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96.1 Now has flipped to Mix 96.1
- Thread starter saradio1
- Start date
I'm kind of puzzled. I didn't think that San Antonio was home to the type of immigrant who listened to this type of music back home.
San Antonio has plenty of Hispanics who do listen to English-language music, but that is because they are English-dominant. They won't listen to a station with Spanish imaging. Even the legendary Tejano stations had and have English imaging.
San Antonio has plenty of Hispanics who do listen to English-language music, but that is because they are English-dominant. They won't listen to a station with Spanish imaging. Even the legendary Tejano stations had and have English imaging.
Now 96.1 San Antonio Flips To Bilingual AC
iHeartMedia has flipped CHR “Now 96.1” KXXM San Antonio to its rapidly growing Bilingual AC format. The station relaunched as “Mix 96.1” positioning as “Tus Favoritas de Siempre” at noon today and is launching with 50000 songs commercial free. Core artists will include Whitney Houston, Marc...
radioinsight.com
I had about the same reaction. Also weird is that San Antonio no longer has a CHR, though Hits 105.3 is a lot closer to CHR than your average Hot AC (or at least it sounded that way the last time I heard it).
I suppose it has a sizable population who spoke Spanish around the house while growing up but otherwise spoke English and have always preferred their music in English. A couple of my nieces would fit that profile (though neither lives in Texas). I wouldn't, however, expect them to listen to a station like Mix 96.1. Even though they were exposed to music in Spanish growing up, that has always been their parents' music. They like about as much of their parents' music as I do mine. While the Tejano stations have always been more-or-less bilingual, San Antonio had a couple bilingual stations in the late 80's/early 90's. KRIA 930 "Radio Alegria" aired popular music in Spanish and English at least in some dayparts, and KFHM 1160 had programming in both languages during part of its run. Pretty sure both flopped, and I don't remember either lasting long. I realize that was a relatively long time ago, but has the market changed enough since to make programming like that viable? I haven't been back in almost 15 years, but San Antonio has never seemed like Florida to me.
D
Deleted member 108832
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One day, Mark, I'll tell you a little story about the almighty Super Q.
Even before Super Q, 96.1's "roots" would actually be all-instrumental. I believe it started Classical, then moved to B/EZ. Hard to believe it's dropped CHR for this. The translator in Austin is one thing, but this is waaaay bigger. We'll see, but this reeks of short-term. Uforia would've likely attempted this for KROM if they thought the format had any long-term sustainability.
The old KMFM 96.1 was indeed a classical station that either switched to B/EZ or added it to certain dayparts. I can't remember the whole story about how it became KSLR, which ultimately ended up at 630, where KMAC was. Seems, though, like KMFM might've been owned by a church when it ran the classical and easy listening formats.
Or 95.1. That's where Univision seems to put its experimental formats in San Antonio, though KROM is way down in the ratings. I was surprised to find Amor 95.1 and Latino Hits 104.5 were beating it.
That is also my opinion. Less than 20% of San Antonio Hispanics are Spanish dominant. The rest may even date back to the time when the city was part of Mexico; they are Tejanos and only know enough Spanish to order birria at a restaurant.
Those that are second generation and beyond are, almost totally, going to listen to English language stations. They won't find a station with ads and talent in Spanish to be appealing.
Your example of the Tejano stations is particularly valid.
Hits 105.3 would be the closest
I can see Hits 105.3 shift towards CHR. Although, I'm questionable about Alpha flipping one of their stations, especially since 94.1 used to be CHR before it flipped to sports.
Definitely. Univision is not flipping KROM no matter what. Regional Mexican with El Bueno, La Mala y el Feo in mornings, El Free-Güey in afternoons, and Las Repegadas in evenings is their flagship format nationwide.
My old history notes...
Signed on in 1964 as classical KMFM. Initial calls were KZFM, but KEEZ 97.3 filed a challenge with the FCC over the closeness of the calls and the calls changed to KMFM 5/14/1964.
Formats...
9/82: Following sale, KMFM became contemporary Christian/religious KSLR "Son Light Radio."
Following another sale, contemporary Christian KSLR signs off late 1983 and went briefly silent. While off the air, KSLR changed calls to KSAQ in December, and the KSLR calls were picked up by KMAC 630. The KSAQ calls and “Super Q” handle were used in the 1970s on 100.3 (now **KCYY**).
*Source: “For The Record,” Broadcasting, 9 January 1984.
