No he's not. It seem to be the point of the article and your argument. Boldly.
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Alt Buffalo Flips To Country 107.7/104.7 The Wolf
- Thread starter bobgoodbob
- Start date
One of the shows on The Wolf is a weekly countdown show. It runs on all Audacy country stations. They ask listeners to vote for the songs. Looking at their song list, it looks very much like the Mediabase Top 20:
Every country station I listen to is on all but one of those songs. (The Chesney song seems to be having a hard time getting going -- I like it but it may be too reflective a ballad for summertime and will start climbing in the fall.) It's the kinds of recurrents and gold they play that set them apart. Chris Stapleton looks like a contentious presence as well. Of the five stations I get to listen to weekly, three are on "You Should Probably Leave," two are not. Probably enough to keep him off countdowns like this, since not all country listeners are getting to hear the song.
The Inside Radio interview is especially interesting. Wilson is an experienced management professional, with a BA and BS in Economics and Business, and his background in music, having an association with Clive Davis, gives him a broader base of understanding the inner workings of music radio. Additionally, his digital experience at AOL provides the influence regarding what can be done with radio aside from what eminates from transmitters and antennas.
As regards this thread, it will be very interesting to see how this quote turns out as it applies to the encroachment of The Wolf on WYRK, “We have an outsized competitive advantage in speaking to one in two adults ,” Wilson said in the interview, recorded July 12 as part of Noble’s C-Suite Interview Series. “We have this incredible megaphone, we have these trusted influencers. When they get on the air and talk about a product or a client, people listen and they believe.” What's curious, Wilson uses the words getting "on the air." That's radio speak. Sure, he means "speaking," whether it's OTA or on line, or producing podcasts and vlogs... but he's still using "on the air," which is steeped in transmitters and antennas. (Let's not split hairs here, we all know the origin of "on the air" and it's application over the years.)
WYRK's trusted influencers, particularly the morning show, will be tested in the coming months. Will WYRK score an early knockout punch over the Wolf, or will this be a protracted slug fest between a perennial champion and a contender that jabs and plays rope-a-dope?
Posters here will be looking at trends (what little Persons 12+ tell us), but the first shakeout won't likely happen until Fall 2021 at the earliest. Yet, even this timetable is subject to change if the coronavirus delta variant sweeps through this market. As it now stands, with conditions resembling some semblance of normal, the competition between these companies is a fascinating case study. Compounding the cluster's challenge by Audacy, Townsquare's attempt to put a dent in Cumulus' 97 Rock does not (at this writing ) appear to have had the hoped-for impact. There's a lot of shifting sand, to be sure.
As regards this thread, it will be very interesting to see how this quote turns out as it applies to the encroachment of The Wolf on WYRK, “We have an outsized competitive advantage in speaking to one in two adults ,” Wilson said in the interview, recorded July 12 as part of Noble’s C-Suite Interview Series. “We have this incredible megaphone, we have these trusted influencers. When they get on the air and talk about a product or a client, people listen and they believe.” What's curious, Wilson uses the words getting "on the air." That's radio speak. Sure, he means "speaking," whether it's OTA or on line, or producing podcasts and vlogs... but he's still using "on the air," which is steeped in transmitters and antennas. (Let's not split hairs here, we all know the origin of "on the air" and it's application over the years.)
WYRK's trusted influencers, particularly the morning show, will be tested in the coming months. Will WYRK score an early knockout punch over the Wolf, or will this be a protracted slug fest between a perennial champion and a contender that jabs and plays rope-a-dope?
Posters here will be looking at trends (what little Persons 12+ tell us), but the first shakeout won't likely happen until Fall 2021 at the earliest. Yet, even this timetable is subject to change if the coronavirus delta variant sweeps through this market. As it now stands, with conditions resembling some semblance of normal, the competition between these companies is a fascinating case study. Compounding the cluster's challenge by Audacy, Townsquare's attempt to put a dent in Cumulus' 97 Rock does not (at this writing ) appear to have had the hoped-for impact. There's a lot of shifting sand, to be sure.
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I've approved having Randy consult several of our morning shows in the past. My disagreement is that the idea that air talent can help sales is much exaggerated.
