In January 1998, Chancellor changed the call letters to WBIX, rebranded the station as "Big 105", and steered it more toward the Hot AC format of WPLJ.
The difference from competitor WRKS was described this way by Airplay Monitor editor Sean Ross: TV spots feature former New York mayor Ed Koch, not exactly someone you expect to emerge from the P-Funk mother ship.
[3] Music director Wayne Mayo had held the same job at WRKS in New York City and at KISQ in San Francisco.
[13] In November 2000, WOCL in Orlando, KHZZ in Sacramento, and WBBT-FM in Richmond changed several weeks after WGFX in Nashville left the format.
[3] Former KCMG program director Don Parker said a mass-appeal format would not do as well as one that targeted a specific ethnic group (his station went after Hispanics despite requests to add more disco).
KMBX played no 60s music, while WJJJ (which was co-owned with oldies WWSW) added songs from the 80s and 90s and de-emphasized Motown.
[13] In some markets, Jammin' Oldies should never have been tried, in the opinion of Infinity Broadcasting senior vice president John Gehron.
Former AMFM Chief Programming Officer Steve Rivers said the format was tried when conventional oldies was not succeeding, but this turned out to be a mistake.
In addition to WTJM, which switched its call letters to WWPR and became an urban contemporary station, format pioneer KCMG (which became KHHT) was playing newer hits, along with WJMR in Milwaukee and KMJK in Kansas City, Missouri.
Greg Love, the program director in charge of switching KMJK to Jammin' Oldies, said the format began to lose its appeal because people got excited to hear the songs, and then they were no longer special.
KHHT program director Michelle Santosousso said many R&B stations were focusing on rap, and the more adult hits were hard to find.
Love also said The Isley Brothers, Barry White and The Temptations were recording new music, and an oldies station could not play those.
[12] In late 2012, Clear Channel Radio announced a new Rhythmic Oldies format for KOGO-FM in San Diego, which had been stunting with Christmas music.
On February 6, 2015, KHHT—Los Angeles, the successor to the first rhythmic oldies station, KCMG, flipped to urban contemporary, returning that format to the 92.3 FM dial position for the first time since 2000.
Legendary Los Angeles radio personality Art Laboe, whose show was carried at nights on KHHT, later moved to KDAY.
Since the demise of KHHT, a few stations in the suburban areas in and around Los Angeles have flipped to the format, including KQIE in the Inland Empire, KOCP in Ventura, and KQAV in the Antelope Valley.