An addendum to the item just below this one:
AllAccess.com reports this morning that it’s indeed learned of a widespread Infinity plan to launch FM talk stations in various markets, and brand them (and rebrand existing FM talk stations) as “Free FM”. The first strike would reportedly be at the aforementioned KIFR/San Francisco, which is currently stunting with clips that would tend to foretell a talk format. The station has actually been rumored to become a talk station for some time now, with a well-known talk programmer at the VP/GM helm for the past month or two.
How does that affect Cleveland? Well, in the AllAccess item, Cleveland is not mentioned. But one of the registered URLs for the “Free FM” format references the frequency 92.3. Some local observers have wondered if that’s headed for WXTM, the “Extreme Radio” alt-rocker that’s currently home to locally-based syndicated morning show “Rover in the Morning”.
But alas, 92.3 is also the frequency for WXRK/New York, the long-time flagship of exiting Howard Stern. That’s one of the stations reportedly set for a “Free FM” makeover. It’s also possible, one assumes, that Infinity could take out another 92.3-related URL for WXTM… and a station with an already existing locally-based syndicated FM talk show would certainly seem ripe for a format change in a nationwide push to install talk formats.
As of yet, though, we’ve heard no rumors that mention either Cleveland or WXTM, or any of the other stations in Infinity’s Cleveland cluster.
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