So you wanna know who's changing formats before anyone else? I think everybody even remotely interested would love to have that ability.
Seriously, there's no one way to pull that off. But there are a lot of resources you can use to get a better idea of what's happening in a market.
Read the primary online trades: FMQB, Radio And Records, All-Access, and Billboard Radio Monitor. In the past two days we've learned of two major market stations that will be changing formats in the coming months: KEAR in San Francisco will go FM Talk when Infinity takes it over sometime in October, and KJZI in Minneapolis/St. Paul will flip from Smooth Jazz to News/Talk on January 2.
These along with WPEN's pre-announced flip are rarities, however major market stations nowadays will send out a press-release in the hours preceding a flip.
You can usually get an idea of what stations to monitor in a given market. As someone who invests a lot of time in airchecking format changes (see: FormatChange.com), a number of the flips I've airchecked have been using nothing but a hunch.
I was leaving an Acme in October 2003, when I had a hunch to check out then-WPTP Philadelphia. Sure enough, the Point was stunting with Christmas music in preparation of its flip to Rhythmic CHR.
Sometimes this backfires as I missed the launches of Mix 95.7, Ben-FM, and Jack in New York by less than an hour.
But to simplify the answer for you. Constantly check out the market's board on Radio-Info. 95% of the time you'll see a post about an impending flip prior to it occurring.
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