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Alt Buffalo Flips To Country 107.7/104.7 The Wolf

B

bobgoodbob

Well this is a shocker. Audacy has just flipped WLKK to Country. From Radio Insight.

radioinsight.com

Alt Buffalo Flips To Country 107.7/104.7 The Wolf - RadioInsight

Audacy flipped Alternative “Alt 107.7/104.7” WLKK Wethersfield Township/W284AP Buffalo NY to Country “107.7 & 104.7 The Wolf” at 5pm today. Audacy today announced the immediate launch of 107.7FM and 104.7FM The Wolf (WLKK-FM), Buffalo’s new country. Previously known as Alternative Buffalo, the...
radioinsight.com
 
AceBiscuits said:
Interesting move. Curious to hear what Buddy has to say about it.
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We already know what he's say. He was ready with his cowboy hat several years ago.

We can also expect the station will air the national mid-day and evening shows.

Wouldn't surprise me if they also run the WNSH morning show.

Seems to me "Buffalo's New Country" is the branding the station used when the call letters were WNUC.
 
TheBigA said:
If gets ratings, it's an intelligent decision. It's not about winning awards, it's about making money.
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Nobody noticed that ALT Buffalo disappeared. Nobody will notice this "New" Country Cow Pie. If it's about "making money", why wait 7 years to make this move? 6 months from now it will have a 1.5 share. You will blame the signal, not the content...
 
A gold based country format would've been a better choice. Variety Hits - given WBUF's recent decision to ditch that format - might've also been an option worth considering. Does Audacy have a classic hits station in this market?

If I'm a listener, why trade WYRK's superior signal for a subpar one that (a) plays the same music, and (b) will likely rely heavily on out of market talent with sterilized content?

Still, this choice - despite its shortcomings - is a better one than the outgoing format.
 
tbolt909 said:
If it's about "making money", why wait 7 years to make this move? 6 months from now it will have 1.5 share. You will blame the signal, not the content...
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Maybe. We'll see. It's also a competition, so if it shaves a point off WYRK, mission accomplished.

MarkW said:
A gold based country format would've been a better choice.
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Right now, their infrastructure supports new country. Just like alt. They're replacing a bunch of NYC-based alt shows for some NYC-based country shows. That's why this works. Plus the demos are better. As part of this, they will air a Sunday morning 90s country show, also originating in NYC. (That hotbed of country music.)
 
MarkW said:
A gold based country format would've been a better choice.
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I think it was David E. who declared in another thread somewhere that classic country doesn't play well in northern markets, many of which didn't see appreciable country listening until the boom of the late '80s/early '90s.
 
In the year 2021, classic country should mean a format centered on - but not exclusively limited to - 90s music.

Midwest Communications has seen some reasonable success with the format in places such as Green Bay and Lansing. The Lansing station includes some songs from the 00's (I am unsure of Green Bay). All such stations of theirs in the format are completely jockless and are called Duke FM.

I think it's an option that should be considered for a disadvantaged signal.
 
TheBigA said:
It's also a competition, so if it shaves a point off WYRK, mission accomplished.
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How's that working for WBUF? They have tanked since flipping from JACK. It's had no impact on 97 Rock and WBUF has an excellent signal.

107.7 will not impact WYRK. 6 months ago, Entercom was promoting the great new Alternative National content. They've flushed that. "New" Country is another horse apple baking in the sun...
 
tbolt909 said:
Nobody noticed that ALT Buffalo disappeared. Nobody will notice this "New" Country Cow Pie. If it's about "making money", why wait 7 years to make this move? 6 months from now it will have a 1.5 share. You will blame the signal, not the content...
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It's about fragmenting a major biller, even if by 15% to 20% of their shares. That makes other Audacy look better, and they can combo country better with other stations today. Plus the signal is a better match for country than alternative.
 
MarkW said:
A gold based country format would've been a better choice.
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That would not achieve the objective of fragmenting the country competitor. This is obviously a cluster strategy, not a station strategy.
 
tbolt909 said:
Entercom was promoting the great new Alternative National content. They've flushed that. "New" Country is another horse apple baking in the sun...
Click to expand...

That's business. You put a product out and see if anyone buys. If they don't, you come up with a new product.
 
MarkW said:
In the year 2021, classic country should mean a format centered on - but not exclusively limited to - 90s music.
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I agree, but apparently there is resistance to the format north of the Mason-Dixon Line. You'd think that, up here in Connecticut, a station playing songs that WWYZ played from sign-on in 1988 through, say, 2008 would do well, but not only has it never been considered, a canned iHeart version of it that ran on WWYZ-HD2 for a few years was dumped for The Breeze and not put on any of iHeart's other Hartford signals. So again, we mere mortals lack the insight into the truths of radio that those who've been in the biz for eons have.
 
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