As they begin to operate the Gainesville/Ocala cluster they acquired from Asterisk Communications earlier this month via LMA, JVC Media will flip two of the stations they acquired to new formats as the clock strikes midnight on June 1.
News/Talk “99.5 The Star” WBXY La Crosse will flip to Dance CHR “Party 99.5” duplicating the format heard on 105.3 Long Island. The Gainesville Sun reports that local hosts Jake Fuller and Ward Scott were pulled from the air during Thursday’s show for bad-mouthing the decision to let them go and change the format.
Sports “105 The Game” WYGC High Springs will begin simulcasting sister Country 102.3 WTRS Dunnellon. With the addition of the simulcast, WTRS will drop their “Thunder Country” moniker in exchange for “My Country“.
Hot AC “92Q” 92.9 WMFQ and Smooth AC “Smooth FM 100.9” WXJZ will retain their existing formats.
In discussing the reasons behind the changes, JVC Media CEO John Caracciolo told the Sun, “The stations in Gainesville were underperforming and I had to make an economic decision to do the right thing to bring a format that would make the station profitable and serve the community in a format that’s underserved.”
“The stations in Gainesville were underperforming and I had to make an economic decision to do the right thing to bring a format that would make the station profitable…”
And he’s putting dance on? Apparently someone has an imperfect definition of the word “profit.”
Considering the format will be a duplication of their Long Island station, there won’t be much overhead staffingwise. Between it being a college town and no other Rhythmic CHR’s in town, there might be a little bit of a niche for them to carve out.
I seem to remember JVC flipping WPTY to a more recurrent/gold-based Rhythmic AC a while back. When did they shift back to dance?
College kids have zero purchasing power. Bad call on a dance format.
I work in a college market and I can tell you for a fact that college students have PLENTY of purchasing power. It’s simply that (say it with me, kids) dance is a specialty show, not a format.
Chris Stelly WPTY went back to Dance in late 2011 from their Rhythmic Hot AC variation.
Brian Davis Gainesville might be the one market perfect for this. UF has lots of kids from the Miami area who are more exposed to the genre than others and co-owner Vic Latino was at one point involved in the programming at then Party 95.3 Orlando.
I really do wish them well…I have mad respect for Vic Latino and anyone who can come out of programming to be an owner. I just don’t believe in the format. Hope they prove me wrong.