Boston Radio: Competition Doomed Talker WTKK

Greater Media CEO Peter Smyth is always reluctant to change a radio station’s format. It can be upsetting to fans, frustrating to workers and expensive to pull off.

But it was hard to argue with the numbers. Smyth told Jon Chesto at bizjournals.com the that plunge in ratings for WTKK over recent years prompted him to start seriously considering dropping the station’s talk format as long ago as last spring. Those discussions eventually led to the Braintree company’s decision to switch from talk to a rhythmic adult contemporary music format earlier this month, branding it as Hot 96.9.

Smyth says WTKK vaulted into the top five stations in the Boston market for the key 25-54 demographic not long after the talk format was introduced in 1999.

But those strong ratings didn’t last. Smyth says WTKK dropped out of the top 10 in the past two years, and showed no signs of recovering. He cites a number of factors, including the emergence of CBS Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub, which drew a number of male listeners away.

So Smyth sought a music format, one that wouldn’t compete with his company’s existing lineup of Boston-area stations — Magic 106.7, 105.7 WROR, Country 102.5 and Radio 92.9.

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