Stations with different formats day and night

[installLSC]

As a kid, I remember two local AM stations (country and full service AC) that would switch to Mexican regional music at 8pm. The only stations I know that have totally different formats are noncommercial outlets; for example KPLU airs NPR at drive times and jazz the rest of the day. Do you remember commercial stations that switched format at night?

 

[mimo]

Small town stations in Canada did that. Mostly CHR at night and either AC or Country during the day. CKQR 760 in Casltegar B.C would go from easy listening day, to AC to top 40 to hard album rock by evening. That station gave progressive FM's a run for their money because they could play hits. They even aired concerts from bands like Van Halen or AC/DC during that time. In Castlegar it was the only game in town...but it's signal reached Vancouver very well...and I was a regular listener as a teen when I lived in Vancouver.

 

[FredLeonard]

Temple University radio, WRTI, is classical by day and jazz by night. On their HD-2 channel they reverse the formats and do jazz by day and classical by night. They used to be all jazz but when another public radio station flipped to news and information and a commercial classical station also flipped, they adopted this split schedule (in typical public sector fashion - trying to compromise by pleasing nobody).

This isn't day and night but NJ 101.5 does talk weekdays and classic hits on weekends. A smart move. Talk usually bombs on weekends and stations end up doing "best of" segments or running infomercials (often disguised as how-to talk shows). NJ 101.5 oldies playlist targets the same age group their talk shows reach. Oldies start Friday evening and run through Sunday overnight.

Many smaller market public radio stations still run the "tent pole" format: NPR news magazines in morning and afternoon drive plus maybe Fresh Air or something in there someplace. Typically, they run classical middays and jazz at night. Even some folk on the weekends. A lot of public radio stations in larger markets used to do this, too, but now almost all have opted for a consistent format. One notable exception is KCRW, Santa Monica (LA market).

This used to be block programming and it was the norm before wall-to-wall formats. Even AM top 40 stations or popular music stations used to vary their playlists considerable between daytime and evening hours. During the day, when kids were in school, playlists were softer hits and even some MOR. At night, for the teen audience while parental units watched TV, they skewed toward hard rock.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Even AM top 40 stations or popular music stations used to vary their playlists considerable between daytime and evening hours. During the day, when kids were in school, playlists were softer hits and even some MOR. At night, for the teen audience while parental units watched TV, they skewed toward hard rock.

The same concept is true today with FM CHR stations. There will be more adult leaning songs, older gold and such in the daytime, and somewhat more aggressive music mixes and songs in late afternoon and evenings.

Many Hot AC and AC stations will also have dayparting of some music based on the kind of audience available in nights and even weekends.

 

[michael hagerty]

Here in Sacramento, KXPR is classical, but plays jazz 7-11 pm.

And since this is Classic Radio, KFI in the early 70s tried a thing called "Total Spectrum Radio", where they were MOR during the day, big band in the evening, country late night and talk overnight.