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Shortest-lived formats

K

knapfordsouthern1

I've already started a discussion along these lines in the Boston thread, and decided to give it a go on a more national scale (I was inspired by a thread from 2018 that also asked for examples of short-lived formats)

For example, here's another Boston station for starters. After WFNX died, it became WHBA, an adult hits station, for all of five/six-and-a-half-months, before flipping to dance music (it's now WBWL, a country station)
 
Probably the shortest time that a single format was on the air that I know of was when KNZR-AM in Bakersfield, CA, decided to stop simulcasting its FM sister's (you guessed it, KNZR-FM) conservative English talk and do a Spanish conservative talk format. Word about this format flip reached this Board (I read about it here though I hadn't become a member yet) and it received a lot of criticism, including from @davideduardo who pointed out that Hispanic conservatives tended to listen to English conservative talk. Within what?, two weeks, that format was gone and KNZR-AM had gone back to simulcasting its FM sister. Going by memory, I believe all of this occurred in either the summer of 2023 or 2024.
 
ted chittenden said:
Probably the shortest time that a single format was on the air that I know of was when KNZR-AM in Bakersfield, CA, decided to stop simulcasting its FM sister's (you guessed it, KNZR-FM) conservative English talk and do a Spanish conservative talk format. Word about this format flip reached this Board (I read about it here though I hadn't become a member yet) and it received a lot of criticism, including from @davideduardo who pointed out that Hispanic conservatives tended to listen to English conservative talk. Within what?, two weeks, that format was gone and KNZR-AM had gone back to simulcasting its FM sister. Going by memory, I believe all of this occurred in either the summer of 2023 or 2024.
Click to expand...

Two months, Ted.

Here's the thread:


radiodiscussions.com

KNZR 1560 Changes Format

KNZR-AM 1560 Bakersfield, CA To Flip Formats To Spanish Talk Conservative Spanish-Language Talk On Tap For KNZR-A/Bakersfield Back when i was in Wyoming, i could hear this as late as 1030/11am in and as early as 3pm in winter. And every once in awhile, it and KNX would be audible all day.. mind...
radiodiscussions.com radiodiscussions.com

And really, anything shorter than that is going to fall into the category of stunting. And the grandaddy of them all was Jerry Clifton's "Porn Radio" at KFYE in Kingsburg, CA. It lasted about 10 days:

Screenshot 2026-01-22 at 5.19.21 PM.jpeg

(The Fresno Bee, July 28, 2006)


The station had been Christian K-Love, so this was bound to raise a few eyebrows.

On August 3, Clifton launched the real format...Sexy 106.3...a rhythmic AC. He changed the call letters to KSXE on March 30 of 2007.

He sold it after less than a year and a half...it's since been rhythmic contemporary, back in K-Love's hands as an Air1 affiliate and for the last six years has been the United Farmworkers' La Campesina outlet.
 
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ted chittenden said:
Probably the shortest time that a single format was on the air that I know of was when KNZR-AM in Bakersfield, CA, decided to stop simulcasting its FM sister's (you guessed it, KNZR-FM) conservative English talk and do a Spanish conservative talk format. Word about this format flip reached this Board (I read about it here though I hadn't become a member yet) and it received a lot of criticism, including from @davideduardo who pointed out that Hispanic conservatives tended to listen to English conservative talk.
Click to expand...
In fact, Spanish language talk programming in the U.S. works best if it is local and based on the concerns of first generation immigrants. That's a group that does not generally vote because they are generally not yet citizens.

The concerns of Spanish language successful talk have to do with getting along in a new country with different rules and customs. That means talking about the legal system, the economics of living here, and other "adaptation" or "understanding" issues.

When I was programming KTNQ in LA, our Saturday broadcast schedule had a priest, a family lawyer, an immigration attorney, a doctor, a police department representative, a person from the Mexican Consulate and others. They had ratings as high as the Monday to Friday talk shows because the hosts talked about the things that listeners had to deal with everyday... not partisan politics.

Oh, and that formula beat KFI in 18-49 and 25-54.
 
