Since July 1, 2016, WJSJ 105.3 FM Fernandina Beach/Jacksonville, FL dropped CBS Sports Radio and is now stunting that a new format is coming to the station. Back in early April 2016, it was announced Urban radio veteran Tony Quartarone and his company, Multimedia Communications, agreed to purchase the station from Nia Broadcasting,Inc. and he intends to change the station's format once he closes on it. Since then, Multimedia Communications agreed to lease the Nia Broadcasting-owned facility until he able to provide the funding to buy the station outright. Mr. Tony Quarterone, or Tony Q, has over 35 years of radio experience, which started at the now defunct Urban Contemporary radio station WRKS "Kiss 98.7 FM" in New York City as a very successful Program Director where he took the station to the top of the ratings in the early to mid 1980s. In the late 1980s, he went to Philadelphia, PA to become the Program Director of legendary Urban Contemporary station WUSL, where he also was responsible for taking that station to the top of the ratings. As a result of his success making these stations #1 in their respective markets, he decided he wanted to own his own radio station. In 1989, Tony Q brought his first station WRKE Salisbury-Ocean City, MD, where he was the Owner and General Manager until he sold the station in 1997. In 1997, he was Co-Owner of now defunct Hip Hop Urban WJKS "Kiss 101.7 FM" in Wilmington Delaware until 2012. Over the years, he has earned numerous awards including Billboard's Program Director of the Year Award and the Urban Knight Radio Award for excellence in Urban radio.
My hope for WJSJ is the station would become an Urban Adult Contemporary station primarily targeting African-American female adults age 40 and older, competing directly with Cox Radio's WOKV HD2/W258CN "Hot 99.5" and to some extent iHeart Media's Classic Hip Hop and R&B WSOL-FM "V101.5". In fact, the full power, 3 kW, Class A WJSJ FM has a significant signal advantage over Cox's W258CN, 210 watt, highly directional FM translator, especially on the the Northside of Jacksonville where the largest percentage of African Americans reside in the city. Moreover, the primary 60dBU contour of WJSJ encompasses almost all of the predominantly African-American neighborhoods in the Urban Core and the Northside of Jacksonville. On the other hand, W258CN has a significant null in its coverage pattern towards the Northside of Jacksonville and it's 60 dBU doesn't cover any portion of this predominantly African-American part of town. On top of that, Hot 99.5 doesn't play many of the newer songs most other Urban AC stations currently have in heavy rotation. For the most part, Hot 99.5 is basically an Urban Oldies station with a heavy emphasis on R&B music from the 1970s to the early 2000s with a few newer songs mixed in unlike its sister station WCFB "Star 94.5 FM" in the Orlando and Central Florida area, which is a more traditional Urban AC playing the current Adult R&B hits found on similar stations nationwide. Unlike iHeart's WSOL-FM, this station won't be as Hip Hop intensive and it will not play any Gangsta Rap from the last 20 years, some of which can be quite offensive to many of the over 40 year old audience that Urban AC stations cater to. Overall, I believe an Urban AC station playing a mixture of current Adult R&B and Classic Soul from the late 1970s to the 2000s on a station with a solid signal throughout the Northside and Westside of Jacksonville is the ONLY way for WJSJ if it wants to be successful as a Jacksonville radio station.
My hope for WJSJ is the station would become an Urban Adult Contemporary station primarily targeting African-American female adults age 40 and older, competing directly with Cox Radio's WOKV HD2/W258CN "Hot 99.5" and to some extent iHeart Media's Classic Hip Hop and R&B WSOL-FM "V101.5". In fact, the full power, 3 kW, Class A WJSJ FM has a significant signal advantage over Cox's W258CN, 210 watt, highly directional FM translator, especially on the the Northside of Jacksonville where the largest percentage of African Americans reside in the city. Moreover, the primary 60dBU contour of WJSJ encompasses almost all of the predominantly African-American neighborhoods in the Urban Core and the Northside of Jacksonville. On the other hand, W258CN has a significant null in its coverage pattern towards the Northside of Jacksonville and it's 60 dBU doesn't cover any portion of this predominantly African-American part of town. On top of that, Hot 99.5 doesn't play many of the newer songs most other Urban AC stations currently have in heavy rotation. For the most part, Hot 99.5 is basically an Urban Oldies station with a heavy emphasis on R&B music from the 1970s to the early 2000s with a few newer songs mixed in unlike its sister station WCFB "Star 94.5 FM" in the Orlando and Central Florida area, which is a more traditional Urban AC playing the current Adult R&B hits found on similar stations nationwide. Unlike iHeart's WSOL-FM, this station won't be as Hip Hop intensive and it will not play any Gangsta Rap from the last 20 years, some of which can be quite offensive to many of the over 40 year old audience that Urban AC stations cater to. Overall, I believe an Urban AC station playing a mixture of current Adult R&B and Classic Soul from the late 1970s to the 2000s on a station with a solid signal throughout the Northside and Westside of Jacksonville is the ONLY way for WJSJ if it wants to be successful as a Jacksonville radio station.