Update 6/20: “Classic Hits 101.9” KENZ is no-more as the station flipped to Variety Hits “Trax 101.9” at 3pm today.
Utilizing a Jack-like presentation, the station’s name comes from the local commuter rail service in Salt Lake City. The station is promoting artists such as Adele, Pink, Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, The Police, and Nickelback.
The first hour of Trax 101.9 consisted of:
The Romantics – What I Like About You
Modern English – I Melt With You
Green Day – When I Come Around
Simple Minds – Don’t You Forget About Me
Pat Benatar – Heartbreaker
Rick Springfield – Jessie’s Girl
3 Doors Down – Kryptonite
Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’
OMD – If You Leave
Fun – We Are Young
Bryan Adams – Summer Of 69
Blondie – One Way Or Another
John Melloncamp – Jack & Diane
Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life
Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams
Prince – When Doves Cry
Original Report 6/8: Ten months after flipping Alternative “101.9 The End” KENZ Ogden/Salt Lake City to Classic Rock “Classic Hits 101.9” last August, more changes appear on deck for the station and Cumulus’ Salt Lake City cluster.
Cumulus is moving The Bob & Tom Show from 101.9 back to Mornings on sister Rock “K-Bear 101” 101.1 KBER starting Tuesday, June 10. “The Freak Show” with Mick & Allen will slide from mornings back to afternoons on KBER, while PD/Middayer Sue Kelley will air from 9am-12pm and current afternoon host Mike Parsons will move to 12-3pm. Bob & Tom had moved from KBER to KENZ when the new format debuted last August.
Cumulus has registered Trax1019.com potentially for KENZ. No indications for what format Trax could stand for, but its ubiquitousness makes it stand out as another potential national brand like Nash.
The four stations affected by Cumulus’ format shuffle last year have not had much success since. KENZ’s 1.4 share in the April 2014 Nielsen Audio PPMs, equals it with the Alternative formats level in the May 2013 ratings. 94.9 KHTB flipped from Active Rock to Alternative last September and has dropped from a 2.4 in May 2013 to 1.4 in April 2014. KBER has dropped from 2.4 to 1.8 in the same timeframe. AC “B98.7” KBEE relaunched with Hot AC and has dropped from a 3.0 to 1.8 in the past year.
“Trax” is the name for the Utah Transportation Authority’s light rail system, so it’s not a ubiquitous name for people in the Salt Lake market. Formatwise, it could still be almost anything, though a rock based format is most likely.
Pointless note: last song on “Classic Hits 101.9” was “Money” by Pink Floyd.
“Trax” will probably be here for a few years, given the presumptive lower overhead (no syndication licensing, for one).
Oh, this also brings Variety Hits back to Salt Lake City 23 months after it left.
Although, Rewind 100.7 bills itself as Variety Hits and plays a good mix, although, it’s skewing newer than the typical VH formats have.
What an awful hour of music!!! Like everything else Cumulus has done in Salt Lake, this will prove to be an abject failure.
Almost everything Cumulus touches in SLC turns to junk. Look at how badly Rock 106.5 is beating K-Bear these days! It’s not even close!!!
KBER’s ratings have GOT to be at or very close to all-time record lows. It was really stupid of Cumulus not to swing that station in more of a Mainstream Rock direction after blowing up Z-Rock.
Any discussion of Cumulus’ underachievements in SLC would not be complete without mention of B-98.7! What a pile of horse manure THAT station is…
yes. 16 proven hits played back-to-back is no way to run a radio station.
I agree- their playlist is all over the map. Why do radio stations think by getting rid of talent (Chung) mean that they will save money and ratings will go up? I refuse to listen to radio anymore. Good radio morning shows were the reason I turned off my ipod. Why listen to radio if you have no good talk but ad after ad?