94.7 Dropping KREF Programming - Format Flip?

[Plutonic Panda]

KROU @105.7 FM in OKC is a repeater station for KGOU in Norman. They broadcast Jazz and Blues on the weekend.

Thank you for this information! I’ll check them out.

[Bill Robertson]

Many sports radio shows incorporate call in listeners to supplement the topic being discussed. Pre recorded podcasts would not be able to do that.

True. And even discussions between the on air personalities is up to the minute. On signing days, trade deadline days, etc. it's more interesting to be live.

[TheTravellers]

Thank you for this information! I’ll check them out.

Not sure when they do jazz, but blues is pretty much Sat and Sun from 1 to 4 or 5, we listen to it when we're out running errands.

[Shortsyeararound]

It would be nice if the UCO jazz lab could have a university funded jazz radio station. Los Angeles has 88.1 and occasionally they’ll play old school and the blues on weekends. It’s super nice. I have a feeling that it could work here.

The Bay Area has a cool EDM station but I’m not sure a full time format like that would work here.

LA used to have an EDM station in the late 90's called Groove Radio 103.1 with Swedish Egil. Loved it. They still have a website/streaming service. I miss that radio station for sure.

[Shortsyeararound]

Thank you for this information! I’ll check them out.

They also play Jazz Mon-Thur after 9pm and after 10pm on Friday. It is a national broadcast that was hosted by Bob Parlocha until his death in 2015, now it has a few different hosts. Love it driving in OKC on a cold evening.

[scottk]

It would be nice if the UCO jazz lab could have a university funded jazz radio station. Los Angeles has 88.1 and occasionally they’ll play old school and the blues on weekends. It’s super nice. I have a feeling that it could work here.

The Bay Area has a cool EDM station but I’m not sure a full time format like that would work here.

UCO has two radio stations already, the one they are probably most well known for is the 24/7 Classical Station, KUCO at 90.1 I don't think they play any Jazz programming during a block segment. They also have a student radio station on 99.3 fm and it covers the campus and Edmond.

There is a full time Jazz station on the north side of the metro at 97.7 FM.

https://www.97thecity.com/

[traxx]

Many sports radio shows incorporate call in listeners to supplement the topic being discussed. Pre recorded podcasts would not be able to do that.

In my listening experience, most sports radio hosts seem to hate dealing with callers and are antagonistic toward callers and fans. They'd rather not deal with that part of the show at all. And in recent years they've gone away from having callers. If they have fan interaction at all, it's usually via a text line.

[TornadoKegan]

I would love to see a smooth jazz station, Could finally get some good music without paying for XM or listening to ads every 5 min with youtube or spotify

[Soonerman]

Looks like Classic Rock is back on 94.7.

[scottk]

Looks like Classic Rock is back on 94.7.

Sigh...doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.

[Soonerman]

I guess I figured they could beat 104.5 due to having a better signal and I guess they're still trying to compete with the KATT.

[Mountaingoat]

Different station ownership, too. 94.7 is I Heart Radio while 104.5 is Tyler Media. I Heart Radio will always have a very limited playlist on classic rock which is ridiculous.

[Bill Robertson]

I tried listening for about a half hour. It's the KATT 2 and I don't like the KATT.

[scottk]

2nd verse. Same as the first.

[mugofbeer]

Has KATT changed? I thought it was more heavy metal?

[Bill Robertson]

Has KATT changed? I thought it was more heavy metal?

If KATT has changed it's done it slowly over time. As to my KATT 2 comment I listened to 94.7 for a while and heard Van Halen, AC/DC and Guns & Roses. I hear those on the KATT on the rare cases someone else has it on.

[bchris02]

OKC could use a Dance Music station imo, even Pride Radio could do wonders in OKC.

And maybe another Top 40 to challenge KJ103. Perhaps also a smooth jazz and a regular jazz station. There are missing holes in OKC's music offering. I personally think OKC has far too many sports talk radio and religious stations (although I'd love to see a real gospel station). Also missing is an Asian station or two.

iHeartMedia seems to be simply trying to make as much cash from its stations as possible in the short term rather than trying to compete with streaming. This means syndicating stations and formats and attempting to operate them at the absolute minimum cost. Radio isn’t what it was 15 years ago, and that’s a shame.

The only hope for FM radio having a future is for iHeartMedia to go bankrupt.

[Mountaingoat]

iHeartMedia seems to be simply trying to make as much cash from its stations as possible in the short term rather than trying to compete with streaming. This means syndicating stations and formats and attempting to operate them at the absolute minimum cost. Radio isn’t what it was 15 years ago, and that’s a shame.

The only hope for FM radio having a future is for iHeartMedia to go bankrupt.

While l agree with you in part, radio stations have always done what iHeartMedia does. Stations used to play the top 40 ad nauseum and even sped the music speed up or cut them off short to get more of those top 40 songs into each hour. I think they simply cater their music to the occasional listener and not to the all-day listener so they just repeat the same tired songs - which is exactly why so many fewer people listen to radio anymore.

My niche is anything from 60s to 90s music and some new music and it kills me that their stations, even for an entire decade of music, is still limited to the same 100 songs - only rarely playing something different. I was working in a retail store for a few weeks and l could tell their "happy, feel-good" music channel was an iHeartMedia product because it played the same 100 songs as the radio station.

Radio, like print medium, is a low potential market because of streaming and Bluetooth - not just the iHeartRadio app but all others out there.

