96.5 The Mountain Goes Pop

Rumors became reality today as, after 11 years, the station known as "96.5 The Mountain" shifts it's focus from rock, to pop music.

The station's last song was Linkin Park's "In The End", and the station's personalities teased a country station before launching its Top-40 format. Its first song--Kanye West's "Stronger".

The format change comes after weeks of speculation that something was going to happen to a Chattanooga radio station.

Afternoon personality Dylan is out, and in is the nationally-syndicated "Kidd Kraddick" morning show. Morning hosts Jason Walker and Brad Steiner move to different timeslots, but according to radio industry site All Access, everything else remains the same.

The change is a departure for the station, which in recent years had prided itself on being "Live and Local". It also marks a return of a Top-40 station to the Chattanooga area since "98.1 Kiss FM" became classic country "98.1 The Legend".

This news comes as another Top-40 station, 104.9 WALV out of the Dayton/Cleveland area, and known as "Alive 105", is slated to make a move into Hamilton County, though at significantly decreased power.

The station, also known by it's WDOD-FM call letters, is one of only four commercial 100,000-watt FM stations in the area (the others being WUSY "US101", WDEF "Sunny 92.3", and WSKZ "KZ-106"). That high of a power brings with it a signal that reaches from the outskirts of Nashville, Atlanta, Asheville, and Knoxville.

While ratings for "The Mountain" as a rock station weren't low, the ratings were the lowest among the 4 high-power stations.

Rock music launched on the WDOD-FM frequency in 1997. The station will continue to be known as "The Mountain".

Prior to that, the station was country and known as "96.5 River Country".