I have to start my look at last year’s influential stations by talking about the year before.
In 2023, radio had something we hadn’t seen for a while: instant success stories at radio stations that found a hole in the market.
One of them was in an existing format that the market had allowed to become unoccupied, Cox’s Adult R&B WTBV (The Vibe) Tampa. This year, that station went on to post record numbers for its frequency, as did the station that inspired it, WCFB (Star 94.5) Orlando.
The other was less precedented: the Spanish-language presentation of (mostly) English-language Classic Hits on WMIA (Magic 93.9) Miami, which found an opening in a market where similar music was easy to find elsewhere, and even more available now.
In October, I asked aloud why we hadn’t seen more stations inspired by Magic 93.9. Seemingly within minutes, we had them including WOEX (Hits 96.5) Orlando, Fla.; KXXM (Mix 96.1) San Antonio; and, last week, WEPN (Exitosa 98.7) New York.
Each list of Intriguing Stations is meant to be not just the previous year’s winners but also successful launches, comebacks, and trendsetters. This year’s list is informed by how many of 2023’s stations remained viable or influential. If you’re wondering why I didn’t mention somebody, perhaps it’s here.
Many of 2024’s biggest format launches were previous trends, from 2023 or before, still playing out:
- The excitement about gold-based Alternative prompted a similar Canadian mini-boom this year, led by CFGQ (The Edge) Calgary. Earlier this month, gold-based Alternative came even to “94.3 XYZ” Fort Walton Beach, Fla.
- It’s not a 2023 trend, but we’re still getting new throwback Hip-Hop outlets. ROR readers were excited about the return of WJHM (102 Jamz) Orlando, joining evolving sisters WPOW (Power 96) Miami and KQKS (KS104) Denver.
- There were new Classic Country outlets, including KPLZ (101.5 Hank FM) Seattle and, as 2025 began, a new personal favorite for depth and breadth, Eastern North Carolina’s WLGT/WSTK. The year also kicked off, as others have recently, with a barrage of new Jack-FMs and KCKC (Kansas City)’s move from AC to Bob FM.
But if it was the “new, new” you want from this column, there was Hitradio AI, a streaming CHR driven entirely by listeners’ AI-powered submissions. Fully explaining the station demanded its own profile, so I wrote one last week. So far, the station is unhosted, but AI breaks are on the way, and there is already an AI-generated podcast.
In many years, there’s not a new music-based format to write about because Top 40 co-opts any trend before it can become a format unto itself. There were a number of resurgent heritage CHRs in 2024, including WKST (96.1 Kiss) Pittsburgh and WHTZ (Z100) New York, whose No. 1 25-54 finish last fall is a column unto itself.
But KIIS Los Angeles deserves special mention for being at the forefront of a surge in “voice of the listener” female pop, particularly as CHR’s most prominent female-programmed station. (It was also a showplace for K-Pop’s resurgence.) I also appreciated PD Beata Murphy and MD Sisanie’s continued enterprise on new music, something which I value more than ever. (Obviously, it’s hard to talk about KIIS only in music and radio terms this week, but I wanted to acknowledge its programming influence first.)
I wrote about both Capital UK and BBC Radio 1 in August after Britain’s heritage CHRs began posting their best London numbers in years. Hearing the battle in person last summer was a reminder that UK CHR still has superior variety because of its greater dance presence and BBC1 still including rock. In the UK, radio still rules the Ubers, and that’s in part because of an easy-to-use digital tier. (I also wrote about the battle between London’s two digital R&B Oldies outlets, something even the U.S. doesn’t have.)
At the other end of the Top 40 spectrum, I’ve often cited WIXX Green Bay, Wis., as one of the smaller-market pop-leaning CHRs that remained healthy even among the format’s travails. This year, it rated a “Fresh Listen” as the station where Top 40 and Country most converged. WXLK (K92) Roanoke, Va., reemerged last year as another successful version of that model, and a confirmation of the ongoing value of well-used music research. I appreciate PD Chris Ryan’s participation in the state-of-the-format dialogue this year.
If I’d been writing this column 35 years ago, WWBX (Mix 104.1) Boston predecessor WBMX (Mix 98.5) would have been highlighted as one of the first Rhythmic AC stations, or maybe a few years later as one of Modern AC’s prominent stations. Last year, as a mainstream Adult Top 40, it was a market leader, largely on the strength of strong personality through the day, something other Hot ACs drifted away from because of PPM. It remains the top current-driven station at this writing.
Personality also drove the success of Top 40 Nova 100 Melbourne. The expansion of Sydney’s Kyle & Jackie O to a second market prompted a ton of national media coverage, as well as the usual declarations that “live and local” wouldn’t be enough in the face of great content. As it happened, Nova’s Jase & Lauren — bounced from their previous station to make room for the other show — turned out to be more than just live and local. They’re the dominant music show in the market and actually up to an 11.5 share at year’s end. Also, for Soft AC fans, co-owned Smooth FM was No. 1 in Melbourne and Sydney in that survey.
