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Would the Bull flip?

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raccoonradio

raccoonradio

@radioinsight wonders:
"In the past six weeks, 101.7 The Bull Boston's PD was let go, afternoon host resigned, and now APD/MD/midday host is moving to Hartford. Throw in its 2.2 share and if there was ever a reason to put a station on a @FormatChange watchlist, this would be one."

Or would they stay the course? CW can be a moneymaker but would iHeart want a change? And if so, to what--what format hole is out there? Would they simulcast or move BZ Newsradio or WRKO? There goes a revenue stream if it's a simulcast.

Odds may be against it but who knows.
IHR may be content to keep country but what else is there?
 
I suspect they will just load up on voice tracking, stay country, and let one of the other PDs in the cluster handle programming chores.

The only format holes - neither of which is particularly appealing - are alternative and active rock. I cannot see them doing the latter, as iHM has very few markets where they offer both active rock and classic rock (Dallas is one such market; their active rock outlet there is performing terribly in the ratings).
 
raccoonradio said:
Would they simulcast or move BZ Newsradio or WRKO? There goes a revenue stream if it's a simulcast.
Click to expand...

Looking at iHeart nationally, they own many heritage AM stations, and TTBOMK none of them have simulcasts.

My take on this is it fits with iHeart's moves towards regionalization of certain stations and formats.
 
Shame on me - I forgot to mention Urban AC.

With iHM's history of ruining that format on 97.7, I am hard pressed to see them attempting a "do over" on 101.7.

Two places where iHM has heritage news / talk simulcasts on AM and FM are Albany, NY and Grand Rapids, MI. I cannot think of any PPM market examples (other than on FM translators).
 
MarkW said:
Shame on me - I forgot to mention Urban AC.

With iHM's history of ruining that format on 97.7, I am hard pressed to see them attempting a "do over" on 101.7.

Two places where iHM has heritage news / talk simulcasts on AM and FM are Albany, NY and Grand Rapids, MI. I cannot think of any PPM market examples (other than on FM translators).
Click to expand...
iHeart did not run Urban AC on 97.7, Entercom did. When it was spun off to iHeart, they ran an adjunct, unfocused format of the 80's and 90's instead.
 
That's exactly what I meant by "ruin." :)

It wasn't flipped to the poorly performing format you aptly described on day 1 of iHM's ownership.

iHM took a 3 share format, decided it sounded too "black," and corrupted it.
 
2.2 in what age/sex demographic

I get a lot of customer cars owned by young women that when I go to get the car in the parking lot to bring inside have that station on the radio..... I bet it does well in 18 to 34 females, well above 2.2
 
MRBIboredop said:
I bet it does well in 18 to 34 females, well above 2.2
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Country does well with moms in their 30s and 40s. But the main thing the Bull gets iHeart is a Top 10 market for their national country shows. Not every radio station will get great ratings. So if Kiss and WZLX continue to rake in the money, they can afford to lose a little with a weak-signaled station that helps them in other ways.
 
raccoonradio said:
@radioinsight wonders:
"In the past six weeks, 101.7 The Bull Boston's PD was let go, afternoon host resigned, and now APD/MD/midday host is moving to Hartford. Throw in its 2.2 share and if there was ever a reason to put a station on a @FormatChange watchlist, this would be one."

Or would they stay the course? CW can be a moneymaker but would iHeart want a change? And if so, to what--what format hole is out there? Would they simulcast or move BZ Newsradio or WRKO? There goes a revenue stream if it's a simulcast.

Odds may be against it but who knows.
IHR may be content to keep country but what else is there?
Click to expand...
Your still making stuff up!
 
>> HD2,

How many people have HD radios overall, though..."more and more in cars".. People would be more likely to stream these AMs.
 
WBWL-101.7 probably exists to clear I-Heart owned Premiere Networks' Country-Music programming (Bobby Bones, etc.).

If WBWL were to change formats, the Bones show would probably lose a clearance in Boston as I doubt WKLB-102.5 would be interested.

Might I-Heart sell the station? I could see either EMF interested in it to run their "Air 1" Christian rock network, or public broadcaster WGBH buying it to convert it to a 24/7 jazz station (WGBH-89.7 used to run jazz in the evening and overnight hours, but now does so for just 20 hours a week (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings and overnight on Friday and Saturday nights). This would also free up 89.7 to add public radio news/information programs during the times now occupied by jazz.

I think another possible buyer might be Salem to run their "Fish" contemporary Christian format, or maybe their "Answer" talk network. And yet another buyer could be Bloomberg, who would run their 24/7 business news format on 101.7 and thus end their LMA's of WRCA-1330 and the HD-2 subchannel of WBOS-92.9

But I don't think a format change or sale is going to happen at 101.7 in the near future.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
I don't really know, but some people used to say that Clear Channel originally put The Bull on to take a little piece of the country ratings pie from WKLB
Click to expand...

Maybe, but the flip happened in June 2014, the same time they launched The Bobby Bones show and the national country platform.

Coincidence? I think not.
 
I'll go on the record as stating I think it'd be a mistake for iHM to dump Country from 101.7, and I don't believe that's what will happen here.

I admittedly have no knowledge of what the station bills, but ratings wise, its performance is not bad for *that* signal. When one considers the fact Country generally performs well with middle-aged females, the format seems like a natural complement to Kiss 108 for sales purposes.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Bloomberg, who would run their 24/7 business news format on 101.7 and thus end their LMA's of WRCA-1330 and the HD-2 subchannel of WBOS-92.9
Click to expand...
The 106.1 translator of 1330 may cover a lot of area as it is and there's the Merrimack Valley operations. As said a simulcast of WBZ AM could work though a revenue stream would be removed unless they put something else on 1030

Who gets more listeners to something like WBZ NewsRadio--the HD2 of Kiss or the web stream in a "connected car"?
Several apps out there including Android Auto (various things like Audible, Waze, streaming radio on that)
 
Instead of changing formats, how about a local morning show there instead and finally go after some of the listeners at WKLB? How about bringing the JW and Lori into to do mornings as they did as WKLB? Would iHeart consider moving WJMN to 101.7 and WBWL over to 94.5?
 
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