Wookie said:
IF the Ed part of the rumor mill has legs, then sure Country make sense. But so does keeping it Talk. Why else is Citadel going to migrate their audiences to the new signal for three full weeks? There's plenty of (syn) conservative Talk talent not on WNOX. Ed's strength now is as a sales guy with tons of local relationships, the format doesn't matter. Talk also keeps the overhead LOW. The way JP likes to operate.
This is the same thought I had earlier today. Pirkle could decide to keep 100.3 in the news/talk format and go head to head with WNOX (98.7). Now that would be interesting. He, along with Ed, could court Hallerin and Phil and see if they would sit out a non-compete and come over in the future. Or how about putting someone like Walker Johnson on in mornings. He did mornings with Todd Etherige at WKVL 105.3/850 when they were doing talk and it was honestly the most entertaining morning show in Knoxville at the time. Also, as mentioned, there is plenty of syndicated talk to go around. Plus, it wouldn't be unheard of to think that 100.3 could steal away Rush from 98.7. Premier/Clear Channel has yanked Rush from stations in other markets to move him to bigger signals. They might do the same in Knoxville. Hannity and Levin would be harder to get since they are actually syndicated by Citadel (although WNOX tape delays the shows, and the opportunity to air live instead on 100.3 might tempt the higher powers at Citadel corporate; or at least force some changes to the schedule at 98.7). Anyway, could be interesting. I don't know if Pirkle would have the power to pull off a new talk outlet, but with Ed Brantley behind the helm, he might be able to to bring over some big names and advertisers away from Citadel.
Oh well, guess we'll just have to sit back and see what develops. I'd still love to see it return to CHR (but with Ed on board, that seems unlikely). But if Pirkle did consider CHR, he should bring back Roy Jaynes (aka "Brother John"/"Cadillac Jack") to the market. He recently got canned by Brewer Broadcasting in Chattanooga when they went talk and he still knows how to program one hell of a successful CHR type format, or maybe even a killer retro 80s/90s type format. (Anyway, just another name & idea to throw out there).
As far as the oldies/classic hits format goes. With 98.7 pulling some pretty decent numbers lately, I think someone else in the market will dive in after the change. If they go country on 100.3, I would look for 93.1 to go classic hits. If not them, than maybe South Central's 95.7/106.7 combo. Or one of the local owner/rimshot signals (96.7, 106.1, or 105.3). But the format has proven it has legs, so I think someone will grab it. Guess we'll have to wait and see if they do it on the cheap and simply pick up True Oldies Channel, or if they put a real, locally programmed classic hits station on the air. That would honestly be the best answer. Then, you could deal with the True Oldies channel's aging demos, by focusing more on just late 70s and 80s, like many classic hits stations are now doing. Should be an interesting rest of the year around the K Town dial though.
