.1 The Eagle“.
The newly relaunched brand debuted just after 10am this morning with Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”, AC/DC “Back In Black”, and Foo Fighters “Best of You”. The station has not yet announced any on-air talent for the new iteration of the “Eagle” brand, while imaging emphasizes that “Dallas/Fort Worth Rocks Again”.
The station originally took the KEGL call letters in 1981 and shifted between Rock and Top 40 before moving to harder Rock in 1992. The station would first drop the format in 2004 for stints as Soft AC and Spanish Oldies before returning in December 2007. The next run would end with the flip to Hot Talk/Sports “97.1 The Freak” in October 2022.
iHeartMedia Dallas SVP/Programming Patrick Davis commented, “I’m excited that The Eagle is back and ready to rock Dallas/Ft. Worth again. This is a legendary brand for the market, and listeners have been asking to have it back on air and we listened!” Region President Amy Leimbach added, “We are thrilled to announce the return of a legendary station to the DFW airwaves, 97.1 The Eagle. Active rock enthusiasts can rejoice as their beloved station is back, ready to once again be the destination for all things rock!”
Original Report 4/26: The Sports/Hot Talk format of “97.1 The Freak” KEGL Fort Worth/Dallas TX looks to be coming to an end.
Staffers were informed this morning in a meeting that a format change is imminent for the station. KEGL had flipped from Active Rock to Hot Talk/Sports in October 2022 bringing in many well-known talents in the market including KTCK co-founder Mike Rhyner to anchor afternoons. The flip was done to give a more compatible programming to the station’s coverage of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. The station’s ratings have hovered in the low 1 share range at a 1.3 in the past two monthlies.
DallasBasketball.com reports that the entire on-air lineup has been let go. The midday Ben & Skin Show was running best-of today before the station abruptly switched to the WTKS-FM Orlando based “The News Junkie”.
Rhyner told the Dallas Observer, “I could be standing at the New Mexico border and still see this coming. It’s a feeling that I and plenty of others at the station had been getting for some time now. iHeartRadio is a music company that really doesn’t do that much talk radio, and the talk radio they do is not local or locally originated, and they got caught into something [97.1 The Freak] they didn’t know anything about, and they were kind of overwhelmed by it, and they decided that ‘this is not our bag.’”
KEGL is scheduled to carry Game 3 of the Dallas Mavericks playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers at 7pm tonight.
We will update this story as more details become available.
it was…probably an unwinnable fight but no regrets here…we play on…
— Mike Rhyner (@theoldgreywolf) April 26, 2024
