What the hell happened to my favorite radio station?

[make_your_move]

For the love of god, does anyone have any idea what happened to Z104? (104.1) - I listened to them this morning and by this afternoon they were a classical station ... WTF?!!! And here is what the webpage says ....Z104

Comments

[princesskaite.livejournal.com]

http://feeds.feedburner.com/dcist05?m=461

DCist is love :) They know everything!

[make-your-move.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link ... but it doesn't say, or even speculate why this happened ... are they bankrupt? crazy? bought out?

[princesskaite.livejournal.com]

I'm sure their parent company (who I believe is the ever idiotic Clear Channel) decided to change formats for whatever stupid reason they thought was a good idea.
This is 2 good stations in 1 year (or 2 yrs? I can't remember when HFS went away) - but in a big city with very little good music it sux extra.

[princesskaite.livejournal.com]

I lied - their parent company is the Bonneville International Corporation

[juice-weasel.livejournal.com]

A lot of times when a company buys another local station they have to cahnge the format of the current one if they are too similar, provided the new station purchased has the higher customer base/popularity/gross profit margin.

Or perhaps the current owners decided it just wasn't worth it or that they could make more money off of advertising on that kind of format with so many other stations playing the same type of music I'm sure they had to compete for certain advert business.

It happens here all the time.

Peace...

[liatha.livejournal.com]

Z104 104.1 is permanently gone.

103.9 and 104.1 are now both a classical station.

103.5 is now WTOP, and in mid-late march 1500 am and 107.7 (currently WTOP) will become Washington Post Radio.

[make-your-move.livejournal.com]

Yes, I got that ... but does anyone know why?

[liatha.livejournal.com]

Nope. It was just noted in a report on NBC4.com an hour or so ago. Sorry :(

[ivorydamsel.livejournal.com]

Whatever the particulars, it all comes down to money, I'm sure. Washington Post Radio and WTOP (which has long been affiliated with WGMS, but I don't know who owns them, though I think it's also Bonneville) probably both want to expand (i.e., get more ad revenue, especially drive-time) and so Bonneville probably decided to shuffle its assets (and formats) around to make a deal with the Washington Post Co. -- whatever the terms are, I don't know, but I expect some more detailedcoverage tomorrow/soon.

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

Money. It's ALWAYS money.

Music formats are taking it on the chin due to satellite radio and iPods. They're going to where the money is. All the shifting around lets them open up a spot for that Post radio station, which will likely allow them some hefty franchising fees from Post-Newsweek.

[diekonigin.livejournal.com]

I would bet it has to do with the free radio/pay radio realignment. Howard Stern leaving Infinity has really put the kabosh on the radio industry. A friend of mine works for CBS and was moved back to Philly to salvage a radio station that's been a HS mainstay for YEARS. The station was likely to collapse if they didn't intervene. I'd bet that in your circumstance, the similar is going on within the corporate level, and they're changing up programming to save themselves.

[ivorydamsel.livejournal.com]

103.9 is classical? Which station is that? As far as I know, ever since WETA (90.9) dropped classical music for an all-news/talk format last February, the only classical station that can be heard throughout the D.C. market has been WGMS (formerly on 103.5). (Sometimes 91.5, too, but that's in Baltimore and hard to receive here.)

[liatha.livejournal.com]

no idea. it's new... as in brand new as of noon today.

I just posted a repeat of an article I found on NBC4.com

[ivorydamsel.livejournal.com]

OK, I just got some more info. about the 103.9 thing in an e-mail from WGMS (I'm on their e-mail list). BOTH 104.1 and 103.9 are WGMS: "104.1 FM can be heard in most of the DC area, while 103.9 FM serves the Frederick area, as well as upper Montgomery County."

[wizardglick.livejournal.com]

Am I reading that correctly that the station changed to a Classical format?

That's pretty unusual.

[dwarfrage.livejournal.com]

First HFS and now this.

It is soon to be NPR all the time for Scott.

[make-your-move.livejournal.com]

~wah~

[ivorydamsel.livejournal.com]

Bizarre how these things happen so "on the sly" (cuz they know people will be upset). While I like classical stations, I would have preferred that WGMS be moved to a less-popular place; I liked 104.1, too.

[elkor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's pretty standard for them to do that.

They:
1) Don't want to lose listenership ahead of time by announcing it early (affects revenue)
2) Hope for carry over listeners that use their presets to tune in and decide "Oh, this isn't that bad."

Really annoying to have a classic rock station turn into a country/western station one morning on the ride to work.

[jezzabel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like HFS as a Spanish station isn't that bad :-(

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

Actually my understanding is that part of the reason things happen so fast is a DJ issue. Usually when they change formats the DJs don't find out until a big staff meeting that happens within hours before the format change (when they find out who is staying or going). They don't want to give the DJs time to do stupid things or bad talk the station etc.

[emeraldliz.livejournal.com]

GARGH that totally sucks! Thanks for the heads up so I won't be shocked driving this evening. Sigh, I remember when 104 came out in 96, no commercials except at the hour and the half hour...

[kellfire.livejournal.com]

Wah!!!!!!!!!!

[fortryll.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that Bonneville is, IIRC, the media arm of the Mormon church...

Here's what happened

[sierra-victor.livejournal.com]

Billboard is the pub. for this kind of news.

http://billboardradiomonitor.com/radiomonitor/news/business/top_news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001804476

Reading between the lines, as someone who's a journalist and has friends in the radio side of the biz, a local 2 share is awful. Awful. This wasn't about making more money or Mormons, this was about trying to get back into the black.

It doesn't help any that adult top 40 is a dying genre on the air-waves.

As someone else said in the thread, music radio is taking it on the chin anyway between XM and Sirus, Internet radio for every niche audience, and more and more radio ending up in fewer and fewer hands where the only thing that matters is the bottom line.

Sadly, after taking a look at its business side, the question isn't "why did Z104 go away," it's really "how did it stay around so long?"

Soory dear.

Signed, still in mourning for HFS,

S_V

[kmorris1177.livejournal.com]

YAY for Sirius radio:)

I really liked 104 tho:(

[make-your-move.livejournal.com]

I had such a great time this weekend ... thanks for having the event and asking me to help out. I can't wait to see you again birthday girl :)

FYI

[ivorydamsel.livejournal.com]

In case you didn't already see it, the Post had a good piece on all the why's and wherefore's of the deal at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010400849_2.html?sub=AR.

I posted a few excerpts as an edit to my own journal post on the subject.

[alex-wench.livejournal.com]

bottom line, the station was not making enough money... so some consultant came in and dicked with your radio station. I now work for 3 stations and I am watching it happen....at this place our Oldies station has been 3 other things in the past 5-7 years. *sigh* progress.

kisses and love to you and the family