Major cuts at Saga Columbus

[Rusty Muck]

Lance has the details. All the Saga stations outside of WLVQ lost their respective morning shows over this past month; news director Clark Donley is also out.

Saga Makes Significant On-Air Cuts In Columbus - RadioInsight

Saga Communications is making talent changes across its Columbus OH cluster. Dino Tripodis and Stacy McKay have departed mornings at AC “Sunny 95” 94.7 WSNY. Both were on their second stints at the station. Tripodis originally hosted mornings at WSNY from 1994 to 2018 and then returned in July...

radioinsight.com

 

[delgriffith]

Not surprised. Sunny has been in the pits for a long time. I think they initially blamed it on morning host Bobby Mitchell, but his departure didn’t shore up things. Gutting Clark was a surprise.

 

[xmusicmatt]

Honestly not shocked but "Columbus Radio Group" was a gem at still being a locally focused radio station cluster with generally local talent.

WSNY and WVMX appear to be running jock-less in the mornings (at least i did not hear any talent on my 20 min drive to work this morning). Did not even hear traffic reports on WVMX and they used to air it often when Andre was on.

Dino and Stacy did a lot for Columbus and were involved in many charitable functions. (and despite their two different runs had been a long-time staple on Sunny since the 90's with a few years in between they were not together). Andre was the 'face' of Mix 107.9 and led their promotional efforts (events the station put on around town). Miss Lisa from Rewind had many hats at CRG including filling in on Sunny and Mix often and has been in Columbus since the 90's.

Columbus is quickly losing its "legacy long-term talent" - outside of Dave and Jimmy and Chris Davis on WNCI we don't have folks who have been around the market for many years left.

The real question is with 3 stations now without a morning show (Rewind, Mix and Sunny) will SAGA (Columbus Radio Group) make format changes or just launch some form of morning shows?

Gutting Clark is also not a surprise - Very rare today for a cluster without a news talk format to have a 'News Director'. Most music formatted stations don't even run news headlines during drive time anymore. WNCI barely does 'news' in the mornings and it's just a few headlines read by one of the morning shows 'co-hosts"

 

[xmusicmatt]

One thing to add about the Sunny changes. I was reading a lot of the comments on the local news stations social media posts about the changes and one theme common was "we tuned in for Dino and Stacy and not the music as we can get that in many places" Clearly it shows that one thing that has been a standout for radio over the years (and still true today) is personalities. (And without that many folks are going to just go elsewhere).

 

[CbusRadio]

I never listened to them. Neither time. Ironically the only morning show that I do listen to is Wags and Elliott.

 

[dave00]

Sunny had a bumper running on Sunday that said “something brighter is coming to Sunny 95 real soon”.

I’d be curious what that is

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Sunny and Mix did get a new PD a couple of months ago.

Tony Bristol Joins WSNY/WVMX As Program Director - RadioInsight

While a public announcement was never made, veteran programmer Tony Bristol joined Saga Communications as Program Director of AC “Sunny 95” WSNY Columbus and Hot AC “Mix 107.9” WVMX Westerville OH in mid-December. Bristol joined Saga from Community Broadcasters Inc., where he served as Director...

radioinsight.com

 

[John43123]

Apparently Sunny has unveiled their refreshed look and line up, including a "new" morning show.

Sunny 95 -

On-Air Schedule - Sunny 95

WEEKDAYS ON SUNNY 95 Randi & Rice – Mornings, 6:00am-10:00am Randi is excited to entertain Columbus again, this time with DJ Rice. With over 20 years of morning radio experience, Randi loves to share her daily life full of family,tennis and chaos. Whether she’s cracking jokes, sharing personal...

sunny95.com

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

So what is the promised "something brighter?"

 

[MediaLover]

Mix 107.9 also has a new morning show hosted by a guy nicknamed "Gordo." That station also has six hour shifts every weekday as well.

 

[xmusicmatt]

So what is the promised "something brighter?"

New logo, new morning show.

 

[CurtisNEPA]

So what is the promised "something brighter?"

I noticed that they are increasing 70's music on the station. Before all those changes, the only songs I heard on the station was from Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", Earth Wind And Fire's "September", and classic Billy Joel stuff from that era. Now, when I checked their station's playlist, they now included the following songs:

Chic - Le Freak
KC and The Sunshine Band - Shake Your Booty
Sister Sledge - We Are Family
Bee Gees - Night Fever
Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing
Abba - Dancing Queen
Rod Stewart - Do You Think I'm Sexy
Village People - Y.M.C.A.
Leo Mayer - You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
A Taste Of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie

In my opinion, I think it's a bad idea to play so much old songs that are nearly 50 years old, given that most AC stations across the country only concentrate on the 80's-today(although they seldom play very few songs from the late '70s). But, if they start playing sleepy old music, then this will alienate some of the younger audience.

