Are you hearing a lot more talk on 101.5 FM lately? You're not alone. KZON and 11 other stations in major markets around the country have switched formats to CBS Radio and Infinity Broadcasting's FREE FM, resulting in 101.5 FM airing talk radio from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. during weekdays.
According to an October 2005 press release, with radio personality Howard Stern leaving commercial radio for Sirius Satellite radio, CBS and Infinity came up with the concept of the "content based" radio station as a way to replace Stern. Adam Corolla and David Lee Roth are already broadcasting individually as Stern's morning show replacements.
"Howard was a pioneer in this market. He's not a guy who put on a voice. He was a regular person and just being him," said Mark Steinmetz, senior vice president and marketing manager for Infinity Broadcasting in Phoenix. "[FREE FM] sort of picks up where Howard Stern left off."
Since KZON carried Stern in the morning, it was pinned to change over to Corolla starting Jan. 3 (after Stern's final broadcast), and was eventually bought out by FREE FM.
"They were branding stations across the country last summer. We kind of held off until we knew if we wanted to change to this content-based format. We came to the conclusion in December that this was the right direction for us," said Steinmetz.
While many stations around the country completely changed their formats with the switch, 101.5 FREE FM features not only the nationally syndicated personalities, but some of The Zone's personalities as well.
Colin Boyd's "The Big Picture" movie talk show will continue from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturday mornings, and Jason "JC" Chudy's new music show, "The Last Broadcast," will remain in its 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday slot.
"[The Last Broadcast] is still on until March. After that, we'll have to see," said JC. "It's a fun show to do. So I'm excited that whoever decided to keep it, did."
Steinmetz said he and station manager Chris Patyk decided to keep those shows because of their previous audiences.
"They had a good following and were popular among the listeners," said Steinmetz. "We felt it was important to maintain the programming that was popular."
Many Zone listeners were surprised to hear of the change to one of the Valley's most predominant rock stations, leaving The Edge 103.9 FM and The Blaze 1260 AM to cover the alternative market.
"When I found out that The Zone would become FREE FM, I was really upset because I grew up listening to The Zone," said Lisa Cortese, a communications sophomore. "I'd rather listen to their playlists than talk radio any day."
Some listeners were not as surprised about the announcement.
"Radio stations change hands all the time, and they usually don't let their customers in on their business dealings. So it comes as a shock to all of us," said marketing graduate Tom Bogle, "Then we listen for a couple days to see if we like the new station that took its place."
Steinmetz said he hopes people will take that direction.
"Many markets don't have this yet, so you can't compare it to anything until you've tried."
Reach the reporter at ashley.e.harris@asu.edu.
