WTNT Washington Flipping To Spanish AC

RadioInsight ^ | 9/29/13 | Lance Venta

[raccoonradio]

Metro Radio LLC is pulling the plug on Conservative Talk on 730 WTNT Alexandria VA/Washington DC, 97.7 W249BE Alexandria and 102.9 W275BO Chantilly, VA.

Metro has registered SomosLaCapital.com for the stations and has already updated its webstreams to use the new moniker. The new website describes the new format as “La Capital features a Spanish Hits Music format targeting Hispanics 24-50 years old, local talk shows, music shows, and many other issue shows that address the culture in Washington, DC.”

WTNT currently programs a mix of brokered and syndicated Conservative Talk shows such as Coast To Coast AM, Laura Ingaraham, and Mike O’Meara. The 102.9 translator covers the area south of Washington in Virginia’s Fairfax county. Its 97.7 translator has applied to relocate across the Maryland border to Montgomery County, MD where it will cover Washington and adjacent suburbs such as Rockville and Silver Spring.

In addition to WTNT, Metro Radio also operates Regional Mexican “La Ley” 1460 WKDV Manassas/106.3 W292EC Gainesville, VA.

[raccoonradio]

Not sure when; when I tuned into the _streams_ for WTNT’s site and “somos la capital” (am not in area; am in New England) they were running foreign language stuff but I guess it was a regular Ethiopian show. When I go to the somoslacapital site now, it still sounds like talk
even though the site sure looks like it will be Spanish stuff

http://somoslacapital.com/
(first thing I heard was a woman saying “get rid of that weaselly deal”— so maybe it’ll come a bit later, maybe Oct 1 aka tomorrow? Let me check with dctrv.com:

>>La Capital For WTNT? - 9/29 - If you go to somoslacapital.com you’ll see what looks like a new logo for DC area righty political talker WTNT (right). It sure looks like owner Metro Radio, based in Vienna VA, is planning to soon flip it to a Spanish language format. Metro already operates WKDV, 1460 AM/106.3 FM, as “La Ley,” featuring a Spanish language regional Mexican music format. Tom Taylor, who pens a daily radio biz newsletter, speculated that WTNT’s new format could be “Solo Exitos” or “Only The Hits” a la Spanish contemporary......

So maybe not yet...but soon

[raccoonradio]

UPDATE from radioinsight.com
WTNT and the FM repeater stations will
not flip to Spanish until Dec 1 as they
have contract obligations with various
shows to fill. So conserv talk etc continues
through Oct and November

[TBP]

The switch date is December 1.

Somebody is going to take advantage of the opening that this creates and start a good talk station with Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity (coming from WMAL), maybe Steve Deace, and some others.

[TBP]

TOO MANY SPANISH STATIONS!

[TBP]

http://dcrtv.com/

Confirmed: La Capital Coming To WTNT - 9/30 - Yesterday, DCRTV tipped you that WTNT, 730 AM/102.9 FM, might be dropping its English talk format for a Spanish language contemporary hits sound. Now, we get confirmation that the change will happen December 1st. According to Bruce Houston, who owns WTNT via Vienna VA-based Metro Radio, the delay in launching the new format is because there are pending programming contacts regarding the station’s current line-up of talkers, including DC radio veteran Mike O’Meara, who airs from 7 PM to 9 PM weekdays. Metro already operates WKDV, 1460 AM/106.3 FM, as “La Ley,” featuring a Spanish language regional Mexican music format.....