Townsquare Media has flipped a Quad Cities radio station back to Country, dropping a Classic Hits format to make another attempt at taking on the market’s longtime ratings leader.
“KIIK 104.9” became “US 104.9” on Friday, Sept. 24. Positioned as “the Quad Cities #1 For New Country,” the new format is kicking off with 5,000 songs in a row.
Once it starts playing commercials, “US 104.9” is suggesting it will have shorter breaks than iHeartMedia heritage Country outlet WLLR-FM/103.7 (Davenport).
WLLR has long led the ratings in the market, with a 16.0 average quarter hour share in the Spring 2021 Nielsen Audio 12+ ratings. WLLR has not had a Country competitor since 104.9 switched to Classic Hits in 2016.
Licensed to De Witt, KIIK-FM uses a 12.5kW/143m (class C3) signal transmitting from north of Davenport, compared with WLLR’s 100kW/363m (class C0) signal transmitting from Bettendorf.
It’s the fifth Country identity used by the station, following “Bob” (2000-2001), “Great Country 105” (2001-2005), “The River” (2005-2007), and “The Hawk” (2014-2016).
KIIK had been the only Classic Hits station in the market, but iHeartMedia flipped KCQQ/106.5 to the format hours after KIIK’s format change. JMRW’s WQUD/107.7 (Erie-Quad Cities) runs a broad mix of Classic Hits and Classic Country from the 1960s to today.
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