106.3 The Mountain is now The Zone

[RMarino]

Oldies/Classic Hits "106.3 The Mountain" in Sevier County is no more.  It is now "ESPN 106.3 The Zone."  For those who remember, they had previously run this format on their AM station, 930 WSEV until a couple of years ago.

[Elkhosen]

Great. ANOTHER sports talk station. To me, a bad choice, but probably cheaper to run.  Oh well.

[eacalhoun1]

Then, I wish they would have kept 930 WSEV. "The Mountain" was great listening when we visited Pigeon Forge....emphasis on "was".

[Elkhosen]

It is truly amazing how many sports oriented talk stations we have around here. 

The Sports Animal is on AM 990, FM 99.1 and 99.3.  Then you have ESPN in Spanish on AM 1120 (for the 15 people that can pick up that lousy signal out of Seymour) and then ESPN 1180 out of South Knoxville.  And now, ESPN 106.3 out of Sevier County.  Those are all full-time sports. 

Plus, our other talk stations (FM 100.3, AM 670, 760, 850, etc.) all spend a TON of time on sports talk.  Sheesh. 

What a saturated format!  Maybe terrestrial radio is moving to all-talk, no music.  I will stop listening when that happens.

[SchlitzBeer]

Couldve told you a change was coming.  Didnt you notice they removed stereo a couple of weeks ago?  They have a few more tricks up their sleeves before it's all said and done.  Don't think it's going to amount to much though in terms of taking away from the other sports stations.

[SchlitzBeer]

Expect someone to leave the Sports Animal and go work there.

[RMarino]

It is truly amazing how many sports oriented talk stations we have around here. 

The Sports Animal is on AM 990, FM 99.1 and 99.3.  Then you have ESPN in Spanish on AM 1120 (for the 15 people that can pick up that lousy signal out of Seymour) and then ESPN 1180 out of South Knoxville.  And now, ESPN 106.3 out of Sevier County.  Those are all full-time sports. 

Plus, our other talk stations (FM 100.3, AM 670, 760, 850, etc.) all spend a TON of time on sports talk.  Sheesh. 

What a saturated format!  Maybe terrestrial radio is moving to all-talk, no music.  I will stop listening when that happens.

Actually most markets have more than one sports station now.  Usually one will program ESPN and one will program Fox.  Sometimes there will be a third sports station in the market which will run one of the smaller networks such as Sporting News Radio.  It's a popular format these days and it makes good money.

And although I liked The Mountain, this move actually makes sense in a combo sell with WSEV-FM. I always thought maybe The Mountain overlaped audience with Mix 105.5 a little too much.  This will solve the problem. 

[abccbsnbcfox]

I agree.. For crying out loud, we ONLY have UT sports..

We don't have an NBA team (the closest one to us sucks---the Hawks)
We don't have an NFL team (the Titans might as well be Nashville's team)
We don't have a major league baseball team (as far as minors, the Smokies are exciting only towards the end of the season..
We don't have a major league hockey team (again, the Predators are Nashville).

True, the all-sports format is among the cheapest to run (talk radio is the cheapest), but now, it's spreading like the
H-!-N-1..

106.3 is doomed to mediocrity.  Why doesn't everybody just switch to all sports?  They can't compete with the Frog Station anyway.

[kd4rnc1964]

I was hoping someone would notice the change or even cared. Burkett's finally got the all-timers. Yeah it must be cheaper to run. Too much work to program music on a Scott computer as if they were useless anyway. Like Pigeon Forge vacationers coudn't find the Sports Animal on 99.3. Oldies may not be a money maker and were just left with the daytimers in Newport and Morristown. At least it would be nice if the goobers on ESPN Radio knew anything about southern sports.  "Where the **** is Tusculum, Bristol Motor Speedway,what is a Vol?" I swear I heard them say it when I worked for Citadel. I'm getting old.

[kd4rnc1964]

No, No wait, Mixx 105.5 will go Polka!!!!!