Could WQBE Rebrand As "The Bull" Soon?

[Mr. Jones]

It's happening to Bristol's WXBQ/Bristol.

http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/ ... -relaunch/

[news89]

The last time I was in the market I had FM radio on for a few mins. I noticed that WQBE dumped "John Pleisse" voice over.

[Shanen Wright]

Well, Radio Insight claims that Bristol registered the domain 969TheBull.com. Couldn't that be for a frequency swap involving Electric 96.9 WDDJ in Paducah instead? Bristol has a history of frequency swaps (such as Electric 99.3 to 94.9 in the Tri-Cities) and of attempting to flank their primary country stations. Anyone remember the short-lived 107.3 QBE-2 under LMA years ago in Charleston?

I just can't fathom the rebranding of either WXBQ or WQBE with such heritage and stellar ratings. It would be like Applebee's changing their name in pursuit of younger demos. Now I very well may be wrong and a Bull rebrand on 97.5 (and 96.9 in Bristol) is coming, but I would see a flanker as 94.5 The Bull more likely in Charleston than abandoning the Rabbit. Just speculation...

[Lester]

And don't forget how cheap it is to register a domain... for no other reason than to see if your competition flinches.

[Schaffer]

If Bristol is doing anything, I would bet my headphones its adios to Z-Rock. That rabbit isn't going anywhere.

[cgarison]

And don't forget how cheap it is to register a domain... for no other reason than to see if your competition flinches.

This is a great trick to mess with a competitor. The "interactive" division at my former employer would do this just to mess with Amazon and Zappos. Then Amazon flinched, sucked Zappos into their empire and the handed the interactive division a permanent spot on Internet Wayback Machine. Just make sure you have a competior that apreciates this type of game. Bezos obviously doesn't have the same playful attitude as Tony Hseih and the other players in the internet world.

[Mike]

Isn't "The Bull" a Clear Channel brand? They went #1 in Lexington, KY with it, displacing WVLK-FM with it on 98.1 (a 100,00 watt signal).