Although this is a minor move, it's one I never saw coming. 96.5 KOIT's HD-2 station flipped to AAA, and is calling itself "Different." I've been listening to it. It's a pretty standard AAA that skews more recent. Lots of 90s, 00s, and 10s (but not stuck in the 90s), occasionally something from the 80s. Nothing too adventurous yet, though maybe they will be later.
https://koit.com/96-5-hd2/I was genuinely surprised because nobody seems to care about HD2 or AAA anymore. Most AAA stations just ended up getting pushed to their HD2 frequency when they flipped formats, so if KFOG didn't end up on either 97.7 HD2 or 104.5 HD2 then I thought that market #4 was officially done with AAA.
Then again, Bonneville isn't exactly a Clear Channel, Cumulus, Entercom, or even Alpha. The sale of the four stations from CBS/Entercom just completed and even though branding for "Different" is at this point minimal, it's clear that they're paying attention. They seem to like AAA (hence KSWD, which didn't last but they put up a good fight. LA is also a difficult market for AAA; it's much easier in SF, and should have worked here for any company that puts minimal effort.) I wonder if they're just using this as something to have fun with, or if they have bigger plans (i.e. flipping one of their other stations to AAA.) If they flipped, not sure which one it would be...all four of them are doing fairly well.
