Project 9-6-1 becomes Power 96.1, a top 40 station
[UPDATE: August 31, 2012: Cumulus is shifting its 98.9 signal to a Project-like sound starting at noon on Saturday, Sept. 1. It has been 99X at 98.9, an alternative rock station. The signal is relatively weak but at least it can fulfill the desires of active rock fans inside the Perimeter.]
With pop music having a powerful year, Clear Channel Atlanta has dropped active rock station Project 9-6-1 for a top 40 format it’s dubbing Power 96.1.
The change happened just after 7 p.m. The final song that Mediabase 24/7 reported as a Project song was at 7:02 p.m.: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.” That’s when the station began playing a bunch of top 40 hits before making an official announcement at 8:05 p.m. and launching with LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem.” It promised 9,600 songs in a row, which equals about four weeks of commercial-free music.
Dunwoody High School graduate and media mogul Ryan Seacrest made a surprise appearance at the Jennifer Lopez concert Wednesday night at Philips Arena to make the announcement, noting that his mom will be able to hear him regularly again in Atlanta. (He started his career at Star 94 and has been on that station in syndication in recent years.)
Clear Channel nationwide has some seriously powerful top 40 stations, including Kiss in Los Angeles, where Seacrest airs his morning show and syndicated show, and Z100 in New York, where Wild 105.7 syndicated morning host Elvis Duran is based.
Starting Sept. 4, Power is bringing Duran from its existing rhythmic top 40 station at 105.7/96.7 called Wild, followed by Seacrest in syndication mid-days.
Now we know why Clear Channel got rid of its Wild program director a couple weeks ago. Wild is likely going to go away or shift its format so not to directly compete with Power. I hear Mami Chula, the key local personality on Wild, is staying put for now.
Could they bring a modified version of Project 9-6-1 on another signal? (Clear Channel owns 105.3 and 105.7, too.)
Program director Chris Williams, in a text this morning, said no. It’s over. On Facebook, someone posted this:
96.1 has been Atlanta’s rock destination since 1974. The Project Family is so proud to have carved out our own chapter in the rich legacy of WKLS. The radio dial will sound much different after today. We can never thank you enough for all your support and passion for Project 9-6-1 over the past 6 years and for 96rock the years before us. We consider ourselves among the luckiest each and every day we were allowed to enter this studio and create a radio station that made us proud. Thank you for inviting The Project into your cars, jobs and homes. Thank you for Living Loud and Playing Hard, please don’t stop. Most of all, thank you for being Part of the Project!
Project had a good run. It came to be courtesy of Williams, who first launched Buzz 105.3,a younger-leaning rock station. In late 2006, long-standing classic rock station 96rock became Project, an odd name that suggested an ephemeral existence. But Williams brought the spirit of the Buzz over to Project, which lasted more than five years, becoming a formidable player among younger listeners who liked the mix of older and current harder-edged rock by acts such as Guns ‘N Roses, Metallica, Slipknot and Five Finger Death Punch. It regularly finished in the top 5 among 18 to 34 year olds.
Some local radio folks who know Williams think he is pulling a deliberate “New Coke” move here. There will be such an uprising by Project fans via social media that Clear Channel will be “forced” to bring Project back on a different signal. If that’s the case, Project fans, get the petitions out! Here’s one page already out there. As of Labor Day, there are 3,600 names. Another one has more than 5,000 names. And a petition also has more than 5,000 names.
In the evening, it had a cool Jelli “Remote Control Radio” concept, where viewers could vote for what song to play next. And Aly was a stalwart presence in mid days. Project had trouble finding a solid morning show in its early years, Kidd Chris was starting to make inroads among younger men listeners after debuting last year.
Lately, top 40 and similar formats have been on a roll locally and nationwide. Q100 and Star 94 are both experiencing strong ratings. So was Wild. And B98.5 has freshened its sound to be closer to the other stations. All four are doing well.
Rock on the other hand has been in a death spiral nationwide. Atlanta has managed to air five rock stations, which combined, were barely pulling in an audience bigger than R&B/hip hop V-103. But Dave FM last month announced it was going sports talk this fall.
