Mid-Michigan: March 2006 Archives

Journal Broadcast Group, the owner of Lansing Fox affiliate WSYM-TV 47, has announced the appointment of Lyle Schulze as the station's new vice president and general manager. Mr. Schulze arrives at WSYM from Evansville, Indiana WB affiliate WAZE-TV 19, where he served as GM.

Schulze replaces former WSYM VP/GM Judy Kenney, who recently assumed the same responsibilities for newly-acquired Journal Fox affiliate WFTX-TV in the Fort Myers/Naples, Florida market.

You can read the official JBG press release here.

Over-the-air television viewers on the north side of Flint have a new television station to tune into with the official start up of WHNE-LP Channel 32, a low power station that is offering a lineup of classic movies and sitcoms, news, talk shows, children's programs, sports, and music shows. Channel 32 will also soon offer programming from the Urban America TV network. WHNE has been operating in test mode for some time, but is now at full power and running programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Lansing State Journal is reporting that Rubber City Radio owned Sports WQTX-FM 92.1 will change its format to satellite-fed Oldies this weekend leaving the Lansing market with one all-sports station, WVFN-AM 730. Lansing had been without an Oldies station since September 2005 when WJIM-FM changed its format to Contemporary Hits.

Sports WQTX first took to the airwaves in December of 2000 on FM 92.7 Charlotte after being purchased by Rubber City. The station expanded its coverage to FM 92.1 in July of 2004 and stayed on FM 92.1 only in October 2005 when FM 92.7 switched to a Smooth Jazz format.

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Lansing's highest-rated sports radio station is disappearing. WQTX (92.1-FM), billed as "The Ticket," is becoming an oldies-rock station. That starts Monday; for local sports-talk hosts, today is the final day. "We'll have our farewell shows," said Jack Ebling, the station's morning host. His will be from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. today. Fred Heumann is 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and Dave "Mad Dog" DeMarco from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.; national shows fill the other times... WQTX radio ends sports-talk format (Fri 3/31, Lansing State Journal)

As Mike previously reported, Rubber City Radio Group's WQTX-FM (92.1) has gone ahead with a scheduled format flip from Sports Talk to Oldies, albeit three days earlier than originally planned.

According to an article in Thursday's Lansing State Journal, the station was originally scheduled to change formats on Monday, April 3rd. However, listener reaction to the LSJ article prompted station management to make the change this morning (3/31), scrapping original plans to allow Ticket hosts to say their on-air goodbyes.

The format flip of WQTX to Oldies comes as a moderate, but not a total surprise. Lansing has been without an Oldies outlet since September 2005, when WJIM-FM dropped the format in favor of CHR, so it stood to reason that someone in this market would eventually pick up the torch and run with it. The surprise may be in the fact that WQTX, which seemed to have a successful Sports Talk format offering locally-produced shows during main weekday dayparts, was the one to switch. WQTX's sister station, WJZL, the original Ticket, switched to a satellite delivered Jazz format last fall.

The big question may be what becomes of the Lansing Lugnuts broadcasts? Rubber City had reportedly signed a multi-year deal with the Lugnuts to carry the local Minor-League team's games on The Ticket, but now that there is no Ticket, where will the Luggies land? One possibility might be Citadel's WVFN-AM 730 (The Game), now Lansing's sole Sports Talk outlet.

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The transformation of WQTX came three days earlier than planned. The station (92.1-FM) had announced it would quit sports talk at midnight Sunday. At 12:01 a.m. Monday, it would switch to oldies music, emphasizing the 1960s. Late Thursday, however, officials decided to make the change immediately... WQTX ditches farewell sports shows, goes 'oldies' sooner (Fri 3/31, Lansing State Journal)