iheart should seriously consider playing Christmas music on wisx next year. The breeze played Christmas music in Detroit and they also have an AC competitor and their ratings saw a huge boost as well. WRFF and Ben fm's ratings look concerning but hopefully that was a fluke
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106.1 the breeze
- Thread starter CassChopper96
- Start date
They may well have considered it. I’d say they were derelict if they didn’t take a good hard look. Evaluating options is someone’s job.
But what we don’t have is the data on which they base a decision.
But what we don’t have is the data on which they base a decision.
What I can't help but notice is that WISX is never mentioned in the top 5 or 6 stations in any of the widely discussed demos. I hear the station in just about every Uber but come to think of it, I suppose that's actually the only place I ever hear it.
Mildly off-topic: I have finally settled on a personal opinion of 106.1 The Breeze. I hate it. haha. I was excited about a Soft AC because back in the day, I actually listened to Sunny more than anyone else in town. But this incarnation is a repetitive snoozefest with some of the worst imaging I've heard on a major market signal.
If you look at Seattle, they had six stations playing Christmas music this year. I'm not kidding. The heritage AC station once again topped the holiday book. But the soft AC station KSWD came in second. So its possible that if WISX had flipped to Christmas, they might have come in second.
I don't remember how big of a boost Christmas gave Sunny here in Philly, and WOGL never seemed to have a MAJOR boost, but the one year that Now 97.5 went Christmas starting at the end of October (2008 because of the Phillies World Series) they spiked up to 3rd place if I remember correctly.
EDIT: WNUW made it up to #4 with a 6.1 Share in the December '08 book, behind WBEB's 8.4 share. That 6.1 dropped back to a 2.8 and 2.6 in Jan & Feb (no Holiday book listed back then?)
https://web.archive.org/web/20090216110813/http://ratings.****************:80/cgi-bin/$rol.exe/arb007
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I'm pretty sure Sunny got a nice spike each year that they went all-Christmas. I had the impression at the time that without it, the station wouldn't have existed for as long as it did. (Not that it existed for all that long.)
I never took WOGL's Christmas format that seriously because they always waited until 101.1 was doing the format for a couple weeks before they'd flip. I mean, everyone in town knew to listen to 101.1 for Christmas music. If you're really trying to compete, you wouldn't give your rival quite that much of a head start. I remember at the time, some folks saying that WOGL was mainly interested in keeping their main listeners from defecting for the month to 101.1. That theory made sense to me.
I loved the way WNUW did the Christmas format. I was excited about having them as an option. Alas, they weren't to be.
It’s never too early for wild speculation. So let’s say the powers that be decide next year 106 joins the holiday hoedown. How do they do it best?
Marketing: toss it on and assume the magic (hey, that would be a good name for a radio station) of the season will fill their stockings with dough-dough-dough? Budget for a little advertising?
Format: you can’t tell me people don’t enjoy the “mainstream” holiday mix (sounds like another good radio station name) with the numbers we’ve seen roll in. So do you more or less fish where the fish are...that is, run the standard company format? (That’s more rhetorical, but what the heck.)
Timing: Halloween? Does anyone really think in this day and age and with this many years that 101 won’t get its audience bounce when they make their own change? Set aside the handful of social media, um, “enthusiasts”—we’re talking typical-ish listeners. Just pick a date a bit ahead of the usual B flip?
Or do you say B 101 has locked this thing up enough such that it is actually counterproductive? Could the data have told them that? How do the markets with multiple
Christmas gainers align with Philly? How do they differ?
All pure fun for us with no skin in the game.
Marketing: toss it on and assume the magic (hey, that would be a good name for a radio station) of the season will fill their stockings with dough-dough-dough? Budget for a little advertising?
Format: you can’t tell me people don’t enjoy the “mainstream” holiday mix (sounds like another good radio station name) with the numbers we’ve seen roll in. So do you more or less fish where the fish are...that is, run the standard company format? (That’s more rhetorical, but what the heck.)
Timing: Halloween? Does anyone really think in this day and age and with this many years that 101 won’t get its audience bounce when they make their own change? Set aside the handful of social media, um, “enthusiasts”—we’re talking typical-ish listeners. Just pick a date a bit ahead of the usual B flip?
Or do you say B 101 has locked this thing up enough such that it is actually counterproductive? Could the data have told them that? How do the markets with multiple
Christmas gainers align with Philly? How do they differ?
All pure fun for us with no skin in the game.
They will do it the way all iHeart stations do it, using the national library and production elements that iHeart has, and it will begin when all other iHeart stations begin. I have no reason to expect otherwise. This will not be a local thing.