The gallery image on Project's Facebook page
And now Project is gone, leaving Rock 100.5, 97.1/The River and 99X at 98.9.
Project’s departure could really benefit all three of those remaining stations, especially Rock 100.5, which has underperformed when the Regular Guys were not on. And even the Regular Guys’ numbers have dropped off the past two years. There is limited up side for 99X given its weak signal but Dave’s departure could help it. And the River will likely pick up listeners from both Project and Dave.
The last time the name Power was used in Atlanta was Power 99 in the late 1980s and early 1990s, also a top 40 station. It became alternative rock station 99X October 26, 1992.
So far, Power 96.1 sounds very much like Wild 105.7/96.7, which was edging more towards straight top 40 in recent months after focusing more on hip hop in its earlier days. (Earlier days being late 2010 and 2011.)
TV and billboard ads are scheduled to start next month promoting Power.
UPDATE Thursday, August 30, 8:26 a.m.: This morning, Wild is now playing more hip hop though it’s not quite Hot 107.9. No more Carly Rae Jepsen and Gotye. Will Clear Channel keep Wild? Hard to say.
A sampling of 10 songs new Power 96.1 from 9:30 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, August 29, 2012
David Guetta “Titanium”
Carly Rae Jepsen “Call Me Maybe”
Chris Brown “Don’t Wake Me Up”
Kesha “We R Who We R”
Katy Perry “Wide Awake”
LMFAO “Sexy and I Know It”
Pink “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)”
Bruno Mars “Grenade”
Rihanna “Where Have You Been”
Maroon 5 “Payphone”
The last ten songs on Wild 105.7 from that same time period.
Gotye “Somebody That I Used to Know”:
David Guetta “Titanium”
Ellie Goulding “Lights”
Havana Brown “We Run the Night”
Justin Bieber “As Long As You Love Me”
Calvin Harris “Let’s Go”
Katy Perry “Wide Awake”
Rihanna “Where Have You Been”
Usher “Scream”
Flo Rida “Whistle”
Q100 had a more pop feel with the songs it played during that time:
Train “Drive By”
Carly Rae Jepsen “Call me Maybe”
B.o.B. “Nothing On You”
Neon Trees “Everybody Talks”
Britney Spears “Til the World Ends”
Fun. “We are Young”
All-American Rejects “Gives You Hell”
Rihanna “Where Have You Been”
Mike Posner “Cooler Than Me”
Flo Rida “Wild Ones”
Join my Facebook fan page and Twitter.
By Rodney Ho, Radio & TV Talk
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437 comments Add your comment
narcysus
August 30th, 2012
10:16 am
Hey all you folks out there who think that only white people listen to the Project. YOU’RE WRONG! I am black and almost 50 yrs old and I’ve listened to rock music my whole life. I am PISSED they took off this station and will never patronize another CLEAR CHANNEL station again in life. Clear Channel sucks, they’re money grubbers and they only care about the dollar, like much of the rest of the country. Screw you clear channel. And Project Family, DON’T COUNT OUT THE BLACK PEOPLE! We don’t all listen to hip hop!
kirby
August 30th, 2012
10:17 am
You want rock n roll move to Pittsburgh, PA. I’ll go with you. They have great rock stations and better sports teams. Yea Comon!
fes
August 30th, 2012
10:19 am
It’s sad that Charlotte has better radio than Atlanta now.
Jarred
August 30th, 2012
10:19 am
Reminds me of Power 99 back in the day, when it played all Top 40 pop from the 80s. Admittedly, that was a better station (so was the music in the 80s though). Bottom line, Atlanta radio continues the long trend of being uninspired, corporate, and chasing the bottom of the bottom. The only stations in town getting it slightly correct are Ga State U’s, NPR (of course), and 103.7 Chuck (which can do a helluva lot better if it’s willing to dig deeper than the Top 40 from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s).
billy
August 30th, 2012
10:19 am
I gave up on rock making a comeback since crapp rapp killed it. Now i listen to Katy Perry and have no worries.
Harry Callahan
August 30th, 2012
10:26 am
Atlanta is a total loser in so many areas, radio included.
