The 102.3 Format Wheel Lands On...

[Mr. Jones]

Classic Hits simulcast!

http://wmxe.net/

Though if you look at their website, you'd never know. Their Facebook page also doesn't make it obvious.

And boy, were they ever excited about it this morning. Barely got one mention in all the time I listened, and it was such a throwaway liner. Yeah, be more bored about it.

Plus 102.3 is suffering from audio dropouts every now and then.

Way to innovate, radio.

[Ace Purple]

I've listened over the past 45 minutes or so and it sounds like their liners are all reflecting the new 102.3 simulcast. Going into spots a few minutes ago they ran a liner talking about 102.3 reaching Huntington listeners, and I just heard the midday jock reference the simulcast before front-selling songs and going into another (brief) stopset, so the simulcast is being acknowledged on-air in more than just a passing way. I've heard slight audio dropout on 102.3 a few times, but I figure that's a short-term issue.

The move actually makes sense to me, particularly if LM is able to parlay this into more national sales (or a higher rate for them) for Mix. I can't imagine Clear Channel is particularly happy for what this might do to Oldies 97.1, and though Mix seems to focus more on 80s classic hits, as I type this they're playing "Squeeze Box" by The Who, which came out in 1975.

[Mike]

This is a format that, if done right, could heavily damage both Clear Channel and Kindred. Since 101.5 went country (and serving an unserved audience there for classic non Taylor Swift and her latest bitter breakup song about a guy she dated for three whole weeks type country) it left behind ANOTHER unserved audience, that being people who want to hear 80's, and who like their rock without the utter crap that passes for current rock.

That hole in this market is why people like me have Sirius whether we want it or not. Sure, you can "make" a classic rock station by constantly changing among 92.7, 106.3 and 105.1 but that isn't fun to do.

97.9 also forsake a chunk of this market when they quit playing 70's, 80's and 90's with their current AC when they flipped "Hot" AC KEE-FM wannabe as well.

97.1 also abandoned most, if not all, the 80's music they were playing. There is one thing you CANNOT hear on the radio in the Tri-State before this new station AND THAT IS 80's MUSIC. Let's face it, this market isn't getting any younger and virtually everyone left here who isn't yet fully in the geezer demos are people like me, in their 30's or 40's, who want to hear pop and rock that is pre Cobain.

Also, WWQB has already applied for an upgrade to B1, to jump from 3.4kW on their current tower to 15kW. That, combined with 100.9 in Charleston will give them the effective reach of 100kW. Essentially they are doing the same format that 101.5 was doing (fairly successfully, but that was in an era when there was more competition for that kind of music) but with a FAR BETTER SIGNAL than they ever had in the core markets of Ashland, Huntington, and Charleston.

This is only going to work for LM though if they sell the Huntington-Ashland market. That means they have to SOUND local to it. They were making an effort this morning, they were doing traffic for Huntington as well as Charleston. The airstaff, what I heard of it (had to make a trip to Charleston today) sounded very good. In fact, they sounded familiar, like people I'd heard on 101.5 back when it was classic hits...

[EZ103.3FM]

I just listened to 102.3 for the first time.

We usually have 97.1 on the radio when my wife is in the car and on in the morning when we're getting ready for work. We're in our mid 50's. I asked my wife why she had 102.3 on when we got in the car and she said she was tired of the same oldies on 97.1 and she scanned and found it. I've noticed they have a small playlist considering they have 2 decades to pick from even with the 80's out of the picture. I don't listen to them at work (I listen to Sirius/XM online) so I probably listen to 97l1 for maybe 1-2 hours per day at the most and it seems like I hear 'Spirit in the Sky' and 'The Pina Colada Song' 3-4 times a week.

In the 30 minutes I heard of 102.3 today I heard songs I hadn't heard in a long time. We'll definitely set a button for them....

BTW on Sirius I usually listen to some mix of Watercolors (smooth jazz), Real Jazz, 40's on 4 (specifically the daily show 'High Standards' hosted by Johnathan Schwartz from Noon-3 PM), afternoon baseball games, Raw Dog/Blue Collar/new Comedy Central channel, political talk (Stephanie Miller) and sports talk (MLB channel or college sports channel). I'll also listen to On Demand shows, like the recent town hall shows they did with Mel Brooks, Cheech & Chong and the 4 remaining original MTV VJ's. I've also listened recently to Kelly Carlin's and Tom Papa's interview shows with comedians.