Mid-West Family Broadcasting will continue its format realignment in its South Bend IN and Southwest Michigan clusters.
Following the flips of Classic Rock “Z94.3” WZOC Plymouth/South Bend to a simulcast of Rock 107.1 WIRX St. Joseph MI in January and Alternative “The New QYQ” 1400 WQYQ/106.1 W291DK Benton Harbor MI to a simulcast of Sports 960 WSBT/96.1 W241AD South Bend last week, Mid-West Family will continue its consolidation of the two markets.
Longtime personality Zach East posts that AC “98.3 The Coast” WCXT Hartford MI will flip next week as the station will become the new home of Alternative “Live 99.9” WQLQ Benton Harbor along with W241AD South Bend. That will allow the moves we previously reported on in our 2/11 Domain Insight report to take place with Country “97.5 Y Country” WYTZ moving to 99.9 and Classic Rock “107.9 The Lake” W300EJ Benton Harbor to move to 97.5 under new WRRA-FM calls.
East explained, “Why is all of this happening? Well, as they say, it’s business. Our sister station Sunny 101.5 plays nearly identical music. Alternative needed a home after other stations move around to make way for Y Country’s move. And with the popularity of the Lake’s format and COSY’s recent move to carry more 80s music just like the Coast, there’s not much sense in sticking around.”
WMFB COO Dave Doetsch said, “It’s a lot of change, and it’s probably overdue. This reflects the changing ways people consume music, the mobility of our audiences, and the evolution of music itself. We did a lot of homework and external market research before launching this — a pretty substantial change. I’m proud of our team that has prepared for this change, I’m really excited for advertisers who are going to find greater value for their dollars, and I’m excited to present all of this to the listeners. At the end of the day, they have choices in where and how they consume content and we’re putting our best foot forward to win their loyalty.”






















