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<\/a> 104.3 JAMS<\/p><\/div>\n

On its first day<\/a> as owner of CBS Radio, Entercom Communications has blown up classic hits WJMK FM 104.3,<\/a> replacing the six-year-old K-Hits brand with a new format of classic hip-hop and R&B.<\/p>\n

At 11 a.m. Friday the company launched \u201cThe New 104.3 JAMS \u2013 Chicago\u2019s #1 for Throwbacks,\u201d geared to an ethnically diverse audience of millennials with rhythmic music of the \u201990s and early \u201900s. Core artists include Jay Z, Mary J. Blige, Notorious B.I.G., TLC, 2pac, Nelly, Beyonc\u00e9 and Destiny\u2019s Child, Eminem, Aaliyah, Fugees, and Kanye West.<\/p>\n

The station will air initially without commercials or announcers. In the coming weeks it\u2019s expected to change call letters to WBMX, evoking the legendary urban contemporary station that aired in Chicago from 1973 to 1988. (The call letters currently are being used by an Entercom station in Boston.)<\/p>\n

''The expertise and energy that Entercom brings into Chicago coupled with our all-star programmers will bring incredible new life to this storied frequency,\u201d said Jimmy deCastro,\u00a0new senior vice president and market manager of Entercom Chicago. \u201cWe will be dancing in the hallways with you, Chicago.''<\/p>\n

Greg Solk continues as operations manager and program director of WJMK as well as adult album alternative WXRT FM 93.1.<\/p>\n

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K-Hits<\/p><\/div>\n

The sudden demise of K-Hits will cost the jobs of morning host Dave Fogel, midday host Brian Peck (who was hired only two weeks ago<\/a>), afternoon host Jeffrey T. Mason and assistant program director Bob Lawson, in addition to a number of part-time staffers. A new lineup of on-air personalities will be unveiled in January.<\/p>\n

In the latest Nielsen Audio survey, WJMK tied for 18th place with a 2.4 percent audience share. At its peak in August 2015, it ranked fourth with a 4.1 share.<\/p>\n

But the format change has more to do with revenue than ratings, insiders said. By positioning 104.3 JAMS between iHeartRadio\u2019s two urban powerhouses \u2014 the older skewing WVAZ FM 102.7 and the younger skewing WGCI FM 107.5 \u2014 Entercom hopes to capture a share of iHeart\u2019s estimated $40 million in combined revenue. It also may cut into Crawford Broadcasting\u2019s WSRB FM 106.3 and WPWX FM 92.3, among other stations.<\/p>\n

Immediate beneficiaries appear to be Cumulus Media\u2019s classic hits WLS FM 94.7 and Weigel Broadcasting\u2019s soft rock\/oldies 87.7 Me-TV FM, which just lost a direct competitor.<\/p>\n

Targeting listeners between 25 and 54, 104.3 JAMS will be backed by an aggressive marketing campaign, including digital and social media, according to Entercom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New JAMS will have a playlist that appeals to ethnically diverse millennials with a 35-44 sweet spot, centered musically in hip hop\u2019s breakout era in the mid to late \u201990s,\u201d Entercom told advertisers Friday. \u201cThe Throwbacks format has been instantly successful in markets where hip-hop and R&B was hugely successful in the \u201990s and early \u201900s, and we believe that we will have that same success in Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Entercom<\/p><\/div>\n

K-Hits debuted here in 2011 as WJMK\u2019s replacement for the ill-fated Jack FM variety format. \u201cK-Hits was one of five different radio stations playing some form of classic rock, classic hits or oldies,\u201d the company acknowledged. \u201cChicago still loves \u201970s and \u201980s music, but between The Loop, The Drive, WLS FM, and Me-TV FM, there are a lot of places to hear \u2018Don\u2019t Stop Believin\u201d,\u2019 \u2018Old Time Rock And Roll\u2019 or \u2018Take On Me\u2019 and not a lot of listener loyalty to any one station.\u201d<\/p>\n

As expected, Entercom closed Friday on its $1.7 billion merger with CBS Radio, forming the nation\u2019s second largest radio company with 244 stations in 47 markets (including 23 of the top 25). Along with its format change in Chicago, Entercom also flipped stations in New York and Dallas to alternative rock.<\/p>\n

In Chicago, Entercom owns WJMK and WXRT as well as all-news WBBM AM 780\/WCFS FM 105.9, sports\/talk WSCR AM 670, Top 40 WBBM FM 96.3, and country WUSN FM 99.5.<\/p>\n

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Jeffrey T. Mason<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On its first day as owner of CBS Radio, Entercom Communications has blown up classic hits WJMK FM 104.3, replacing the six-year-old K-Hits brand with a new format of classic hip-hop and R&B. At 11 a.m. Friday the company launched \u201cThe New 104.3 JAMS \u2013 Chicago\u2019s #1 for Throwbacks,\u201d geared to an ethnically diverse audience... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16033"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16044,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033\/revisions\/16044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}