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Philly Radio- 2019 Predictions

After a fairly active year in Philly radio... with format changes and shifts... stations changing hands, and more... it'd be interesting to see what everyone may predict in 2019. And if we want... in exactly one year, we can look back and see if ANYONE was correct, lol.

So what do you think will happen in Philly radio in 2019?

I feel like format-wise... it's going to be VERY quiet. 96.5 TDY will be given time to grow and compete with Q (and so far it has!), and 106.1 the Breeze will see if it can do any damage to the re-imaged B101.1. Radio 104.5 and Ben FM will continue to plug along with decent to good ratings. Even Urban One looks to be at least steady with WRNB and Boom doing OK... and the new Classix needing time to grow.
 
There will be more commercials ....

KYW will make more streamlining changes and have their folks speak just as fast, so they can play extra commercials ....

If the Breeze has nothing to offer other than the initial buzz, sometime in mid-February they will change the format to Ice Cold A/C .....

Julius May will turn down WPHT's offer to format the place and instead will be appointed Trump's temporary national music director .....

Stallone will be filmed running up all those the steps at B-101 to get in shape for Rocky XXI .....

WDAS-AM will switch to Black Solid Gold Weather ......

To get a head start for the next Holiday season among eight other competitors, 101.1 will switch to all-Christmas just after Valentine's Day .....

(Oh, come on, folks. These are the good jokes! Lol)

Happy New Year To all !
 
We will see more posts on here about 1210 doing so bad and they need to change formats, with suggestions on what they should flip formats to
 
Even Urban One looks to be at least steady with WRNB and Boom doing OK... and the new Classix needing time to grow.
No format change, but what about frequency swap for those formats? They like to do that alot, generally postioning what they feel is their strongest format on 100.3, and weakest on 107.9.
 
i don't know if this is considered a prediction - but a wish that Harvey Holiday could come out of retirement at WOGL
 
By mid to late summer the breeze creeps up to a 4 share overall, B is down to high 5s. This makes B 6th 25-54 while the Breeze nabs #5.

96.5 TDY becomes the higher rated chr station. Q has the teens but TDY gets the adult chr listeners.

WOGL, WDAS, and WMGK continue to own the market. The Breeze hasn't affected WOGL like it seems to have B-101.1.

95.7 starts to add a bunch of newer hot ac songs to their playlist. Sometimes they sound like a hot ac and at others they sound like adult hits. This combination does appeal to a subset of the adult female audience though and their numbers improve a bit.

Classix tweeks their playlist and ends up being a really cool station to hear forgotten rnb songs (eg. all night thing by invisible man's band). Still it does amount for much ratings gang but is a radio geeks gem.
 
By mid to late summer the breeze creeps up to a 4 share overall, B is down to high 5s.

I won't be surprised to see B101 drop to 5's during 2019 but it's pretty bold to predict a 4 share for The Breeze! That would surprise me quite a bit!
 
I won't be surprised to see B101 drop to 5's during 2019 but it's pretty bold to predict a 4 share for The Breeze! That would surprise me quite a bit!

I do see a 3 to 4 share for The Breeze, but don't see that big a dip in B101. While we do not have much comparative history, if we look at WFEZ and WLYF in Miami, we see that WFEZ has achieved parity and a bit of an advantage over WLYF, but WLYF remains a very strong station.

WLYF is comparable to WBEB and WFEZ is, of course, the grand daddy of the Breeze-like formats. Granted, Miami is ethnically, lifestyle-wise and even economically as different as possible from Philadelphia, I still see a valid comparison between the two stations. This is not because the markets are the same, but because the formats are.
 


I do see a 3 to 4 share for The Breeze, but don't see that big a dip in B101. While we do not have much comparative history, if we look at WFEZ and WLYF in Miami, we see that WFEZ has achieved parity and a bit of an advantage over WLYF, but WLYF remains a very strong station.

WLYF is comparable to WBEB and WFEZ is, of course, the grand daddy of the Breeze-like formats. Granted, Miami is ethnically, lifestyle-wise and even economically as different as possible from Philadelphia, I still see a valid comparison between the two stations. This is not because the markets are the same, but because the formats are.

