Zoey Arrives In Albany

[speer360]

Zoey Arrives In Albany

Townsquare Media has launched Hot AC "Zoey 103.9" WPBZ-FM Rensselaer/Albany NY. The new brand launched at 10:00 this morning replacing

radioinsight.com

Townsquare Media has launched Hot AC “Zoey 103.9” WPBZ-FM Rensselaer/Albany NY.

The new brand launched at 10:00 this morning replacing Soft AC “103.9 The Breeze“. Positioning as “Albany’s Ultimate Playlist”

 

[Time Traveler]

Zoey Arrives In Albany

Townsquare Media has launched Hot AC "Zoey 103.9" WPBZ-FM Rensselaer/Albany NY. The new brand launched at 10:00 this morning replacing

radioinsight.com

Townsquare Media has launched Hot AC “Zoey 103.9” WPBZ-FM Rensselaer/Albany NY.

The new brand launched at 10:00 this morning replacing Soft AC “103.9 The Breeze“. Positioning as “Albany’s Ultimate Playlist”

Kind of sad to see what has become of this frequency in the last five years...Originally WQBK-FM...the first commercial FM Rock station in the area...Starting off as free form Rock station "The Progressive 104" in 1975...before adopting it's heritage branding of "Q-104" in 1977. And it was an outstanding Progressive Rock station during those years. Eventually the station became the market's first full time Classic Rock station in 1987. In 1994...103.5 was added as a simulcast and then in 1995...The station flipped to Active/Alternative Rock as "103-5/103-9-The Edge". This lasted until the end of 2005 when it flipped to '80s based Classic Rock as "Q103" before returning to Active/Alternative Rock in 2008. In 2016...It returned to Classic Rock still as "Q103" until abandoning the signal challenged 103.9 frequency in 2019...

 

[Gregg.]

WPBZ is a Class A station in a spread-out market. Its signal covers Albany, Schenectady, Troy and the affluent suburbs along some of the Northway. But that's about it.

There are multiple Class As in the Capital District market trying to compete with the full-power Class B stations.

104.9 WINU Classic Country
104.5 WTMM Sports
103.1 WGY-FM Talk
102.3 WKKF Top 40
101.3 WJKE and 94.5 WYKV K-Love
100.9 WKLI Country
98.3 WTRY Classic Hits
96.7 WMHH Religion
96.3 WAJZ Rhythmic Contemporary
93.7 WYAI Air 1

And that's along with 103.9 WPBZ, now Hot AC. Despite signal limitations, some of these Class A stations do quite well.

Sorry to see a Soft AC go. But it seems that format, except in a few places like Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Tampa and Seattle, has not had much luck. Some might say that Soft AC really isn't that soft these days. It's more about having a slightly older playlist than a standard AC. Just as AC has stepped up the tempo in the last couple of decades, so has Soft AC.

 

[Time Traveler]

WPBZ is a Class A station in a spread-out market. Its signal covers Albany, Schenectady, Troy and the affluent suburbs along some of the Northway. But that's about it.

There are multiple Class As in the Capital District market trying to compete with the full-power Class B stations.

104.9 WINU Classic Country
104.5 WTMM Sports
103.1 WGY-FM Talk
102.3 WKKF Top 40
101.3 WJKE and 94.5 WYKV K-Love
100.9 WKLI Country
98.3 WTRY Classic Hits
96.7 WMHH Religion
96.3 WAJZ Rhythmic Contemporary
93.7 WYAI Air 1

And that's along with 103.9 WPBZ, now Hot AC. Despite signal limitations, some of these Class A stations do quite well.

Sorry to see a Soft AC go. But it seems that format, except in a few places like Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Tampa and Seattle, has not had much luck. Some might say that Soft AC really isn't that soft these days. It's more about having a slightly older playlist than a standard AC. Just as AC has stepped up the tempo in the last couple of decades, so has Soft AC.

And it certainly did make sense to move WQBK-FM to the superior 105.7 frequency...from the always signal challenged 103.9...

