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The Party is Over!

jmtillery

jmtillery

Last night at midnight (9-12-15) Gainesville's Party 100.9 stopped the party and transitioned to the New (or old) Smooth 100.9 playing a hybrid adult contemporary music format comprising of classic hits from the 70s and 80s.

As you may remember, WXJZ 100.9 was called Smooth 100.9 after a long stint as Smooth Jazz 100.9 before becoming Party last year. According to owner JVC Media, this format will compliment its successful classic hits Wow 104.9. Right now the music playlist appears to be limited to hits from the 70s and 80s; however, I am sure newer adult hits will be added later to bring the age demo down closer to 25 giving the New Smooth 100.9 a good sampling in the 25 - 54 target demo. I don't believe they are attempting to compete directly against WKTK (right now anyway) as the music on Smooth is slightly older than what 98.5 plays in regular rotation.
 
More likely to skew soft and fairly old - more towards Gold 99 than KTK I would think. ??? Gainesville is much different than Ocala, and I think this would have done better in Ocala. With the inability of the JVC signals to cover the entire rated market individually, another simulcast like they had before with the country format may have been a better choice.

Didn't think the Party format would survive. The "successful" WOW is only pulling a .5 in last two books, behind several AMs and an LPFM, so its days will be numbered unless that changes. Again a format that would do better in Ocala and southward.
 
I keep thinking maybe they are stunting with Smooth FM. Gold 99 has come along since they were last Smooth FM although Gold probably has most of their audience in Ocala and the Villages. I'm sure they hung in with Party longer than they should since Vic Latino is one of the owners.

Maybe combine 92.9 & 100.9 and go after Kiss or 'KTK. They've owned their formats for 30+ years so maybe time for a change. Multiple threads over the years offering advice for programming Gainesville stations but nothing seems to break out.
 
I agree WXJZ will skew older. However, in spite of Gainesville having a smaller population of 25-54 year olds than Ocala, it's still about a third of the population. So, there should be enough people in that demo to make money, especially in a diary market that doesn't get tons of national buys. Besides, going after the younger 40% or so of the population didn't seem to work.

When in doubt, it's not a stunt. Despite format stunts happening from time-to-time, most of them just last a few hours. The patriotic country music on Friday was a stunt. A flip that has already lasted a day and a half probably isn't.
 
I didn't really think it was a stunt but wishful thinking as I hate this format. I did enjoy the old smooth jazz format 100.9 did for years. At least they were playing music you didn't hear all over the dial. What happened to smooth jazz nationally? Did it just run its course?
 
Smooth Jazz essentially ran out of product that appealed to enough of the younger crowd to make money. It essentially became either beautiful music 2.0 or urban soft AC.
 
Smooth appears to be adding some newer music to the mix, giving it a fresher and slightly younger sound. No local announcers yet whether live or voice-tracked. Possibly that may come later as the station makes further adjustments.
 
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