This one is very much an example of the cause-and-effect of corporate mergers. Consider the previous format change at 94.1 FM. Entercom had just closed on the purchase of WOGY-FM from Sinclair Broadcasting in January, 2000. The ink was barely dry on this purchase when it became obvious to most observers that the writing was on the wall for the country station known as “Froggy 94″. Rumors had abounded for months about a flip to something – top candidate was a format known as “The Buzz” – the slogan for the station 94.1 would become in January ’01. The difference was, in the Fall of ’00, “The Buzz” was the monikker for Entercom’s then hot 80s format, not Modern AC.

When the Buzz format launched, there were high company hopes that this station would fit well between HotAC WMC-FM 100, Alternative 92.9 WMFS and even CHR 107.5 Kiss-FM, while complimenting sister (and ratings/revenue monster) WRVR 104.5 The River. While at the outset the format change and music mix did attract a lot of listener attention and did pull from the above named stations, the effect was not as long-lived as Entercom would hope. The Buzz did manage to sound the death knell for then WKSL ‘Kiss-FM’ (it flipped first to Rhythmic WYYL “Wild 107.5″, then became home to AAA WMPS 107.5 “The Memphis Pig” before returning to CHR in 2003 as WHBQ-FM “Q107.5″), and spark minor format tweaks at WMC-FM, but overall it was not enough.

PD and morning host Kramer was relieved of his duties in 2004, replaced first by the team of Brad & Dana, then later by the syndicated “Kid Kraddock in the Morning” show. Brad & Dana would move to afternoons when perhaps the only format icon on the station, Argo, was released in 2005 to make room for Kraddock. With most of the format staple jocks gone, ratings continued to slump as the music was tweaked from core Adult Alternative crossovers to a more pop mix. In fact, 94.1 began an irreversable downward slide in ’04 which continued until the format was finally put out of its misery, following the purchase of former rivals WMC-FM and WMFS.

Aircheck and Summary courtesy of Airchexx.com

With ratings continuing to slowly fall, aging demos and a business core becoming more unwilling to advertize to persons over 55, Entercom pulled the plug on its AM Standard’s outlet WJCE. The call letters were originally chosen to compliment an Urban AC format called “The Juice” some years earlier and were not changed when that format expired after the emergence of crosstown FM Urban AC 103.5 WRBO.

So, with little fanfare and virtually NO imaging or announcements whatsoever, the music was pulled in the middle of a song and the CNN News feed simply clicked in, followed by the Al Franken show on the Air America Network.

One of the most haphazard format changes heard in ages. We present it to you as a scoped 10+ minute audio time capsule, to serve as a place holder for the next format change that will inevitably happen to this noisy unkempt AM signal which was once home to Rick Dees, Terrence McKeever, Roy Mack and others in it’s heyday of the 60s and 70s as Plough Broadcasting’s WMPS.

And, to confuse you further, Locally owned and operated WMPS now occupies AM 1210, after having been moved by Flinn Broadcasting from 96.1 to 107.5 and then to internet only, only to resurrect them on the aforementioned AM 1210 in 2005.

Aircheck and Summary courtesy of Airchexx.com

A little background on this. Back in 2001, Barnstable’s Memphis Radio Group purchased then KTMO 98.9 Kennett, MO, and moved it to Munford Tennessee to serve the Memphis Market. The format chosen was Smooth Jazz. In Kennett, the KTMO call letters and Classic Country format moved to 106.5, as it exists today.

Friday, October 15 started with the normal “Smooth Ride” Morning show with Norm Miller, then into the mid-day (vt) show with Rob Moore. The flip was supposed to happen at 12 noon but some problems tweaking the audio were encountered and the new station didn’t sign on until approximately 12:50pm – with no stunt and no fanfare.

The new format is going after Clear Channel’s WHRK K-97 and Flinn’s Hot 107.1 This one will shake the market to its core.

Summary by Steve West of our sister site Airchexx.com.

In the late 80s, what would eventually become Froggy 94 was actually on 94.3 FM, and was a simulcast of Oldies AM 680 WODZ. This gave way to a Beautiful Music format for a time in the early 90s, and a frequency change to 94.1. In 1992, the station flipped to Country as WOGY, and it was off to the races against well entrenched market leader WGKX “Kix 106″.

