Christmas Is Here

[tc]

Might be 20+ years ago stations would start going to their Christmas music programming on Black Friday. I was a sales road warrior and listened to a lot of radio but could understand the timing.

IIRC, Star 105.7 first switched to early November Christmas music in 2001 (shortly after the 9-11 attacks), because "We Need a Little Christmas Now."

[MWmetalhead]

I remember that, too!

What I cannot recall with certainty is if that coincided with the rebrand from EZ 105.7 to Star 105.7. I believe it did.

Fun fact: the first imaging voice used by Star 105.7 is The Q 94.5's current voiceover guy.

[ChrisWL1980]

I'm 99% sure that was when EZ became Star. I remember noticing the flip when I returned to Aquinas after a weekend at home and using the station as a soundtrack when our Music Club decorated the music/arts center for the holidays that evening.
Granted, it wasn't exactly a novelty since 100.5 had been making the seasonal switch for years already at that point. But it got attention because of the timing and the way they promoted it, and because (other than myself) few people under the age of 50 listened to 100.5.

[MWmetalhead]

I miss the short lived smooth jazz and soft hits format 100.5 ran off the bird (I believe from Sony) in the mid 90s as Q100. What had been a 0.0 share station as a barebones, automated Hot AC improved to a 2 or 3 share radio station. When AMFM eventually bought 100.5 to complement 95.7, that programming was discarded in favor of The River.

Admittedly, The River was a well programmed and well marketed station out of the gate, and it featured high quality local staff in mornings, middays and afternoons (with Delilah at night). However, the prior music format suited my tastes better.

[originalzzmfmjock]

I worked at 105.7 in 1997-99. In 1998 Skip Essick returned as General Manager and he hated the EZ105.7 moniker. The program director Stan Atkinson loved it for some reason or other. Stan left later in 1998, but it took some time for Skip to actually make that change. It lasted through at least 2 more program directors (Steve Dirksen and Rob Westaby). I'm guessing you are correct that the change happened after Christmas 2001. Good time to change your ID after doing Christmas for a couple of months.

[ral315]

I'm guessing you are correct that the change happened after Christmas 2001. Good time to change your ID after doing Christmas for a couple of months.

Anecdotal at best, but this old version of their Wikipedia article from 2007 seems to imply that the name change was done simultaneously with the change to Christmas music in 2001.

[ChrisWL1980]

I vaguely remember 100.5 WQFN as smooth jazz from college-hunting in the GR area during the summer of 1997. I had thought they were using the same satellite feed that Coast FM up north was using at that time, but I could be wrong.
By the time I decided on Aquinas and went back for a sort of new-student orientation the following spring, it had become The River and I latched onto it right away.
In retrospect, I'm not really surprised the smooth jazz didn't last - it worked in markets with enough affluent Black listeners to support it, like Detroit, but it would have been a much more "cult" format in GR. Too, the only Urban music station in GR (hip-hop played on WSNX notwithstanding) then was an AM daytimer.

[radioandtventhusiast]

Is the imaging voice that was on Star and then the Q 94.5 the same as the one on Ann Arbor's 107one?

[thatonedude]

Is the imaging voice that was on Star and then the Q 94.5 the same as the one on Ann Arbor's 107one?

If it’s who I’m thinking it is… then yes.


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[MWmetalhead]

Yup.

For a short time (before the switch to the Star moniker), 105.7 was calling itself "EZ 105.7, today's WOOD FM," which struck me as odd.

[craigrussell100]

"For a short time (before the switch to the Star moniker), 105.7 was calling itself "EZ 105.7, today's WOOD FM," which struck me as odd."

Quick answer. Ratings. They probably had "WOOD-FM" registered with Arbitron at the time, and EZ 105.7 wouldnt get them any credit in a diary market. The WOOD call letters are so well known it would be silly not to continue to use them as much as possible back then

[MWmetalhead]

They were only using call letters in TOH IDs for several years before that little pivot took place. When branding was solely "EZ 105.7," the station cracked a 7 share on multiple occasions. At one point, they even managed a 9 share if memory serves correctly.

EZ 105.7 had billboards all over the place for a few years.