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98.9 NASH ICON becomes Warm 98.9 and all-Christmas

I have heard this station ID itself as both WARM 98.9 and CHRISTMAS 98.9. This seems to solidify the flip to soft AC after the holidays (if there was any doubt). As for the Christmas play list, It is very diverse, resembling Sirius/XM Holly in many ways, leaning more contemporary than traditional. They have been playing Christmas tunes from Cast of Glee, which I have heard nowhere else until now.

As far as the after-Holiday flip, I would not expect to see any chance of Delilah or Tesh at least until the format moves to a stronger signal. And that would be something that has been a long time coming for ATL....
 
Lotologist492 said:
I have heard this station ID itself as both WARM 98.9 and CHRISTMAS 98.9. This seems to solidify the flip to soft AC after the holidays (if there was any doubt). As for the Christmas play list, It is very diverse, resembling Sirius/XM Holly in many ways, leaning more contemporary than traditional. They have been playing Christmas tunes from Cast of Glee, which I have heard nowhere else until now.
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Wow! SiriusXM put the Glee Christmas songs in saturation rotation on Holly a couple of years ago, but as the fad that was the Glee TV show died, the songs were dropped. Why in the world would an FM station bring them back now?

Also -- and I'm not in the market, so maybe there's a good reason that soft AC stands to make more money in Georgia than country -- could it be that the "Warm" slogan is a form of stunting and the format that will be unveiled after Christmas will be something more mainstream/younger-skewing? After all, "warm" is something you want to be on cold winter nights, and cold winter nights are associated with Christmas. OK, it's a stretch, but it just seems weird to me that a station would unveil a new slogan before the format flip takes place. Most flips are done cold. One minute it's country, the next it's hip-hop, and whatever stunting was done in the interim has nothing to do with either format.
 
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Lotologist492 said:
As far as the after-Holiday flip, I would not expect to see any chance of Delilah or Tesh at least until the format moves to a stronger signal. And that would be something that has been a long time coming for ATL....
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Unless it's changed with the new management, Cumulus has a group deal with Tesh. Pretty sure all Tesh contracts went through the same person in Atlanta. So, if Warm were to pick up either of those shows, it would almost certainly be Tesh.
 
CTListener said:
it just seems weird to me that a station would unveil a new slogan before the format flip takes place. Most flips are done cold. One minute it's country, the next it's hip-hop, and whatever stunting was done in the interim has nothing to do with either format.
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Not all of them are cold; some have extended stunting. WMAX 105.3 The 80s Channel had a multiday stunt, and so did 97.9's flip to Journey, and 95.5's flip to The Beat. But you are right about one thing; WMAX's stunt wasn't really germane to the format, and Journey's was a "spin the wheel" type of stunt that had hard feints to smooth jazz and classic country.

And I would guess that 30 days of Christmas music, complete with spot sales in place, would be a better stunt to get listeners and buzz for an AC station than a hard, cold flip followed by "10,000 commercial-free songs in a row" while you send out your sales weasels to get spot sales.
 
Looks like Delilah is more kin to being on an iHeart station and is produced by iHeart Media. Kind of like how AT40 would more than likely be on an iHeart station like Power 96-1. However she is on WPEZ in Macon which is owned by Cumulus. I guess if you don't have an iHeart AC station in your market, you could pick her up similar to how some markets that don't have an iHeart CHR pick up AT40. I remember when Power 96-1 came on the air in 2012, Star 94 immediately dropped AT40 and Power picked it up about 6 weeks later. I guess they would prefer it to be on an iHeart station but if one is not available it would be up for grabs for any station in the market to pick it up. Similar to how when Lite dropped Deliliah, B98.5 picked her up.
 
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Warm 98.9's web page is now announcing itself as "Atlanta's NEW Home for Adult Contemporary," with such acts as Michael Bolton, Cher, the Bee Gees, Baby Face, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Norah Jones, the Carpenters, Lionel Ritchie, and Bread being listed.
 
OMG it's here! An image liner says it all: "When work gets HARD choose SOFT favorites ... Warm 98.9"! On another, a Warm "listener" said how Warm gets her through her workday! That's awesome! Really awesome since there hasn't even been a workday since Christmas yet. I can't wait til Monday morning and see what other surprises Warm 98.9 has in store for us! Could it be "Warm Mornings with Jordan Graye?" Will Warm 98.9 kick off our workdays with the "98 @ 9"? It makes perfect sense since unlike B98.5, Warm is on 98.9. BTW how do you think B98.5 is going to react to Warm 98.9? Are they going to lurch even more CHRish and take on Star head-to-head? Or will they go back to their AC roots and take Warm 98.9 head on?! What do you think?
 
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I don't think B 98.5 will take them as a serious threat until (or if) they move to a stronger signal. Thus I see no other pieces on the game board moving. I have to say I do like the "lite-FM" feel to this station. I just wish it came in stronger.
 
LiteListener said:
Warm 98.9's web page is now announcing itself as "Atlanta's NEW Home for Adult Contemporary," with such acts as Michael Bolton, Cher, the Bee Gees, Baby Face, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Norah Jones, the Carpenters, Lionel Ritchie, and Bread being listed.
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Strange, I don't hear these artists they mentioned on their website. More of the same only at the moment.
 
The feel seems to be more like a softer Adult/Variety Hits station than an AC station (more "adult" than "contemporary"). Not much newer stuff, lots of older stuff centering on the 80s. Lots of "power ballads" by classic AOR acts such as "Angel" by Aerosmith and "Second Chance" by .38 Special that have been kicked off of the classic rock stations.
 
Hel, I'm having a hard time taking them seriously. Nick Jonas followed by Fleetwood Mac???? I'm pretty diverse but damn! Is this the variety hits everyone has been wanting for the last four years? Yikes!
 
I'm still not getting the Carpenters/Air Supply/Manilow/Warwick/Bread thing on the homepage. Why use the names of artists you never play to introduce your station? Maybe it's a piece of art left over from some soft AC station of the early '90s' branding efforts? The format seems to be a weird mix of '80s-through-today pop and rock. I certainly wouldn't call it soft.

And now the voicetracked liners say "today's best music." Wouldn't be surprised if all the softer songs ("Realize," for instance, which was recently played) are off the playlist by the end of the week.
 
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CTListener said:
I'm still not getting the Carpenters/Air Supply/Manilow/Warwick/Bread thing on the homepage. Why use the names of artists you never play to introduce your station? Maybe it's a piece of art left over from some soft AC station of the early '90s' branding efforts? The format seems to be a weird mix of '80s-through-today pop and rock. I certainly wouldn't call it soft.

And now the voicetracked liners say "today's best music." Wouldn't be surprised if all the softer songs ("Realize," for instance, which was recently played) are off the playlist by the end of the week.
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Just what a 250 watter needs is to try to go up against Star, Q100 and B98.5,,,STUPID.. Although I am hearing Culture Club "Do you really want to hurt me" currently.
 
Sophie B. Hawkins "As I Lay Me Down" back to back with Mister Mister's "Broken Wings" then Carly Rae Jepsen and "Call Me Maybe", followed by Phil Collins' "Invisible Touch", and now Rachel Platten and "Fight Song". This is the music mix that ATLANTA has been waiting and everybody can agree on: at home, at work, and in the car! And lots of commercials for O'Reilly Auto Parts because the soft rock listener does an above-average amount of repair work on their cars, plus a live read for Weight Watchers. For the advertiser Warm 98.9 means results!
 
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