January 1984: After being silent for two months, the new owners returned the station to the airwaves as top 40 KSAQ “Q96.” Initially, the format was adult-leaning as some harder rock songs were excluded, but it evolved to top 40 “Hit Radio Q96.” In December 1986, KSAQ began simulcasting with co-owned KSJL 760 and re-imaged as “Super Q.” The simulcast split in October 1988 when KSJL flipped to SMN’s Z-Rock network. KSAQ returned to the “Q96” branding. It would evolved to a rock-leaning sound by 1990. Top 40/rock aircheck I recorded from 8/23/1990: Radio This Week Back Then #31: August 18-24.
*Source: “KSAQ Signs On As ‘Contemporary Adult’,” Radio & Records, 13 January 1984.
4 February 1991: With no AOR in the market after KISS 99.5’s format flip to oldies in July 1990, top 40/rock KSAQ flipped to rock "96 Rock” to fill the gap.
*Source: “Vox Jox,” Billboard, 16 February 1991.
In March 1993, rock KSAQ changed to adult R&B, with SMN’s The Touch urban AC programming filling overnight. The adult R&B format moved from sister KSJL 760, which flipped to sports and talk via LMA with news/talk WOAI 1200. KSAQ picked up the KSJL-FM calls in May.
*Source: “Vox Jox,” Billboard, 20 March 1993.
4 September 1998: Adult R&B KSJL-FM became top 40 "Mix 96.1.” The former adult R&B format and KSJL calls shifted to rimshot KTXX 92.5 Devine TX (which had upgraded from 92.1A to 92.5C2) and simulcast on KCHG 810 Somerset TX to extend market coverage. KSJL-FM changed calls to KXXM on the 21st. KTXX/KCHG picked up the KSJL calls. KXXM rebranded as "96.1 Now" in 2017.
*Source: “Kelly Named ‘Mix’ PD As KSJL Relocates,” Radio & Records, 11 September 1998.
You might have the courtesy of mentioning where you found all the old R&R and Billboard and Broadcasting articles.
I have physical copies of some of those and actually all those notes are from my 100kw days and before. I've been retroactively trying to find other sources -- newspaper indexes and the trades to re-confirm the dates to make sure the dates in my notes are accurate. Yes, I used your awesome site to re-re-search it, and I refer people there whenever someone asks me where to search for radio history. It's why I recently sent you a big box of M Street Journals to fill out that collection since it is a great resource...and I'm getting old enough that I hate digging through boxes to find the month of a format change and flip though old Billboards and MSJs and FMedias, etc. to find an issue that mentioned it....
To Chip’s defense, he was chronicling these changes long before that information became easily available. I even supplied him with some of the changes he used to display on his site. He got a few from me before any of the trades published them. I’ll grant you none of those involved San Antonio as far as I can remember, but some of the changes that made it to the trades were reported by the both of us.
There was a point KSJL 760 was running a CHR with about a 70 minute rotation on currents and one recurrent an hour as a mix of a few songs. News was 76 second news updates. One of the currents when they were in the format was Oh Sherrie by Steve Perry. I did sales in Del Rio and listened in my car.
I just ask for the credit as the only way I get much of the material for www.worldradiohistory.com is through connections with people like you who have saved documentation of radio's history.
I've now spent over $500 thousand dollars buying books and magazines and crazy-expensive scanners to make the site as useful as possible, and depend on contributed material to keep expanding.
I'm sorry if I seemed curt in my post... I just want to make sure people know where that data is available. And I hope others will do as you did: look in the garage or attic or basement for material that needs preservation.
Most libraries are discontinuing magazine archives. This week, I bought many issues of B&C that came from a library that threw out over 600 big file boxes full of magazines. They were literally in the trash when discovered by a person who saw their value and rented a huge storage facility to keep them while searching for new homes.
There is a true danger that many important journals will be lost. When BM/E ceased publication, the editor wanted to send the archives somewhere for preservation. The publisher said "That costs too much.. Put them in the dumpster."
Instead, we get Wikepedia articles about radio and radio stations... in my estimation 80% are incomplete or inaccurate.
Feels like 90%...
Definitely glad to have donated what I little I did and hope others keep sending in their old magazines, newsletters, etc.
Not sure how it would index...but have you ever given any thought about bumper stickers, logos, etc.? There has to be lots of people with bumper stickers of old stations, etc. that would help tell the story of some stations. Logopedia often is incomplete and has the same problem with wikipedia in terms of quality of accuracy.
Besides, Hits 105.3 is already a broad based Hot AC and does well in the ratings! That’s why I don’t see anyone picking up the Top 40/CHR mantle in San Antonio.