For a time in the mid 90s, Froggy 94 did fairly well, even beating Kix in one or two books, but never getting past a 4 share overall. In January of 2000, the station, along with sister stations 104.5 WRVR and 680 WJCE were purchased by Entercom, and changes were in the air. By the fall of 2000, the promotions budget was reduced, and after the last major promotion, the Dixie Chicks concert at the Memphis Pyramid, it was announced (internally) that there was no budget at all slated for 2001. While there was nothing official, most of the airstaff knew something was up. Night jock ‘Dave Marsh’ headed across the street, accepting an offer he couldn’t refuse and the last full time jock, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, was installed for the night show on December first. Program Director Matt Albritton, being one of the most honest and caring PDs one could work for set out to find out the truth. Truth was, Froggy was to be killed off in January, but the airstaff wasn’t supposed to know about it. Actually, the original plan was to kill Country on Christmas Day, stunt for a few days over the holidays, and flip to the new format on January 1, 2001, but there was a small change of plans, and Country remained into the new year.

By the time the holidays were over, most of the airstaff knew their fate – unbeknownst to upper management. Dispite the knowledge, nobody left. Perhaps it was that air jobs in Memphis are hard to come by, but nonetheless, the staff knew the end was coming. And on January 24, 2001 it did. The morning team of Polly Wogg and Danger Frog did their usual morning show, with a few guests – local wrestler Jerry Lawler and some others, and there wasn’t a hint of change. To the listener, it might have been an extra quiet extended music set which began at 9AM, because the morning crew which normally went into 20 in a row was jerked off the air and summoned into the GM’s office – only to be handed pink slips. Midday jock Paul Hankins, aka Hoppy Gillmore was just coming into the studio to prep for his show, only to be greeted at 9:50 by the engineers and OM, who basically said to just move out of the way. At 10:00 AM sharp, the plug was to be pulled. The last song scheduled was “My Next 30 Years” by Tim McGraw (PD Matt Albritton thought it rather appropriate), but it played just before 10am right before the recorded legal ID, and Hankins basically told the engineers “sorry guys, that’s only song number 19. We promised 20 in a row and by God we’re gonna play 20 in a row”! Looking down the log for what would have been played if the format change didn’t happen was a song by Pam Tillis – “All the Good ones are Gone”. That ended up being the final song. So, at 10:05, Pam Tillis sang the last Country song on 94.1, Hankins did a live legal ID, then started a carted sound of a ticking clock, which ran for 4 1/2 hours while the engineers removed one very old hard drive and replaced it with a new one containing the new format… and for some odd reason, the old Country format too.

The new format was supposed to kick off at exactly 2:00 PM, but there were a series of hardware failures in the Maestro automation system which was in use at the time. The engineers fixed the problems, but not before one major misfire which threw the Operations Manager into a fit. At 2:30 PM, they tried to kick off the format, only the Kickoff liner cart in the computer wouldn’t fire.. and it went into a song. Nice try fellas. One quick tweak and then at exactly 2:35 PM, January 24, 2001, the New 94-1 The Buzz was born. Former Froggy 94 jock Jumpin’ Jack Flash aka Steve West along with Paul Hankins now known as Greg Peters (honestly folks, we couldn’t keep all these names straight), and a bunch of people including OM Jerry Dean and GM Curt Peterson flipped the switch and kicked off the new station.

Why the format change occurred? Many reasons, but most likely because Entercom just doesn’t do country. The Froggy format was a Sinclair thing, and likely was put on the air in order to cut into WGKX’s ratings. It was all just to cover for WRVR, which played a substantial number of Country crossovers in its soft AC format. WRVR was always the cash cow and putting Country on 94.1 was a flanking move to keep those numbers which were going to KIX instead of WRVR in house. WOGY was NEVER supposed to win, just keep enough numbers from the competitors to allow WRVR to maintain high numbers. Smart thinking, only Entercom didn’t see it that way.

Bottom line here is, Froggy 94 had a warmth and family atmosphere both on the air and off. The airstaff were all friends and if there was ever a statement made to how people felt about WOGY and its staff – when the new Kickoff bit aired at 2:35, while management whooped it up in the studio, there wasn’t a dry eye in the rest of the building.

94.1 received never-ending phone calls for over 3 weeks – clogged all the lines, with very irate listeners wanting their Country station back. This station had far more listeners than management thought.

Summary by Steve West, former DJ on Froggy 94 and The Buzz, and webmaster of our sister site Airchexx.com