Craig
August 30th, 2012
10:26 am
basically this means that men don’t spend as much as women. the music is just there to hook the target market the advertisers are looking for — women. women 30 and under make more money, on average, than their male counterparts in all but three of the largest cities in the U.S. 23% of women currently outearn their husbands.
hence the chick stations….
What Data?
August 30th, 2012
10:28 am
I want to know where the data comes from that supports these formats! Over at the project’s old facebook site, over 20,000 people are ‘talking about this,’ whatever that means. If that many people are hitting the old site to see what happened, that must mean that the data is skewed somewhere. Adding a pop format to this town is like buying milk with an earlier expiration date than what you already had in the fridge. I think they had a solid niche market, and now we’re back to the Atlanta radio of the late 90’s where hard rock fans had to flip the channel between a couple of stations hoping to hear something worth upping the volume.
Terri K.
August 30th, 2012
10:31 am
so sad. Rock is not dead!
Chris
August 30th, 2012
10:37 am
Wow. So much for radio in Atlanta anymore. The stuff 100.5 and 98.9 plays can be okay at times, then they mix in the worst junk and their signals are horrible.
Glad I kept my unlimited data. It’s streaming from here on out.
JohnnyRayGun
August 30th, 2012
10:38 am
Clear Channel has killed radio. Atlanta needs a great rock station. I listened to Project 9-6-1 although I got tired of them playing some songs to death. At least we had them! Now what are we supposed to do? I sure won’t bow to some corporate suit’s will and listen to pop crap so he can earn a few more dollars. Until we get something to fill the void of rock/metal (Wreckage, anyone?), I will rely solely on my CDs. Thanks, Clear Channel. You suck and I hope you eventually go bankrupt!
Bryan Bailey
August 30th, 2012
10:39 am
Man what do we listen to now?
Cammi317
August 30th, 2012
10:39 am
Wow, it seems that all I am left with at this point is Journey 97.9. If they take away my 80s/90s station, I will be left with nothing. One by one, my other favorites have already or are about to drop like flies….
Mike
August 30th, 2012
10:44 am
Thank you Clear Channel, i can be done with radio now. I will just listen to the ipod now instead of turning it off for the project. FU Clear Channel.
Jessica
August 30th, 2012
10:47 am
Wonder what this will do to our concert seasons? Without much promotion ticket sales won’t do well and that will discourage people from coming to ATL. Bummer.
WTF...SEMENCREST IS A ______!!
August 30th, 2012
10:47 am
screw you clear channel…I will be using my ipod for my listening enjoyment from now on, all the music today is sung by a bunch of biotches and they all suck! such garbage!!
Erock
August 30th, 2012
10:48 am
This sucks. Clear channel is the devil.
whofan
August 30th, 2012
10:50 am
Tom Petty said it best in “The Last DJ”, Make em pay for what they used to get for free. Sirius/xm here they come.
Youre listening to wmp3
August 30th, 2012
10:51 am
Hmmm. Haven’t listened to radio for years. Blissfully been listening to my favorite radio station Wmp3 for years now
Bill
August 30th, 2012
10:51 am
Apparently Clear Channel thinks that Atlanta market is all 14 year old girls. No longer are we supposed to listen to music that the artist can actually play with an instrument and sing live without a play track and lip-synching.
I love it when management from another city makes a decision based on numbers alone.
Jennifer Martin
August 30th, 2012
10:58 am
I’m so pissed I removed all of Clear’s stations off my presets in my car. Project 96.1 was our only decent rock station in Atlanta. Not only will I not listen to Power96.1, I refuse to listen to any of your other stations. If you force me to say goodbye to the project, then goodbye to Elvis Durhan also. Screw you! We have too many top 40 stations. We need variety. I hope you crash and burn!
PTC DAWG
August 30th, 2012
10:59 am
Bring back 96Rocks my face.
gttim
August 30th, 2012
11:01 am
I have satellite radio, but rarely even listen to that anymore. Mostly I listen to a thumb drive loaded with mp3 albums that plugs into my car stereo, iPod through my car stereo, or Pandora from my phone to my car stereo. To many choice for good music to put up with crappy music, chattering DJs and tons of commercials- although Pandora has a few commercials.
