Hard Rock Returns to Quad Cities as ESPN Moves Back to AM

Two Quad Cities stations changed format at the start of the Labor Day weekend, coincidentally returning both to formats they’d carried at the turn of the century.

As first reported by RadioInsight, Townsquare Media launched “I-Rock 93.5” on KJOC/93.5 (Bettendorf) on Friday, sending ESPN Radio back to KBOB/1170 (Davenport). The move ends a Classic Country format on KBOB and returns Hard Rock to the market.

“I-Rock” is debuting its format with a month of commercial-free music.  The playlist stretches from the `90s to today with artists including Godsmack, Slipknot, Tool, Korn, Five Finger Death Punch, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Volbeat, and Ghost.

Meanwhile, “ESPN 1170” will continue to carry “Don’t Hassle Us We’re Local” from 12 to 2 p.m., which the station says is the only local sports talk show in the market. “ESPN 1170” competes with iHeartMedia’s “FOX Sports 1230” (WFXNMoline).

1170 has a construction permit for new 250-Watt FM translator K281DB/104.1.

1170, using the KJOC callsign, had carried ESPN for a decade in the late `90s and early 2000’s before flipping to Talk, then Oldies, and then briefly back to Sports before going to Classic Country.  (The KBOB callsign was previously used on two Country-formatted FM stations.)

Meanwhile, 93.5 had carried Rock formats under the names “The Planet” and “Rock 93” during the same era that 1170 carried ESPN.

Townsquare’s other Quad Cities stations include heritage Classic Rocker “97X” (WXLP/96.9 Moline), Contemporary Hits outlet “B100” (KBEA/99.7 Muscatine), and Classic Hits station KIIK-FM/104.9 (De Witt).