Cox Media Group's Atlanta Radio team is taking over Rome's South 107 signal on June 23 in what is known in the business as a local marketing agreement.
That means Cox doesn't own the signal but is leasing the space from the owner Woman's World Broadcasting. (For years, Big League Broadcasting had an LMA agreement with Lincoln Financial at the 790 signal on the AM dial and ran sports talk station the Zone.)
Rome Radio Partners, which has operated South 107 for years, will move its legacy country station to 93.5 along with existing personalities down the dial, including Moby in the mornings. The signal isn't as strong but covers its core listening area and is comparable to what South 107 had when it was a 50,000-watt signal. (South upgraded to 100,000 watts a year ago.)
The primary signal 107.1 covers the Rome area but reaches into Cobb County. An additional 107.1 signal in Atlanta "geo syncs" to the Rome signal and enables the station to cover a good portion of the metro area. South 107 has been operating both signals in tandem since February.
Cox plans to market the 107.1 signal as a metro Atlanta station but has not announced a format. Howard Toole, managing partner for Rome Radio Partners, said he knows Cox will not directly compete with South 93.5 or its other properties, which include a news/talk station (WRGA), a light pop station (Q102) and a classic rock station (104.9/The Rebel).
Ben Reed, CMG Atlanta Radio's VP and market manager, said he knows what the new format will be but isn't ready to disclose it. He plans to make the announcement within 30 days. If the format is not ready by June 23, Reed said Cox will continue to air country music in the interim.
This move would give Cox five radio stations in the metro Atlanta market. The other four are News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB, pop station B98.5, R&B station Kiss 104.1 and rock station 97.1/The River. They are all performing well. In the latest Nielsen Audio ratings, WSB was No. 1, Kiss was No. 2, B98.5 was in a tie for third and the River came in seventh.
What are holes in the Atlanta market? Active rock - which offers up a younger, harder-sounding edge - was recently abandoned by Rock 100.5 (and previously, Project 96.1). A soft pop rock station hasn't really been around for awhile since B98.5 has gone more current. On the commercial side, smooth jazz went away from 107.5 but can be heard on non-com 91.9/WCLK-FM. The market has never really had a full signal "Jack"-type "we'll play anything" format though toward Gainesville, you can hear Chuck 103.7 FM. The True Oldies station at 98.9 has a limited signal. Comedy made a brief splash at 92.3 but is now Hispanic sports talk.
Last month, Rome Radio Partners changed the format of 93.5 from Christian pop to country. Toole said at the time, that South 107.1 and Southern 93.5 would complement each other with Southern skewing a wee bit older.
He said he only found about the LMA agreement this past Sunday. "It's a great opportunity for Woman's World," he said. Woman's World is owned by Suzanne Stone.
CMG Atlanta Radio is part of Cox Media Group, which also operates The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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