That didn’t take long — iHeart kills ‘Santa 100’ for hip-hop format

This week’s snow lasted longer than Santa 100, a gimmick by a local iHeart radio station.

On Monday, iHeartMedia Columbus announced that it was changing the format of Sunny 100, a longtime adult contemporary station, to Santa 100, all Christmas music, all the time.

Thursday, with this week’s snow still on the ground, there was no “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” playing on 100.1 on the FM radio dial. Instead, it is now “Hot 100, C-Town’s Hottest Hip Hop & R&B, effective immediately,” according to the iHeart release.

The new format will include both modern and classic Hip Hop and R&B from artists like Migos, Cardi B, JAY-Z, Khalid, SZA and more.

The Sunny 100 format will will continue to be available on FM-94.7.

“We are excited to have a mainstream urban station back in our market,” said Derrick Greene, senior vice president of programming, in a prepared statement. “Our expert team knows urban radio and what our local listeners want, and we can’t wait to bring them the best programming and music the format has to offer.”

That is a little different than what the prepared statement for Santa 100 on Monday said.

“This might strike some as being risky in this environment of new media, but I’ve looked at the numbers and they don’t lie. There’s literally a clamoring for Christmas music 24/7/365/52,” says Jennifer Newman, local market president, in a prepared release.

There appears to a business reason for the switch of adult contemporary to hip-hop. iHeart owns seven stations in the Columbus market. According to FCC rules, they can only own six.

WBFA, 98.3 and currently a hip-hop format, has been for sale for years. Last week, the FCC approved the sale of WBFA to RCG Media, which is owned by Christopher Martin, son of local radio mogul Jimbo Martin of PMB Broadcasting.

iHeart found itself without a hip-hop station. They own Magic 101.3, which is an urban station but different from the hip-hop format.

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 11:35 AM with the headline "That didn’t take long — iHeart kills ‘Santa 100’ for hip-hop format."