There was an AM station that spent a good deal of money to move stations around so that 990 would move to Farmersville, Texas to target Dallas/Fort Worth. The format was to be Women's Talk. Lots of talent was brought in. Then the financing fell apart one day into the format and the station went dark. The format never resurfaced in DFW. There had been a good deal of hype about the format.
 
KFCS-1580 CO Springs spent a month in 2015 with a Cannabis/marijuana talk format. "K-High 1580 AM"
 
Female-oriented talk station KCAF/Farmersville-Dallas "Cafe 990" lasted three days, from October 21 to 24, 2002. The plug was pulled abruptly after funding fell through. KCAF went on the air with a full staff, including some high profile DFW personalities and dozens of billboards throughout the market.

1769134366302.png
[Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 10/25/02]
 
When the Hispanic Rhythmic format was starting to take off in 2005, KVNA-FM 97.5 moved its signal from Flagstaff to Towers Mountain, rimshotting Phoenix. They signed on at the new site with the format in mid-April of that year as "Latino Beat" KZLB, probably not knowing that the station that would end up sharing its new tower with them would be signing on with the same exact format. That's what happened: KFMR 95.1, which became KVIB "Club 95, Latino Vibe," went on the air in late May. KZLB promptly signed off for a few months, coming back as "New Standards" KRZS "Star 97.5," which lasted a little over a year itself.
 
The owners of the current KGRE-FM in Estes Peak, Colorado once attempted to turn it into a Denver market rimshot. On August 24, 2000 it began broadcasting a Top 40 format as "U102", with call letters KXUU. Within weeks, Clear Channel relaunched their smooth jazz station KHIH as Top 40 station KFMD ("Kiss FM"), and KXUU flipped to urban very quickly, which it kept in some way or another until June 2002.
 
Some others:
KGSR 93.3 Austin has had numerous formats over the decades, some of them lasting a few months. It was soft AC March 2019 to hot AC February 2020 to CHR September 2020 for 2 months and then going back to hot AC.

Short-lived filler formats:
KKBQ-FM/AM 92.9/790 Houston: rock CHR "93Q, Houston's Rock Hits" August 17-September 18 1991
--- bridge between CHR "93Q" and "Easy Country 92.9"
KNRJ 96.5 Houston: modern rock "96.5, Houston's Alternative Music Source" June 25 1990-July 20 1990
--- bridge between dance "Energy 96.5" and hot AC KHMX "Mix 96.5" (KNRJ had evolved from dance to a dance-modern hybrid in the weeks ahead of going all-alternative)
 
txchipk said:
Short-lived filler formats:
KKBQ-FM/AM 92.9/790 Houston: rock CHR "93Q, Houston's Rock Hits" August 17-September 18 1991
--- bridge between CHR "93Q" and "Easy Country 92.9"
Click to expand...
That was a excellent format for something temporary, really enjoyed the music selection. I have four unscoped hours of it on a couple of audio cassettes. Sorry, no current easy way for me to digitize.
txchipk said:
KNRJ 96.5 Houston: modern rock "96.5, Houston's Alternative Music Source" June 25 1990-July 20 1990
--- bridge between dance "Energy 96.5" and hot AC KHMX "Mix 96.5" (KNRJ had evolved from dance to a dance-modern hybrid in the weeks ahead of going all-alternative)
Click to expand...
Another very good temporary format. Much like the early days of the original KDGE 94.5 in DFW. Unfortunately I didn’t make any airchecks on that one.

One other temporary format in Houston that was rather unique: KROI’s “Best of the 90s and more” which aired September 15-29, 2004, right after Radio One’s acquisition of the station and before the launch of Spanish language La Mera Mera. I do have a couple of hours of unscoped recordings of that as well.

(My iPad fights me when typing “unscoped”…wants to autocorrect it to “unschooled” or “unstopped”.)🤪
 
Mediafrog+ said:
That was a excellent format for something temporary, really enjoyed the music selection. I have four unscoped hours of it on a couple of audio cassettes. Sorry, no current easy way for me to digitize.

