WTKK scraps talk, relaunches as urban contemporary music station

[alp227]

WTKK-FM made its anticipated switch from talk to music Wednesday, rebranding as Power 96.9 with an urban contemporary format at the conclusion of the final “Jim & Margery” morning show, hosted by Jim Braude and Margery Eagan.

A format change by WTKK, a talk radio station since 1999, had been reported for weeks but owner Greater Media Inc. did not make an official announcement until Tuesday and kept the music genre a secret until it unveiled the new name and slogan --“Jamz for Boston” --for the station on Wednesday. The first song played under the new format was Rihanna’s “Diamonds.”

Full: http://www.boston.com/businessupdates/2013/01/02/wtkk-scraps-talk-relaunches-urban-contemporary-music-station/pjHC9tJSdzPd6mXRwxFsBI/story.html

Hmm. Is talk radio dying in the nation? In November, Clear Channel without warning switched Portland, Oregon progressive talk station (whose format began spring 2004) 620 KPOJ to its Fox Sports Radio network. Yesterday, CBS-owned KFNQ (formerly KPTK) AM 1090 in Seattle shed its 8-year old progressive format to the CBS Sports Radio network after a month's anticipation. The network also swallowed right wing talk stations in Detroit and Charlotte. It's the McDonaldization of radio going on since the end of the fairness doctrine and the intro of telecom act liberalization of ownership rules. Big Media would rather program stations with profitable content that attracts advertisers like Beck/Limbaugh/Hannity/Levin/Fox news/Republican echo chambers, popular music, or sports. Forget about sensible local conversation programs like Jim and Margery. Last year Cumulus Media fired most of the talk show hosts from my live & local news/talk station KGO, replacing with either generic news coverage or syndicated stuff.

As for the Boston area, the only morning talk show is on right wing station WRKO hosted by Jeff Kuhner of the Washington Times...which means he doesn't even live in Massachusetts yet is paid to discuss local politics from his ultra right wing POV! Non wingnuts in Beantown can only listen to music, NPR, or the generic news show on WBZ during morning drive now.