iHeartMedia quietly launched “Tailgate Country 103.7” K279BO Portland/KFBW-HD3 Vancouver, WA last week.
The new format gives Portland its third Country signal joining Alpha Media’s “98.7 The Bull” KUPL and Entercom’s “99.5 The Wolf” KWJJ. With the 99 watt translator having nowhere near the signal of the two incumbents, it is launching with a new gimmick. The station will be commercial-free not just for the first 10,000 songs, but for the foreseeable future. Given that the two Country stations are all that prevents iHeartMedia’s Portland cluster from having the four most listened to commercial stations in the market it is obvious to see the purpose of the Tailgate format.
K279BO is owned by Educational Media Foundation and was previously operating on 96.3, but was displaced by the pending move-in of Horizon Broadcasting’s KWLZ-FM into the Portland market on that frequency.
And more than likely fed by Premium Choice. Hooray for “original” programming on the radio.
Well, I guess it
'
s something. At least it isn'
t yet more god translator crap.