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Three flip format to 'Yacht Rock'

KilowattKat

KilowattKat

I don't know if this is a trend (I hope so!), but three radio stations since the beginning of the year have flipped to a 'Yacht Rock' format, and in a couple of interesting places....

Miami, OK

Yacht Rock Docks In Northeast Oklahoma

Omaha NE

radioinsight.com

Santa Baby Delivers Yacht Rock Into Omaha

After stunting as "Santa Baby 1180" with Christmas music, NRG Media's KZOT Bellevue/Omaha NE flipped today to Yacht Rock as
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

St. Michael's MD

radioinsight.com

WINX-FM Reaches The Dockside

After running Country Christmas music for the past two months, Draper Media has flipped Country 94.3 WINX-FM St. Michaels/Easton MD
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
 
Last edited:
KilowattKat said:
I don't know if this is a trend (I hope so!), but three radio stations since the beginning of the year have flipped to a 'Yacht Rock' format, and in a couple of interesting places....

Miami, OK

Yacht Rock Docks In Northeast Oklahoma

Omaha NE

radioinsight.com

Santa Baby Delivers Yacht Rock Into Omaha

After stunting as "Santa Baby 1180" with Christmas music, NRG Media's KZOT Bellevue/Omaha NE flipped today to Yacht Rock as
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

St. Micheal's MD

radioinsight.com

WINX-FM Reaches The Dockside

After running Country Christmas music for the past two months, Draper Media has flipped Country 94.3 WINX-FM St. Michaels/Easton MD
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
Click to expand...

For yacht rock to succeed as a viable format, the playlist would need to be more expansive than what the syndicated yacht rock shows are airing now. My best guess is that, because classic hits is moving away from the 1970s and into the 1990s, this will be a format that won't last very long. I'd probably give it two to three years at most.
 
Here's a question: How many others in the US have a Yacht Rock format? The only other two I can think of are ...

WKEY Key West, FLl
KAZM Sedona AZ
 
rparky54 said:
SiriusXM has both Yacht Rock Radio and Radio Margaritaville on their main channels
Click to expand...
Radio Margaritaville is a Jimmy Buffett vanity channel, run now by his estate, I suppose. Every fourth or fifth song is by Jimmy, and full concerts are aired regularly. Yacht Rock Radio's playlist might be 200 songs, tops, even less than you hear in Christmas formats. I can't see the format lasting long on the stations mentioned in this thread unless the definition of yacht rock is expanded, both chronologically and musically. Otherwise, you'll either have burnout or you'll be playing stiffs.
 
KilowattKat said:
Here's a question: How many others in the US have a Yacht Rock format? The only other two I can think of are ...

WKEY Key West, FLl
KAZM Sedona AZ
Click to expand...
WWMK/Cheboygan-Mackinaw City, MI "Mac FM" still embraces its "yachty" identity with imaging and the tagline "Smooth Sailing." It plays a good bit of 70s soft rock, but more titles decidedly outside of the yacht rock canon have been added over the years and Mac is now more of a yacht rock-centric Classic Hits station.
 
I'm hoping for a Sean Ross 'First Listen' on these three. He does a great job analyzing playlists and comparing with others in the same format.
 
rparky54 said:
SiriusXM has both Yacht Rock Radio and Radio Margaritaville on their main channels
Click to expand...
Here we're talking about two different subgenres. Yacht Rock is a concept that was devised by a few guys in LA that created a funny YouTube series years back. They took it even further, including a podcast and their very own "Yachtski Scale."


That said, the Jimmy Buffett sound is in a different category, Trop Rock. Also referred to as Caribbean Country or Gulf & Western, it's more of a tropical sound. In fact, I actually created the Trop Rock channel on AccuRadio a few years back, as part of a contest during the pandemic.

www.accuradio.com

Beaches, Guitars & Tiki Bars - Listen to Free Radio Stations - AccuRadio

Radio vet Bryan "Shark" Fitzpatrick's Trop Rock (or "Gulf & Western") mix of Country, Reggae, and lots of Jimmy Buffett.
www.accuradio.com
 
KilowattKat said:
Here's a question: How many others in the US have a Yacht Rock format? The only other two I can think of are ...

WKEY Key West, FLl
KAZM Sedona AZ
Click to expand...
KAZM is heavy on “Yacht Rock,” but still plays “mellow” ‘70s songs that wouldn’t fit the label. They also do a lot of news during the day, and have multiple professional sports rights. It’s more “full service.”
 
"Captain's Log Radio" is on WTKS 104.1 in Orlando on Sunday mornings. 100kw on FM. WTKS is Hot Talk weekdays and music overnights and weekends. Last summer (2024) they had Yacht Rock weekends where they played Yacht Rock all weekend long for the season.
 


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