With WLUM ending its run as an Alternative it now leaves a vacant format hole. Unfortunately the closest to it is WMSE.
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K-Love Acquires B93.3 & FM102.1
- Thread starter lanceventa
- Start date
And WYMS 88.9 (Radio Milwaukee). WLUM's former morning guy Jon Adler recently started there.
It was a move-in in the 2000s and is short-spaced to WHTS in the Grand Rapids area, which Salem paid off to facilitate the WFSH launch (itself taking of a pretty good AC station in the Hart area across the lake). So the irony is bitter; but knowing what EMF did in Green Bay with WPFF and then WPCK, they'll likely just keep K-Love on both signals (they definitely don't want to transition people from frequencies, and I get the feeling they overpaid on these stations to keep The Family stuck on a translator).
But this has been really expected since Willie Davis died a few years ago (who owned WLUM for a long time before partnering with Times Shamrock) if I'm being honest as it looks like they honestly shopped the stations behind the scenes and nobody wanted them or found them a good fit. I'm sure Civic even made an offer, but the price TS wanted was too high.
Overall though, it's dire, as outside the Hog and KLH, the music stations in the market are now dominantly voicetracked, with WXSS really suffering, cutting off Hot 105.7 and canning out most of the good folks who make up their on-air staff (the morning show is terrible specifically because of Ally, whose voice is terrible and she seems to be only in it for the cosmetic/aesthetic techs who give her a discount for doing their ads and is a mess on her station Facebook). Thankfully the Mix's morning show is fine enough, but Milwaukee radio is otherwise it's all talk (losing WHAD to classical last year didn't help), iHeart isn't changing WISN, and Good Karma will not be putting WKTI out of its misery.
Thank goodness for WYMS, but radio in Milwaukee has long declined.
Agreed. And even then, there are several issues. The first is whether listeners will support such a format financially. The other is how to satisfy the various fragmented subsets of alternative rock partisans without offending more than they please.
I don’t think Jammin’ 98.3 is
Third of never!
From being in St. Louis last week and hearing some of Boost, my conclusion is that it's a far livelier and more engaging format than K-Love.
I think that's pretty much true for AAA already; the exceptions are well-established.
The problem with alt rock is that it can either be a Generation X nostalgia play or it can try to appeal to people in demographics that have turned away from radio and who seem far less attached to format boundaries than older listeners were.
WHAD and WUWM were running almost identical schedules, aside from two WPR shows (WPR should work a deal with WUWM to carry them, IMO). The switch to classical definitely filled a niche, and brought it back to the market long after WFMR dropped it.
I agree with you on the Audacy and IHeart stations. Both clusters consist of absolute voice tracked fiascos. And I should add WJMR to your list as well. They have good live and local jocks all day, outside of DeDe in the morning. Saga actually puts effort into their Milwaukee stations (aside from WRXS, which runs the company's canned Pure Oldies format, but I won't fault them for that).
I also commend GKB's WTMJ for not only maintaining a local staff, but also by avoiding cliche conservative talk demagogues. And of course there's Radio Milwaukee, though the on-air talents are a bit bland.
TBH I can't really receive them where I am (WLKN overtakes their signal where I am), so apologies for that oversight. Saga is really good at everything they do in the market at the very least, and even with WRXS, I'm glad any effort is made. And WTMJ is at least trying so many other things, along with WGKB; I just have accepted I will never be able to tolerate sports talk unless it has a hard time limit.
I am happy for that, but I think WPR did really bad with the network switch and could've kept some talk programming on the music network.
WPR really only has two local talk shows on weekdays now. The rest is from NPR, APM, etc. Which is why I mentioned that WUWM runs almost the same lineup, albeit with their own two or so local shows. That is why WPR opted to switch WHAD to classical, rather than have two nearly identical stations clobber each other. And the WPR news/talk service (formerly Ideas) runs on the HD2 signal of WHAD.
Anyone know how the WPR classical signals are performing now in donations compared to the previous talk format?
I highly doubt they have specific breakdowns for that. They measure in how many members they have (60% of revenue). But classical in Milwaukee will probably bring in some added support. WHAD's ratings in Milwaukee were never very good with the Ideas Network, due to the presence of WUWM. Most of the activity was probably from the rest of the state. Another reason the switch to classical was a no-brainer for them.
Also an end of an era for the legacy of the late Willie Davis, a legendary former member of the Green Bay Packers, and founder of All-Pro Broadcasting. He owned WLUM for years, and even came up with the call letters (We Love U Milwaukee). It was originally an R&B station, then switched to CHR (Hot 102), then rhythmic CHR. In 1994, unhappy with the prominence of gangsta rap taking over the format, and it's effect on children, he ordered a switch to modern rock (New Rock 102ONE). They bounced in and out of the format for a few years, until going back into it full-time around 2004. He also owned 1290 AM, purchasing it and consolidating it with his daytime R&B station (WAWA), which he shut down. It became WMVP, reflecting his Green Bay Packers legacy. Eventually, he sold the rights to the call letters to a new sports station in Chicago, and switched to WMCS - Milwaukee's Community Station. It was mostly talk and classic R&B.
As other stations in town started getting consolidated into large corporate clusters in the late 90s, All-Pro and Times Shamrock joined forces locally to run the three stations as the Milwaukee Radio Alliance, with equal joint ownership. This was a means to ensure competitiveness in the changed radio marketplace. Davis passed away a few years ago, and his son took over his share.
And now, All-Pro Broadcasting is becoming a memory.
92.1 Racine seems to like to flip formats whenever a big stick in Milwaukee dumps a format. They reacted to WKTI dumping The Lake and then again when WKTI dumped Country.
Years ago, I believe 92.1 programmed AC.
I cannot help but wonder if they'll return to that format if none of the Milwaukee County signals choose to adopt the format?
Years ago, I believe 92.1 programmed AC.
I cannot help but wonder if they'll return to that format if none of the Milwaukee County signals choose to adopt the format?
Yes, the current WVTY was Adult Contemporary twice before. First in the mid-80's as KQ92 WHKQ, and then later as WEZY.