 

[talkers]

It's a response to WODC going more 80's and early 90's IMO. That and in April WODC was beating Sunny.

 

[delgriffith]

I noticed that they are increasing 70's music on the station. Before all those changes, the only songs I heard on the station was from Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", Earth Wind And Fire's "September", and classic Billy Joel stuff from that era. Now, when I checked their station's playlist, they now included the following songs:

Chic - Le Freak
KC and The Sunshine Band - Shake Your Booty
Sister Sledge - We Are Family
Bee Gees - Night Fever
Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing
Abba - Dancing Queen
Rod Stewart - Do You Think I'm Sexy
Village People - Y.M.C.A.
Leo Mayer - You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
A Taste Of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie

In my opinion, I think it's a bad idea to play so much old songs that are nearly 50 years old, given that most AC stations across the country only concentrate on the 80's-today(although they seldom play very few songs from the late '70s). But, if they start playing sleepy old music, then this will alienate some of the younger audience.

They’ve got to keep the music that’s going to attract their target demo. Selective older music that has the sound that their target demo won’t hurt them. And a younger audience isn’t their target demo. But they need to build incrementally toward music that is appealing to the younger side of the demo. 25-54 females covers a lot of ground.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Era considerations aside, it's clear Sunny has switched to a gold-based approach. It also seems that they might gradually be turning up the tempo in line with their new "music that puts you in a good mood" positioner -- although they currently remain substantially more conservative in that regard than Indianapolis' top-rated station (not just its top-rated AC), Radio One's AC WYXB (based on perusing B105.7's song history on Onlineradiobox). I doubt we'll be hearing "Talk Dirty to Me," "Mr Brightside," "Flagpole Sitta," or "One Headlight" on Sunny (OK, possibly "One Headlight"...).

 

[CurtisNEPA]

Era considerations aside, it's clear Sunny has switched to a gold-based approach. It also seems that they might gradually be turning up the tempo in line with their new "music that puts you in a good mood" positioner -- although they currently remain substantially more conservative in that regard than Indianapolis' top-rated station (not just its top-rated AC), Radio One's AC WYXB (based on perusing B105.7's song history on Onlineradiobox). I doubt we'll be hearing "Talk Dirty to Me," "Mr Brightside," "Flagpole Sitta," or "One Headlight" on Sunny (OK, possibly "One Headlight"...).

“One Headlight” is considered a “safe” song to be heard on the station since it was heavily played across CHR and hot AC stations when it was first released in 1997.

Checking Onlineradiobox, I noticed they even added MORE disco stuff to the station’s playlist such as “Boogie Nights” by Heatwave, “My Sharona” by The Knack, “Fantasy” by Earth, Wind, and Fire, “Hot Stuff” and “Bad Girls” by Donna Summer, and others I couldn’t even think of. Surprisingly, they did not include any older Elton John stuff like “Bennie and The Jets”, “Rocket Man”, “Tiny Dancer”, and others.

I would not be surprised if they drop the currents/recurrents and shift to mostly 70’s-80’s gold as part of the overall change.

 

[radiofan86]

They play 1 1970's tune per hour. Still 5 tunes most hours post-2000. 3 or 4 1980's, 3 or 4 1990's.
Between the on-air staff and the music adjustments, Saga clearly saw a need to make some changes. I imagine WSNY is one of the most important stations in the entire company, so I doubt the changes were taken lightly.
Nielsen results will be interesting over the next 6 months.
Go back to the early spring, they were only play 2 1980's, 2 1990's per hour, the rest were post-2000. That's a big change.

 

[Kelly A]

They play 1 1970's tune per hour. Still 5 tunes most hours post-2000. 3 or 4 1980's, 3 or 4 1990's.
Between the on-air staff and the music adjustments, Saga clearly saw a need to make some changes. I imagine WSNY is one of the most important stations in the entire company, so I doubt the changes were taken lightly.

Really? What changes would you make that could guarantee listeners under 30 would spend more time with their station(s)? What changes would be made to alter the loss of local and national advertising moving to social media?

Nielsen results will be interesting over the next 6 months.
Go back to the early spring, they were only play 2 1980's, 2 1990's per hour, the rest were post-2000. That's a big change.

Radio was the only game in town back then. There's a lot more competition that can be listened to on the ubiquitous smartphone.

 

[william#1]

Really? What changes would you make that could guarantee listeners under 30 would spend more time with their station(s)? What changes would be made to alter the loss of local and national advertising moving to social media?

Radio was the only game in town back then. There's a lot more competition that can be listened to on the ubiquitous smartphone

Alrighty then

 

[Kelly A]

Alrighty then

I'm always curious to hear from the various 'keyboard PD's' opinions on what some perceived changes will hopefully make in a positive direction. And for those who frequently say that changes are needed at this station or that, what changes would they make with what net result?