The craziness that has been the Atlanta market this past week continues as Cumulus flips 80s/90s Hits “Journey 97.9” W250BC to Top 20 “Q100 20“.
The new format, modeled after SiriusXM’s “20 on 20” is focusing on all CHR currents. If we can deduce Cumulus’ strategy here, it is to protect Q100’s brand against Clear Channel’s new “Power 96.1“. Power and Wild are more younger skewing than Q100. By making 97.9 younger skewing they have something that will in theory protect Q. If people have Q100 as a top preset and 97.9 is marketed as being part of Q100, they could get people who jump around during songs they don’t like or commericals to sample 97.9 instead of any of the other CHR options in the market.
Tom
This reminds me of “Top-10, WSEX” in da ‘burbs of Chicago, 1987:
http://fmairchecks.com/2011/02/19/wsex-august-25-1987/
It’s interesting that Cumulus and Clear channel are attacking each other. I thought they were friends now, especially since all Cumulus stations are on the I-heart Radio platform and Clear Channel stations promote Cumulus’s sweet jack dot com