After over 20 years as classic hits station K-Hits 96, 96.3 has pulled the plug and flipped to Top 40 as "Now." New call letters will be KNOU. Former Z107.7 jock Curt Copeland is doing mornings, Former E! and Gameshow host Todd Newton returns to StL for middays, Christine Pawlak (formerly Electra from Q101 Chicago) joins for afternoons, so they are launching with a full airstaff. Music seems to lean more mainstream towards Adult CHR.
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96.3 Flips to CHR "Now"
- Thread starter mbatchelor
- Start date
Smart move. Hopefully they will go a little more in the dance direction as time goes by. Always seen Z107 as a more adult leaning top 40 station anyway.
Personally, I think they are more "Hot AC".
I'm not trying to throw out an unpopular opinion, but i'd like to see KSHE stick to classic rock now that their sister station is not part of the competition. I heard some "Hailstorm" on there today... no thanks.
I think I would agree with you. I think The Point rides that active/alternative fence pretty well. I argue until my face turns blue with people because The Point is NOT a true alternative station nor is it an active rock station. Sorta places itself in the middle. I just don't think active rock will be a good ratings booster. It does well on the small stick in Lincoln County (100.7 The Viper) but look at the population there.
Now if Active Rock would work, I'm sure Clear Channel would have done the Rock Nation feed on that 103.7 signal but they didn't. 103.7 is mainstream rock/aor and not active rock. There is a reason why 1037 didn't go active rock. Let KSHE go classic rock. I think the 90s are valid for classic rock now.... and let 103.3 cover more of the 60s 70s and 80s with the more pop music vs rock during that time frame.
Note: KSHE is one of the last remaining classic rock stations that do well in the country. You have to accept classic rock stations will either morph into rock stations (AOR/Mainstream and/or Active Rock) or venture to classic hits in the future.
One more thing - Iheart/Clear Channel should try doing Active Rock on 104.9. Would have to get them better ratings than what they are getting right now.
Now if Active Rock would work, I'm sure Clear Channel would have done the Rock Nation feed on that 103.7 signal but they didn't. 103.7 is mainstream rock/aor and not active rock. There is a reason why 1037 didn't go active rock. Let KSHE go classic rock. I think the 90s are valid for classic rock now.... and let 103.3 cover more of the 60s 70s and 80s with the more pop music vs rock during that time frame.
Note: KSHE is one of the last remaining classic rock stations that do well in the country. You have to accept classic rock stations will either morph into rock stations (AOR/Mainstream and/or Active Rock) or venture to classic hits in the future.
One more thing - Iheart/Clear Channel should try doing Active Rock on 104.9. Would have to get them better ratings than what they are getting right now.
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I think I would agree with you. I think The Point rides that active/alternative fence pretty well. I argue until my face turns blue with people because The Point is NOT a true alternative station nor is it an active rock station. Sorta places itself in the middle. I just don't think active rock will be a good ratings booster. It does well on the small stick in Lincoln County (100.7 The Viper) but look at the population there.
Now if Active Rock would work, I'm sure Clear Channel would have done the Rock Nation feed on that 103.7 signal but they didn't. 103.7 is mainstream rock/aor and not active rock. There is a reason why 1037 didn't go active rock. Let KSHE go classic rock. I think the 90s are valid for classic rock now.... and let 103.3 cover more of the 60s 70s and 80s with the more pop music vs rock during that time frame.
Note: KSHE is one of the last remaining classic rock stations that do well in the country. You have to accept classic rock stations will either morph into rock stations (AOR/Mainstream and/or Active Rock) or venture to classic hits in the future.
One more thing - Iheart/Clear Channel should try doing Active Rock on 104.9. Would have to get them better ratings than what they are getting right now.
I'm going to guess that 104.9 is gonna flip to some kind of "Jack FM" type adult hits format to act as a flanker station for KLOU, and I agree KSHE should ditch current rock and probably cap it off at about the end of the grunge era musically. Or perhaps they could move "Louie" to the better 104.9 signal from the 103.7 translator, then put some kind of 80s music or something on the translator.
I'm going to guess that 104.9 is gonna flip to some kind of "Jack FM" type adult hits format to act as a flanker station for KLOU
That was my first thought, too... using iHeart's "[insert frequency here] the [insert nearest body of water here]" formula. Then again, if iHeart were to keep 104.9 as the trainwreck CHR it is, could it help them defend Z? Unless the demos were awful, KIHT's numbers suggest a lot of demand for 70's/80's/90's rock and pop hits. I'd also be interested if Hubbard might be making some tweaks to WARH -- dumping the current music to grab the former KIHT listeners.
One note on the new station: there's no way that the 9 minutes of commercials / 60 minutes of music can work for the long haul. No listener is going to sit through 9 minutes of commercials. No advertiser wants to be stuck in the middle of that stack.
One note on the new station: there's no way that the 9 minutes of commercials / 60 minutes of music can work for the long haul. No listener is going to sit through 9 minutes of commercials. No advertiser wants to be stuck in the middle of that stack.
