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Two Tampa Bay area stations to switch locations, lettersBy ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV Critic
© St. Petersburg Times As Mason Dixon told his listeners Monday, it will feel like coming home. Dixon, the morning personality at WYUU-FM 92.5 (U92), was talking about a frequency switch Thursday that will move his station to WRBQ-FM 104.7, a spot with twice the wattage of the current location. The station also will take WRBQ's call letters. The oldies format, featuring songs from the '60s and '70s, will stay. Meanwhile, the country station at WRBQ's frequency will move to 92.5, take the call letters WYUU and be rechristened "Country 92.5." It will focus less on personalities and more on a pledge to play 12 consecutive songs with no talk in between. The moves are an effort by Infinity Broadcasting to balance its Tampa Bay area stations, which also include country powerhouse WQYK-FM 99.5. Refocusing WYUU allows it to reach country fans in a different way from WQYK, and moving the oldies format to WRBQ strengthens the reach of that station, said Eric Logan, operations manager for WQYK, WYUU and WQYK-AM 1010. For Dixon, the move returns him to a frequency at which he last worked in 1990, when he had the most popular morning show in the market. Dixon left Q105 after 12 years when the station's format changed to country; now he hopes a return to his old location will bring new success. "We're not going to try and bring back the old Q-Zoo . . . that's in the history books," said Dixon, noting that Infinity executives didn't deliver final approval for the change until April 5, though plans for the switch had been under way for a year. "We've got phone lines to be changed, a Web site to be changed. It's little pressure, but I'm ready for it." No personnel changes were announced for the new WRBQ, but midday personality Dave Morgan will take over mornings at the new WYUU, replacing A.W. Pantoja, who came to Tampa from Dallas a year ago (his partner, Mike "Cowhead" Calta, will continue working on a show for WQYK-AM). NPR CHANGES: National Public Radio is overhauling its cultural programming to boost coverage of pop culture and entertainment. Despite cutting 20 positions, NPR said it plans to continue new installments of nearly all the shows it produces. Those include SymphonyCast, World of Opera, Jazz Profiles and Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!. But Performance Today, which mixes music with interviews, news and commentary, no longer will have a live anchor; it will focus on recorded performances. Also, NPR will stop producing new Jazz Profiles programs, and World of Opera will expand to 52 weeks from half that. The transition will be complete by fall, spokeswoman Jessamyn Sarmiento said. -- Times wires contributed to this report.
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