This is a battle of the brands, in which case, it's not much of a battle. What are the established brands in Buffalo radio? 97 Rock, WBLK, WYRK, WBEN, WGR and Kiss 98.5 would be the headliners; brands that most residents in Erie and Niagara counties are aware of, even if they don't listen to those stations. The Edge, WHTT Classic Hits, Star (even at its new address) and WECK would be the strong secondaries; brands that some residents are aware of. yet some aren't.
Hot 98.9 is virtually an unknown except to radio dweebs, geeks and poseurs here. It's starting from ground zero. It has a limited, directional signal. It will need a major push on alternate platforms to generate toe-hold cume which can be turned into AQH Persons. The launch of The Vibe was quite good in that respect, but it didn't turn out well. So here we go again. Spin the Wheel of Formats, do the TV and Internet promotion thing, and see if the new format passes the taste test OTA and streaming.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but even with streaming and an app wind at its back, I don't see Hot 98.9 as being more than a stone in Kiss' shoe. But even the smallest stone can be a pain in the assets. Consider the progress (or lack of such) that brands like The Wolf and WBUF have made against WYRK and 97 Rock respectively. Both have signals far better than that of Hot 98.9. The decision-makers that run these formats would argue that even with their paltry P12+ showing, the formats have been a success. So be it.
For the sake of this analysis, let's not argue about the 107.7 signal. Yes, it's a rimshot, but its RF covers more geography in Erie and Niagara counties than does a 250 Watt directional translator on 98.9.
As to formatics, presentation and music flow, Hot 98.9 is functioning quite well. No surprise, given its composition is very likely the work of one or two people at the top of Cumulus Buffalo who know how to "do" radio in 2023.
So ... where does Hot go from here? Where's the weak link in the Kiss chain? Hot is running bumpers attacking the talk and commercials on the Kiss morning show. Got it. Radio 101. Attack the Queen. It's a big target, for sure and it's also where the target demo body count is the largest. But it's also the reason Kiss P1 listeners choose the brand in morning drive. For the most part, they know and like Janet and Pickle, just as P1 listeners know and like Shredd and Ragan on 97, the same for Clay Moden on WYRK and Steve Harvey on WBLK.
The wild card in the plan of attack is Joy, er... Mix ... er... Breeze ...umm Star 96 point one. Can The New Star 96.1 clip off a number of upper demo female Kiss listeners? If so, what does that leave Kiss holding? Can Hot clip a few listeners from Kiss' core or lower demo end? It's easy to see whey the suits at Townsquare are liking this move by Cumulus.
Yet, with all this put on the table, rather than morning drive the weak link in the Kiss chain may be middays and PM drive.
It would be a dogfight if a full signal FM was challenging Kiss and the Queen, but as it stands, the challenge comes from a weak signal translator which may be content to bruise but not take down the dominant brand. If nothing else, the dust-up makes for cogent discussion on this board.
