The Autumn of 2006 brought massive shakeups to Clear Channel’s Atlanta cluster, affecting all 5 of their FM stations in the market. The first shoe dropped on November 17 when Modern Rocker “105.3 The Buzz” moved to the stronger 96.1 frequency that had been home to heritage Classic Rocker “96 Rock” becoming Active Rock “Project 9-6-1”. Over the coming weeks, the 105.3 frequency would become Regional Mexican as “El Patron”, Viva 105.7 would lose its 96.7 simulcast, and here Mainstream AC “94.9 Lite-FM” would go Country as “The Bull”.
The AC format on WLTM was never able to gain traction against Cox’s heritage AC WSB-FM “B98.5” following its relaunch after its long run as “Peach 94.9”. The battle against ABC’s country combo “Kicks 101.5” and “Eagle 106.7” could be just as tough in the long run. With the launch of The Bull, Clear Channel also announced that 94.9 would replace WKLS as the flagship station of the Atlanta Braves.
Most surprising about the flip was the timing. While WLTM was in the midst of its highly listened Christmas Music programming. By flipping the week before Christmas, the station was able to maximize the amount of listeners to the new format when Christmas music listening is at its peak.
On December 20, the shakeup in the Atlanta market ended with 96.7 WVWA dropping its aforementioned simulcast with 105.7 WWVA to assume the WLTM calls and AC format as “96.7 Lite-FM” targeting Atlanta’s southern suburbs.
Aircheck courtesy of MP3Airchecks.com
