CHR
95.3: CKZZ “Z95.3” becomes Rhythmic AC “95 Crave”
The powerhouse that lost its way. From its birth in 1991, Z95.3 (pronounced Zed 95.3) quickly established itself as Vancouver’s top hit music station with its Dance leaning Top-40 format which mainstreamed as the 90’s progressed. In 2002, when crosstown CFBT launched its Rhythmic format as “94.5 The Beat”, CKZZ evolved towards Hot AC. As the 2000’s progressed, Z95.3’s Hot AC format lost more ground to a more mainstream Beat. Finally on June 5, 2007 the plug was pulled and then station was relaunched as Rhythmic AC “95 Crave” bringing back a lot of the music that Z95.3 had originally played in the early 90’s.
CHR 106.1 WZNR becomes Rhythmic AC “Energy 106.1” WNRJ
In its short history on the air, the 106.1 frequency in the Tidewater has seen constant shuffling of formats as it looked to fill a niche in the market. Following its move into the Tidewater proper in March of 2004, the station has seen the following formats: 03/07/04 to 09/23/04 – Variety Hits “106.1 Bob-FM” WPYA 09/23/04 to 02/02/05 – Country “Kick 106” WKCK 02/02/05 to 09/21/06 – CHR “106.1 The Zone” WZNR The Zone had attempted to fill the Mainstream CHR void that had existed in the Tidewater since the Early 1990’s. Entercom’s pair of Adult CHR 94.9 The Point and Rhythmic CHR Z104 made the hole tough to fill. As the Rhythmic AC format took off in 2006, WZNR management felt they had found a niche that could be more success...
WOFM Flips To Classic Hits
Previous Format: CHR “Wild 94.7” New Format: Classic Hits “94.7 The Peak” (Quickly rebranded as “94.7 The Valley“) Date & Time Of Change: March 6, 2006 More Info: Wikipedia Aircheck Contributed by Jeremy Andrews
All Hit 98.9 WHTS Signs Off
Previous Format: CHR “All Hit 98.9” WHTS New Format: Christian AC “K-Love” WLKU Date & Time Of Change: February 3, 2006 at 12:00am More Info: Wikipedia, Quad Cities Online
“Z104” WWZZ Signs-Off
On 12:00pm on January 4, 2006 Bonneville Radio announced a shuffling of its Washington, D.C stations. News WTOP moved from its 1500/104.3/107.7 simulcast to 103.5. Classical WGMS moved from 103.5 to the 104.1/103.9 simulcast that had been the home of Adult CHR Z104. This was to pave way for the March debut of Washington Post Radio on the 1500/104.3/107.7 simulcast that had been home to WTOP. Z104 had been through a number of iterations in its 9+ year history. First was the pure CHR format in the mid to late 90’s. It’s evolution to a more adult sound lead to the station dropping the Z from its name for a few years in favor of “More Music 104” before returning to the Z104 name. Listen here as Z104 plays its final song, gives its last ID, and GM Joel Oxley announces wh...
92.1: KIZS “Kiss-FM” becomes KTBT “The Beat”
Clear Channel Communications signed-on KIZS as CHR/Pop Kiss 92.1 in 1999 to compete head-to-head with longtime heritage CHR KHTT (106.9 K-Hits). In early 2001, amid mediocre ratings, Clear Channel’s new Post-Merger programming directive forced the station into a heavily voicetracked entity. The ratings never really made any headway and then several format tweaks occured, first toward a Hot/Modern AC approach (where it actually saw it’s HIGHEST 12+ numbers in the stations history) and then back towards a CHR/Adult CHR approach. Additionally in 2002, CC blew up its low rated and low signaled Christian CHR KMRX (Live 101.5) and rolled it into a heavily voicetracked Mainstream Urban KTBT (101-5 The Beat). As it’s first incarnation of the format, The Beat never saw ratings suc...
Frequency Swap 97.5 WPST Moves To 94.5
In the Fall of 2004, Nassau Broadcasting applied for a city of license change for their flagship station 97.5 WPST from Trenton to Burlington, NJ (less than 20 miles to the south). In doing so they would make 97.5 able to move into the more lucrative Philadelphia market. While that move will not take place until the Fall of 2005 at the earliest, Nassau took the next step in January by announcing it would swap the programming of its two Trenton FM’s. 97.5 WPST’s CHR format would move on Valentine’s Day to the 94.5 home of Classic Rocker “The Hawk”. In doing so, the CHR format of WPST stays in the suburban Trenton market, in the event that 97.5 should be sold following its move to Philadelphia.
Frequency Swap 94.5 The Hawk Moves To 97.5
In the Fall of 2004, Nassau Broadcasting applied for a city of license change for their flagship station 97.5 WPST from Trenton to Burlington, NJ (less than 20 miles to the south). In doing so they would make 97.5 able to move into the more lucrative Philadelphia market. While that move will not take place until the Fall of 2005 at the earliest, Nassau took the next step in January by announcing it would swap the programming of its two Trenton FM’s. 97.5 WPST’s CHR format would move on Valentine’s Day to the 94.5 home of Classic Rocker “The Hawk”. In doing so, the CHR format of WPST stays in the suburban Trenton market, in the event that 97.5 should be sold following its move to Philadelphia.
Country “Kick 106” WKCK Becomes CHR “The Zone” WZNR
In less than a year on the air, the newest radio signal in the Hampton Roads has already been the home to three formats. The station, which came to life on 3/7/04 as Classic Hits “106.1 Bob-FM” WPYA arose from the rubble of a market shakeup the previous Fall when longtime Country outlet WCMS became Rock “Max 100.5” and in retaliation AAA 93.7 WKOC became Country “Kick-FM”. The new “106.1 Bob-FM” would become more successful than anticipated, while sister station 93.7 Kick-FM was less. In response the frequencies of both stations were swapped on September 23, 2004 resulting in “93.7 Bob-FM” on the more powerful frequency and “Kick 106.1″on the weaker. Still not satisfied with the results, Kick 106.1 was blown up on Febr...
