iHM is getting ready to do what Entercom or Cumulus should've done YEARS ago...

[davideduardo]

I find it hard to believe iHeart would put soft A/C on a bigstick like 96.1. Just don't see it. Heck, WSB took soft A/C off their longtime staple of 98.5 HD2 and replaced it with a "hotter" A/C version of Star 94 HD2's "Star94 throwback". Just don't see any of these corporate conglomerates doing anything miraculous.

That was some time ago. A/C has become more uptempo and contemporary, so now there is an opening on the softer, more relaxing side. This, if well done, fills the positions that, for decades, Beautiful Music and Smooth Jazz filled in their own way.

I just don't have much hope. iHeart is known for aural flatus and not high quality radio. Yeah, I'm jaded. Go ahead and tell me to "enjoy SXM and STFU". But part of me WANTS local radio here like WELJ. We USED to have it before everything went corporate.

I find it rather tiring and juvenile to use names like "iHeart" and the like. All of these are companies trying to adapt to changing audiences and new technologies. Radio revenue just before the pandemic, in 2019 dollars, is off by around 60% so companies that have one station or several hundred have to make adjustments as they try to find a way to survive.

In fact, if you look at the iHeart stations in LA and New York as examples, they are very well done with well selected and curated playlists, talent in the proper dayparts and good engineering.

I'm glad you find Sirius/XM entertaining. A large percentage of Americans do not want to spend the extra money each year... either because they don't have discretionary income or they don't find satellite radio that much better than free, over the air radio. Of over 250 million US vehicles, only about 10% have a paid satellite subscription.

 

[Kidd Casio]

I find it hard to believe iHeart would put soft A/C on a bigstick like 96.1. Just don't see it. Heck, WSB took soft A/C off their longtime staple of 98.5 HD2 and replaced it with a "hotter" A/C version of Star 94 HD2's "Star94 throwback". Just don't see any of these corporate conglomerates doing anything miraculous.

I've been paying for SXM for years, and more and more everyday, don't find much reason to turn on terrestrial. And I'm a radio guy who owns a dozen "specialty" radios (most of them HD capable). Occasionally, 88.5's HD3 is interesting. But the humdrum "carefully selected" playlists of the same 30 washout songs followed by 5 minute stop sets of scammy commercials, self
promotions and blabber turn me off. As does piss poor engineering. No one cares about quality anymore. The online streaming from some obscure station in East Hampton, Long Island run by a couple of college kids blows away the nonsense on our FM dial. Why can they make soft A/C work, sound good, and classy with their lowly 6Kw from the East Hamptons sound so good (at least online) with a decent spectrum of music, well placed spots (most of them for local businesses), and good audio quality?

I just don't have much hope. iHeart is known for aural flatus and not high quality radio. Yeah, I'm jaded. Go ahead and tell me to "enjoy SXM and STFU". But part of me WANTS local radio here like WELJ. We USED to have it before everything went corporate.

Agreed. I’m a fellow SiriusXM subscriber these day as well. No commercials, less talk more music matched to whether you’re out driving a commute or at home. Terrestrial radio has hit the shitter. Wait can I even say that on here? Another thing about SiriusXM is no censoring.

 

[Kidd Casio]

That was some time ago. A/C has become more uptempo and contemporary, so now there is an opening on the softer, more relaxing side. This, if well done, fills the positions that, for decades, Beautiful Music and Smooth Jazz filled in their own way.

I find it rather tiring and juvenile to use names like "iHeart" and the like. All of these are companies trying to adapt to changing audiences and new technologies. Radio revenue just before the pandemic, in 2019 dollars, is off by around 60% so companies that have one station or several hundred have to make adjustments as they try to find a way to survive.

In fact, if you look at the iHeart stations in LA and New York as examples, they are very well done with well selected and curated playlists, talent in the proper dayparts and good engineering.

I'm glad you find Sirius/XM entertaining. A large percentage of Americans do not want to spend the extra money each year... either because they don't have discretionary income or they don't find satellite radio that much better than free, over the air radio. Of over 250 million US vehicles, only about 10% have a paid satellite subscription.

Yes, you have an excellent point some large cities have well curated playlist, but sadly it seems Atlanta, GA is not one of them.

 

[Kidd Casio]

Assuming there's truth to this...

Would iHM bring back the "Peach" moniker? iHM has the WPCH callsign parked on a class D daytimer in West Point, GA.

