WDRQ is gone!

[Unexpected]

Detroit's CHR/Pop station WDRQ is gone. Before it was a dance stations, and it's now a station that "Plays Everything" and is like a whole new format. I found out when the station had been playing Martika's "Like Toy Soldiers," a song that I thought I would never hear on the station, but after the song they said "the new 93.1.," I was in total shock. I knew that they had declined in ratings but never thought they'd do a format change anytime soon. I guess WKQI really over took them. I feel bad for all the VJ's that lost their jobs, there were some great radio personalities. It's sad to see them go. :(

[Unexpected]

Wow, didn't think about April Fools Day...Let's hope thats the case...

[reception]

www.931dougfm.com ???

[Unexpected]

reception said:

www.931dougfm.com ???

Yeah I just noticed that too, this is too weird. I was just listening to them this morning,

[Slinky]

I think this is real. DRQ has been struggling and the Jack/Bob format is the hottest thing around.

[jimmy74747]

I think they're poking fan at the "Jack" stations that kind of do play everything.

[Unexpected]

This is sad their ratings even had a slight increase from 2.3 to 2.6. Ever since former night WDRQ DJ Tic-Tak came back from Philadelphia and transferred to WKQI ratings took a nosedive.

[Unexpected]

from Michiguide.com

Doug kicks 'DRQ to the curb
Top 40 WDRQ-FM 93.1 Detroit has apparently ditched the format in favor of a Jack FM clone named "Doug FM" as of this afternoon. Word is that this is NOT an April Fools day stunt as it has been reported on the trade pub FMQB.com that the entire air staff, with the exception of morning show host Jay Towers, has been released along with program director Alex Tear and music director Keith Curry. If this was a stunt, it'd be highly unusual for personnel changes to be included as part of the gag. The station is currently running jockless but with commercial breaks.

The station itself claims "We Play Everything". In my limited listening time, I've heard older songs from the Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Glen Campbell, right along with more contemporary songs (unfortunately, my days of quickly identifying bands/songs from newer groups has long since disappeared).

If format change is indeed real, it'd be the first full signal Detroit FM to make a big move since 106.7 changed from Country to Rock 4 1/2 years ago.

WDRQ has a long legacy in town- the past 9 years the station has been primarily focused on various subsets of Contemporary Hit radio after moving to the format with a dance lean in 1996. WDRQ first arrived on the 93.1 frequency in 1972 when Detroit's first FM talk station was launched. The station then moved to a Top 40 format, followed by forays into Disco and Urban. In 1985, the WDRQ calls were set aside for a run as Soft Adult Contemporary WLTI 'The Light'. If this is indeed the next chapter in 93.1's history, it'll be interesting to see if they can make the WDRQ calls work with 'Doug'.

[Unexpected]

No Foolin': WDRQ Drops Pop To Become
'93.1 DOUG-FM'


ABC Radio's CHR/Pop WDRQ/Detroit today abandoned its CHR/Pop format in favor of an Adult Hits "playing anything" format that mirrors the many "JACK-FM" stations throughout North America, adopting the name "93.1 DOUG-FM." Station President/GM Steve Kosbau confirmed the change this afternoon, explaining that it was not an April Fools' Day stunt.

WDRQ is now offering music from a wide variety of artists including the Beatles, U2, Matchbox 20, Fleetwood Mac, Prince, The Police, Madonna, Bob Seger, Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones and Steely Dan.

Kosbau said of the name, "We chose the unusual name 'DOUG-FM' for the express purpose of letting Southeast Michigan listeners know how different we intend to be from other radio stations in the market. We have developed a new mega-playlist that is unlike anything Southeast Michigan has experienced — it's more like a packed MP3 player in shuffle mode than a traditional format with fewer tunes, frequently repeated."

www.radioandrecords.com/Newsroom/2005_04_01/topstory.asp

[Unexpected]

R.I.P. WDRQ (1996-2005)

Playlist for period ending 3/26

[EvanJ]

All Access just wrote about it. This means there are no longer any Top 10 markets with multiple CHR-Pop stations.

[Jeffster]

Sounds like a big improvement, that playlist is horrible.

[Marv]

Considering the state of CHR/Pop these days as opposed to the seventies and eighties, why should ANY city have two CHR/Pop stations?

It was certainly common in the fifities, sixties & the seventies; some markets (such as here in Los Angeles) even had THREE Top 40 stations, and all three were VERY strong stations, with air personality lineups that were flat-out awesome!!!

[JCMF3]

Internationally said:

R.I.P. WDRQ (1996-2005)

Based on that playlist, we can expect a lot of the top 20 hip-hop songs to see a large drop next week...

[reception]

100000watts has 93.1 listed as Hot AC/Classic Hits. I hope it doesn't mirror ABC Radio sister station Hot AC WDVD.

[johnm1120]

JCMF3 said:

Based on that playlist, we can expect a lot of the top 20 hip-hop songs to see a large drop next week...

[Libra]

If you think that playlist was bad, you'd be praying for WKQI to leave the Pop panel as well - WKQI is flat-out CHR/Urban.

I can see this working down there - Joe FM up here is great. [/font]

[Unexpected]

Do these "Jack" stations turn out to be successful? There have been thousands of calls made to WKQI wondering what happened to DRQ, so people obviously want their station back if they're willing to call their competitor.

I appreciate that there's now a station where there are minimal commercials and more music, but its boring me to death already. Radio won't be the same for me cause I was always anxious to hear what rock songs would crossover to pop. "Boulevard," "Mr. Brightside," and "Since U Been Gone" were added early, which is something WKQI would never dare adding to their saturated hip-hop playlist. A rock song would pretty much have to hit top 5 for it to get middle rotation.

If DougFM fails in the ratings, is it possible for there to be a new 93.1 in the future?!

[Libra]

Internationally said:

If DougFM fails in the ratings, is it possible for there to be a new 93.1 in the future?!

Having looked at the histories of every station in Michigan (thank you michmedia.net! :)), I'd say definitely yes. Our state has numerous examples of tried-and-failed-quickly formats for different stations. But if Doug FM is to fail, I'd say it'll be at least a year before ditching the format - usually, that's how long it takes for owners to realize the failed format is a failure.

For that matter, I live up in Bay City if you didn't know.[/font]