Another very good temporary format. Much like the early days of the original KDGE 94.5 in DFW. Unfortunately I didn’t make any airchecks on that one.

One other temporary format in Houston that was rather unique: KROI’s “Best of the 90s and more” which aired September 15-29, 2004, right after Radio One’s acquisition of the station and before the launch of Spanish language La Mera Mera. I do have a couple of hours of unscoped recordings of that as well.

(My iPad fights me when typing “unscoped”…wants to autocorrect it to “unschooled” or “unstopped”.)🤪
Click to expand...
I'd love to get the rock hits 93Q unscoped hours one day...loved that format. I made a half dozen airchecks of them as I was going to A&M at the time.

Scoped versions of the rock hits days and KNRJ:

KKBQ —
First day, 8/17/1991, and 8/20/1991: Radio This Week Back Then #30: August 11-17
Sign off into stunting, 9/18/1991: Radio This Week Back Then #35: September 15-21

KNRJ —
6/23/1990 modern/dance “Energy 96.5” final weekend and 6/25/1990 flip from modern/dance to modern “96.5” Radio This Week Back Then #23: June 23-29
 
I remember when KSCF/103.7 in San Diego (now KSON) flipped to an actual smokescreen format for 2 HOURS. Here is the story from the KSON entry on Wikipedia, but I remember when they did it.

On June 22, 2007, at 3 p.m., KSCF flipped to Oldies as "K-Surf 103.7." The first song played was "Surfin' U.S.A." by The Beach Boys. They were supposed to be the market's first FM Oldies outlet since 2005, when XHOCL had the format prior to its flip to Regional Mexican. The last song played in the short-lived oldies format was "Bobby's Girl" by Marcie Blane. Following "Bobby's Girl" at 5 p.m., the Oldies format turned out to be a stunt as the station revealed its true format, Modern AC, branded as “Sophie @ 103.7”, adapted slightly from sister station KLLC in San Francisco, which is known as Alice @ 97.3. Its first song under this format was Jack Johnson's "Upside Down", followed by Fall Out Boy's "Thnks fr th Mmrs."
 
knapfordsouthern1 said:
The owners of the current KGRE-FM in Estes Peak, Colorado once attempted to turn it into a Denver market rimshot. On August 24, 2000 it began broadcasting a Top 40 format as "U102", with call letters KXUU. Within weeks, Clear Channel relaunched their smooth jazz station KHIH as Top 40 station KFMD ("Kiss FM"), and KXUU flipped to urban very quickly, which it kept in some way or another until June 2002.
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That was standard operating procedure for Marathon Media and its affiliated companies. If bigger competition came about, they would flip right away or sign off (see my example of KZLB).
 
While not as short-lived as most of these examples, I'd like to add one flip that happened so quickly here in L.A., most people here have even forgotten it:

February 24, 1997: KMPC/710 became KTZN ("The Zone"), and replaced a general Talk format with an all female version, including Dr. Toni Grant and Stephanie Miller as hosts.

August 26, 1997: Radio Disney replaces The Zone, although the calls didn't change until December.

Six months and two days.
 
Shortest IIRC in Charleston was a sports format on our local 910 AM. Think it went 3 days before a few people complained they couldn’t hear their local ESPN show on AM and they flipped it back.

2009-2013 was pretty weird. Apex played around with their signals like crazy. 95.9 locally was supposed to launch as all sports, then launched as oldies, spent a lot of money on it, and it lasted 14 months before they flipped to country, which went 10 months before they moved it to 92.5, then they went to soft AC that went under 9 months before going to their current Mix hot AC/top 40.

That was as they owned 92.5 WIHB which was urban for 14 months before it got flipped to Kickin’.
 
Two I remember from the Pittsburgh area were the AC "Classy 101" format and WWCL calls that lasted a few months. They advertised heavily on TV, at least one commercial survives today. Somehow the "Classy" and pie-in-the-face gag don't seem to go together.

The "Energy 105" format at 104.7 also seemed to come and go in less than a year.
 


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