Urban One Broadcasting Network is preparing to launch an Urban AC in the Gainesville/Ocala market.
The Gainesville Sun reports that 97.7 WURB Cross City will launch by December 1. The station will run an Urban AC format featuring the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Station owner William Johnson describes the target demographic as “black Americans ages 34 to 65” with core artists including Isley Brothers, Luther Vandross and the Gap Band.
The closest competing station for WURB is JVC Media’s Smooth AC “100.9 Smooth-FM” WXJZ. There is no direct Urban AC formatted station in the market.
Urban One purchased the CP for WURB in September 2012 from Alex Media for $325,000. The station was one in FCC Auction 91 for $15,000.
Given their past practices here on Long Island it will not be long before JVC launches a pre-emptive strike and flips to its signature Party format. It’s another way they cut costs and maybe raise ratings. Way to go McFly!
JVC launched “Party 99.5” in Gainesville when they took over in June. https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/82226/jvc-media-to-launch-two-new-formats-in-gainesville/
I’m not sure how launching a younger skewing Dance CHR is a pre-emptive strike for a launch of an Urban AC though? And if you read the Gainesville Sun article linked in the story you’ll see JVC has significantly increased the number of employees in their newly acquired cluster.