Swinging on a star: Alpha Media consolidates suburban stations, rebrands
Takes on 101.9 Mix in the suburbs
In order to effectively take on Hubbard Hot Adult Contemporary powerhouse 101.9 The Mix (WTMX), Alpha Media is consolidating their competing similarly-formatted radio stations in three suburbs, including the same morning and afternoon shows under the moniker “Star Suburban Superstation”.
As first reported by Radio Insight, Waukegan’s WXLC (102.3 FM) is rebranding as “Star 102.3” to match their other branded Hot AC stations in Joliet and Crystal Lake, Star 96.7 (WSSR-FM) and Star 105.5 (WZSR-FM), respectively, targeting the lucrative female 25-54 demo. In addition to 101.9 The Mix, Alpha also has to compete with iHeartMedia’s 93.9 The Lite (WLIT) for the same audience, who has a Gold AC format.
Starting today, each station is simulcasting their morning and afternoon programming with Star 105.5’s Joe Cicero and Tina Bree while Star 96.7 personalities Eddie Volkman and Hannah Brummer are shifting to afternoon as they previously held the morning slot at the Joliet station. Volkman as you know, was part of the successful Eddie & JoBo morning show on B96 (WBBM-FM) during their two-decade run at the Top 40 station. Evenings will have the syndicated XYZ with Eric Zachary and overnights with the also-syndicated John Tesh across all three stations.
Ironically, WXLC and WSSR/WZSR are retaining their midday hosts with WXLC’s Leah Anderson is shifting from morning to middays while Jillian Bass retains her slot in the same daypart on the Crystal Lake and Joliet stations.
“While maintaining our strong heritage on these brands, this new superstation will allow us to super-serve the Chicago Suburbs in a way that is unique and fun”, said Alpha Media Regional Vice President Brian Foster in a statement. “From our 2 PM Caffeine Kick show, to a morning show personality approach on both the drive to and from work, everything is geared towards a busy suburban mom and getting her through her day.”
Regarding advertiser opportunities to target a particular part of the metro region, Foster went on to say: “Each commercial break can be customized into a regional message, giving advertisers a chance to build audience awareness with DJ endorsements that can target the entire suburbs or a regional zone.”
This comes after Alpha Media announced two weeks ago it was eliminating ten positions throughout their cluster, including notable on-air talent such as Chicago radio veteran Mitch Michaels.
Suburban stations combining stations to reach more listeners to compete with their big city counterparts is nothing new – perhaps the best example was Newsweb’s former “Nine-FM” variety hits format, cobbling together outlets in Arlington Heights, DeKalb, and Park Forest/Kankakee stations with the tagline We Play Anything, running from 2004 to 2008, when all three flipped to a simulcast of the company’s WCPT-AM. All three have since separated, each with different owners and formats.
Keeping in mind Star’s signals are suburban sticks as they don’t reach into Chicago proper, all three Hot AC stations ranked below 30th place overall in the latest PPM numbers report released today. 93.9 The Lite topped the market by a wide margin (with a near two-point advantage over The Drive/WDRV), and 101.9 The Mix tied for seventh place.