The South Rising In Birmingham

[Poledo]

Smells like WCOA.
Looks like WCOA.
Talk is just another placeholder that "advertises" the AM side hoping listeners will tune to WAPI after 99.5 flips to... whatever, in about 1 year.

I was kinda hoping the "South" moniker and logo might be real and have Sports and ESPN added to it. Move WJQX to 99.5 and put Birmingham Mountain Radio back on 100.5.

Meh. Not my market.

 

[Groove1670]

Listened to South for about 15 minutes. Great publicity stunt.

 

[R.D.P.]

By this time next year, we'll be back talking about what 99.5 FM's new format for the month will be. I don't see Talk working out. It'll be a ratings and colossal failure for them.

Dan <><

 

[tomservo]

By this time next year, we'll be back talking about what 99.5 FM's new format for the month will be. I don't see Talk working out. It'll be a ratings and colossal failure for them.

Dan <><

It's certainly going to be difficult to achieve high ratings with local talk, but that may not be why they blew up Nash Icon. The country format never climbed out of the doldrums despite getting some positive accolades on social media. It's probably a cost-cutting measure as much as anything. They already have the talk talent and it'll be cheaper to just shunt them over to the FM (with an AM simulcast) than it would to try and launch another music format, since that would require at least some local on air hosting, sales weasels and all that. This is probably their way of saying "if we're only going to get a 2 share it might as well not cost us much money."

 

[mrjay]

It's certainly going to be difficult to achieve high ratings with local talk, but that may not be why they blew up Nash Icon. The country format never climbed out of the doldrums despite getting some positive accolades on social media. It's probably a cost-cutting measure as much as anything. They already have the talk talent and it'll be cheaper to just shunt them over to the FM (with an AM simulcast) than it would to try and launch another music format, since that would require at least some local on air hosting, sales weasels and all that. This is probably their way of saying "if we're only going to get a 2 share it might as well not cost us much money."

I was honestly quite surprised by the number of people posting pictures of their radios on 99.5 and commenting how glad they are that Leland was back on the air. Being a potential advertiser, this certainly reached me as what a large audience his show reaches. And there was quite a bit of bellyaching from the people who couldn't hear the show that got hooked when he was on 101.1 (100,000 out of my hometown of Dullman, um, Cullman).

That being said, I wasn't a huge fan of talk. I am more a fan of radio. My girlfriend sort of went through a period where she fully agreed with everything Leland said (and that is rare for her) so I checked it out and yes, sometimes, when i'm in the mood, I can enjoy some talk. But I was really blown away today studying social media at what a large audience they have.

so - doesn't audience = ratings ?

 

[tomservo]

so - doesn't audience = ratings ?

In theory… but in theory communism works.

I suppose one advantage of existing in this modern time is stations with new formats can get almost instant feedback via social media, long before the first ratings books come in. But I'm not sure that we can gauge a station's performance based on social media likes, comments or following pages/handles. Hopefully someone with knowledge on this can chime in, because it's something I'm interested in.

Likes on Facebook don't seem to correlate to ratings position, that's for sure. For example, WZZK has nearly 50,000 FB likes but has half the 12+ ratings that Kiss has, while 98.7 only has ~12,000 likes. WAPI (AM) has 4,000 likes but didn't crack a 1 share.

Furthermore, do the positive mentions on social media for a new format stand alone after a format change, or are they negated for every complaint about an old format disappearing?

 

[tomservo]

Sigh, the board won't let me edit my last post, it just goes into a black hole after the CAPCHA.

I was going to add that if complaints negate kudos, then the well liked South format was a wash, because I saw almost as many people hating it as loved it. Most but not all were displaced Nash Icon fans.

 

[rtc]

New WZRR 99.5 spot to air on Fox 6...scroll down for
the "I Believe" video:

http://www.talk995.com/#

 

[Gregg.]

I don't understand why Cumulus would "stunt" with a new music format for 99.5 when they intended to simply simulcast their AM Talk station from WAPI 1070? I'm sure this stunt cost some station personnel time and effort. With Cumulus' big debt, are there people employed at the Cumulus Birmingham operation with nothing to do but create a new FM radio station, a new playlist, website, etc. that is just a stunt for a few days before the real format debuts, which is basically the same format that was already airing on the 50,000 watt Cumulus AM station?

How will that get 99.5 Birmingham's Real Talk more listeners, now that it's premiered? Are radio listeners in the Birmingham market saying to themselves, "Ha! How funny! They pretended to create a new Country/Classic Rock/Adult Alternative station for a few days, but it's really a Talk station! What a great idea! Now I'll listen to the same format that's been running on 1070 all this time!" And the people who put together the stunt playlist, liners and website, can all now go back to their real jobs?

 

[tomservo]

I can't speak to personnel costs but I'm sure it was pennies to create a temporary website. They probably own tons of hosting and just had to buy a domain to point to the temp site. Twitter costs nothing and I'm sure some overworked and underpaid intern was helming that.

I've been told that format stunts like this are often done as a way to "cleanse" the frequency of its loyal listeners, to drive them away in preparation for a fresh start. Dunno how true that is, but it isn't very sensible. Talk would drive away Nash Icon listeners as much as Black Betty and ZZ Top would.

 

[Kent]

When it comes to Cumulus, keep in mind that most of the company is owned by a few multibillion dollar PE firms. Rather than doing cash deals, Cumulus expanded by using stock and the PE firms' cash. In other words, this massive debt Cumulus has is mostly a paper debt. These PE firms owe most of this debt to themselves and will be able to write checks as long as they wish.

When it comes to stunting and "The South," I suspect that format appealed to the same audience the talk format is after. Say what you will, but it worked in the sense that it got us talking about it. I'm sure we're not the only ones.