CHR-Pop WHTS To Change Formats In 2006

[EvanJ]

www.radioandrecords.com/Newsroom/2005_12_05/whtsquad.asp
Monday, Dec. 5, 2005
WHTS/Quad Cities, IA Prepares For Christian Conversion

  WHTS PD Tony Waitekus said Friday that the Mercury Broadcasting CHR/Pop's JSA with Clear Channel will end on Feb. 15, 2006, and at that time Mercury will be sold to religious broadcaster Educational Media Foundation — owner of the popular "Air1" and "K-Love" Christian-music formats.

According to Waitekus, WHTS will drop CHR/Pop for a Christian-based format, most likely in March 2006. "This station is going away," Waitekus says. "I, along with everyone else here will be looking for a new job. In the meantime, we'll be playing the hits and putting out the best product we can."

From me: WHTS has a much higher rating than Cumulus CHR-Pop competitor KBEA.

[reception]

Someone on Radio-Info was nice enough to post a scoped aircheck of the end of WHTS- the CHR era last Friday. They played some songs from the 80's and weren't playing much music from their normal playlist. They don't stream and I don't live there so I never really had a feel for the station. But I found this aircheck to be very touching.

[reception]

WHTS 98.9 Rock Island IL/Davenport IA signed off its long-running top 40 format Friday night, returning Saturday with EMF "K-Love" contemporary Christian and new calls WLKU.

[John77]

As much as I like Christian music, I wish this had been a more urban type CHR switching to that format... judging from their playlist from Mediabase, they were pretty mainstream:

1 1 BEYONCE Check On It f/Slim Thug 77 102 -25 0.1964
4 2 ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS Dirty Little Secret 73 83 -10 0.1909
5 3 SAVING JANE Girl Next Door 71 76 -5 0.1874
2 4 KELLY CLARKSON Because Of You 70 91 -21 0.18
3 5 PUSSYCAT DOLLS Stickwitu 70 88 -18 0.185
16 6 NE-YO So Sick 46 42 4 0.1194
7 7 RELIENT K Who I Am Hates Who I've Been 45 60 -15 0.1179
6 8 FALL OUT BOY Dance, Dance 43 60 -17 0.1124
9 9 NICKELBACK Photograph 43 57 -14 0.1119
15 10 ASHLEE SIMPSON L.O.V.E. 40 46 -6 0.1022

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13 11 STAIND Right Here 40 49 -9 0.1045
12 12 BACKSTREET BOYS Crawling Back To You 38 51 -13 0.0988
18 13 CASCADA Everytime We Touch 38 38 0 0.0884
14 14 NELLY Grillz (f/Paul Wall, Ali&Gipp) 35 46 -11 0.0714
10 15 CHRIS BROWN Run It 31 55 -24 0.0803
11 16 MARIAH CAREY Don't Forget About Us 29 55 -26 0.0743
20 17 BLACK EYED PEAS My Humps 28 35 -7 0.071
19 18 BLACK EYED PEAS Pump It 28 36 -8 0.0765
28 19 KELLY CLARKSON Walk Away 28 24 4 0.0709
24 20 FALL OUT BOY Sugar, We're Going Down 26 30 -4 0.0676

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30 21 GWEN STEFANI Crash 25 23 2 0.0629
21 22 NATASHA BEDINGFIELD Unwritten 23 34 -11 0.0537
25 23 TEDDY GEIGER For You I Will 23 29 -6 0.0563
26 24 SIMPLE PLAN Crazy 23 29 -6 0.0588
27 25 JAMES BLUNT You're Beautiful 22 28 -6 0.0556
22 26 CLICK FIVE Catch Your Wave 21 32 -11 0.0501
108 27 MARY J. BLIGE Be Without You 20 4 16 0.0511
23 28 RAY J One Wish 20 31 -11 0.0461
151 29 PUSSYCAT DOLLS Beep 19 1 18 0.051
30 WEEZER Perfect Situation 19 0 19 0.0406

[EvanJ]

From All Access Net News:

"WHTS Ex-Staffers Stumping For Slots At KBEA; Fuller Upped To PD
When MERCURY Top 40 WHTS (ALL HIT 98-9)/QUAD CITIES, IA signed off last week (NET NEWS 2/6) it left a lot of folks "on the beach" -- and two of them are bound and determined not to leave town. So, what do ya do? You work up a campaign for the competition to hire you!

Enter former RED HOT BRIAN SCOTT and DARIK KRISTOFER who are handing out over 50,000 leaflets (click here to see it) urging their former audience to call crosstown CUMULUS Top 40 KBEA (B100) and petition them for a job.

Meanwhile KBEA PD JEFF JAMES moves over to the PD/morning post at sister Hot AC KQCS (STAR 93.5). KBEA MD/afternooner STEVE FULLER is now PD at B100, and in the process of hunting for a new morning show. Do RED HOT and DARIK have a shot for wakeups at B100? Hmmmmmmmm!"