99X moves again, this time to 98.9
We can now call 99X the migrant radio station. It just keeps wandering around.
Cumulus Media, which owns the rock station, plans to moves the signal to 98.9 from 99.1. In a press release, management explained that 98.9 is a much better signal than 99.1, which has been its home for just three months.
The move 99.1 to 98.9 will take place overnight this Thursday morning, September 15th, between 2 and 4 a.m. We’ll know then how much better the signal is.
99X has lost more than half its audience since its move from 97.9 to 99.1 because 99.1 does not cover metro Atlanta nearly as well as 97.9. Its cumulative weekly audience at 97.9 in June was 218,600, according to Arbitron. By August at 99.1, it had fallen to 104,000.
97.9 has since become Journey, pop hits from the 1980s and 1990s and is now generating 176,900 listeners after just a few weeks on the air.
Back in its heyday, 99X was at 99.7, a very strong 100,000 watt signal and would frequently draw more than 400,0o0 listeners a week. The alternative rock station lived there from 1992 to early 2008, when top 40 station Q100 moved from 100.5 to 99.7 and 99X was taken off the FM airwaves and moved online only. Two years later, Cumulus brought 99X back at 97.9, a relatively weak signal. But at least it was back on the FM dial.
For you radio geeks, this is the coverage map for 99.1, which is a mere 99 watts.
Here’s the proposed coverage area of the 250-watt 98.9, according to radio-locator.com, which is comparable to 97.9. (Thanks, Derek for that link!)
Here’s the map for 97.9, which indeed appears identical:
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67 comments Add your comment
Scott Muni
September 12th, 2011
7:56 pm
Have to agree with Yum. AM 1690 is as good as, if not better than, the freeform FM stations in NY in the late ’60’s. If only it was FM…at least I can listen at home online.
syd barret
September 12th, 2011
7:57 pm
When I had Sirius they’d have 3 stations playing Pink Floyd at the same time. Some diversity.
Miller
September 12th, 2011
8:25 pm
Got tired of trying to keep up with 99X and Project 9-6-1 has infinitely better music. Sooooooo, I just flipped it to 96.1 and ripped the knob off of the radio. ;>)
Kat
September 12th, 2011
9:49 pm
Hey, lay off of Annie. Hardly anybody these days knows the difference between “want” and “need”. If she’s happy getting by without modern time- and money-suckers, more power to her!
None
September 12th, 2011
10:03 pm
Someone seriously say no one listens to classic rock? I’m 28 and I mostly listen to Rock100.5. Better station than the majority of Atlanta stations. Rap/Hip Hop and Pop are not music.
K
September 12th, 2011
10:12 pm
It’s sad to see 99x die a slow death. People may not remember, but 99x was the gateway that introduced metro Atlanta to groups such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden back in 1992. I remember when they made the switch from Power99 and what a marvelous jolt it was to have grunge invading my ears. They were about a year or two behind the Seattle sound, but they caught up quickly.
99.7 was my dial setting of choice for much of the 90’s, which made a wonderful alternative to listening to Steep and Icky blather away brainlessly each day on Star 94.
Journey rocks!
September 12th, 2011
10:23 pm
Love me the new 97.9…my kind of music!
vuduchld
September 12th, 2011
10:29 pm
99X sucked when it first came on the air and it still sucks today. Frankly, I could care less, radio is a worthless meduim now.
James
September 12th, 2011
10:32 pm
Rap/Hip Hop and Pop are not music? You might not like it, but to make such an absurd comment discounts your opinion on anything.
“Rock n’ Roll and Jazz is not music” – None’s Grandparents.
Lodney Ho
September 12th, 2011
10:45 pm
I thought the migrant radio statio was El Patron.
Your Just Jealous
September 13th, 2011
5:24 am
Hey Anne, Good for you!! When you are retired and people are looking at your millions because you either chose a simple lifestyle or just things didn’t go right your way and the karma gods reward you, remember to post your good fortune to the nay sayers….they are just jealous that money consumes their lives. PS….you all suck….who really gives a crap about this anyway…oh wait…you do….must not have much of a life, eh?!?
Pete E. Tong
September 13th, 2011
6:44 am
The only station I could get into on Sirius was Alt Nation but they’re guilty of playing the same crap over and over as any station, mainly the Black Keys and RHCP (there surely can’t be THAT many fans, could there?). I finally left when Howard went on a tirade against Sirius and how they screwed him with stocks and were treating Oprah better. You make hundreds of millions, Howard, seriously, quit whining. The newfound lack of Richard and Sal didn’t help either.
I went back to terristeral a few months back. I have a feeling I’m not missing much.
Ron Burgundy
September 13th, 2011
9:26 am
99X is a bunch of alternative douchy libtard music.
DC
September 13th, 2011
9:32 am
You are missing a bunch…enjoy your commercials..and enjoy listening to music 3 months later than when we get it.
DC
September 13th, 2011
9:33 am
And I see someone pulled the “you’re just jealous” card….i guess we should hang our heads in shame…
Pete E. Tong
September 14th, 2011
6:50 am
Enjoy paying $9.99+ a month for the privilege of hearing new music 3 months before 99X. Pandora lets me do that for free! Oh, and I can skip through any song I don’t want to hear not to mention mold the station to what I want to hear.
Let me know when Sirius can do that, DC.
Annie from 1987
September 14th, 2011
11:11 am
There’s a temporal distortaion, somethings wrong with my flux capacitor, oh oh i’m getting dragged back to