In April, Cumulus-owned 99X/Atlanta returned to the airwaves at 97.9 FM, bringing back a format and brand to the airwaves that had sorely been missing in the market. The station re-emerged in the form of a 250-watt FM translator perched 1000 feet above the Atlanta metro. Now on paper, that may not seem like much, but the fact is the station’s metro reach, and more recently its returns, are turning more than a few heads. We recently spoke to 99X Program Director and Brand Manager B.J. Kinard about the station’s rise from the airwave ashes and what lies ahead for the legendary Modern Rocker.
B.J. Kinard
In April, Cumulus-owned 99X/Atlanta returned to the airwaves at 97.9 FM, bringing back a format and brand to the airwaves that had sorely been missing in the market. 99X had been broadcasting on the web and on Top 40 sister station WWWQ’s HD2 signal, with a promise from Cumulus to bring the legendary station back to the air as soon as a suitable FM signal could be procured. That promise was fulfilled in the form of a 250-watt FM translator perched 1000 feet above the Atlanta metro. Now on paper, that may not seem like much, but the fact is the station’s metro reach, and more recently its returns, are turning more than a few heads. In four months on the air and with no real advertising, 99X has resurfaced with a 1.1 share 6+ and a cume of over 200,000. We recently spoke to 99X Program Director and Brand Manager B.J. Kinard about the station’s rise from the airwave ashes and what lies ahead for the legendary Modern Rocker.
eQB presents excerpts from the October FMQB magazine
Modern Rock Up Close with 99X/Atlanta Program Director and Brand Manager B.J. Kinard
“Cumulus put us on an FM translator – it’s 250 watts – but since it is on a 1,000-foot tower, we cover the metro really well. What it does is it takes our HD signal (99.7-2) and it broadcasts it on 97.9. Since 99X has been back, even the last weekly PPM Men 18-34 mornings we were number three. Middays and afternoons were top five. In nights we were number two Men 18-34.”
“The cool thing is we don’t have billboards or TV commercial… There are six of us at this radio station. It’s really been all guerrilla marketing. Shaking hands and kissing babies like politicians. We do street corners, all sorts of crazy stuff just so people know we are back. “
“When we first came back, the most common thing that we were hearing was, “We forgot about all of the music that we weren’t hearing.” That shows us that over the 17 years that 99X has been on the air, they served up music that entrenched itself in the lifestyle of Atlanta. 99X has been the only station that played that stuff. There was a definite hole and people felt it.”
That’s really the reason 99X needed to go away, because people thought that they listened to the radio station, but if you look at the ratings, they didn’t. They might have done too good a job of informing them of what was going on through e-mail blasts and all of that other stuff that they never really had to listen to the radio station to go to our shows or go to our events.”
“Bringing it back this way shows Cumulus that Alternative is a viable format and a lot of listeners want to hear it. Maybe some day we can take advantage of a signal purchase and upgrade the reach of 99X, but right now, my job is to prove that this format should be on in Atlanta and that people want to hear it.”
“When you’ve got a band like Kings Of Leon and you have three of their songs in current, that’s not a bad thing at all. There’s new music from Muse, Pearl Jam, Weezer, Cage The Elephant, Silversun Pickups… you have all these great bands giving you great new music, that makes it very easy. The other part of it is finding records that aren’t too fringe one way or the other to compliment those records.”
“No other radio station is really taking ownership of being Atlanta… Again, we’ll go to the street corners and really get that energy back. When 99X first came on in the beginning of the ‘90s, all it was was energy. The DJs had never heard this music before, and you could hear their passion on the air. So it’s really about creating that energy again and a real relationship with the listener.”
“From an on-air standpoint, we wrap our arms around every promotion we do. I feel like it’s something that the smaller markets do that stations in big markets forget about or dismiss as unnecessary. We’ve gotten back to radio basics.”
“Weekly, we get over 250,000 people, which is fantastic. We’re growing. The thing with PPM is that one person can really make a difference for us, where one person may not make a difference for some of the bigger stations. 100,000 or 50,000 may not mean much to a station with a million cume. Ours is growing at least 10,000 or more each week consistently.”
“If you just take a look at us on paper, you’ll see 99X @ 97.9 – it’s 250 watts. That’s cool, that’s like 28 9 volt batteries. That’s the radio signal? That’s the perception. But then a national promotion exec will come down and visit with me and be like, “Dude! It’s real. I heard it from the airport the whole way in.” We cover the area exactly the same as everybody in regards to the metro. Now, we’re not going to reach 60 miles out of town, but I’ll get you while you’re in town and that’s all that matters.”
**QB content by Mike Bacon**
CIMX
(89X) has been a Modern Rock mainstay since the beginnings of the format in the early ‘90’s. The station is unique in that it is based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada but primarily serves the Detroit market, which reaching well into Ohio as well. MD and night jockJay Hudson took some time to discuss with FMQB the ways the station serves the Motor City and their neighbors to the north, and the ways 89X has dealt with the economic downturn in Detroit.