 

[MTNProductions]

WPBZ is a Class A station in a spread-out market. Its signal covers Albany, Schenectady, Troy and the affluent suburbs along some of the Northway. But that's about it.

There are multiple Class As in the Capital District market trying to compete with the full-power Class B stations.

104.9 WINU Classic Country
104.5 WTMM Sports
103.1 WGY-FM Talk
102.3 WKKF Top 40
101.3 WJKE and 94.5 WYKV K-Love
100.9 WKLI Country
98.3 WTRY Classic Hits
96.7 WMHH Religion
96.3 WAJZ Rhythmic Contemporary
93.7 WYAI Air 1

And that's along with 103.9 WPBZ, now Hot AC. Despite signal limitations, some of these Class A stations do quite well.

Sorry to see a Soft AC go. But it seems that format, except in a few places like Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Tampa and Seattle, has not had much luck. Some might say that Soft AC really isn't that soft these days. It's more about having a slightly older playlist than a standard AC. Just as AC has stepped up the tempo in the last couple of decades, so has Soft AC.

Maybe WKXP’s “Lite-FM” at 94.3 will be next to flip to Hot AC as “Zoey 94.3” to compete with WCTW’s “The Cat” at 98.5, and maybe they might dump John Tesh for “Pop Crush Nights”, because John Tesh is on WROW’s “Magic 590/100.5” as an oldies station, and on WHUD as well, but we don’t need John Tesh to be on three stations. “Lite-FM” is still hurting WRNQ’s “Q92”, WBPM and WGHQ’s “Magic 92.5”, but we don’t need four stations to go after the same audience.

Maybe WKXP like I said is consider to flip to “Zoey” as a Hot AC station and make a new slogan as “Hudson Valley’s Music Playlist” which is a great idea.

Any thoughts?

 

[TheBigA]

Some might say that Soft AC really isn't that soft these days. It's more about having a slightly older playlist than a standard AC. Just as AC has stepped up the tempo in the last couple of decades, so has Soft AC.

The softer the music, the older the demo. That's been the pattern. That's why soft AC is now gone in Seattle.

Audacy Introduces Emma To Seattle

Audacy has flipped Soft AC "94.1 The Sound" KSWD Seattle to Hot AC "Emma 94.1". As first indicated in our

radioinsight.com

 

[MTNProductions]

The softer the music, the older the demo. That's been the pattern. That's why soft AC is now gone in Seattle.

Audacy Introduces Emma To Seattle

Audacy has flipped Soft AC "94.1 The Sound" KSWD Seattle to Hot AC "Emma 94.1". As first indicated in our

radioinsight.com

I hope Hudson Valley will be next dump Soft AC for Hot AC, because Soft AC is dying. Look what happened at WKXP’s “Lite-FM” 94.3, they’re still hurting WGHQ’s “Magic 92.5”, WRNQ’s “Q92” and WBPM, and it’s still all over the place.

One show that needs to go, is John Tesh. He doesn’t belong on “Lite-FM”, he’s on WHUD, and WROW’s “Magic 590/100.5” up in Albany.

Josh Tesh is on WHUD, WROW’s “Magic 590/100.5” and WKXP’s “Lite-FM” doing “Intelligence For Your Life” show where the two station plays soft AC, while the other station plays oldies. You don’t need John Tesh to be on all three stations. Maybe WKXP needs to dump him and replace with “Pop Crush Nights”, and 94.3 needs a Hot AC format since Poughkeepsie never had a Hot AC station for years, but this new Hot AC format 94.3 needs to compete with iHeart’s WCTW’s “The Cat” at 98.5.

My prediction is that 94.3 will flip to Hot AC right after the holidays where they’re going into all-Christmas by November. Maybe Rick Knight might go to WALL, or WGNY-FM’s “Fox Oldies”, and Allison Kay might stay while the format changes. We’ll explain about in my Hudson Valley radio predictions for 2025 which is coming soon.