There are format changes where somebody adjusts the music library, changes the sweepers and hopes the audience eventually notices. Then there are format changes where an established television brand essentially reaches through the screen, grabs an FM frequency and says, “We’ll take this one, too.” That second scenario is about to play out in Southern Oregon, where Marquee Broadcasting West is preparing to retire Classic Hits “Kool 103.5” KLDZ and replace it Monday, Sept. 14, with Weigel Broadcasting’s Soft Oldies “MeTV-FM.”
Yes, that MeTV.
The television home of classic programming is extending its relationship with Marquee in the Medford market from television into radio, giving the Rogue Valley a station built around essentially the same emotional currency that has made the TV brand work:
Familiarity. Comfort. Memory. And a whole lot of “WAIT — I HAVEN’T HEARD THIS IN YEARS!”
Welcome to MeTV-FM 103.5.
And don’t expect this to be Kool with a different logo.
KOOL IS OUT. SOFT OLDIES ARE IN.
KLDZ has operated as Kool 103.5, playing the familiar Classic Hits game.
That changes Sept. 14.
The station will move into Weigel’s MeTV-FM format, a music product built considerably differently from the increasingly predictable Classic Hits model heard in markets across America.
And that’s what makes this worth watching.
Classic Hits has spent much of the past decade marching forward through the calendar. The format that once conjured images of ’60s and ’70s records has progressively moved through the ’80s, ’90s and beyond as audience demographics changed.
Perfectly logical.
But something got left behind.
A LOT OF REALLY GOOD RECORDS.
Songs that were once staples of American radio gradually disappeared because they didn’t fit the increasingly narrow demographic and research parameters of contemporary Classic Hits and AC stations.
MeTV-FM has built much of its identity around going back into that musical attic.
And apparently Medford is about to get the key.
THIS ISN’T A 400-SONG JUKEBOX
Here’s where radio programmers should pay attention.
The MeTV-FM proposition isn’t simply “OLD SONGS.”
That would be easy.
It’s the breadth.
The format’s identity has traditionally stretched across multiple decades of pop, soft rock, soul and melodic favorites, with an emphasis on records that trigger recognition without necessarily being the same handful of songs listeners have heard approximately 47,000 times since Memorial Day.
You know the phenomenon.
You’re driving.
A song starts.
Three notes in, you say:
“OH MY GOD.”
Then:
“WHO SINGS THIS?”
Then:
“I USED TO LOVE THIS SONG!”
Then somehow you know every word despite not consciously hearing the record since Reagan was president.
THAT is the product.
MeTV-FM isn’t merely selling old music.
It’s selling musical rediscovery.
And there’s a difference.
THE TELEVISION CONNECTION MAKES THIS EVEN SMARTER
Marquee Broadcasting already has a relationship with the MeTV television brand in Southern Oregon, carrying the network on WMVU-TV 26.2.
Now that relationship is crossing media.
That’s fascinating because MeTV may be one of the rare entertainment brands whose fundamental proposition translates unusually well from television to radio.
Think about it.
What does MeTV television do?
It takes familiar entertainment from earlier eras, packages it carefully and presents it to an audience that finds genuine pleasure in rediscovering something it remembers.
What does MeTV-FM do?
Basically the same damn thing, except Andy Griffith has been replaced by America, Carly Simon and The Carpenters.
Okay, maybe that’s oversimplifying it.
But not by much.
Weigel has built an ecosystem around the idea that nostalgia doesn’t have to feel dusty.
That’s an important distinction.
Because nostalgia packaged badly feels old.
Nostalgia packaged correctly feels comfortable.
And comfortable can be extremely powerful.
NEAL SABIN PUT IT PRETTY SIMPLY
Weigel Vice Chairman Neal Sabin summed up the cross-platform strategy by connecting the emotional experience of the television network directly to the new radio station.
His message, essentially: the same thing MeTV delivers visually, MeTV-FM intends to deliver musically throughout the Rogue Valley.
And that’s really the whole strategy in one sentence.
The brand equity already exists.
Marquee doesn’t have to spend six months explaining what “MeTV” means.
A portion of the audience already knows.
Now the challenge becomes converting television familiarity into radio trial.
“You watch us. Now listen to us.”
That’s a pretty clean marketing proposition.
AND YES, THERE’S STILL A PLACE FOR THIS KIND OF RADIO
Somebody inevitably asks the question whenever Soft Oldies comes up:
Who is this for?
Older listeners.
There.
We said it.
Nobody exploded.
Radio sometimes behaves as though acknowledging adults over 54 will cause Nielsen to descend from the heavens and confiscate the transmitter.
Yes, the industry’s traditional advertising economics make 25-54 enormously important.
Yes, agencies disproportionately concentrate spending within younger demos.
Yes, every programmer understands that reality.
But there’s another reality.
PEOPLE OVER 55 STILL EXIST.
They drive cars.
They buy houses.
They eat at restaurants.
They travel.
They need healthcare.
They purchase financial services.
They shop locally.
And—in a development that may shock portions of the advertising community—they possess money.
In the right market, with the right ownership structure and a sales organization capable of selling beyond a simplistic ranker?
That audience can have value.
Particularly for a locally operated station that doesn’t necessarily need to win an agency beauty contest to build a sustainable business.
MEDFORD MAY BE AN INTERESTING PLACE TO TRY IT
The Rogue Valley isn’t Chicago.
It isn’t Los Angeles.
It isn’t Atlanta.
And that’s precisely the point.
Not every successful radio strategy needs to be designed as though the station is fighting for a national agency buy in Market No. 3.
Smaller and midsized markets can reward specificity.
A station can succeed by being exceptionally useful—or exceptionally loved—by a particular group of people.
MeTV-FM isn’t pretending everybody between 18 and 49 is going to abandon Spotify Monday morning because somebody played “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight.”
That’s not the assignment.
The assignment is to create an identifiable, emotionally resonant radio station for an audience that may currently feel underserved.
And if somebody hears England Dan & John Ford Coley and immediately turns the radio up?
Mission accomplished.
SO LONG, KOOL. HELLO, MeTV-FM.
There’s always a little melancholy when a radio brand disappears.
Kool 103.5 had an identity.
It had listeners.
Somebody undoubtedly has that logo on a T-shirt in a closet.
But radio survives by changing.
Sometimes the right move is younger.
Sometimes it’s more current.
Sometimes it’s more personality.
Sometimes it’s a completely different format.
And sometimes the smartest thing a radio station can do in 2026 is dig deeply into several decades of music and find the songs everybody else decided weren’t important anymore.
That’s what makes this flip interesting.
On Monday, Sept. 14, 103.5 in Medford isn’t merely getting older.
It’s getting broader.
Softer.
More nostalgic.
And potentially a whole lot less predictable.
So if you’re driving through the Rogue Valley next week and suddenly hear a song you haven’t encountered on terrestrial radio since your first apartment, your first marriage, your first station wagon or the first time somebody told you bell-bottoms were never coming back…
DON’T PANIC.
Your radio hasn’t entered a time warp.
MeTV-FM has arrived in Medford.
And somewhere, buried deep inside a music library considerably larger than the average corporate Classic Hits playlist, there’s probably a record waiting to make somebody pull over and say:
“I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY’RE PLAYING THIS.”
In radio?
That’s still one hell of a reaction to get.
— On The Dial
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