Hannity and Limbaugh moving to FM. Will replace Smooth Jazz 100.3 [View All]

The station was hardly jazz... their format was all over the place but this is the worst possible thing that could replace it. 88 is much better for real Jazz.
It looks like KSTP wanted to drop Limbaugh and Hannity because of their respective 43% and 63% drop in ratings.
I would bet the coverage area is much less than the AM station.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/389/5585758.html
Limbaugh, Hannity moving to FM band; smooth jazz fades out on 100.3
Deborah Caulfield Rybak, Star Tribune
August 30, 2005 RADIO0830


Smooth jazz station KJZI, 100.3 FM, will disappear from Twin Cities FM airwaves next year when owner Clear Channel Communications replaces it with a new talk station featuring the political riffs of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, currently heard on KSTP, 1500 AM.

"Starting January 1, we will launch KTLK FM 100.3 that will feature Rush Limbaugh's live broadcast from 11 to 2 p.m. and, next August, Sean Hannity live from 2 to 5 p.m," Clear Channel's local vice president and general manager, Dan Seeman, said in an interview. KTLK will pick up Hannity's syndicated show when his contract with KSTP-AM expires next year. Limbaugh's contract with KSTP expires in December. Most other time slots -- including morning, midday and late afternoon shows -- will be filled with live, local, not-necessarily-political shows, Seeman said.

"We're going to go out and hire the best talk show talent we can find, not the best conservative talk show host, or the best liberal, or the best car talk show host," he said. "What their political leanings are will be secondary to good talk shows."

Clear Channel decided to launch the new station in KJZI's place because the smooth-jazz format "had not performed as well as we'd hoped" during its two years on the air, Seeman said. No staff reductions will be necessary because the new format will require even more personnel, he added.

Clear Channel's announcement comes two weeks after KSTP-AM executives said they were looking to redefine the station's relationships with both syndicated radio hosts. Over the past year, among listeners aged 25-54, Limbaugh's Arbitron ratings on KSTP had declined 43 percent; Hannity's 63 percent.