After one failed attempt to bring back a "Peach" online BM/EZ station (the old www.ezpeach.org), there's another one simply called "The Peach". It's on both TuneIn and iHR (see The Peach | iHeartRadio ) . Not saying that a new station would be BM/EZ but just saying the "Peach" name still has some recognition for softer music. That can be either good or bad--I remember the B98.5 "sleepy elevator music" ads showing a radio with peaches coming out of the speaker.

I had a feeling there would be a shakeout in the CHR/hot AC space, with 4 big players in the space. And Star seems to be doing great with their new format; it strikes me as a cross between Adult/Variety Hits and CHR/R. Both Star and B have abandoned any pretense at soft AC. iHM may have been waiting to see what Entercom/Audacy would do with Star and how that would shake out, and I guess Q100 wasn't affected enough to get them to blink.

If I had to guess, the most viable new format that would cover the most uncovered bases would be a traditional (not soft, not hot) AC station that plays a lot of gold. That would pick up a lot of Adult/Variety Hits listeners without overlapping with Star too much. In a way, that would be similar to the old 1990s B98.5 format that now dips into the gold a lot less than it used to, despite still using the "80s, 90s, and now" slogan. When WFOX 97.1 moved into the Atlanta market in the 80s, their initial format was a 60s, 70s, and 80s heavy-gold AC format that eventually morphed into oldies. There was a shakeout then, too, with 94Q, B98.5, Peach 94.9, Warm 100, and Lite 106 all playing some manner of AC at the time in addition to Fox.

I actually used to stream this through Love365 and then, when he switched over to Tunein. This station was created and run by the master mind behind 94.9 WPCH-FM (1972–2002) as “Peach 95 FM”, “Peach 94.9” and WLTM-FM (2002–2006) as “94.9 Lite FM”, Steve Goss. After iHeart in radio terms blow-up the 94.9 WLTM - FM “94.9 Lite FM” format in 2006, Steve went on to work for and help program WABE-FM Atlanta, before retiring in 2019.Recording at bottom of webpage has listen in of when WLTM-FM becomes WUBL-FM

 

[Kidd Casio]

THE BREEZE will more than likely be on 96.7 FM. No way they’d blow up Power 96.1 and 105.3 gives The Breakfast Club a clear signal in the market, the only reason they flipped 105.3 to Urban.

iHeart has registered the following:
thebreezeatl.com
96breezeatl.com
96thebreeze.com
96rockatl.com
atlantasrock.com

For the new Power 96.7, they’ve registered the domain name of www.power967.com...

 

[Kidd Casio]

I actually used to stream this through Love365 and then, when he switched over to Tunein. This station was created and run by the master mind behind 94.9 WPCH-FM (1972–2002) as “Peach 95 FM”, “Peach 94.9” and WLTM-FM (2002–2006) as “94.9 Lite FM”, Steve Goss. After iHeart in radio terms blow-up the 94.9 WLTM - FM “94.9 Lite FM” format in 2006, Steve went on to work for and help program WABE-FM Atlanta, before retiring in 2019.Recording at bottom of webpage has listen in of when WLTM-FM becomes WUBL-FM

*Live365

 

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

For the new Power 96.7, they’ve registered the domain name of www.power967.com...

That was registered on 21 years ago. I just dont see them blowing up POWER 96.1 but who knows. Took them 20 years to realize Urban belonged on 105.3 but they blew there chances of making a mark.

 

[A_b_m_90]

Whether its on 96.1 or 96.7, iHeart will be launching a much needed void on the ATL radio dial. I hope its Power 96.1 that moves to 96.7. Something less likely - Placing the "Peach" moniker back on it...(replacing "The Breeze")

 

[A_b_m_90]

They would most likely keep the HD3 on WUBL if they move to 96.7....

 

[RadioDoogie]

If I had to go back in history and look at where Power made its biggest error would be letting Scotty K and Riley go. They had a solid morning show and were really giving the Bert Show a run for its money. I don’t think we still know today why they were let go but it was definitely the worst decision ever made by iHeart on Power 96.1. I love the station and do hope it stays on 96.1. I would hate to lose AT40 as I know Cumulus would never pick it up over at Q99.7. We are definitely in a CHR slump right now. I think that is hurting the station. But not having a solid morning show is really hurting it. If we do flip to the Breeze, you can almost guarantee Delilah would be back in Atlanta.

