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Entercom To Rebrand as Audacy

TheBigA said:
He may have changed his thinking, but he never changed the branding on his radio stations. And when he invested in the cellular business, he used his radio stations to sell phone contracts. It made him rich and he got rid of his broadcasting.
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No, he didn't get rid of broadcasting.

While the US division was sold when prices were right and Kluge did not want to get into a bidding war during the wild days of 1995 to 2000, he created radio divisions in Russia, Latvia, Germany and elsewhere. I advised on the possible acquisition in Latin America, and then became a consultant for Emmis' excursion there.

Kluge sold high and then bought cheap in other nations. He did not get rid of broadcasting... he just moved to where his investment might yield the most.
 
Auspicious. Audacity. Oddity. Audi-yoyo. Audi-yo-mama. Odyssey. Audacy. Idiocy. Feh.
Same lawn, different dog.
New Coke.
The company's stock ticker will be AUD.
If only somebody in Buffalo had trademarked that years ago.
Local readers will get the reference.
Interlopers will make a stink about "can't trademark, can't copyright, blah, blah, blah."
It's a light thought, not an edict.
 
Not since TEGNA has a broadcaster come up with a more nonsensical name. Wonder if Toyota has been approached for sponsoring the Odyssey studios at various Audacy stations? It is odd, you see!
 
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I’m sure there are exceptions, but by and large, significant acquisitions depress the purchasing company’s stock price. There’s nothing new under the sun there.

Whatever subjective opinion one may have about the brand name itself, there’s also nothing terribly new about companies shedding decades old names.
 
asugeorge1 said:
If Entercom is now going to start telling people “This is WBBM, an Audacy Station and live everywhere on the Audacy App” people are going to be like wtf is that? People knew what the Radio.com app was about. People know what the “IHeartRadio” app is about. People are not going to know anything about Audacy. Also, you know you came up with a bad name when the computer’s spell checker keeps wanting to auto-correct Audacy to Audacity!
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This is a very, very good point. It is actually astonishing that they went with a name that no one will know what to search for when they hear it. If anything, they'll all (obviously) type in 'odyssey'. If you have to spell the name of your brand/website, you're doing it wrong.

This company used to run amazing alt rock stations 10 to 15 years back. Not sure what happened there.
 
TheBigA said:
I don't think they're giving it up. It won't be available on the domain marketplace anytime soon. They retain a number of domain names that they don't use publicly. A lot of companies do this. They'll just route traffic to the new domain.
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Which is easier to remember? Radio.com, or Audacy.com? People who want to listen to audio content know what radio is. Nobody knows - or cares - what Audacy is.
 
DavidEduardo said:
While they may be looking for a cross-platform brand, I still find this mostly a Wall Street maneuver which the average listener will just find confusing.

Using the owner's name on the air has little or no appeal to the average listener. I have always been rather vehemently opposed to station owners who want to have the corporate name attached to local station identities.

"WZZZ, Bigtown, Z-93, a Big Ego Broadcasting Station"

Who the whatever cares who owns the station? Nobody listens to a station because of its ownership; it's about the music, the content, the morning show. Nobody listens because of the owner.

This renaming is a perfect example of programming being made less attractive due to exaggerated egos and too much focus on Wall Street and not enough on the listener.

Yes, they may be developing a cross platform identity. But in that case, they should be identifying the platform in "ads" in the promotional spots, not out of the blue in the ID where it is confusing and distracting... yes, less a matter in PPM markets but still confusing.
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Interesting that the Beasley stations now have to advertise that they're now on Audacy.com or the Audacy app instead of radio.com or the radio.com app.
 
DavidEduardo said:
While they may be looking for a cross-platform brand, I still find this mostly a Wall Street maneuver which the average listener will just find confusing.

Using the owner's name on the air has little or no appeal to the average listener. I have always been rather vehemently opposed to station owners who want to have the corporate name attached to local station identities.

"WZZZ, Bigtown, Z-93, a Big Ego Broadcasting Station"

Who the whatever cares who owns the station? Nobody listens to a station because of its ownership; it's about the music, the content, the morning show. Nobody listens because of the owner.
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Same thing with syndicator names on sports broadcasts. "You are listening to Sunday night football, EXCLUSIVELY on Westwood One!" No, I'm listening to it WUCS or, as it calls itself, 97-9ESPN. "You are listening to UConn basketball on the Learfield IMG UConn basketball network!" No, I'm listening to it on WTIC, News/Talk 1080. Just who is all this pounding away at the name of the syndicator supposed to be impressing? It's not like the listener will ever have need of a syndicator, or choose to listen to a broadcast because a certain syndicator is distributing it.
 
I didn’t even think to look until this morning but sure enough, my Radio.com app is rebranded. I find this slightly interesting, as I had gotten into the habit of simply searching for an app by (partial) name. So now it appears I need to know to start typing A-U-D etc to get it to pop as an option.
The design under the new brand seems ok. I might have a nit picky quibble here and there, but it’s a solid enough changeover between the brands. A new coat of paint on the same functionality.
 
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