In medium and smaller markets like Quincy, IL or Grand Junction or even Shreveport, the use of local talent for sales relations might work. It's going to be a rare personality at a strong heritage station that makes that approach work anywhere else.
How many stations today have a true "local celebrity" who would go out on calls? Or socialize with clients?
How many stations have talent that clients would even know existed?
Depends on the air talent. You're probably right in 80% of the cases. Rush did a lot to save the sales of his show after the ad boycott. There's a reason why advertisers want host reads. If all you're selling are the numbers, and the numbers aren't the best, then you need to draw on other advantages to make a sale.
Exactly. That's Jeff's point too. The station needs to create talent they can sell. Otherwise they're just selling another ten in a row.
That's part of what Audacy is doing in creating some national personalities. Nobody knows the local DJ outside his local market. If you can create a Bobby Bones, that's something you can build a campaign around.
Almost zero. 97 Rock blew out their morning show and nobody noticed or cared.
Radio has largely made "talent" irrelevant. Jocks have no control over the music and just read liner cards. They are disposable. Telling listeners to "Follow us on Facebook" isn't compelling content. Many of these jocks have big egos but no talent.
Sales usually views jocks "as meat behind a microphone" anyway. They try to exploit them for their own commissions. Listeners don't care about endorsements by on air talent...
That will actually depend on how hard the Wolf comes at WYRK (and that IS their target, BTW, despite what one frequent flyer opines). They're already taking small pot shots but to put on a full-frontal assault will take time and $$$. Will Audacy make that commitment? We'll soon find out.
The problem in the US is that there are no true national networks.
There are syndicated shows that form networks by the hour, but no round the clock webs such as we see in much if not most of the world where there is independent broadcasting.
A few talents can be created in each daypart and for many formats. But none, not even Seacrest or Bobby Bones or Charlemagne don't come anywhere close to a total national reach, and for the moment fill-in in non-affiliate markets is not creating an audience that can be sold as truly national.
But I think the idea in the piece you referred to is to promote local sales, no national network sales. With even the smaller markets having a dozen or so stations, it's hard to get a show host together with a client that even knows who they are. And even if you introduce them, it seems to me to be more of a distraction that does not help bind the advertiser to the station.
As my experience does not cover every kind of market and does not include working every format, I'd love to hear from someone like Buddy Shula as to how he sees "monetizing" his on-air talent; he has lots of familiar Buffalo names that should be known to many clients.
The mantra of many consultants a few decades ago was adopted by many GMs in the same era. That mantra was "my format is the star. If you promote talent, that makes them the star and they can be hired away." That's the genesis of tight formatting that reduced the influence of local radio talent leading to the homogenized pap we're served up today. There are local talents who have differentiated themselves and developed a loyal audience thanks to their own presence on the air and in the community. Most often they've been part of the morning show, but others have distinguished themselves over time in other dayparts. That's how "heritage" stations came to be. They had heritage personalities delivering music that was tuned to a local audience over time either in cooperation with consultants or in spite of them. There are some valuable consultants out there. There are some bad consultants out there. PDs and GMs with enough backing from corporate regularly throw the bad ones under the bus when the ratings don't live up to the consultants promises. We've seen results like that here with the WJYE-to-Mix-to-Breeze debacle. We've seen recovery from that with the WHTT Oldies 104-to-Mix-to-Classic Hits 104.1 story. The Mix adventure did not go well. Returning to an updated version of their roots re-established them in the market.
There are important local personalities. There are run-of-the-mill jocks trying to hang onto a career that has changed significantly since 1996, the consolidation era, and the inevitable bankruptcies of the consolidators. Good jocks still differentiate a station and make it better in the limited opportunities they're afforded by formats that give more time to the "station voice" than the on air jock. The latest moves by Audacy will put the theory that "better" national voices will beat local talent to the test. Let's see how "The Wolf" does against WYRK. It hearkens back many decades to the teapot WYSL's Gordon McLendon-led challenge to the might WKBW except that WYSL had some pretty good tightly-formatted jocks and a good local news team up against the Mighty 'KB.