Well of course I'll play this game! Personally, I think folks underestimate a couple things about the Christmas flips. One is how much people want (and how early they are willing to start listening to) Christmas music. And second: I think it absolutely makes a difference to be first to pull the trigger.
If The Breeze waits until November 13, they'll lose the gamble because B101.1 will simply follow suit within a couple days, if not a couple hours. What B101.1 won't do (for whatever reason) is flip on November 1. If iHeart really wants to take a crack at this thing, I'd say they have to do around November 1. This year, November 1 will be on a weekend so I'd suggest flipping Monday (11/2) before folks even wake up. Want some serious word of mouth? Do it Friday (10/30) at 3pm. Word of mouth will happen and people will be listening to Christmas music in their cars on the way home from work.
WBEB won't likely flip any earlier than around November 12th or 13th so The Breeze could have almost two weeks alone in the format. As far as timing is concerned, I truly think this is the only way to not just get completely creamed by B101.1's Christmas format. That brings us (quite gracefully, I might add) to the actual format.
It could work with iHeart's national Christmas library but I wouldn't risk it. There are a lot of really wacky titles in that library. I don't think it's so much which Christmas songs The Breeze should play as much as it is which songs they should not play. Seriously, I'd just pare the library down so that it's nearly identical to that of 101.1.
IMHO: If they do it around November 1 with the national (is it called "Premium?") library, they'll get a couple weeks of interest and then folks will switch right over to 101.1 as soon as B flips. If they do it around November 1 and give the folks what they want (B101.1's Christmas format without having to wait for B101.1 to put it on), they might stand a chance to really make a go of it.
Just re-read what I typed and I meant to say "If they [The Breeze] do it around November 1 with the national (is it called 'Premium?') library, they'll get a couple weeks of interest and then many folks will switch right over to 101.1 as soon as B flips."
I didn't meant to imply that they wouldn't still get a spike in the Holiday book because they absolutely would.
I didn't meant to imply that they wouldn't still get a spike in the Holiday book because they absolutely would.
i wonder if Radio 104.5 and Ben fm just had a ratings fluke during the holiday. i think 106.1 the breeze could be in for a rude awakening if they dont switch up the music playlist
If you go through this site, you'll find that every year, 104.5 has dropped during the winter, only to return in the summer. This is a very common pattern.
Radio 104.5 is a terrestrial I really like...but they haven't exactly been setting the world on fire. The Breeze was clearly an experiment. And it may or may not be paying off. (We the people have seen no evidence of its success or failure other than 6+ numbers which looked promising and then looked sorta just OK.)
As they are sisters and the weakest in the cluster, one of them might likely be our next candidate for a change/flip. But are they LOSING money? Nope. And until there's another format on the horizon worth the experiment, I wouldn't suggest "rolling tape" as good ole Jules used to say.
WRFF is notoriously hard to sell but I wonder whether bundling with Q102 might be the saving grace. Surprisingly, there seems to be some crossover there. Now if The Breeze is a hard sell also (Is it? I suspect it is but we just don't know), I don't really see a way for this cluster to fix that.
Basically what I'm saying is this: I think the best thing that happened to Radio 104.5 is iHeart trying Soft AC on 106.1. The Breeze just might be more endangered that 104.5.
Oh BTW, BEN-FM is probably safe AF.
i think the Breeze might see a boost in ratings after the holiday. But they need to switch up the playlist more though
Breeze was still in their first year this past year so it made sense to not flip to xmas. Even if it was just a few of the people who count who flipped off 101.1 because they thought it was too early for xmas music or they wanted a switch up, they found 106.1 and maybe gave them a preset, some even found a new favorite radio station.
Now for 2020, I'd most certainly do xmas on 106.1 and I like the idea of going crazy early like Nov. 1st. The worst it would do is duplicate the numbers they got for the holiday book this year, it wont go any lower, and most likely would be an improvement.
I think WBEB got like an 18 share overall along with being #1 in every demo. No way will WISX be a threat but if done right it should be able to take a little bit and be something that they can sell next xmas.
Now for 2020, I'd most certainly do xmas on 106.1 and I like the idea of going crazy early like Nov. 1st. The worst it would do is duplicate the numbers they got for the holiday book this year, it wont go any lower, and most likely would be an improvement.
I think WBEB got like an 18 share overall along with being #1 in every demo. No way will WISX be a threat but if done right it should be able to take a little bit and be something that they can sell next xmas.
The real question really is if The breeze is an improvement you over real 106.1 if it’s is than it’s here to stay. Wisx was a CHR for the longest time
106.1 was a CHR from approximately 1983 to 1993 (10 years) under various names (Z106, Electric 106, Eagle 106). It hasn't been a CHR since 1993. That's 27 years.
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