Update 7/1: Cox has thrown down the gauntlet at Clear Channel’s 93.3 WFLZ.

Cox flipped 80’s/90s “101.5 The Point” WPOI Tampa to CHR as “Hot 101.5” at 11am today directly calling out WFLZ just as it did to other when it launched as The Power Pig. Hot becomes the 4th CHR in the Tampa Bay market joining WFLZ, and CBS’ tandem of Rhythmic CHR “WIld 94.1” WLLD and Adult CHR “Play 98.7” WSJT.

Hot 101.5 is branding itself as “All The Hits” and playing the customary 10,000 songs in a row.

At 10:00am today, following Bon Jovi’s “Blaze of Glory” WPOI began stunting with random song snippets and a notice on its streaming audio player that “Aliens Are Invading” with a countdown to a relaunch at 11:00am.

Listen to the debut of Hot 101.5 at FormatChange.com.

The first hour of Hot 101.5 consisted of:
LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
Pitbull – Give Me Everything
Katy Perry – E.T.
Adele – Rolling In The Deep
Jennifer Lopez – On The Floor
Jason DeRulo – Don’t Wanna Go Home
Rihanna – Only Girl In The World
Black Eyed Peas – Just Can’t Get Enough
Lady Gaga – Edge Of Glory
Usher – DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love
Lupe Fiasco – The Show Goes On
Ke$ha – Your Love Is My Drug
LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
Katy Perry – Firework
Eminem / Bruno Mars – Lighters
Britney Spears – Till The World Ends

Update 6/30: Add Smooth1015.com and Latinio1015.com (spelled like that) to the list of domains moved over to Cox’s nameservers.

Cox also moved Smooth971.com, TalkTampaRadio971.com, TampaBaysPower971.com, and TampaSportsTicket971.com over as well. We’re a little skeptical of a shift at Modern Rock “97X” WSUN-FM as the station announced the hiring of a new morning host, Drew Garabo, who has a long history at Orlando’s WOCL and WTKS beginning July 5.

Original Report 6/29: One of the possible format changes to keep an eye out over the July 4 weekend looks to be in Tampa.

Over the past few weeks we have monitored over 60 anonymous domain registrations with references to the Tampa market. Now one of these has been moved to Cox’s servers.

Hot1015TampaBay.com could hint at a few possible formats: CHR, Rhythmic CHR, Rhythmic AC, Urban. Based on Cox’s propensity to duplicate formats and brands in multiple markets we’d expect to see a clone of Cox’s top rated Urban AC “Hot 105” WHQT Miami. 101.5 is currently 80’s/90’s “101.5 The Point“.

Among the other domain registrations were references to stations branded Latinio, Power, Sports Talk, Smooth, Talk, and The Ticket. In an attempt to divert focus directly to 101.5, there were also domains registered for the 93.3, 97.1, 98.7, 99.9, 100.7, 104.7, 105.1, and 106.3. Some of these frequencies are not available in the Tampa market. Examples are: Latinio933.com, MyPower971.com, MySportsTalk987.com, Smooth999.com, TalkTampaRadio1007.com, TampaBaysPower1047.com, TampaSportsTicket1051.com, TampaBaysHot1063.com, and duplicates for each frequency.