While most of the industry’s eyes are on iHeartMedia’s “106.1 Kiss-FM” KBKS Seattle today, another of the company’s stations on that frequency will soon be on the verge of a high profile change.
Classic Hip-Hop “Real 106.1” WISX Philadelphia is not a failure by any means with its 3.0 share in the just released October Nielsen Audio ratings. But the sale of AC “101.1 More-FM” WBEB to Entercom and the shift of Classic Hits 98.1 WOGL to an emphasis on 80s music may have opened the door wide to thread the needle between the pair, which also happen to be the two most listened to music stations in the market.
iHeartMedia registered 1061TheBreeze.com, Breeze1061.com, TheBreeze1061.com, BreezePhilly.com, and TheBreezePhilly.com on Tuesday for WISX. Those domains point to a duplication of the Soft AC brand the company launched in San Francisco in 2016 and based on yesterday’s Domain Insight could soon come to another PPM ranked market.
With WBEB usually leading the country in local market share for its Christmas music (and its new sister WOGL likely not to follow suit), a quick move to beat WBEB to the punch would be a likely strategy. Also potentially at play is the uncertainty of what Entercom will do with Hot AC 96.5 WTDY-FM to further separate it from WBEB and the sharp decline at Beasley Media Variety Hits “95.7 Ben-FM” WBEN-FM, which registered a 2.1 share in the October monthly.
Anonymous registrations of Hot959Austin.com and Hot959ATX.com point to an upcoming change at Entercom Urban AC “95.9 RNB” K240EL/KKMJ-HD3 Austin. The station registered a 1.5 share in the September Nielsen Audio ratings albeit with a very low CUME, with the October numbers to be released tomorrow. Would a rebranding or shift to Classic Hip-Hop allow the station to continue to serve the adult urban audience it currently reaches but expand the listenership?
