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WIAD 94.7 The Drive

radiodx10

radiodx10

So, as I was driving through DC yesterday, I noticed 94.7 flipped. I have to say, it is really nice to have a classic hits station in DC. The only station that was near the Drive was WBIG. I'm also a big fan WWDC DC 101.

The Drive's playlist is the same as any other classic hits station today, but as a whole I think's a good sounding station. It's just a shame how poor their signal is since they and WDSD overlap really bad once you get into Baltimore.
 
radiodx10 said:
So, as I was driving through DC yesterday, I noticed 94.7 flipped. I have to say, it is really nice to have a classic hits station in DC. The only station that was near the Drive was WBIG. I'm also a big fan WWDC DC 101.

The Drive's playlist is the same as any other classic hits station today, but as a whole I think's a good sounding station. It's just a shame how poor their signal is since they and WDSD overlap really bad once you get into Baltimore.
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Uh they became the drive back in October... youre a bit later on this
 
Don’t be surprised if The Drive goes away in the next few months. It’s likely either them or El Zol that will become WRQX once 107.3 goes to EMF.

It is not the best classic hits station in DC and it’s suburbs (that goes to WGRQ in Fredericksburg) or really anything spectacular on a formatic level, but DC was over Hot-AC’d, and sorely missing a classic hits station since WBIG went classic rock.

That being said, the sung jingles sound terrible! As if they got a decent jingle package and sped the pitch up 20%.
 
radiodx10 said:
It's just a shame how poor their signal is since they and WDSD overlap really bad once you get into Baltimore.
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On paper, WIAD and (as an example) WASH have nearly identical coverage with the differences only lying in the exact positioning of the towers in the city.

All the DC-Philly-NYC-Boston corridor is tightly packed, with adjacents very much impinging on the fringe coverage of nearby stations.

Nearly all the DC FMs cover about the same population... WWDC leades with 4.04 million and WTOP is near the bottom with 3.7 million in the 70 dbu coverage area. So saying that WIAD has a poor signal is really not accurate as none of the DC FMs was designed to cover Baltimore, as the city of Baltimore is outside the 60 dbu of all of them.
 
I doubt we'll see 99.1 flip to Hot AC. For starters, we don't know the nature of the contractual arrangement with Bloomberg. Second, there would be far too much signal & content overlap with Baltimore's Mix 106.5 (owned by Entercom).

iHeart won't flip any of their local stations, even though DC101 is underperforming. Why? Simple - by default, they are already going to pick up most of 107.3's disaffected listeners (97.1 WASH-FM will be the main beneficiary).

For Hot AC to make a return - there almost assuredly would need to be a sale of some sort involved. If, a year or two from now, 94.7 The Drive's ratings are in the toilet, I could see them picking up the Hot AC format. I know WPGC's ratings aren't nearly as good as they once were in 6+; how well are they performing in A25-54 these days?
 
DavidEduardo said:


On paper, WIAD and (as an example) WASH have nearly identical coverage with the differences only lying in the exact positioning of the towers in the city.

All the DC-Philly-NYC-Boston corridor is tightly packed, with adjacents very much impinging on the fringe coverage of nearby stations.

Nearly all the DC FMs cover about the same population... WWDC leades with 4.04 million and WTOP is near the bottom with 3.7 million in the 70 dbu coverage area. So saying that WIAD has a poor signal is really not accurate as none of the DC FMs was designed to cover Baltimore, as the city of Baltimore is outside the 60 dbu of all of them.
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David, you are certainly correct that the DC FM's were not designed to serve Baltimore. But, the nearly identical coverage on paper notwithstanding, WASH has always had a much stronger signal across the Baltimore area. I'm guessing the closest 97.1 to WASH from the north is New York while WDSD on 94.7 is much closer to Baltimore.
 
MarkW said:
I doubt we'll see 99.1 flip to Hot AC. For starters, we don't know the nature of the contractual arrangement with Bloomberg. Second, there would be far too much signal & content overlap with Baltimore's Mix 106.5 (owned by Entercom).
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Agreed, it's all about money. Not ratings. Bloomberg pays quite a bit of money to lease towers. They paid over a million a year for am 1200 (a crapshoot signal) in Boston. Entercom would have to have a plan that would guarantee they would earn more money annually than Bloomberg is paying them.

Also remember ratings do not = revenue. There are plenty of highly rated stations that do not bill. Classic Rock is a perfect example. Gets great ratings, never generates equivalent revenue.
 
radioface said:
Agreed, it's all about money. Not ratings. Bloomberg pays quite a bit of money to lease towers. They paid over a million a year for am 1200 (a crapshoot signal) in Boston. Entercom would have to have a plan that would guarantee they would earn more money annually than Bloomberg is paying them.
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Bloomberg leases the station. I believe that iHeart leases the towers, as they sold off most of their vertical real estate some time ago and leased it back.

Also remember ratings do not = revenue. There are plenty of highly rated stations that do not bill. Classic Rock is a perfect example. Gets great ratings, never generates equivalent revenue.
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Classic rock is generally a high biller when the station is established. Look at WAXQ or the two in Philly, all of which are near the top among FM music station revenue generators.

Examples of top billers in the format:
WAXQ New Youk
WMGK Philly
WZLX Boston
WDRV Chicago
KQRS Minneapolis
KSLX Phoenix
WBIG DC
WBBG Miami
KZPS Dallas
KQMT Denver
KCFX Kansas City
KRFX Denver
KSHE St Louis
KZOK Seattle
WXSX Detroit
WFBQ Indy
WNCX Cleveland
KSEG Sacramento
WRFX Charlotte
WBAB Long Island
KGON Portland
WODE Allentown
KGB San Diego
KLBJ Austin
WLVQ Columbus.

And the list goes on.

Even in highly ethnic markets like Fresno, the classic rocker does well. In that case, KSKS is tied for 5th in billings in a market with 52 commercial stations home to the market. In Albuquerque, which is over 50% Hispanic, the #3 biller is KIOT.

Like any other format, some stations do better in their market than others do in other markets. But in general, classic rock is a solid revenue generator in a majority of markets.
 
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RoddyFreeman said:
David, you are certainly correct that the DC FM's were not designed to serve Baltimore. But, the nearly identical coverage on paper notwithstanding, WASH has always had a much stronger signal across the Baltimore area. I'm guessing the closest 97.1 to WASH from the north is New York while WDSD on 94.7 is much closer to Baltimore.
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Definitely true. Each of the B's in DC has something on the fringe to the NE, North, NW, West or South that restricts use in the fringe area. About the only "safe side" is the east and Southeast, where there are few stations and a lot of ocean!
 
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