New station in the Keweenaw

[ChrisWL1980]

Northpine is reporting that WHBS 96.3 has signed on the air with Christmas music and is identifying as "Lite 96-3, Houghton's Breeze." Judging from the slogan, I would expect a Soft AC format after the holidays are over.

Its CP was for 100kw but it's running 36.5kw.

https://northpine.com/2024/11/03/new-up ... -signs-on/

FWIW, Queen Bee's other stations use Westwood One formats, but Westwood One apparently just discontinued its Lite AC format. I predict the new station either uses Local Radio Networks' format (IIRC, also heard on the Breeze in Marquette and Iron Mountain) or perhaps even Westwood's Adult Standards. (Westwood One's AC format is on 93.5 WKMJ already.)

[MWmetalhead]

The number of FM radio stations in places such as Marquette, Escanaba, Iron Mountain and even Houghton is impressive! Multiple local ownership groups in these markets, too, especially Marquette.

[MetalUpYourAss1973]

I would be even more impressed if they would try other formats that aren't classic hits, ac, country, and religious. Larger markets use HD radio as a way to bring less-popular formats to the airwaves, but our lone HD station (103.3) just rebroadcasts stations that are already available on analog FM, so our airwaves are completely saturated with multiple versions of the same "safe" formats. That seems like a waste of spectrum.

Another thing is that we just recently got TWO active rock stations (99.5 and 106.9) which is cool I guess, but Green Bay had two active rock stations in the late 90s, so it's a bit late to the party.

[ftballfan]

36.5kW still makes it by far the strongest commercial station in Queen Bee's cluster.

[MWmetalhead]

https://breeze963.com/

The streaming audio feed suffers from frequent crackles and audio drop-outs. Playlist seems more AC Gold than Soft AC; I actually liked the two songs I was able to endure before I found myself unable to tolerate the audio issues.

[zoomer69]

Nothing's changed regarding the streaming audio. Unfortunate, because aside from those defects it sounds pretty high quality.

[paul8539]

CHRIS: Is 96.3 Soft AC as you predicted?

[ChrisWL1980]

CHRIS: Is 96.3 Soft AC as you predicted?

Sorry for the delay in my reply.
I think it's Westwood One's Lite AC format, which is sort of in between their Mainstream AC and Adult Standards (IIRC the Breeze stations in Marquette and Iron Mountain use a Local Radio Networks source). The playlist seems pretty wide, spanning the Manilow/Carpenters/Streisand '70s up to carefully picked currents/recurrents (i.e. "Flowers" yes, "Espresso" no). It's a little strange to have "Have You Never Been Mellow" and "Teenage Dream" on the same station, but it's something different anyhow.