 

[jabba17]

Keep in mind that ANY station that uses a curated playlist will fall prey to what you describe. The only advantages to Sirius is (1) lack of commercials, and (2) ability to switch to another similar curated playlist when the one you're listening to becomes predictable. As far as their engineering, that's another story.

Satellite squeezes their birds for bandwidth so much that their product sounds like crap.

 

[Kidd Casio]

That was registered on 21 years ago. I just dont see them blowing up POWER 96.1 but who knows. Took them 20 years to realize Urban belonged on 105.3 but they blew there chances of making a mark.

Come on y'all, you must have realized by now that iHeart Media owned WWPW Power 96.1 is on it last leg of life. I mean just look they cut all local talent last December and now RadioInsight and others are reporting a Breeze is blowing into Atlanta. The writing was on the wall starting December 2, 2020. Power 96.1 cuts all local talent as the Bull loses afternoon host

So what if the domain www.power967.com was registered on 2000-08-16, www.power961.com was registered on 2012-08-23 and Project 9-6-1 was not even flipped until 2012-8-29? Media and radio owners register domains all the time and sometimes even either change their mind on using that station name or domain, so they just sit on them for many years. What's your point?

 

[Kidd Casio]

If I had to go back in history and look at where Power made its biggest error would be letting Scotty K and Riley go. They had a solid morning show and were really giving the Bert Show a run for its money. I don’t think we still know today why they were let go but it was definitely the worst decision ever made by iHeart on Power 96.1. I love the station and do hope it stays on 96.1. I would hate to lose AT40 as I know Cumulus would never pick it up over at Q99.7. We are definitely in a CHR slump right now. I think that is hurting the station. But not having a solid morning show is really hurting it. If we do flip to the Breeze, you can almost guarantee Delilah would be back in Atlanta.

I'm sure Atlanta listeners who may have to stream to even listen to Delilah's show will welcome it back. If you just look up here nearest affiliates to the Atlanta, GA metro, they are in Albany, GA, Augusta, GA, Birmingham, AL, Chattanooga, TN, Macon, GA and Savannah, GA.

 

[A_b_m_90]

Anyone who said he had "close sources" in Texas on when the flip to the Breeze will take place?

 

[deejaywestbrook]

Come on y'all, you must have realized by now that iHeart Media owned WWPW Power 96.1 is on it last leg of life. I mean just look they cut all local talent last December…

What's interesting tho is they hired 2 new live/local jocks. Ethan Cole (Afternoons) and MiKeith (Evenings). Both are actually live, in-studio down at iHeart Atlanta. Plus they're both constantly interactive with local listeners. This is something that Maddox hardly ever did on the air the whole 9 years he was there. Whats more is that both of these new guys sound quite good actually.

So, at least for me… it's a little surprising that they're willing to blow up the whole station after just hiring two new live/local talents.

 

[redlight0]

There’s actually 3 new jocks that are local, Sos does mornings from 9-11am and is the local producer of the Jubal show. I thought Maddox was great with listeners in the Atl. Maddox is actually still working for iheartmedia in Atlanta as a national playlist curator. The cast from Pk in the morning were really the only ones actually laid off.

 

[Kidd Casio]

Anyone who said he had "close sources" in Texas on when the flip to the Breeze will take place?

iHeart Media I have found out does actually have a few new staff members already hired for the new format and frequency flips. But, just like other radio stations and media entities and owners have been known in the past and present to hire DJ, on-air talent, management, sales and promotion and move them around while they’re still under contract. It happens all the time. I’ll just say that RadioInsight.com is definitely onto something when they suggest a frequency change and flip.

 

[A_b_m_90]

I don't know, but are there any local talents outside of Chicago (WLIT-FM) that have local talent for the Breeze? I'd be surprised if ATL does hire local talent for the new station.

 

[secondchoice]

I never thought that the old 96 Rock would go “soft”.

 

[Kent]

I don't know, but are there any local talents outside of Chicago (WLIT-FM) that have local talent for the Breeze? I'd be surprised if ATL does hire local talent for the new station.

From what I understand, San Francisco and Philly are local in morning drive during the weekdays. San Francisco, I understand, is also local in middays and afternoons while Philly's midday show is tracked from New York. The afternoon host on WISX is in near Philly and appears on multiple stations within a couple hours of there. I don't know if he's actually in Philly, though.

Of course, many of the KISQ jocks track for other iHeart stations, both inside and outside of the format. Lisa St. Regis tracks overnights for multiple iHeart stations, and she tracks middays at my semi-local classic hits KLOU 103.3 (and probably some others ,too).