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So yesterday the city of Seattle was abuzz when Bob Rivers announced his retirement from his long-standing and extremely popular radio show, The Bob Rivers Show. Now usually when a radio host or news anchor retires they are being forced out, that’s pretty common knowledge in the industry. But not this time, Bob Rivers wants to spend more quality time doing the things he enjoys and he wants to quit setting his alarm for a few hours after a lot of us are going to bed. Totally understandable. Obviously we wish Bob well as he and his crew have been incredibly supportive of the Northwest Music Scene throughout the years but is this the whole story? Maybe not.
It appears a change is on the horizon at KJR-FM. According to RadioInsight.com Clear Channel has been buying up domains that almost certainly spell doom for the iconic name KJR. They recently registered 957TheSound.com and Y957FM.com. Now Clear Channel has registered five additional domains clearly targeting KJR-FM as the intended destination for a change: 957TheJet.com, 957TheJetSeattle.com, Seattles957TheJet.com, TheJet957.com, and TheJetSeattle.com.
Just as 950 KJR was a heritage Top 40 in Seattle, the Jet name has some history in the “Jet City”. Radio station KJET was one of the first Alternative Rock stations in the 1980s. KJR-FM has shifted from a more pop oriented Classic Hits presentation to Classic Rock over the past few months despite keeping the “Seattle’s Greatest Hits” branding. That move left the station tied for eighth in the market with a 4.0 share in the June 2014 Nielsen Audio PPM ratings just behind CBS’ Classic Rock 102.5 KZOK (with a 5.2-4.1 drop).
So this is the million dollar question. Is a new name the next step in the evolution of KJR-FM?