But man, what a sad end to 96.1. WKLS 96 Rock was an Atlanta institution for so long. Can’t anybody do this right?
Warren
August 30th, 2012
11:02 am
I haven’t listen to FM radio on a regular basis for well over 10-years… in fact the only time I listen to FM is when my smartphone is broke and I’m parked somewhere that the XM signal is blocked. Radio is dead.
Kellen
August 30th, 2012
11:02 am
There has never been a time where Project was committed to finding and playing new rock music. New rock songs are released everyday, but instead of playing them, they play oldies music like 104.1. I hate pop music, but pop stations stay up to date on their music. Rock stations are all this way, and that’s why they are all failing. They earned this, so screw them. I switched to my iPod years ago when I realized they weren’t going to change.
Clear Channel Rep
August 30th, 2012
11:03 am
While I am not shocked at the backlash and the use of such powerful words as “SUCKS, f’ing,and crap”, I am surprised to see that a vocal part of Project 96.1’s listening audience can use a computer.
BRING BACK PROJECT 961
August 30th, 2012
11:03 am
Why take out a good rock station now I got nothing to hear on the radio you suck Seacreast!!. We don’t need more stupid pop station
moonbat betty
August 30th, 2012
11:03 am
Just a sign of the times.
More music for the fake, materialistic, obama wannabes.
Ronald Carlson
August 30th, 2012
11:05 am
Time to get satellite radio for the car, Atlanta radio became officially bland. How many flavors of vanilla ice cream do you need? Wow, another station that plays Katy Perry, Pink, Usher, LMFAO – really, that’s what ATL needed? Doing my best to never listen to a clearchannel station again.
sports man
August 30th, 2012
11:07 am
IT SEEMS THERE ARE NO EASY LISTENING STATIONS FOR THE OLDER GENERATION. NO SINATRA, BUBLE, D. WASHINGTON, S. TYRELL, D. KRALL. AM I RIGHT? OR FOR THAT MATTER, BEATLES,J. WILSON, V, DAMONE, LES PAUL ETC. WHAT GIVES? IT SSEEMS EVERY STATION IS GOING TO TALK RADIO!!!
Margo
August 30th, 2012
11:13 am
I think I’m going to stab my ear drums! With the exception of 3 artists on those lists, that would be played on a rock station, the rest are over played an can be heard on THE OTHER POP stations. Why more? Atlanta is losing the 2 best programmed stations. Sad of us!! 99x has no signal strength so unless you’re in town they are out. Sirius here we come.
Wildman
August 30th, 2012
11:18 am
https://www.facebook.com/Project961Undead
xoGuitarox
August 30th, 2012
11:19 am
There is already to many Pop stations!!.. I want my rock back…. they can mix it up a little with new an old, but I atleast would like to have choice to listen to rock or pop… wtf?
TJ
August 30th, 2012
11:22 am
Sad day for Atlanta’s radio biz. Yet another top 40 station. Really?! 96 Rock was the station we listened to in protest of top 40 (Z93). Remember when every stoner kid had a 96 Rock t-shirt? I owned two! Wish I still had them.
joshua
August 30th, 2012
11:25 am
the project was a horrible station anyway. with crap like five finger death punch and nickleback who gives a crap? i say good riddance
Stuart
August 30th, 2012
11:25 am
The morning and midday shows will not come from Atlanta so it isnt really local. I didn’t listen to the Project but it seemed to have a nice following and didn’t need to be fixed. Unfortunately the media suit decided to mess with the radio stations while screwing up newspapers, magazines websites …..
Jen @ KSU
August 30th, 2012
11:26 am
It is a sad day for music in Atlanta!! We were being bombarded with pop trash anyway; why did Clear Channel decide that the ONLY rock station in town had to go?!! (Sorry, 100.5, but you dropped the ball a long time ago.) Ryan Seacrest needs to be kept in check! Why is some guy from Dunwoody a celebrity anyway? What the hell has he ever done that was worth watching? I hope the Project Fans continue to protest the horrible treatment of the employees and the assumption on Clear Channel’s part that we, the listeners of Atlanta, will listen to whatever juvenile Top-40 junk they throw at us. I, for one, will give 100.5 a chance, but if they don’t take advantage of the opportunity soon I, along with most of the rock and roll fans in the city, will turn to satellite radio, and then the rock scene in Atlanta will be truly dead….One more thought–will any real rock acts play in Atlanta if they can’t get air time? By next year, I bet we won’t be able to get the headline acts that we barely get now! Bring back Project 96.1!!!!
