105.3 has a much larger coverage area than 99.5.  I guess it does make sense,  Virgin Kitchener at 105.3 has a good signal into the London area.  And London has it own Virgin station.  They aren't wasting any time for the flip.

paterson1 wrote:

  Virgin Kitchener at 105.3 has a good signal into the London area.  And London has it own Virgin station.  They aren't wasting any time for the flip.

They also have the same on-air lineup.

km93 wrote:

So in a way 105.3 will sound like KOOL used to and will cover most of Southern Ontario.

The KOOL they should have left alone in the first place.

It makes sense that they do this. Before when Bell owned 102.9 it was also Bounce radio. The signal comes in to Kitchener and Waterloo. Now they don’t own it and from my understanding Bell promised 12 months non compete with the stations they sold. So they couldn’t move Bounce to the stronger signal to compete with Legend 102.9. Putting Virgin on a crappier signal is fine considering the London station comes in well to KW and the Toronto station comes in to Cambridge somewhat and obviously into Guelph. The KW and London stations are basically the same programming and playlist. So it makes sense. Use 99.5 as a local repeater and everyone can use 97.5 or 99. Or even 99.9. It’s no big loss. By moving Bounce to a stronger signal it strengthens the station and potential advertising revenue.

There is probably something to consider that Bounce listeners are more likely to tune in on FM and virgin listeners on the iheart radio app anyway? So putting bounce on the better FM is a winner for that reason?