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98.9 has flipped to talk

The Ben Ferguson show has the afternoon slot.

My only gripe so far is how they are using FM in station name News Talk FM 98.9 doesn't flow or sound natural.
 
A game changer in the PPM world.
Clawing and scratching our way into the 21st century in Memphis!
 
Uhm..how long ago did it flip to what it was before it was talk? Been out of memphis a couple years, miss it bad, but I thought it was just now getting comfy now it's flipped to talk? Wow. Guess it was doing badly o was it just one of those informed 'let's do it because we're bored' decisions?
 
I think it was getting close to a year with the Genx format. The ratings have been low the whole time it's been under that format or when it was AC also.
 
Does this mean that WEGR will not flip to talk? I know it was only pure speculation anyway that it would flip to talk. Flip may not be the appropriate word, but there was speculation about WREC being simulcast on WEGR.
 
progressivetalk said:
And with that lineup of hyperventilating losers, the station will continue to lose customers and ratings with brain-dead talk,even in Memphis!!!
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That could be. The Memphis market is saturated with talk radio right now. Just curious about your opinion. how much real talent did Air America have on the progressive talk side? I know about Rachel Maddow.
 
snazzyjazzy said:
Does this mean that WEGR will not flip to talk? I know it was only pure speculation anyway that it would flip to talk. Flip may not be the appropriate word, but there was speculation about WREC being simulcast on WEGR.
Click to expand...

There's probably room, if other markets are any indication. A city can be overflowing with AM talk, but FM is a different ball game. Moving to simulcast an AM on FM doesn't really add more talk to a city, it just opens it up to a wider audience.

Case in point over in Birmingham, where the market bears three FM talkers and one FM sports station. Only one really started on FM (WYDE with its weak lineup and weak signal in the city is always in last place). The first to move from AM to FM was WERC, displacing a rock station. Then WAPI moved to FM (with different hosts on AM and FM sometimes), displacing a AAA station. AFAIK both AM to FM moves brought ratings higher than the former music formats, so it may happen anyway in Memphis.

The trend across the country definitely seems to be less music on FM.
 
What I want to know is why the hell Citadel didn't put the lineup on the website? I'm not going to listen if I have no idea to whom I am listening before I tune in.
 
The other day, I listened via tropo enchanement (between the storms) and heard Clark Howard on 98.9. I'm not surprised about the flip of formats on 98.9, it seems that frequency has been snake bit for years.

Over in Central Arkansas, KABZ 103.7 (ex KKYK, KSYG) flipped to conventional political talk in 1995. Although the station had Imus (during his prime in syndication), "Dr" Laura, it could never get over the hump ratings wise. They did have a 3 hour sports show (which carried over from the former 1010AM, the now gone KLRA) which continues to this day. The station revamped to a entertainment talk format in 2000 and dumped the D-list conservative talk on weekneds (replacing with modern rock) and brought in Pat Lynch, the center-left host whom pwned what KSYG-FM (at that time) after his firing from rival KARN-AM. Still even with the "hot" talk, including a run of Phil Hendrie on weeknights, the station decided to go Sportstalk fulltime in 2004 with Fox Sports Radio (replaced with ESPN Radio in 2009) overnights and weekends and a heavy local lineup, although most sports talk tended to be "pork" flavored.

KARN-AM (of which was the primary competition for KSYG-now KABZ) had FM on a couple of rimshot smaller signals in 1995, but got serious and flipped a station on 102.9 which was doing country for a couple of years to simulcast the AM in 2004. In 2009, KARN dropped the AM signal from the talk format and went 100% FM (the AM signal on 920 went to mostly syndicated sports talk and replaced KABZ as the Fox Sports Radio affiliate). KARN had Lynch until 2000 (as mentioned earlier) plus currently carries Limbaugh (since 1991), Hannity, and Beck.

I'm not sure that without a marquee name/host, that 98.9 will make a big impact in Memphis and the suburbs.
 
I'm curious if the presence of the KOTC daytimer from Kennett, Missouri has any affect on what talk shows the Memphis stations can pick up. KOTC I think carries Neal Boortz and Dennis Miller, and those would be two go-to choices for a second or third tier talker in my opinion. Or is KOTC somehow considered part of the Memphis market stations? It was very weak during the day in midtown and Cordova from what I remember.
 
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