107.1 to be Mexican, simulcast 102.3

[RadioDoogie]

Greg Davis hired Brian Barber as GM of WLKQ-FM (102.3) at the start of the Regional Mexican format. Brian knew how to sell and price Spanish radio to make a ton of money. When Davis purchased WCHK-AM (1290) and used it to launch a Mexican CHR format on 96.5, he first hired someone else (not Brian) to run it, and it was mismanaged. Now Brian runs it, and it's doing great.

iHeart gave Davis Broadcasting a huge gift by putting Spanish on 105.3, which does not have a 60 dbu signal in the Latino hotbed that is Gwinnett. If iHeart's Spanish format were on 105.7, which has a good signal in Gwinnett, advertisers might see little need to use the Davis stations.

105.7 was Viva 105.7 years ago. Why did they ditch the format there and change it to Wild 105.7?

 

[davideduardo]

105.7 was Viva 105.7 years ago. Why did they ditch the format there and change it to Wild 105.7?

Clear Channel had little local experience with Spanish language radio back then, and the Atlanta staff did not "get" how to market and sell the stations.

So they took the better signal and went against the general market with the format that has the greatest appeal in the community, which is predominantly of Mexican heritage.

The huge boom in pop /CHR in Spanish had not happened back then; such a format today might well be successful. But Regional Mexican is by far the larger appealing format for the Atlanta Spanish speaking Hispanic community.