Update 5/17: More details on the More brand:
WBEB Philadelphia has rebranded its All-80’s HD2 subchannel as “More-FM” to prevent the brand from being picked up elsewhere. WBEB pulled a similar move in 2007 by inserting the “Fresh” moniker in its positioning.
Domain registrations have been made for 951MoreFM.com, More95.com, More951.com, More95FM.com, MoreFMFortWayne.com, MoreFortWayne.com, and MoreFtWayne.com. That would make Sarkes Tarzian AC “Majic 95.1” WAJI Fort Wayne the likely destination of a refresh to the “More-FM” brand.
As our commenter below noted, Moyes has been sending out legal notices that he is now the owner of the “More-FM” brand and any use of the name must go through him.
InsideRadio reports that Bill Moyes has also applied to trademark the “Most-FM” brand. While no application is yet on file to claim that brand, an additional 28 domains were registered. The domains mostly follow the same path as the ones previously registered for More.
- MostChicago.com
- MostFM96.com
- MostFM97.com
- MostFM98.com
- MostFM99.com
- MostFM100.com
- MostFM101.com
- MostFM102.com
- MostFMAtl.com
- MostFMAtlanta.com
- MostFMBoston.com
- MostFMChicago.com
- MostFMChristmas.com
- MostFMDallas.com
- MostFMDC.com
- MostFMHouston.com
- MostFMMIA.com
- MostFMMornings.com
- MostFMMusic.com
- MostFMNYC.com
- MostFMPhiladelphia.com
- MostFMPhilly.com
- MostFMRadio.com
- MostFMSanFran.com
- MostFMSF.com
- MostMusicMorning.com
- MostMusicMorningShow.com
- MostPhilly.com
Original Report 5/13: On the heels of last week’s debut of “96.9 More-FM” Fort Myers, pieces have been put in place for a potential expansion of the brand.
As we mentioned in our report last week, Moyes Research Associates, LLC of Colorado Springs, CO applied for a trademark on March 29 for the use of “More FM” for use in radio broadcasting. The company is led by Bill Moyes, the former President of The Research Group, who has had a long and illustrious career in radio research.
Twentynine domains were registered anonymously on May 3 with the More brand. The domains cover every Top 10 market, a few generic frequencies, and some programming elements:
- More101FM.com
- MoreFM100.com
- MoreFM101.com
- MoreFM101HD2.com
- MoreFM102.com
- MoreFMAtl.com
- MoreFMAtlanta.com
- MoreFMBoston.com
- MoreFMChicago.com
- MoreFMChristmas.com
- MoreFMChristmasMusic.com
- MoreFMDallas.com
- MoreFMDC.com
- MoreFMHouston.com
- MoreFMLA.com
- MoreFMMornings.com
- MoreFMMorningShow.com
- MoreFMMusic.com
- MoreFMNYC.com
- MoreFMPhiladelphia.com
- MoreFMPhilly.com
- MoreFMRadio.com
- MoreFMRadioPhilly.com
- MoreFMSanFran.com
- MoreFMSF.com
- MoreMusic101.com
- MoreMusicMorning.com
- MoreMusicMorningShow.com
The following is mere speculation on our part, but one thing that sticks out to us are there are more references to 101 and Philadelphia than anywhere else. Could Jerry Lee’s “B101” WBEB Philadelphia be looking at a rebranding for the second time in its history? In 1993 then “EZ 101” WEAZ-FM rebranded as “B101” to appeal to younger listeners who still associated the station with Beautiful Music and Easy Listening. Sounds familiar to efforts being made by AC stations around the country in the PPM era.
In addition to WINK-FM Fort Myers, the only other place the More brand is being used in the United States is Cadena’s Rock en Español “More-FM 98.9” XHMOR Tijuana/San Diego.
radio
We received a “Legal Notice” in the mail from Bill Moyes notifying us that he is now the owner of the “More FM” moniker, and if any station wants to use that name, they have to go through him.
Not a very good way to make new friends by sending a “Legal Notice” just to say you own a trademark. If Bill wanted station owners to open the envelope he achieved that goal with the legal language, but didn’t get on anybody’s good side in the process.
It’s the same thing Alan Burns did in 2006 with his Movin’ brand, and we’ve seen how well that worked out.