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WJAS is getting a new owner. Will it change or not?

fromtheinsideout said:
I agree and I would argue that is part that sales is a big part of WJAS's problem. Renda has one sales staff for its two Pittsburgh properties so sales tends to focus their energies on the FM side, where as a salesperson, you will make more money. The AM stations are left to fend for themselves, so business is drawn in large part by the talent that is on the air. It was one of the reasons 1360 came apart piecemeal (Lynn Cullen's show remained profitable while Doug Hoerth's didn't) rather than as a wholesale format change until Ron Morris started buying roughly 18 hours of airtime a week, and why Sunday night oldies shows were also brokered programming (first Johnny Angel then Terry Lee, who both had to get their own advertising). Once Cardille and/or Bogut leave, a large chunk of their business will leave with them and there is no talent ready to step in and fill that void, nor are there clients lined up for programming beyond that which Cardille and/or Bogut supply.
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I posted this a while back, When Free Form FM first came along, not only did rock acts get more exposure. The mellow singer-songwriters like James Taylor, Jackson Browne and others were right there alongside the Doors and Led Zeppelin, just like Sammy Davis, Jr. was alongside the Grass Roots over on AM. I suspect that as the audience ages, WJAS could pick up those Baby Boomers who are nostalgic for the softer, more mellow music of the late 60's and 70's, and maintain their success for another decade."

I still think that's true. Maybe in other markets people in their 60's aren't much of a market, but Allegheny County has the oldest average population outside of Florida. The ad agencies might not want to spend money on reaching that market, but individual business owners in the Pittsburgh Metro who make their own decisions could find reaching aging Baby Boomers a very attractive bunch of customers.

What you said about Cardille & Bogut makes sense, but there are other, younger has-beens out there who might fill the void. Jim Quinn has a good track record of re-inventing himself when times change. He also had something of a reputation for selling spots on his talk show. Combine Jim Quinn with the kind of mellow singer-songwriter music from the early days of free-form FM and I think you'd have a station that every senior business executive in his 60's who lives in Mount Lebanon, Fox Chapel, or Shadyside would enjoy listening to. Or, if he didn't, his wife would.

They should have little trouble selling ads to businesses that cater to upscale Baby Boomers. I'm talking about the kind of older guys who trade in their Cadillac or Mercedes every few years. I'm talking about aging trophy wives looking for good plastic surgeons for a quick nip and tuck. People who need an estate planning lawyer, or an accountant who is good at tax sheltering. I think that market that I sketched out with a few examples could be a very lucrative market, even though it's small. It's a niche no one else is pursuing, and seems the logical replacement for the audience that was that age 20 years ago and who embraced WJAS back then. Now that those folks have gotten even older, WJAS should be able to transition to the audience who has now aged to the point the old audience was at 20 years ago.

Quinn was the first name that popped into my head when thinking about a has-been who is to his generation what Cardille and Bogut were to those who are now even older. I'll bet there are other older DJs out there in similar circumstances who'd like to return to the air.
 
I agree with what you are saying, my comment was more along the lines of the problems WJAS was having prior to the sale. One of the major benefits of the sale for the station is hopefully that it will no longer play the role of the ugly kid sister when it comes to the sales staff, instead, whatever Mr Iorio decides to do with the signal and with this being his only Pittsburgh property, any sales people hired for it will most likely be tied specifically to this station, rather than having divided loyalties. I agree that there are people out more than capable of stepping into an on air role, I was just saying that Renda wasn't doing anything long term planning to make that happen.
 
Avid Listener said:
I'm talking about the kind of older guys who trade in their Cadillac or Mercedes every few years. I'm talking about aging trophy wives looking for good plastic surgeons for a quick nip and tuck. People who need an estate planning lawyer, or an accountant who is good at tax sheltering. I think that market that I sketched out with a few examples could be a very lucrative market, even though it's small. It's a niche no one else is pursuing, and seems the logical replacement for the audience that was that age 20 years ago and who embraced WJAS back then. Now that those folks have gotten even older, WJAS should be able to transition to the audience who has now aged to the point the old audience was at 20 years ago.
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Never sold radio time, eh? That kind of sales is terribly labor intensive. Lots of personal attention to the client, lots of copy changes, lots of phone calls. Sales people can handle many fewer accounts, and therefore have to be paid a higher commission to make a decent living. (Agency sales are simple by comparison: opening call, order, send an affidavit afterwards.) And since you typically lose 30-50% of clients every year, you have to find new ones all the time.

And frankly, you're not going to make a lot on lawyers or on accountants, and most businesses are after "acquisitive" listeners - people in the prime of buying stuff, going on vacations, moving from house to house. Seniors aren't like that, and although I complained about the agencies' relentless focus on 25-54 when I was in the business, now that I am a senior I have to admit they were mining where the gold was brightest. (I'm not saying you can't make a living marketing to seniors; you can. It's just a lot lot harder, and a lot lot less lucractive, a very few professions excepted: health care, investment management, etc.)
 
RickStarr1 said:
(I'm not saying you can't make a living marketing to seniors; you can. It's just a lot lot harder, and a lot lot less lucractive, a very few professions excepted: health care, investment management, etc.)
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What do you do when you see Fred Thompson come on the TV screen? Do you stop what you're doing and listen? Or do you change the channel. Or turn off the sound?
 
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