I know of a radio station that advertised 40 minutes of non stop music per hour. Of course, this leaves about 10 minutes of commercials and a very short two song music set at the end of the long set. It seems better just to make the breaks short, but more frequent if needed be.
Music seems to lean more mainstream towards Adult CHR.
I don't like to judge a station after a few days on the air, but since NOW 96.3 launched with its full airstaff, it feels a little more justified.
To mbachelor's credit, I didn't see the adult CHR lean in the first few hours, but I'm definitely seeing it now. The playlist sounds exactly like Z107-7 - right down to 15 year old Nelly and 10 year old Justin Timberlake tracks. The difference between NOW and Z, of course -- the local talent. NOW was live all weekend long with their normal airstaff, and had a (sadly, unmemorable) Super Bowl spot with Todd Newton. Going to be very interesting to see how Y, Z, and WiLD respond.
Spoke to a good source and they said that right now, everything is just getting everyone familiar with their existence. I specifically asked about live mix shows on Saturday night and they said that would be in the works. I pointed out Z's lack of freshness with new music (which is unusual for a Iheart media TOP 40 station). We shall see how it goes.
St. Louis is one of the few areas where live local radio is still happening. In cities where Iheart and Cumulus run the scene, there is nearly no live and local radio.
St. Louis is one of the few areas where live local radio is still happening. In cities where Iheart and Cumulus run the scene, there is nearly no live and local radio.
Here is the last half hour of K-Hits and the first hours of "Now." :
http://www.4shared.com/mp3/ExWliCtYce/KIHT-Now_96-3_30_January_2015.html
http://www.4shared.com/mp3/ExWliCtYce/KIHT-Now_96-3_30_January_2015.html
That was my first thought, too... using iHeart's "[insert frequency here] the [insert nearest body of water here]" formula. Then again, if iHeart were to keep 104.9 as the trainwreck CHR it is, could it help them defend Z? Unless the demos were awful, KIHT's numbers suggest a lot of demand for 70's/80's/90's rock and pop hits. I'd also be interested if Hubbard might be making some tweaks to WARH -- dumping the current music to grab the former KIHT listeners.
One note on the new station: there's no way that the 9 minutes of commercials / 60 minutes of music can work for the long haul. No listener is going to sit through 9 minutes of commercials. No advertiser wants to be stuck in the middle of that stack.
I think The Arch would be smart to dump currents and cap it off at about the turn of the millennium. Their ratings have been sagging a bit of late, and there are just too darn many sticks playing current music now; they should go back to how they were when they first came on the air several years ago... 104.9 is almost certainly going to flip at this point, but the question is will they become a KLOU flanker, or go another direction totally, like going after 104.1 with an Urban current format (they are the most Urban leaning of the sticks playing a CHR derivative), or going Regional Mexican; I believe a smaller but decent FM stick like 104.9 could probably clean up with a Regional Mexican format; the population of Spanish speaking folks has been exploding here the last several years, and all they have to listen to is the two crappy AM sticks out of Highland.
St. Louis is only 3% Hispanic according to Nielsen. That's not likely enough for a company like iHeartMedia/Clear Channel to do a Spanish-language format. If you were talking about a company that doesn't sell the numbers, it might be workable with a good ground game, but I can't see one of the bigger companies trying it yet.
St. Louis is only 3% Hispanic according to Nielsen. That's not likely enough for a company like iHeartMedia/Clear Channel to do a Spanish-language format. If you were talking about a company that doesn't sell the numbers, it might be workable with a good ground game, but I can't see one of the bigger companies trying it yet.
There's also the question of which direction to go. You could go standard Regional Mexican and gain a 25-54 audience, but you'd alienate all non-Mexican listeners. Or could go Spanish pop (like KLOL/Houston) and capture many nationalities, but alienate older listeners. Another challenge, in a cluster like iHeart and a city like St. Louis, would be finding a bilingual sales staff to land accounts.
I wouldn't go full-power with a Spanish format yet, but what about... 103.7?
103.7 would have to lean newer before it would work. 103.7 is nearly all pre 2000 with hard focus on the 90s and 80s. They are basically AOR but if they went Active Rock, that might be a better idea.
Iheart is not big with being live in St. Louis so if they throw on the Rock Nation stream, I believe it would work. Viper is doing well in St. Charles county from what I understand.
Iheart is not big with being live in St. Louis so if they throw on the Rock Nation stream, I believe it would work. Viper is doing well in St. Charles county from what I understand.
There's also the question of which direction to go. You could go standard Regional Mexican and gain a 25-54 audience, but you'd alienate all non-Mexican listeners. Or could go Spanish pop (like KLOL/Houston) and capture many nationalities, but alienate older listeners. Another challenge, in a cluster like iHeart and a city like St. Louis, would be finding a bilingual sales staff to land accounts.
I wouldn't go full-power with a Spanish format yet, but what about... 103.7?
That might not be a bad idea; move Louie to 104.9, and launch a Spanish format of some sort on 103.7. It covers all of the areas with a high Hispanic population well.
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