Bob FM
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Bob FM is the on-air brand of several FM radio stations in Canada and the United States. The Bob FM format features a mix of classic 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s hits with some current hot adult contemporary singles.
Bob FM stations in Canada are all owned by CTVglobemedia. Those in the United States are owned by a variety of companies. Bob FM stations follow much the same format as the more famous (although newer) Jack FM brand, and are officially classified as variety hits or adult hits by radio research companies.
It was originally named for the "Best of the Best", and subsequently associated with an everyday man character named Bob, and it proved extremely successful in its first implementation on Winnipeg, Manitoba's CFWM. It inspired Rogers Communications to license the Jack FM format at many of its stations, Corus Entertainment's subsequent Joe FM and Dave FM brands, and comparable moves at other stations. Currently a syndicated version of the format is offered by Waitt Radio Networks.
The format was largely conceived by Howard Kroeger, a former executive at CHUM, after attending a friend's 40th birthday party. He took the "Bob" moniker from a country music station (then WBOB, today KTLK-FM) that had broadcast in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market of Minnesota to the south several years earlier.
Many Bob FM stations market themselves with the slogan "Turn your knob to Bob"; this was parodied in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 skit in which TV's Frank creates his own radio station and exhorts viewers to "Turn your crank to Frank".
So far, Honolulu, Hawaii, Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California are the only North American markets where Bob FM has failed. In the Honolulu case Salem Communications acquired the station and likely would have jettisoned the format, regardless of its success, due to that company's programming philosophy. In Sacramento, the owner of the station requested that listeners "vote" whether the variety hits format or an 80s format should remain, as the owners were selling the frequency which housed the 80's format. The 80s format won, and 92.1 Bob FM turned into Flash 92.1.
The newest Bob FM station in Canada, CHUM Limited's CKLY in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, adopted the format on August 21, 2005, while WLFF in Lafayette, Indiana jettisoned its Country format to introduce Bob to its listeners on December 6, 2007.
Many Bob-FM stations are imaged by Digital Sound & Video, Inc located in Daytona Beach, Florida.
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[edit] Bob FM stations in Canada
- Brockville, Ontario – CJPT
- Kawartha Lakes, Ontario – CKLY
- London, Ontario – CHST
- Ottawa, Ontario – CKKL 93.9 FM
- Winnipeg, Manitoba – CFWM
[edit] Bob FM stations in the United States
- Abilene, Texas – KNCE-FM
- Altus, Oklahoma – 100.9 FM
- Anchorage, Alaska – KBBO-FM
- Augusta, Kansas – KIBB
- Austin/San Marcos, Texas – KBPA 103.5
- Bloomington-Normal, Illinois – WBBE
- Boise, Idaho – KSRV-FM 96.1 FM
- Chico, California – KBQB
- Edwards, California – KGBB 103.9 FM
- Elko, Nevada – KLKO 93.7 FM
- Erie, Pennsylvania – WXBB 94.7 FM
- Eugene, Oregon – KEUG 105.5 FM
- Fargo, North Dakota – KBVB (country format)
- Fort Myers, Florida – WJGO
- Greenwood, Mississippi – WYMX
- Hampton Roads-Norfolk, Virginia – WPYA 93.7 FM
- Lafayette, Indiana – WBPE 95.3 FM
- Larned, Kansas – KGTR
- Lindsborg, Kansas – KVOB
- Midland-Odessa, Texas – KQRX
- Minneapolis, Minnesota – KLCI (country format)
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – WYNA
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – KQOB
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – WRRK 96.9 FM
- Pierre, South Dakota – KLXS-FM
- Reno, Nevada – KZTQ
- Rockford, Illinois – WYHY
- Roswell, New Mexico – KEND 106.5
- San Angelo, Texas – KELI 98.7 FM
- Santa Rosa, California – KNOB
- Sedalia, Missouri – KSDL 92.3 FM
- Sioux City, Iowa – KZSR
- Spokane, Washington – KYWL 103.9 FM
- Texarkana, Texas – KBYB
- Tucson, Arizona – KSZR
- Washington-Greenville, North Carolina – WERO
- Wichita, Kansas – KIBB 97.1 FM
- Williston, North Dakota – KDSR
- The Woodlands, Texas – KTWL
- Yakima, Washington – KRSE 105.7 FM
- Panama_City_Beach WASJ 105.1 (new edition as of Tuesday,06-May 2008 dropped ESPN Radio format)
[edit] See also
- Froggy (brand), is a brand of country music radio stations, which are also independently owned and operated, and generally are unrelated with each other, but use the same or similar logo.
- KISS-FM (brand), is a brand of radio stations. Unless they are owned by Clear Channel Communications, each individual station is independently operated.
- The Fox (brand), is a brand of radio stations. Unless they are owned by Clear Channel Communications, each individual station is independently operated.
- Jack FM, is a brand of radio stations that play a large variety of music from the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's.
- ESPN Radio, is a brand of radio stations. They are generally tied to the same set of programs, but are not all by the same operator. Most local broadcasts of these stations have no connection to the national network.
- Joe FM
- Dave FM