I'm assuming that cle...umm Iheart media is going to do the Breeze in Philly right like they did in San Francisco. Like you said, totally different markets but when done right this is a mass appeal adult format that can find its footing in any market. I can see B-101.1 going to down to like a 5.7 overall, and most importantly a little dip in w25-54. Millennial females surprisingly really like 80s music. That doesn't mean they like all of it, but certainly there are a decent amount of songs that they like. B 101.1 to me, as of a few months ago(when it was More), was almost hot ac sounding, almost. There wasn't that much 80s product. Maybe they wanted to let new sister WOGL own the decade but they seem to know now that they need to play the right 80s in the mix to really round out the position of that at work variety station.

No one can predict anything anymore. A couple years ago if you told me that a station like WFEZ would be #1 18-34 I would burst out in laughter, but it's happened. I think we have a little insight into the fact that the young adults in Philly like their older music as an escape from the sound of 2k + songs. WMGK recently won 18-34 and that's a good sign for the new Breeze, as long as they get the feel and texture right and play the right mass appeal mix for Philly. We do know now that this can be done, the question now is will it?
 
I'm assuming that cle...umm Iheart media is going to do the Breeze in Philly right like they did in San Francisco. Like you said, totally different markets but when done right this is a mass appeal adult format that can find its footing in any market. I can see B-101.1 going to down to like a 5.7 overall, and most importantly a little dip in w25-54. Millennial females surprisingly really like 80s music. That doesn't mean they like all of it, but certainly there are a decent amount of songs that they like. B 101.1 to me, as of a few months ago(when it was More), was almost hot ac sounding, almost. There wasn't that much 80s product. Maybe they wanted to let new sister WOGL own the decade but they seem to know now that they need to play the right 80s in the mix to really round out the position of that at work variety station.

No one can predict anything anymore. A couple years ago if you told me that a station like WFEZ would be #1 18-34 I would burst out in laughter, but it's happened. I think we have a little insight into the fact that the young adults in Philly like their older music as an escape from the sound of 2k + songs. WMGK recently won 18-34 and that's a good sign for the new Breeze, as long as they get the feel and texture right and play the right mass appeal mix for Philly. We do know now that this can be done, the question now is will it?

Keep in mind that WFEZ has been AC since 2010. It took them about 4 years to start to make inroads on WLYF in 25-54. But, more important, they caused the total English language AC shares to increase. A good deal of WFEZ's growth came at the expense of WAMR, which had always been the leading AC station in the market... there is a far greater correlation between the WAMR numbers and WFEZ's 25-54 growth than with WLYF. And this was because WFEZ specifically went after Hispanics after the more generic and older approach patterned after WDUV failed to win any salable 25-54 position.

In Miami, WFEZ has 55% Hispanic listening, and over 75% of those Hispanic listeners are Spanish dominant. Only 36% of listening is by non-Hispanic whites. That also explains why WFEZ does so well in younger demos as those younger numbers are almost entirely Hispanic driven and are, in part, a product of a much richer cultural heritage of romantic music in that culture.

WBEB is likely to stay in the 6 share range, unless Entercom screws it up. But if it loses audience to The Breeze, it will be Entercom's failure to understand the nature of Jerry Lee's legacy. In a reverse view, any losses by WLYF in Miami have more to do with Entercom's failure to understand the Hispanic market there, as all their stations seem to underperform with that group.
 
WBEB is likely to stay in the 6 share range, unless Entercom screws it up. But if it loses audience to The Breeze, it will be Entercom's failure to understand the nature of Jerry Lee's legacy. .

Totally agree. I've said something to this effect a couple times and was torn apart for it. Maybe that was because I expressed concern that Entercom was likely to screw it up. haha.

I noticed that The Breeze has added "Something To Talk About" by Bonnie Raitt to their rotation. You'll recall that I railed hard about that sorta stuff being exactly what a Soft AC in this market should be playing. Now, if B101.1 re-adds that stuff, I'll feel vindicated in my fear about Entercom mishandling their investment.
 
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