New radio station in Grand Rapids

[Tig1150]

Citadel Broadcasting Company to launch 1st NEW radio station in West Michigan in 9 years! ==Press Release== Citadel Broadcasting Company will launch a new radio station in Grand Rapids on Monday May 1st, 2006. WCXT-FM is a 50,000 watt class “B” FM located at the 105.3 frequency and licensed to Coopersville, Michigan which is a part of the Grand Rapids MSA.The station will launch with an innovative programming concept called ‘reality radio’. On Monday, Citadel Broadcasting Company will use some high profile personalities from their other West Michigan properties to canvas the marketplace interviewing people about what type of format they would like to hear on the new frequency. Bill Simonson is the host of the popular Huge Show which is syndicated on 10 stations across the state of Michigan. Bill will be live with a microphone from 6am Monday morning until 8am Tuesday morning. His life during this period will be broadcast live over the air. Kevin Matthews, host of top ranked heritage Classic Rock 97LAV, will then take over the live feed for the next 24 hours and introduce the new long term format plans for the station on Wednesday morning. Both personalities will do their shows on their respective stations while they are also concurrently mic’d on 105.3FM. The objective is to give the listener a look behind the scenes of what radio operations for top level talent is like, and give them a chance to tell us what they want to hear. “We’re thrilled to provide West Michigan with another option for listening entertainment” said Matt Hanlon, Midwest Regional President for Citadel Broadcasting. “The innovative programming concept is designed to bring listeners to the 105.3FM frequency. I don’t believe this has ever been done before on radio”.Bill Simonson aka “HUGE” is the regional sports talk host on WBBL 1340AM. The HUGE Show is syndicated and highly successful in 10 Michigan markets, including Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Alma/Mt. Pleasant, Kalamazoo, Dowagiac, Fremont, North Muskegon and Greenville.Kevin Matthews began his career in Grand Rapids. After spending 20 successful years in Chicago, he moved back to Grand Rapids, hosting the morning drive show on 96.9 WLAV-FM.