101.5 The Eagle becomes 101.5 Hank-FM

[CAwasinNJ]

As expected 101.5 The Eagle became 101.5 Hank-FM at just after midnight. I know almost nothing about classic country so I don't know how old this material is, but I can definitely say it's got a lot of twang. If anyone can help here please jump in.

Hank is starting out with a problem. The Bountiful booster has been down since at least Christmas Eve. From my location I'm picking up only a faint signal which I'm guessing is the Ogden booster. I've had to monitor 101.5 through their simulcast on 92.5 HD3. The lack of signal is going to destroy whatever momentum 101.5 was carrying trying to convert the listeners that jumped over to them for country Christmas into continuing listeners for the Hank format. Talk about bad timing. (The 107.1 Bountiful booster is also down but all of the other Bountiful boosters for the Humpy stations are running.)

Up until now 101.5 has only had one actual format since it signed on. Goodbye The Eagle.

[oldiesfunhouse]

I listened for a little while this morning and it sounds like 80s and 90s country mostly. Although they did play Chicken Fried by the Zach Brown Band and, according to Siri, that was released in 2008. It was funny because there is a line in that song that says "and the radio up." The version they played this morning had that line replaced with "and the Eagle turned up." I wonder if they can get them to sing "and Hank FM turned up." It sounds like it might be the country equivalent to Bob FM. Bob features More Music Bobathons and I believe Hank had a Hit Packed Hankathon. The music might be from a similar time period as Bob too ... the 80s, 90s, and whatever. They kept their same morning show too. I listened to that for about ten minutes and they weren't making a big deal about the change. They were just doing their regular show but saying Hank FM instead of the Eagle. I wonder if that show is syndicated, come to think of it. I haven't listened to it enough to know. But, if they are, that would explain why they weren't making a big deal out of it. They would have just recorded new tags. It's Rick and Karly (or maybe Carly, I don't know.)    

[CAwasinNJ]

The Bob FM and Hank FM formats are both owned/licensed by Kroeger Media so there are bound to be similarities, but I think the 3 DJ shifts are all local.

The missing booster was back up by late Tuesday afternoon. (107.1's is still down.)

The "December" ratings are due in a few days. That covers Nov 9 to Dec 6. That's going to be almost completely when The Eagle was Christmas. The rating report after that will be Dec 7 to Jan 3, or 19 days of Eagle Christmas and 9 days of Hank. The first real numbers we'll have to get an idea of how Hank is doing won't be for 2 months. For reference, KSOP(AM) hasn't been listed in the ratings since March 2021. Any guesses on what Hank's numbers might be? At one time classic country did OK here. Maybe it's time again?

[oldiesfunhouse]

I wonder if Kroeger Media has anything to do with the Kroeger grocery store chain of which Smith's is our outlet here. It's interesting because I listen to a number of out-of-market NBA games on the internet and the commercials for Kroeger-owned stores are IDENTICAL in those markets except for the name--the same voice talent, same music, and same slogans. She just says Fry's on the Phoenix station, King Super's in Denver, and in some places they're just called Kroeger's. And I apologize. The spelling of the grocery chain might be different which would mean they have nothing to do with each other. 

[kenglish]

The grocery chain is Kroger. Been around the South for about a million years.
The other is Kroger, and it looks like nearly everyone there has the same last name, on their website.

[saltfevr]

Agree what's been mentioned. 80s and 90s music, demo, 18 to 49,as shown on their website : kroegermedia.com
"Other hit cousins are Bob and Jack FM".

[kenglish]

Dec 27, 2023 10:51:38 GMT -6 kenglish said:

The grocery chain is Kroger. Been around the South for about a million years.
The other is Kroeger, and it looks like nearly everyone there has the same last name, on their website.