Update 9/3/10: All the projected flips happened at 5pm today. 93.5 WOZZ shifts from Classic Rock to Active Rock as “93 Rock” and AC 94.3 WROE & 99.7 WRQE shifts to Classic Rock as “The Drive“. Along with the changes are a bunch of call letter changes. 94.3 WROE is now WYDR, 99.7 WRQE is WZDR, 93.5 WOZZ takes the WRQE calls, while WOZZ shifts to the former 1390 WRIG in Wausau.
Update 8/30/10: WOZZ has launched a Facebook page promoting its format change to Rock on Friday, September 3.
Update 8/29/10: Forget about the second batch of domain registrations for 94.3 and 99.7. As we expected they all appear to be decoys registered following our original report. On Friday, Midwest applied for call letter changes at 94.3 WROE to WYDR and 99.7 WRQE to WZDR to signify their pending “Drive” identity.
Update 8/26/10: After our original report, Lewis and Midwest have gone back and added a few more domains in an attempt to keep people guessing about their future plans in Appleton and Green Bay. The new domains are 935LiteFM.com, Wild93Online.com, 943TheBull.com, 943TheMix.com, 997TheBull.com, and 997TheMix.com. We really should start consulting some of these companies on how to properly hide domain registrations from competitors and knowledgeable snoops like ourselves.
Original Report 8/23/10: Midwest Communications appears to be planning rebranding of a pair of stations in Appleton/Green Bay, WI. A number of new domains have been registered by the company’s Multimedia Content Director, Lori Lewis for planned use at Classic Rock 93.5 WOZZ and AC simulcast 94.3 WROE and 99.7 WRQE.
The domains 943TheDrive.com and 997TheDrive.com point to an obvious rebranding or format change at WROE. Meanwhile three domains point to a possible tweak at WOZZ: 93RockOn.com, New93Rock.com, and New93RockOn.com could all lead to a tweak towards Mainstream or Active Rock at WOZZ. We’ll be watching these stations closely in the coming weeks.