KYOT-FM Phoenix Becoming.....Eva 95.5??

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• published: 31 Aug 2011
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On Twitter: @AkiemBailum Clear Channel: Delivering Arizona Radio to Eva? For the past few years since Smooth Jazz became an unfair punchline among big radio corporations, KYOT-FM has been a revolving door of music. It has had what radio types like to call...an identity crisis. KYOT-FM in Phoenix, Arizona has had a long history...particularly with those very call letters. For a little while, they were associated with a Rock station at 95.5. That was before that Rock station flipped to Smooth Jazz in the 90's. In the 1990s, Smooth Jazz and New Age Contemporary formats became the sexiest ticket on radio row. Advertisers fell in love with instrumentals back in the 90's (another thing I miss about those 90's). Smooth Jazz stations since have been dropping like flies. There are about 9 or 10 left on terrestrial radio and those might as well be put on "Flip Watch" themselves. This is why Smooth Jazz artists have taken to the internet as a friendlier medium to get their music to the masses. While other stations straight out flipped to different formats, KYOT at least stayed strong until the end and tried as hard as it could to hold onto its. It was one of the last major market Smooth Jazz stations to retain its format. Even when it did flip, it didn't do so completely. KYOT-FM 95.5 still kept its affiliation with Broadcast Architecture...but not with its Smooth Jazz Network. Kepler was developing a new syndication network originally called the "Chillout Radio Network". They tried Take 2 by calling it "The Bright Radio Network". This would denote a station playing either AC or Rhythmic AC which they seemed to be doing. It works best though with Contemporary Christian stations, and that wasn't on the Kepler agenda. So, Kepler went back to the drawing board and simply called it the Smooth AC Network. It's basically any non-instrumental that somehow sneaked its way onto Smooth Jazz for the past 15 or so years + instrumentals every now and then. The same DJs on the SJN do double duty on the SACN. But this wasn't enough and they started transitioning out of Smooth AC altogether. Their next phase: Rhythmic AC. Slowly but surely, KYOT-95.5 sounded less like a Smooth AC affiliate and more like an Old School WKTU 103.5 clone. Or should I say....a Hot 92.3 clone. 95.5's playlist started to eerily resemble that of KHHT-FM Hot 92.3 in Los Angeles. What those two stations have in common is that they're both Urban-leaning Rhythmic AC stations. These probably would be full out Urban ACs in either Houston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York, or Chicago. But the black populations in LA and Phoenix aren't that of those other cities meaning that they're basically forced to go in that direction. KYOT-FM is totally cloning its Urban-leaning Rhythmic AC style off of KHHT Hot 92.3 in LA. The LA station recently picked up Rick Dees to do a morning show on the station. Who knows, maybe he gets KYOT-FM in Phoenix in the event that he's got a syndication deal with Clear Channel/Premiere. So, KYOT and Clear Channel conducted a "contest" for people to call in and submit what they think the new name should be for 95.5. With the station simply branded under a slogan "95.5 The Valley Old School", a change certainly is in the works. One of the "choices" that stuck out was that of "Eva". That seemed to be a unique name that had never been used before on any station. At first, I thought maybe this would be a female version of Jack FM. The "Eva" rumours were basically confirmed when a domain leaked out pointing to the new station going with the Eva name. RadioInsight also poached a logo for the station on its website. So, it looks like at 5:00 PM Mountain time under a hot Arizona sun...KYOT will ditch its New Age, Smooth AC logo for one presumably more upbeat as Eva 95.5 debuts on August 31st--the day I made this video! This is an entirely new identity for KYOT-FM 95.5 and a new start for Clear Channel (and radio altogether). The "Eva" name has never been used before. Hopefully they bring on either Eva Mendes or Eva Longoria to do VO work. lol :-) One purpose for the name and logo could be to draw in a predominantly female audience. "Eva" is a girl's name, obviously, just like "Jack" is a guy's name and gets mainly a guy audience. Considering the format that's already on 95.5, Eva is no "Alice". Alice markets to both males and females. Something tells me this change will make the FormatChange.com website. LOL :-)