What would you do with....101.5 The Eagle

[CAwasinNJ]

With due respect to the improvements The Eagle has made over the last couple of months, they are the third country station in the market and still well behind the other two. I'd flip it.

When we left 100.7 a couple of weeks ago I had taken away Bob's '90's and whatever.' I'd make 101.5 a strictly 90's station. I don't think grunge has aged well, so I'd use it VERY sparingly if at all. I'd include some rhythmic tracks but I'd limit them. I'd have to see how polarizing they are.

[oldiesfunhouse]

What about an all comedy station? Other markets have them. Laugh One O One Five! Are the KLAF call letters available? Does anyone remember Laugh Radio 1230 KLAF in the 80s?
I guess there's a low powered TV station in Louisiana using them according to Wikipedia but I think an FM station could use them. I know not all radio stations have wikipedia entries, though. 

[CAwasinNJ]

With permission an FM station should be able to use the same root KLAF call sign, like KJZZ-TV does with KJZZ(FM).  You can look up call signs here.

Comedy is not a bad idea.  There are a fair number of comedy albums released, but some of it can't be broadcast outside of the non safe harbor times of 10PM-6AM.  (I wouldn't recommend broadcasting blue material even when it would be legal since there's a good chance of getting certain groups upset.)  I'd also wonder about how repeatable the material is.  Music can be listened to and enjoyed over and over.  Top 40 radio was built on that.  In my experience, comedy doesn't repeat as well.  If there's a big enough variety and the listener doesn't often run into a routine they've heard before that's good.  If every third bit is one they've heard before you might be in trouble.  I have zero clue about how big the comedy universe would be, so I don't know if that's an issue.

[amanuensis]

If I remember correctly, when KEGA first went on the air, before it did Country, it simulcast an AM station that did real Oldies. I set a preset for it.

I remember also that a few years ago, there was a few stations that tried programming Adult Standards targeted to a younger demographic who were born too late to have grown up with it. So I think a station that didn't have much to lose could experiment with doing a mix of early Rock and Roll (think Elvis-intensive) and up tempo Adult Standards (lots of Swing).

[seattlefollower]

After visiting Las Vegas for a week recently, I want *this* along the Wasatch Front. Of course, theirs is a non-comm. At this point though, maybe that's a viable model for some of these niche music formats. Not sure which college it could align with, maybe the excellent communications program at (soon to be) Westminster University?
www.915jazzandmore.com - site was acting strange today, here's the alt URL via UNLV page
www.unlv.edu/kunv The new Ford we were in had a weird "infotaiment" system and no HDRadio chip, but of course a working SiriusXM Satellite Radio.

While there, something serious happened at Nevada Public Radio as well. Their rather marginal powered classical signal (y'all are lucky to have KBYU-FM) and KNPR-FM (News) were off the air in weekday prime-time listening hours.

[CAwasinNJ]

When it was first testing, 101.5 was simulcasting the Real Oldies format of 1660 KXOL.  The main went on the air in June 2003.  The boosters went on in September 2003 I believe, and The Eagle signed on October 15 2003.  The launch (such as it was) is here.

Mixing early rock 'n roll with uptempo standards is interesting.  Top 40 stations did play standards back then, as I recall.

seattlefollower, is there a specific reason you want non-comms linked to a college?

It sounds like Jazz and More is like what The Breeze had evolved into before they flipped to Now.  "Smooth Jazz" was dying and I think they were trying to pump some life into it by adding some AC.  The thing about "smooth jazz" to me is that they all sound pretty much the same.  It makes a nice unobtrusive background sound but there's zero engagement.