As someone relatively new to Yakima (2 years) could somebody tell me how KXDD became such a dominant country station? Not only are they the top country station in the ratings by a large margin, the ratio is even bigger in real life. Of the last 100 times I heard someone playing country radio in a business or car, at least 90 times it's KXDD. It could even be 98 times...that's how much I hear it. How did they get so entrenched? Do they have a lot of heritage?
I asked a country fan I know why he thinks KXDD is so much more popular than KDBL (the Bull). What he said shocked me..."You mean there is another country station besides K X Double D?". He honestly had no idea the BULL even existed. A few days later he told me he found the Bull but had trouble picking up the signal in his Union Gap home. That's the first I heard of a signal issue (I get both stations fine in my car). So does KXDD really have the superior signal and does this play a role in their success?
I was very surprised when AM classic country the Tractor flipped formats. Their ratings were the highest I have seen an AM music station get in years, in well over a decade. I heard them around town (more than the Bull!) and I knew listeners who were passionate fans of this station (which is hard to find even for FM stations in this era). Imagine if they would have put some effort into the station, like a live morning show, instead of being a jukebox. Heck, they had the potential to beat KIT for top AM station in Yakima.
So just why did the TRACTOR change formats? After months of being baffled I came up with a theory. They were TOO successful for their own good....meaning they were actually becoming a bit of a threat to sister station and cash cow KXDD...they were shaving off 2 or 3 shares from them.
Of course the reason the TRACTOR changed could have been something boring like "we couldn't sell it". Well if that's the case good luck selling anything on the dying AM bandwidth.
Considering the Tractor built up so much excitement in their short life span my suggestion for Townsquare Media is to re-brand the BULL as the TRACTOR! That would create some big excitement. If the demos are too old being all classic they could young it up by also playing "real country" type currents and recurrents plus they could have some aggressive, exciting sounding imaging.
Becoming the TRACTOR would give Townsquare the best chance to make a big dent into K-X-Double-D. Otherwise the BULL will stay the secondary country station forever. Of course radio is less competitive than it used to be (not just Yakima by any means) and Townsquare could be perfectly content with a secondary country station, just as long as they have a country station in their mix of stations for their clients to advertise on.
I asked a country fan I know why he thinks KXDD is so much more popular than KDBL (the Bull). What he said shocked me..."You mean there is another country station besides K X Double D?". He honestly had no idea the BULL even existed. A few days later he told me he found the Bull but had trouble picking up the signal in his Union Gap home. That's the first I heard of a signal issue (I get both stations fine in my car). So does KXDD really have the superior signal and does this play a role in their success?
I was very surprised when AM classic country the Tractor flipped formats. Their ratings were the highest I have seen an AM music station get in years, in well over a decade. I heard them around town (more than the Bull!) and I knew listeners who were passionate fans of this station (which is hard to find even for FM stations in this era). Imagine if they would have put some effort into the station, like a live morning show, instead of being a jukebox. Heck, they had the potential to beat KIT for top AM station in Yakima.
So just why did the TRACTOR change formats? After months of being baffled I came up with a theory. They were TOO successful for their own good....meaning they were actually becoming a bit of a threat to sister station and cash cow KXDD...they were shaving off 2 or 3 shares from them.
Of course the reason the TRACTOR changed could have been something boring like "we couldn't sell it". Well if that's the case good luck selling anything on the dying AM bandwidth.
Considering the Tractor built up so much excitement in their short life span my suggestion for Townsquare Media is to re-brand the BULL as the TRACTOR! That would create some big excitement. If the demos are too old being all classic they could young it up by also playing "real country" type currents and recurrents plus they could have some aggressive, exciting sounding imaging.
Becoming the TRACTOR would give Townsquare the best chance to make a big dent into K-X-Double-D. Otherwise the BULL will stay the secondary country station forever. Of course radio is less competitive than it used to be (not just Yakima by any means) and Townsquare could be perfectly content with a secondary country station, just as long as they have a country station in their mix of stations for their clients to advertise on.