I’ve written about Audacy Country sister WPAW (The Wolf) Greensboro, N.C., for its music enterprise in years past. This year, Audacy’s Country outlets as a group were among the early champions of some of the fast-breaking streaming titles that reflected the ongoing evolution of the format and its charts.
At the other end of the Country format, sister KKMJ-HD3 (95.9 Texas Country) Austin moved quickly when KOKE, a longtime column favorite, went online-only following a sale, and was seeing ratings results at year’s end. (It’s also gratifying that KOKE has, thus far, remained hosted.) It was also gratifying to see that WWWF (The Wolf) Long Island, N.Y., was still able to repatriate some of the listening displaced when Audacy exited Country in New York, even several years later.
KINK Portland has long had a template of Triple-A with a focus on pop crossovers (and now on streaming) that each PD seems to execute a little differently. This year, it had its best ratings in more than 30 years under PDs Ken Benson and Max Dugan. KINK also inspired Alternative CIND (Indie 88) Toronto to an evolution under PD Ian March and new owners that was similarly intended, but very different on a song-to-song basis, in part because of the ongoing strength of Canadian Alternative product.
There’s usually a new take on the “AM Gold” era among each year’s Intriguing Stations. This year it was WJIB Boston, evolving from one of the few remaining Easy Listening outlets, and streaming for the first time under new owner John Garabedian. Because of the station’s heritage, it was both older and newer than many of its counterparts. XEPRS San Diego returned to Oldies this year with a unique twist — it was built around airchecks of former star announcer Wolfman Jack and other legendary L.A. talent.
On the mainstream Classic Hits side, it was gratifying to see the growth of WLS-FM Chicago, particularly since returning its signature jingle to the air. There are always follow-up articles to “Intriguing,” and you can probably expect one covering all the Classic Hits stations I personally liked for one reason or another shortly.
In the early ’00s, I was excited on Nashville trips to hear then-local WAYM (Way-FM) doing an early attempt at Christian CHR. Now, Scott Herrold of owner Hope Media says that new Spanish-language sister Vida Unida, which was still expanding as 2025 began, is finding a “considerably younger” audience that remains loyal to radio and represents an opportunity for broadcasters.
One of the gratifying developments of 2024 was the addition of station pre-sets and a market scan to the iHeart Radio app, part of the better organization of listeners’ infinite choices that I’ve been hoping for. SiriusXM announced at year’s end that it would shift focus away from its app, where rapidly proliferating choices had diluted some of their ease-of-use, but I was glad it brought us Yacht Soul first. I’ve also been enjoying K-Love Pop and K-Love ’80s as I delve into the Christian AC network’s new suite of side channels. The thing I would most like to write about in 2025 is a galvanizing new app that comes from helps grow radio; for 18 months, I’ve been saying that broadcasters should consider the prospect of life without TikTok in those terms.
Some of the Intriguing Stations of 2024 were more about infrastructure than format. At April’s NAB, Radioinsight’s Lance Venta noted the number of new playout systems that drastically reduced radio’s back end. Within months, we got to hear those on the air. Radio.Cloud helped Emmis put TJ98.7 on the air in a few days’ time and was even acknowledged in the station sweepers. The system is still in place on its bilingual AC successor.
2024 was a year when some of the most-compelling radio was the radio that you didn’t want to hear, including Wayne Cabot’s bravura sign-off of all-news WCBS-AM New York. So it’s gratifying to report that Stephen King’s WKIT Bangor, Maine, found a buyer at year’s end, even if two sister stations did not, saving it from being a market-leading FM that signed off anyway (particularly since WKIT is what you’d want from an independently-owned Heritage Rock station in terms of musical uniqueness).
In 2024, the great radio you really didn’t want to hear was from Western North Carolina. Pointing out radio’s necessity in an emergency–something that happened a lot for various reasons in 2024–sometimes sounds mercenary, or sometimes like it’s all we have to offer. But Asheville is a great radio market that has always had lots of great choice and sense-of-place. Hearing Asheville’s iHeart and Saga clusters and non-comm WNCW in October was a reminder that nobody wants to be pressed into service after a disaster, particularly the broadcasters themselves who had to triage help for others when their own world was in chaos. It was also a reminder that radio works best when it is the nerve center for its community every day.
Sadly, whether in Asheville or New Orleans in 2005 or Los Angeles in 2025, all generations of listeners can now too regularly experience a Hindenburg broadcast in real time, except one that lasts for weeks, not minutes, and where announcer Herbert Morrison is himself in peril. This column was originally scheduled for last Thursday, and if it still sounds trifling to talk about mere radio programming at a moment like this, part of what keeps radio relevant to listeners is what it does under less dire circumstances, so that we can be there for them in crisis.
I asked Facebook friends for their station suggestions as well. See those here, or please share your Intriguing Stations of 2024.
