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Rebel Radio 92.1 Now Top 40

S

snazzyjazzy

The Ole Miss station has flipped to top 40. I suppose there's not a top 40 station that gets a strong signal pumped into Oxford from Memphis or Tupelo. I would define Memphis's Q107.5/96.1 as a top 40 station. I wouldn't count FM100 from Memphis or Sunny 93 from Tupelo as top 40. WUMS from Ole Miss is a commercial college station. Will the new format help the station sell more ad time?
 
92.1 has been playing lots of top 40 for at least a year now but was still mixing in pop friendly Alt Rock at the same time. Is this an official flip to Top40?
 
It's probably not a bad move for the station. KZ103 and Q both can barely be picked up in Oxford.

Sunny is AC, FM100 is Hot AC. WQLJ 93.7 IN Oxford is also Hot AC.
 
Interesting choice, I was thinking of Q 93.7 as the top 40 station of record in the area. 92.1 has a terrible signal in my experience. I had trouble with it on the campus years ago and imagine it's weak in some of the dorms and residence halls. Like 95.5 it just doesn't seem to perform well in town.
 
I started managing the stations about 5 years ago. They were playing a lot local, grunge, alternative music with a very low appeal among the listeners. Since the station is a commercial radio station, we were dependent on ad sales. We did a campus wide and city wide (high school kids and younger in Oxford and close towns) to see what they wanted to hear. The stuff we got back from campus was more of that local stuff that's nice to have, but you can't sell a station in Oxford on that. The other suverys were overwhelmingly pop/top 40. I thought that might be a good way to go, but it needed to happen fast as new freshmen were coming in. They needed to hear the new sound. We went Billboard charts (I think AC charts, but we mixed quite a bit of not too "head-bangy" music that would come from the alternative charts...not at that time there were some crossovers...so it easier. But when decided to make the change, we signed up with a music service and changed our music basically over the weekend. You get the haters, but your call volume increase drastically. You go into a local business to see ad time, and either one of their workers is a fan (and sells the owner) or the owner has 92.1 playing in his business..you know you got that sale.

I had some disputes from college students who would come in with their eabuds in their ipods telling me that they didn't like what was playing on Rebel Radio. And I thought, why does it matter, you've got those earbuds shoved so far up your ear, you wouldnt be able to hear us anyway"

So it was my decision. we stuck with it. I ran the place for about 2-3 years, ad sales increased,we started to pay some djs, and we even did some neat specialty programming: Rebel Radio After Dark:Started around 10pm and went until 2-3am depending...hip/hop and rap (clean up versions of course). People really seemed to be big fans of that as well.

We also did get into some sports shows, but they were few and far between, so not much.

All in all, I think I had a great staff, and a great bunch of administrators who let me change that station to help it make more money.

I'm not sure if that legacy was carried on after I left. It really takes some thing to get there because the first inclination is : Oh. it's college radio..let's do college alternative. Most people who listen to college alternative music are using their ipods not FM Radio. You have to look at who you are serving (My thoughts were high school and middle school kids in Oxford and surrounding areas) and put your focus on them. Those college kids are so scattered there is no way you can program a station to satisfy the entire group or even a small group, for that matter. So went Top40is with a little alternative..so it was edgier than q93 (their parents station)
 
I agree that alternative is no longer the way to go in college radio. Yes, that music is for the iPod crowd. I was at WMSV at that other school in Mississippi back in 1994 and 1995, when it was an alternative station. Steve Ellis changed the format in 1999 to AAA. I believe that format's a little on the bland side but is better than college alternative. I think top 40 is the best format now for WUMS. If it can get the ad revenue up, then that's good for the station. Really, I actually had more fun playing jazz at the Univ. of Memphis station in 1996 and 1997 than I did playing that alternative stuff at WMSV in 1994 and 1995.
 
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