There are important local personalities. There are run-of-the-mill jocks trying to hang onto a career that has changed significantly since 1996, the consolidation era, and the inevitable bankruptcies of the consolidators. Good jocks still differentiate a station and make it better in the limited opportunities they're afforded by formats that give more time to the "station voice" than the on air jock. The latest moves by Audacy will put the theory that "better" national voices will beat local talent to the test. Let's see how "The Wolf" does against WYRK. It hearkens back many decades to the teapot WYSL's Gordon McLendon-led challenge to the might WKBW except that WYSL had some pretty good tightly-formatted jocks and a good local news team up against the Mighty 'KB.
What about NPR? It's the closest thing to the heritage networks that once existed.
Networks existed in the era of ownership limits. Once they went away, MSOs became bigger and more powerful. That's what happened to Entercom. It doesn't need to depend on a network any more. It's become its own network. Same with iHeart.
Correct, but that's because Ronnie and Jeff primarily consult local talent. I'm sure they're aware that as the local talent pool diminishes, so does their potential business.
There are applications in national sales. It's probably easier for Bobby or Ryan because advertisers are more likely to know who they are.
Ask most people outside of radio who Bobby Bones is. I'll bet that you'd get a lot of blank stares in Buffalo.
You can say that about a lot of things. Ask 100 people who the morning host is on WYRK and you'll probably get 80-85 wrong answers. Ask which TV station airs Ellen DeGeneres in Buffalo and you'll probably get more wrong answers than that.
It depends. If you ask men over 50, you may get blank stares. But women in their 30s and 40s know that Bobby Bones won Dancing With The Stars and is a regular on American Idol. Not many old men watch either of those shows. Bobby is well known outside of iHeart country markets. He is a sellable commodity. That's what radio needs. When you ask people about radio, they know Rush or Howard, and Howard's on satellite. Radio needs identifiable brands that people know. Otherwise, they're just spots and dots.
But different stations take some or all of the programs at their discretion, and many add local content.
But they are nowhere close to being full national networks of the same content on stations in every market.
And the clients for national buys know radio in considerable depth. The local Chevy dealer may not know about more than two or three stations that they personally listen to.
But the BRAND has national visibility. That's the best you're going to get in any form of media in this country, and it's been that way since the beginning.
It's never going to happen. But that's not the point. The best Audacy can do is get a few personalities who are only known by a small percentage of their home market on stations in other co-owned markets. That will broaden the image and the brand of those personalities beyond where they've been. It's not as big as Rush Limbaugh, but it's the best they can do now.
Which is why the local Chevy dealer doesn't do national buys. But there is a National Chevy guy in Detroit who strategizes national radio plans. There is also one at Ford and the other car companies. When iHeart does its anual iHeart Radio Awards or iHeart Country Awards, those shows air on all syndicated stations, and the ad campaign is built around iHeart national talent with national sponsors. I'm expecting Audacy intends to do the exact same thing.
I'm watching the Syracuse Mets-Buffalo Bisons game right now on MiLB TV, and saw an ad for The Wolf between the first and second innings. It offered Buffalo a "new choice for new country" and featured concert clips of Thomas Rhett, Kane Brown and the group Parmalee doing recent hits. Sometimes these ads on minor league telecasts are shown on the big screen at the ballpark, other times they're only inserted in the webcast. Anybody seen any Wolf advertising on Buffalo TV yet?
Also ... what ever happened to Buffalo as a minor league baseball town? I remember the Bisons being the talk of the minors the way they used to put 12,000-plus into that stadium regularly back in the '90s. Tonight's crowd looks like around 2,000, maybe less. Why?
Also ... what ever happened to Buffalo as a minor league baseball town? I remember the Bisons being the talk of the minors the way they used to put 12,000-plus into that stadium regularly back in the '90s. Tonight's crowd looks like around 2,000, maybe less. Why?
Weeknight game, COVID fears, last place opponent…take your pick.
Massive disruption to fan habits from losing not only the 2020 season (like everyone else in MiLB) but also most of 2021 while the Jays were using the ballpark.
When you can't open your home season until early August and the Bills are already at training camp and sucking up 110% of the media attention in town, it's hard to get the fan base back.
Hopefully a more normal start to things in April 2022 will help next year.
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