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15 Years Ago Today...

andreajesus said:
NYC radio was changed (fortunately, the change lasted only a bit over two years) -

(they hit the road!)
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Actually, Jack got much better sales demo ratings than the severely aging "oldies" format that preceded it.

Jack was dropped because the folks at CBS, who were participating in the first "live" test of the PPM system in Philly in the 2002-2005 period, saw how the format could be changed to what we now know as "classic hits" and become very strong in the PPM.

Before the metered rating service could begin in NYC, and before some other New York station could take the new "classic hits" format, CBS sacrificed the very nicely performing Jack format and went to a brand new format... it was not the abandoned "oldies" format but a rather new implementation based on what was going to happen when the PPM rolled out.
 
BruceNYC said:
We must look ahead to the future, not back upon the past. There is no sense dwelling on an unpleasant experience.
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What was unpleasant about discarding an aging, dropping-billing oldies format for a much more advertiser appealing one?
 
The fact is the Jack format is still very successful around the country. Entercom just recently flipped it's AMP station in Boston to an unbranded version of Jack. No big protests or demonstrations. Jack stations in Dallas, LA, and other places are among the highest rated stations in town. Personally I think it would have made sense to put it in 102.7, since most of those songs had been played there when they were new. But the brand had been damaged because of the way it was done at WCBS.
 
David Eduardo -it was extremely unpleasant to the loyal listeners of WCBS-FM. It was almost as painful as seeing a friend pass away suddenly. We bonded with the radio personalities who were fired over the phone by the corporate suits. It seems that radio executives don't care about their listeners.

I understand the need to appeal to a younger audience but in 2005 it was executed the wrong way. In the succeeding years, the people at CBS-FM did the right thing by gradually eliminating older music. I rarely listen to CBS-FM any longer since I like their music mix. I listen to SiriusXM and internet radio for oldies. I have also developed an interest in other genres of music offered by the not-for-profit station on terrestrial radio.
 
I wonder whether Jack would do better on 92.3 than their current Alt format.
It could compete with Q 104.3 by playing lots of classic rock, but also mixing in some current hits, and even some hip-hop. After all, most people don't listen to just a single narrowly defined genre of music. The Jack format offers lots of flexibility. Adjustments can be made as programmers find out what's working with the listeners.
 
Alt 92.3 is not going away. It's a favorite format for David Field, and Entercom rock runs Alt stations across the country. They also just made changes at KROQ in L.A. mirroring what they're doing in New York with Alt 92.3's PD Mike Kaplan at the helm there too. Entercom is all-in on the alt format.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Alt 92.3 is not going away. It's a favorite format for David Field, and Entercom rock runs Alt stations across the country. They also just made changes at KROQ in L.A. mirroring what they're doing in New York with Alt 92.3's PD Mike Kaplan at the helm there too. Entercom is all-in on the alt format.
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Does Entercom have a board of directors or is Field an autocrat? I can't see a board with any semblance of sense or guts continuing to kowtow to a CEO who has the hots for a moribund format featuring a dying musical genre.
 
CTListener said:
Does Entercom have a board of directors or is Field an autocrat?
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Hmmm...his father (and company founder) sits on the board. That could be intimidating. I don't know of any examples where the board of directors gets involved in local format decisions. Even when the Cumulus board blew out Lew Dickey, they left local operations to the market managers.
 
CTListener said:
Does Entercom have a board of directors or is Field an autocrat? I can't see a board with any semblance of sense or guts continuing to kowtow to a CEO who has the hots for a moribund format featuring a dying musical genre.
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Despite some haters on the radio forums it's not a dying format.
 
I know Entercom has been quite happy with their Alt-Rock outlet in Seattle. I understand this may be an outlier, I don't know, but it is a low cost operation with a one person AM show etc. that I am told does quite well in the "money demos." Again, I realize "it ain't LA or NYC", I get that, but at least they have a model from which to work. The End is not the revolution it was in the early 90s, definitely, but it has evolved with the times. In spite of the market,you won't hear much grunge there any more. Well, except for Sunday mornings...
 
The New Chico said:
The End is not the revolution it was in the early 90s, definitely, but it has evolved with the times.
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Too bad that didn't happen with KROQ in LA. Heritage is a hard thing to replace. There's value in heritage. We saw that with WCBS in 2005. That station had years of heritage in the format. It was played in every pizza parlor in NY. I probably went to every one too. People compared it to replacing WNCN with WQIV. One of the challenges, it seems to me, is being able to evolve a station without completely blowing it up. Sometimes you wait too long, and there's no choice. But if you can evolve a station, adjusting music and staff, over the years, you can build a very healthy enterprise.
 
The New Chico said:
I know Entercom has been quite happy with their Alt-Rock outlet in Seattle. I understand this may be an outlier, I don't know, but it is a low cost operation with a one person AM show etc. that I am told does quite well in the "money demos." Again, I realize "it ain't LA or NYC", I get that, but at least they have a model from which to work. The End is not the revolution it was in the early 90s, definitely, but it has evolved with the times. In spite of the market,you won't hear much grunge there any more. Well, except for Sunday mornings...
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Considering Kaplan's history with Entercom, having previously programmed KNDD, I was surprised that he didn't implement a similar template at Alt 92.3's inception. For a corporate station, I always liked KNDD, and often wondered why it's formatics weren't replicated, with local twists, in other Entercom Alternative stations sooner.
 
leethalweapon said:
I always liked KNDD, and often wondered why it's formatics weren't replicated, with local twists, in other Entercom Alternative stations sooner.
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There lies the battle between local programming and national programming. Why not take a successful format from one place, put it on the satellite, and feed it to everyone?
 
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