The few times l really enjoy radio anymore is from the University-sponsored stations or privately owned stations of which there are too few of - occasionally NPR.

As a side note, some automakers want to stop putting AM radio in their cars alltogether.

[Irishman23]

Was made aware today that there was a fairly new classic rock station in town so I thought I would give it a listen (94.7 the Q). Today happened to be "Two For Tuesday" so they were playing back to back songs from each artist. In the first couple of hours I heard Hendrix, Zeppelin, Rush, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, and Boston to name a few. One of the Metallica songs was a Bob Seeger cover (Turn the page) and I liked it better than the Bob Seeger vers;ion. Alot of these songs never got played on KRXO. I think I found a new station to listen to.

[Roger S]

Was made aware today that there was a fairly new classic rock station in town so I thought I would give it a listen (94.7 the Q). Today happened to be "Two For Tuesday" so they were playing back to back songs from each artist. In the first couple of hours I heard Hendrix, Zeppelin, Rush, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, and Boston to name a few. One of the Metallica songs was a Bob Seeger cover (Turn the page) and I liked it better than the Bob Seeger vers;ion. Alot of these songs never got played on KRXO. I think I found a new station to listen to.

Are you sure you weren't listening to 100.5 KATT? That sounds exactly like what they have played the last 20 years on Two for Tuesday.

[bchris02]

While l agree with you in part, radio stations have always done what iHeartMedia does. Stations used to play the top 40 ad nauseum and even sped the music speed up or cut them off short to get more of those top 40 songs into each hour. I think they simply cater their music to the occasional listener and not to the all-day listener so they just repeat the same tired songs - which is exactly why so many fewer people listen to radio anymore.

My niche is anything from 60s to 90s music and some new music and it kills me that their stations, even for an entire decade of music, is still limited to the same 100 songs - only rarely playing something different. I was working in a retail store for a few weeks and l could tell their "happy, feel-good" music channel was an iHeartMedia product because it played the same 100 songs as the radio station.

Radio, like print medium, is a low potential market because of streaming and Bluetooth - not just the iHeartRadio app but all others out there.

The few times l really enjoy radio anymore is from the University-sponsored stations or privately owned stations of which there are too few of - occasionally NPR.

As a side note, some automakers want to stop putting AM radio in their cars alltogether.

This is true. I remember the era of KJ-103 when they used to speed up the songs. You would get used to hearing the sped up versions and then you'd listen to the CD and it would sound different. The stations were still better back then than they are today. They were also more locally programmed. For example, Top 40 stations across markets would have 90% the same music, but when you went to another city, you would always hear a few songs not on the radio in your market and vice versa. Today, most of them are national syndicate feeds. The fact is terrestrial radio just don't know how to compete in the streaming era. 20 years ago it was common to listen to FM radio indoors everywhere, but today you are more likely to listen to a stream of some sort. Most people don't even have FM stereo systems anymore so listening to a terrestrial station indoors would require going to the website or using the app, and that defeates the purpose. Ultimately it's probably going come down to changing the model entirely. Radio will never be what it was in the '80s just like it won't be what it was in the '40s before TV.

[scottk]

This is true. I remember the era of KJ-103 when they used to speed up the songs. You would get used to hearing the sped up versions and then you'd listen to the CD and it would sound different. The stations were still better back then than they are today. They were also more locally programmed. For example, Top 40 stations across markets would have 90% the same music, but when you went to another city, you would always hear a few songs not on the radio in your market and vice versa. Today, most of them are national syndicate feeds. The fact is terrestrial radio just don't know how to compete in the streaming era. 20 years ago it was common to listen to FM radio indoors everywhere, but today you are more likely to listen to a stream of some sort. Most people don't even have FM stereo systems anymore so listening to a terrestrial station indoors would require going to the website or using the app, and that defeates the purpose. Ultimately it's probably going come down to changing the model entirely. Radio will never be what it was in the '80s just like it won't be what it was in the '40s before TV.

I kinda feel like radio did that to itself. Consolidation of stations into one owner/group, removal of local talent, tighter and tighter playlist based upon "research." There are still a handful of radio stations in the state doing solid local radio. I think once automakers remove the FM radio from the dash, terrestrial radio will be in a world of hurt. As you mentioned, tabletop and nightstand radios in our houses and offices have been replaced with smart speakers and computer streams that offer a lot more.

[Jersey Boss]

I kinda feel like radio did that to itself. Consolidation of stations into one owner/group, removal of local talent, tighter and tighter playlist based upon "research." There are still a handful of radio stations in the state doing solid local radio. I think once automakers remove the FM radio from the dash, terrestrial radio will be in a world of hurt. As you mentioned, tabletop and nightstand radios in our houses and offices have been replaced with smart speakers and computer streams that offer a lot more.

There is no talk of removing FM radio, only AM. And that is because of perceived interferance with the operation of E vehicles. There is also pushback on this idea among regulators citing safety issues around weather.

[Bunty]

I kinda feel like radio did that to itself. Consolidation of stations into one owner/group, removal of local talent, tighter and tighter playlist based upon "research." There are still a handful of radio stations in the state doing solid local radio. I think once automakers remove the FM radio from the dash, terrestrial radio will be in a world of hurt. As you mentioned, tabletop and nightstand radios in our houses and offices have been replaced with smart speakers and computer streams that offer a lot more.

It doesn't help that most mobile phones dropped FM terrestrial radio, now mostly limited now to the less costly Motorola phones.

[stratosphere]

Bring back 95x!

Best radio station OKC ever had