Country station South 107 became alternative rock X107.1 as of midnight, Monday, June 23.
Atlanta-based Cox Media Group's radio division has a lease management agreement with Woman's World Broadcasting to take over WTSH-FM, which is based out of Rome but also includes a translator signal that covers Atlanta.
X107.1 will compete with Radio 105.7, the current alternative rock station in town owned by Clear Channel. The two stations will play some of the same artists, including Fitz and The Tantrums, Imagine Dragons, Passion Pit, Avicii, The Black Keys, The Lumineers and Vampire Weekend.
Radio 105.7, a Clear Channel property which launched last year to fill a gap after 92.9/Dave FM signed off, ranked 8th among 18 to 34 year olds in the May Nielsen Audio ratings and 16th overall.
"The 18-34 year old audience is an extremely attractive demographic to advertisers and that audience has a strong attraction to alternative music today," Steve Smith, Vice President of Programming for CMG Radio, said in a press release. "Our research tells us that Atlanta is ripe for an Alt40 radio station like X107.1."
X107.1, with the announcer intoning "the revolution has begun," opened at midnight with the Black Keys' "Fever" and will play 10,000 songs in a row commercial free, which should last about a month. It will also have its own app, much like sister rock station 97.1/The River, the dominant rock station in town. X107.1's Facebook page is now up here and the Twitter handle is @X1071Atlanta.
The "X" name has a legacy in town because of 99X, the first commercial alternative rock station in Atlanta, which launched in 1992. The station became a huge success but lost its momentum in the 2000s and has not been on the air since 2012.
Atlanta now is back to four rock stations after a short period when it only had two.
X107.1 management has not said anything yet about jocks though Cox Radio does have an alternative rock expert in Steve Craig, a former mid-day host on 99X who now works at 97.1/The River. He is the music director and assistant program director for the station. Dave Clapper, current program director of the River (which plays classic rock hits, mostly from the 1970s and 1980s), will also helm X107.1.
In a Facebook text, Craig said the station leans a little more pop than a typical alternative rock station, which is why it played Paramore's "Ain't It Fun" the first hour. That song never charted on the alternative rock chart.
Based on the first hour, X107.1 appears to be more current-based than Radio 105.7, which plays two to four cuts from the 1990s per hour. The only 1990s cut X107.1 aired hour one was Sublime's "What I Got" from 1996.
Craig had been operating The River's HD-2 station The Other Side of the River, which is also an alternative format and is not available if you just have a regular AM/FM radio. That particular station, which is deeper and broader in its time coverage than X107.1, will remain alive for now. He simply won't be focusing as much time on it.
South 107, in the meantime, moves to 93.5 on the dial with the same jocks and same country format. Rome Radio Partners will continue to operate that format.
Here's the first hour-plus of X107.1:
Midnight The Black Keys "Fever" (single released- 2014)
12:05 a.m.: Paramore "Ain't It Fun" (2014)
12:11 a.m. Cage the Elephant "Shake Me Down" (2010)
12:15 a.m.: Bleachers "I Wanna Get Better" (2014)
12:18 a.m. Imagine Dragons "Demons" (2013)
12:21 a.m. Fall Out Boy "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" (2006)
12:25 a.m. Kongos "Come With Me Now" (song came out in 2011 but only got airplay in the U.S. in 2014)
12:28 a.m. Lumineers "Ho Hey" (2010)
12:31 a.m. The Postal Service "Such Great Heights" (2003)
12:35 a.m. Magic "Rude" (2013)
12:39 a.m. AwolNation "Sail" (2011, though it had a lengthy life on the radio charts into 2013)
12:44 a.m. The Naked and the Famous "Young Blood" (2011)
12:47 a.m. Bastille "Bad Blood" (2014)
12:50 a.m. American Authors "The Best Day Of My Life" (2013)
12:54 a.m. Sublime "What I Got" (1996)
12:58 a.m. Vampire Weekend "Unbelievers" (2013)
1:02 a.m. Arctic Monkeys "Do I Wanna Know" (2013)
1:04 a.m. Imagine Dragons "It's Time" (2012)
1:09 a.m. Thirty Seconds to Mars "The Kill" (2006)
1:13 a.m. Fitz and the Tantrums "The Walker" (2013)
1:17 a.m. Avicii "Wake Me Up" (2013)
1:21 a.m. Jimmy Eat World "Sweetness" (2002)
1:24 a.m. Kongos (again) "Come With Me Now" (2014)
1:28 a.m. Of Monsters and Men "Little Talks" (2012)
1:32 a.m. Cage the Elephant "My Body" (2010)
Cox Media Group, which runs X107.1, also operates the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and ajc.com.
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