Two of the "Play"-branded stations that SummitMedia launched a few years ago have already rebranded (Richmond and Louisville). It only makes sense that they would rebrand the third one. It was/is a weak branding that gave no indication of what the stations stood for.
It's been nearly 23 years since 97.3 first signed on in Birmingham. At first it was hampered by a weak signal (640 watts IIRC). Since they boosted the signal it's been hampered by weak programming and little to no marketing or promotion. To be honest, there aren't a lot of format holes in Birmingham that would allow them to differentiate themselves.
97.3 has always struggled, but I have mostly attributed it to the weaker signal the station offers in comparison to the other Birmingham FM's (first as a class A and now as a C2). It has always been near the bottom of the local ratings alongside the FM translators. The only time I ever remember the station doing well, at least in the 12+ ratings, was during the short-lived WEZZ-FM "Easy 97.3" soft oldies format. At one point in 2014 or early 2015, WEZZ-FM had a 4.6 share and ranked higher than WMJJ for that period, a feat which, to my knowledge, has never been accomplished by any other local AC- ish station (mainstream AC/hot AC/soft AC) in the over three decades that WMJJ has been programming AC. Of course, those are just 12+ numbers and much of their audience was in the older demographics. A few months later, WEZZ tried the two-month christmas fare and it finished them off. Their biggest mistake with that IMO was assuming that soft oldies/soft AC listeners wanted the same thing as mainstream AC listeners (in this case, the Easy 97.3 listeners wanted the two-month nonstop block of christmas music that WMJJ offers every year). The WEZZ listeners for the most part didn't want ANY part of it, and they "tore the station a new one" via the Easy 97.3 Facebook page and elsewhere to let the it be known of their disdain for two months of continuous christmas music. Once the normal programming had resumed at WEZZ after the holidays, the listeners had left and the station's ratings tanked. I believe if WEZZ had moved the station to a soft AC format and removed the easy listening artists that were originally part of the format decades ago i.e. Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, Barbra Streisand, etc and broadened the playlist to include more uptempo and recent tracks that were more representative of the soft AC format today (similar to what WFEZ in Miami, WDUV in Tampa, and Iheart is offering with their "Breeze" stations), it would have helped WEZZ tremendously in the long run. I don't care for that interpretation of soft AC myself, but I believe such a move would have lowered the age demos for WEZZ and made the format much more saleable. The only other format 97.3 has had that seems to have performed well was four month stunt/experiment known as "97.3 Y'all". Back to the station's signal issue...I've always believed it would be better if 97.3 were sold off to a noncommercial operator such as EMF to place their K-Love format there. EMF's K-Love translator in Birmingham at 96.1 FM (W241AI) is already drawing around a half share in the ratings, which isn't bad given the station's low power and the fact that many listeners in the Birmingham area aren't even aware that K-Love translator exists bc they're all listening to WDJC (Why??). So even though 97.3 doesn't provide a great signal, it would fit in nicely with EMF's portfolio of stations since it's a C2.
I listened to "Mix 97.3" this morning and the music selection sounds the same as "Play", so it appears the hot AC format is still intact. Just wondering if the calls will change to reflect the new "Mix" branding (personally, I doubt they will). Also, does anyone think since the Ace & TJ show came from the "Q" which is a CHR, that 97.3 might eventually morph/change to a CHR direction as well?
