WIQI - Station History - News Ends, and Music Returns

News Ends, and Music Returns

By mid-July 2012, "FM News 101.1" would see positive response in its new morning paring of Greg Jarrett and Monica DeSantis, and "Expanded News Coverage" was becoming a regular part of the station schedule (if not a sign of gravitating towards a permanent news/talk format). However, the all-news station never built a buzz among the listening public, with the station pulling no better than a 0.4 Arbitron ratings share since it launched in July 2011. (By comparison, "FM News" was outperformed by alternative rock, in both the final rating of "Q101" as well as the 2nd month rating of sister station WKQX-LP.)

With both of Merlin Media's all-news flagships (WIQI and WEMP/New York) languishing on the eve of their one-year anniversaries, management decided to make a change. After 9AM (CT) on July 17, 2012, while WIQI staff met with Merlin management, "FM News" was abruptly dropped and replaced by an adult hits format branded as "i101;" "Bye Bye Bye" by *NSYNC and "Get The Party Started" by Pink were the first two songs played. (WEMP also flipped formats at that same moment, reverting to its previous alternative rock format; as of November 2012, the station is operated by CBS Radio and airs a simulcast of WFAN's all-sports format.) In a press release, Merlin CEO Randy Michaels called dropping all-news from the stations "a difficult decision to make," but one that had to be made in light of "a year of minimal audience engagement, coupled with the format's inherent expense." With a few exceptions, most of the WIQI and WEMP news staffs were immediately dismissed; at WIQI, approximately 30 staffers were dropped at the time of the format flip, with subsequent layoffs resulting in only 3 on-air and 2 off-air "FM News 101.1" alums remaining with Merlin in some capacity by September 2012.

"i101" targets the 18-49 female radio listener, a demographic that "FM News" failed to attract; its initial adult hits playlist placed an emphasis on songs and artists from the 1990s. By its one-month anniversary, "i101" would decrease its emphasis on older songs and move towards a hot adult contemporary approach, adding more recent music from such artists as Adele and Bruno Mars. "i101" on-air staff includes morning host and former WLUP-FM staffer Jane Monzures, who shared morning duties with fellow "Loop" alum Pete McMurray between August and October 2012.