PROJECT FAN
August 30th, 2012
11:27 am
This really is a sad day. I’m sorry OC and the rest of the great Project Family! I have been a member since the Buzz days. There is no other radio station that I want to listen to. 96 has been rock my whole life. We’ve got plenty of Top 40. We need new rock in Atlanta. I mean c’mon, we’re the home of Music Midtown and the biggest city in the South! We can’t just support crap! We need all genres. Guess I’ll be buying a subscription to Spotify
Steve
August 30th, 2012
11:28 am
Well, since 96Rock changed to Project 9-6-1 it was on it’s way out. No more Rock in Atlanta. I guess someone should tell the rock stations in other cities that they can’t last. Atlanta needed another crappy top 40/hip-hop channel right? Wrong. Not eveyone in Atlanta listens to that crap. And now we don’t listen to 96.1 either. Nice job Clear channel. Time to buy another XM radio.
Upset
August 30th, 2012
11:34 am
Really??? This station sucks now!!! I have been listening to wkls FM (and when there was an AM station) 96.1 since I was in elementary school. Now a crapy poop station? Clear Chanel you suck for this! I, along with a number of Georgians, will not listen to this crap! There are now 5 stations in Atlanta playing this junk, it sucks! PLAY SOME REAL MUSIC, Jerks!!!
BRETT
August 30th, 2012
11:43 am
Bring the Project crew back!!
mike
August 30th, 2012
11:46 am
i will never listen to this crap. clear channel should have never made a move like this. i hope the ratings go down the toilet. clear channel sucks!!!
Calling It Like It Is
August 30th, 2012
11:49 am
@Behind – In L.A(#2) – KROQ, which lists itself as alternative, but it is one of the first stations you think of when you think of the L.A., market. Let’s see what happens when the fall numbers come out and see if Atlanta holds on to #9. As cyclical and and as quick as things change, it’s only going to be a matter of time before Atlanta has a decent station again. It won’t be Z-93. It won’t be 96 Rock. Those days are gone and most of those jocks have moved on. Rock genre is very cloudy right now, with no distinct lines between Alternative and Rock. A new station needs to come on line with a good signal and start from the ground up and either re-create the true “Rock” genre or completely refine it to set the standard.
The “Translator” stations are not the answer either. They just plain don’t have the signal strength. Sure 99x is back on the air, but it’s almost irrelevant in today’s spectrum.
joshua
August 30th, 2012
11:50 am
havent any of you ever heard of IPODS? problem solved…because news flash people..THE RADIO HAS SUCKED FOR A LOOOOOOOOOONG TIME!!! although alot of you are redneck idiots and probably cant afford an ipod. how about you go a week without spending money on meth and beer so you can get one. they run about 125 dollars…god forbid you go a week without substance to take care at least one problem in your pathetic lives….
Rusty Shackleford
August 30th, 2012
11:54 am
And just like that, I have no reason to listen to the radio anymore.
Dave
August 30th, 2012
11:54 am
Clear Channel is determined to screw over anything it touches. It can’t be content to leave well enough alone. We need to drive Clear Channel out of the Atlanta market.
Tim Rhodes
August 30th, 2012
11:59 am
I’m available
Shantiqua Moniqua D'Eshia Jones Johnson
August 30th, 2012
12:01 pm
HIRE THE 2 LIVE STEWS
april spearman
August 30th, 2012
12:03 pm
Please bring back 96.1 project, we need our rock!!
Calling It Like It Is
August 30th, 2012
12:06 pm
@joshua – Seriously? You are generalizing people who would rather listen to radio than an mp3 player as redneck idiots and meth heads? Yes, I do have one, but does your iPod play new music unless you load it? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Unless you have a monstrous collection, you will hear the same songs over and over, which will put your iPod in the same programming class as Top 40…the same songs…over and over.