99 Jamz (WEDR, FM 99.1), the top-rated station in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, spends the week playing everything from Aretha Franklin to Arrested Development.
But between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sundays, 99 Jamz airs the biggest chunk of gospel music you’ll find on a commercial FM station in South Florida. The station also plays gospel from 4 to 6:05 a.m. weekdays as a segue into James Thomas’ morning show, which has its own motivational tone.
“We do it because we want to win,” said Thomas, the station’s program director. “It’s that simple. There’s never been a show getting the numbers we get on Sunday mornings.”
For example, the latest Arbitron book shows 85,600 listeners to WEDR from 9-10 a.m. WLYF is second at that hour, with 53,000. WEDR leads the Monday- Friday 6-10 a.m. ratings with a 5.9 market share. On Sundays, that zooms to a 12.9.
“The success has been overwhelming,” Thomas said.
Now, WEDR has decided to go with drive-time gospel on its AM station, WRBD. WEDR’s owners bought the Broward-based WRBD (AM 1470) last fall and have been fine-tuning the station’s programming since then.
Starting Monday, Mike Turner will be on the air with gospel music from 6 to 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday. Middays will be with Lou Fisher, playing a combination of oldies, current hits and “lovers’ reggae,” Thomas said.
The rest of the day is “jamming” music “with a heavy lean toward rap,” he said.
NEW WBZT HOST
Dick Farrel, formerly of WJNO (AM 1230) and WIOD (AM 610), has joined news- talk-sports WBZT (AM 1290) as its morning host. Farrel’s show airs 9 a.m. to noon weekdays on the Palm Beach County station.
Farrel brings a live, local element to the station’s satellite programming.
WBZT’s FM affiliate, WIRK (FM 107.9), has a new program director. Ron Brooks has taken over for Kevin Ray, who has moved to Lexington, Ky. Brooks, coming from Madison, Wis., is hosting 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays.
COLORADO HAS ENERGY
It didn’t take Linda Energy long to find a new job, but we won’t be hearing her.
Energy is the newest personality on CD Country, a new satellite program based in Englewood, Colo. As of Monday, Energy will be on more than 200 radio stations nationwide, said Beau Roberts, operations manager for Jones Satellite Network/Country.
“This is a brand new thing for satellite and for country music,” Roberts said. “It’s a personality-driven format. She’ll be able to open up and strut her stuff.”
Energy, whose real name is Linda Emery, got her start on the Piper High School station, WKPX (FM 88.5). Her resume included morning drive in New York, and stints in San Francisco, Dallas and Austin. Coming home after a job went sour in Orlando, Energy tried to return to the airwaves here.
“It didn’t come from a lack of trying in this market,” Energy said. “Here, I couldn’t even get a part-time job on a station and now I’m going to be on 217.”
IN THE MAIL
William Schlesinger of Delray Beach said he and his wife listen to WRLX (FM 92.1) and are frustrated because the names of the songs aren’t always announced.
Announcing the names of the songs each time they’re played would defeat the purpose of an easy-listening format, program director Paul Dunn said.
“Fundamentally, the thing we do is play a lot of music,” he said. “If you get into (announcing), you really add to the talk load.”
Dunn suggested listening between 6 and 9 a.m. weekdays. The songs are announced more frequently then, and most of the songs you’ll hear during the day show up in that time slot first. Or, call the listener line at 1-407-838-4312. It’s there to answer just that sort of question.
—- This column appears every two weeks. Write to Pat Curry, Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33301-2293.
