It took very unique circumstances to bring the “Pop-Up” Hot AC “TJ 98.7” format currently running in New York and we’ll hopefully have a lot more on that coming in the next week or two. But this is not something that has never happened before. Somehow, it is something that seems to happen more often in New York than the rest of the country.
And for those that haven’t heard the brand yet, here’s a scoped sample from Tuesday morning:
By my count, “TJ 98.7” is the fifth placeholder or “Pop-Up” format to operate in New York. I’m defining a placeholder format as unique from stunting in that the programming is there as a filler while a new format is developed and/or new operator is found and that programming implemented. That eliminates seasonal flips to Christmas music as even when it was ahead of a format change as those were done to goose ratings ahead of a flip.
Let’s look back at the circumstances behind each of the pop-up’s in New York.
1988. A time when a radio group operator could still only own one AM and one FM in a market. This became problematic when Emmis acquired many of the NBC Radio properties across the country. In New York this gave them the opportunity to improve the signals of their existing brands in the market and divest their former facilities. Upon closing, Dance CHR “Hot 103” WQHT traded places with Country 97.1 WYNY and Sports 1050 WFAN replaced WNBC on 660.
The 103.5 facility and Country format were sold to Westwood One, while 1050 would become the first placeholder station in New York. Spanish Broadcasting System, which owned Spanish Tropical “Super KQ” 620 WSKQ purchased the license with the intent to then swap it to the Eugene Debs Foundation for its 97.9 WEVD. As the second swap was not approved until February 1, 1989 and LMA’s were not yet a thing, an FCC waiver was granted so SBS could operate 620 and 1050 until then. 1050 took on the WUKQ call letters and by FCC requirement operated commercial-free with a jockless Spanish AC format that would eventually evolve following its move to FM into the “Mega 97.9” we know today.
Just eight months into its New Wave heavy Modern AC format “105.1 The Buzz” WDBZ, Bonneville knew it had a problem. A decision was made in August 1997 to revert to the AC “Soft Rock 105” brand and WNSR call letters the station had in the late 1980s to compete with Chancellor Media’s “106.7 Lite-FM” WLTW. The call letter change took effect on August 5 and reports at the time stated the flip was to take place with a television advertising campaign purchased to start later that month. As WLTW had become the #1 station in 25-54 and 35-64 and Chancellor able to add a fifth FM under the much loosened ownership rules, to prevent a new direct competitor from launching the companies would quickly come to terms on a deal that would send WNSR, 104.3 KBIG Los Angeles and 94.5 KLDE Houston to Chancellor for 93.9 KZLA Los Angeles and the Washington DC pair of 1500 WTOP and 103.5 WGMS plus $60 million. It is likely that the deal was already in negotiations and Bonneville used the threat of the format change to get the deal to the finish line.
Either way, the deal gave “The Buzz” a few more months of life as it gradually evolved to a more tradiitonal Hot AC presentation. Come November 1997 by the time Chancellor began operating the station via LMA, branding was changed to “FM 105.1” and the station had settled into a Bright AC presentation (as heard here with current WNEW morning host Karen Carson) which would remain until Chancellor launched Hot AC “Big 105” WBIX cloning the format on one of the other stations it acquired from Bonneville in “K-Big 104.3” Los Angeles although like “105.1 The Buzz” before it, wouldn’t make it to the one year mark as it flipped again to Rhythmic Oldies “Jammin 105” in December.
The August 2002 firing of Opie & Anthony was the death knell of the Hot Talk format on 102.7 WNEW. While the format would make it through the rest of the year, on January 27, 2003 the station moved to a placeholder CHR format with a very narrow playlist. That would last until April 10, when the ahead-of-its-time pop culture focused “Blink 102.7” would debut. By the fall, the station would shift again to a more generic AC presentation before becoming one of the early stations to go all-Christmas leading to a December 26 format change to Rhythmic AC “Mix 102.7” partially attempting to fill the hole left by the demise of “Jammin 105“.
The wizardry of Merlin Media would lead to our most recent placeholder brand before now, and the one that was the most successful. An argument could be made for the “101.9 FM New” branding utilized as the station (and its sister in Chicago) for the three weeks between the demise of AAA WRXP on July 18, 2011 following the purchase of the station from Emmis and the launch of “FM News” on August 12 as elements of the new brand were gradually added in, but we’re considering that a phased-in launch. What wasn’t phased-in was when Merlin Media killed the News brands eleven months later and launched Alternative “New Rock 101.9” bringing back the WRXP call letters. With a 0.6 share at the time of the flip, the Alternative brand saw quick success rising to a 2.7 share in its final monthly despite existing for 107 days. By October, Merlin Media announced a sale of the station to CBS Radio for $75 million with an LMA bringing Sports 660 WFAN to the FM band on November 2.
It is quite interesting on the bows tying all of these together. Emmis’ dealmaking was directly responsible for what brought 1050, 101.9, and 98.7 to placeholder formats. Both 105.1 and 102.7 had short-lived formats following the extenuating circumstances bringing on their placeholders. And the first and last were bookended by the departure and then arrival of WFAN.
I asked on my personal social media the other day of other examples of placeholder formats across the country, but nowhere has it happened on the scale it has happened in New York.
Jeremy Andrews mentioned the Chris Shebel programmed “Party 103.1” WYXX Morris IL playing Dance music for the cows in rural Illinois while the station was up for sale in 2003 and “Bill’s format”, an engineer programmed early Variety Hits on 107.9 WYSY Chicago during the sale of the station from CBS to SBS in the Spring of 1997.
Chip Kelley and Chris Huff both noted the brief “Alternative 96.5” format on KNRJ Houston in June and July 1990 ahead of the launch of Hot AC “Mix 96.5” KHMX as well as “93Q” KKBQ-FM moving to Rock 40 for a month ahead of its September 1991 flip to Country.
Tony Simon noted the “Smooth 104.3” WMSF programming from June to August 2012 as the former WEAT West Palm Beach as the station prepared to be moved into the Miami market where it would be sold to Lincoln Financial Media.
More recently we’ve seen the placeholder Hip Hop “Hustle” formats on Ed Stolz’ stations in San Francisco and Las Vegas.
And there’s Jerry Clifton’s infamous “Steve” on 103.9 KBZR as the station told the story of the station “moving in from the desert” into Phoenix over the spring and summer of 1996 with the Steve name eventually revealed to be an acronym for “Songs That Everyone Vociferously Enjoys” until it became Rhythmic CHR “Arizona’s Party Station” at the end of October.