After a viral weekend stunt the started getting national attention, Townsquare Media has flipped Alternative “Alt 101.7” WQRR Reform/Tuscasloosa AL to Christian AC “101.7 The River“.
Update 12/24: While promoting its launch for 12pm today, WQRR made its flip to “101.7 The River” at midnight. The station is currently running Christmas music with a mix of Christian and secular titles, but will debut a Christian AC format after the holiday positioned as “Lifting Tuscaloosa’s Spirit”.
INSTANT INSIGHT: The end of the stunt has all the markings of something that became too big for the station to control. After going viral on Saturday, WQRR quickly pivoted away to something safer that also would have been a better fit for the now Christian format. The “hacking” stunt had tremendous opportunity to get national media attention should they have stuck with it through the original planned launch at noon, but would have been an awful fit for a station going to Christian music and would not have served its purpose of retaining any listenership.
Update 12/23: The stunting on WQRR has eliminated much of the original assets outside of the top-of-the-hour ID and instead is voiced by an elf promoting the new format launch on Tuesday, December 24 at 12pm. The station’s playlist is currently featuring 1980s pop music.
The Alt 101.7 website has been replaced with one for “101.7 The River” promoting a Christian AC format. While this is the likely format debuting on Tuesday, we cannot fully confirm that yet. If so, it would create an in-market competitor to EMF’s “K-Love” on 99.1 WLXQ Greensboro and TBTA Ministries’ Christian Rock/Hip Hop “Revocation Radio” 88.5 WKUA Moundville as well as some signals from Birmingham.
Original Report 12/22: After first carrying a loop of Taylor Swift, foreign language covers of Swift, and imaging insinuating the station was hacked by Russia, it has changed this morning to Michael Jackson.
The stunt is going viral on social media, in particular TikTok and Facebook, with many insinuating that it is tied to recent drone sightings. We reported on a pending flip at WQRR in our 11/27 Domain Insight.
Tuscaloosa Alabama radio interference by an unknown source. I'm not sure if this is some kind of hack or what but this recording was live all night on 101.7 Tuscaloosa. VERY FRIGHTENING #fyp #hackers #foreigninterference pic.twitter.com/kAzYQ7o1HG
— Aimee Jean (@Aimeej1978) December 22, 2024
WTF is going on with the Tuscaloosa Alabama radio station 101.7??????? pic.twitter.com/AArvEcI0rT
— Christi🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@Christi54947511) December 22, 2024
Does @tuscaloosacity have anything to say about the supposed hackers on its radio station 101.7? What the hell is this? Also if anyone speaks #Russian on here what do they say at 00:50?? #translate #russiantoenglish #tuscaloosa #alabama pic.twitter.com/6qOLRpWsFk
— captain fuck™ (@monica_souder) December 22, 2024
Radio station in Tuscaloosa, AL 101.7 WQRR playing Shake it Off by Taylor Swift in Russian then playing this message after. Then more Taylor songs. Wtf is going on? Can anyone translate the Russian?#wqrr #1017tuscaloosa #tuscaloosa #alabama #AL #taylorswift #taylor #russia pic.twitter.com/llnR0JMM63
— 🔥Ash Will Ride 🐴Rivendare🐴 by 200 Runs 💯% (@ash_nazg_) December 22, 2024
Jay Dee 
Brandon Charles 
Declan Hughes 
radiomaverick
People will believe anything
Alabammer, where you can make a war of the worlds stunt still work in 2024. Lol.
Seems like they fully stopped with the Taylor songs about quarter after 4. Now they’re playing a mix of classic hits, with Man in the Mirror by MJ being plated once every few songs
This is great! I think that there’s a whole generation that has no idea that radio was/is/can be fun. Although they should hsce flipped it more Christian Alternative/Rock instead of the same ol Christian AC.