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WXZX goes back to its old format


H4UL4U

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Very quietly about two weeks ago iHeartMedia owned WXZX in Columbus, Ohio (105.7 FM) switched formats from a Fox Sports Radio affiliate back to its "The Brew" branding, and now plays classic and alternative rock from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. They were only a sports talk station for a little over two years. I want to say they switched around the time of the OSU-Michigan football game in 2016 (switching from an alternative rock format). They did have a couple local shows with local talent (mostly cast-offs from WBNS-FM, the other sports radio station in Columbus), and according to news stories on the format switch those folks will still do sports segments for news talk station 610 WTVN (also owned by iHeartMedia). WXZX also was the Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Cavaliers radio affiliate in Columbus. 

 

EDIT: here is a Columbus Dispatch article on the switch. https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190208/1057-switches-from-sports-to-classic-rock

 

And in reading the article, two of the jocks at the "new" Brew used to work at the two other rock stations in Columbus, WLVQ (96.3) and WRKZ (99.7 "The Blitz"). 

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5 hours ago, H4UL4U said:

Not that I know of. He's been at 97.1 The Fan for awhile.

Ah. I got them mixed up for a bit; but I’d say  Columbus needs more sports radio — we have two major league franchises, a VERY popular college football team and there’s been talk of adding the NBA in the past. 

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It is still weird to me to see other areas with stations using "The Brew" tagline. That was a tagline they created originally and uniquely for Milwaukee. Not saying that other cities don't have a brewing industry, but Milwaukee is known as "the brew city," and we've got the Milwaukee Brewers. "The Brew" seems to be something that would be distinctly Milwaukee.

 

(That said, the station that was "The Brew" in Milwaukee became Radio Now, then just Now, and now 97.3 "The Game.")

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11 hours ago, ColDayNews said:

Ah. I got them mixed up for a bit; but I’d say  Columbus needs more sports radio — we have two major league franchises, a VERY popular college football team and there’s been talk of adding the NBA in the past. 

There are two times I can recall stations in Columbus flipping formats to sports radio to compete with The Fan, and both were massive failures. I'm not saying this is the reason, but I'm guessing they simply didn't have the resources to compete.

 

Columbus is a weird sports town. Yes, Buckeye football is popular, but the other sports aren't even with two pro franchises. Those teams have a niche base that don't consume traditional media.

 

Long story short, in this media landscape any additional terrestrial sports radio in Columbus would be a mistake without careful market research.

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