Don't disagree with your thoughts on the 80s. Look at AC...by now you would think the 80s would be gone but they clearly do appeal to younger demos.
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Big 98.1
- Thread starter AM/FMRAINMAN
- Start date
That's funny. You talk about rules for classic hits as though they're sacred. What about the rules for adult hits? If BEN started adding 70s pop songs, it would cease to be adult hits.
Right now, WBEN is playing Uptown Funk from 2014. What about the adult hits rules? They're playing Avril Lavigne from 2002. They're playing N'Sync. What happened to all the rock music????
Playing whatever we want. Adult Hits has never been all rock music. And not stuck in certain decades although they could lean one way or another. Lots of pop on the Bob station in Pittsburgh for example. Adult Hits and Classic Hits are not the same. What I am saying is OGL could be opening a lane up for them to move in a more Classic Hits direction. All gonna come down to the ratings over the next several months. And generally speaking Classic Hits is a stronger format than Adult Hits. We shall see.
So does CHR and Hot AC. The difference is in terms of age and race. As I've been saying, WOGL needs to bring down its median age. Audacy owns a station that dominates in the male category. They don't need to do that with WOGL.
They haven't been a straight "classic hits" station since before covid. They added the classic rock to bring down the age. Lately the rock hasn't been effective. So they're adding some other things.
CHR Hot AC and AC are BY DESIGN female leaning formats. Classic Rock is a MALE LEANING format. Classic Hits is supposed to be a more 50 50 split. But you don't lower the demo and put yourself in the same ball park with your AC and Hot AC station. That's what they're doing. Especially with B 101. Which is supposed to be one of the $$$ stations in the cluster. Classic Hits is a 35-54 format that leans 50 50. All this rhythmic product unbalances that and possibly drives some men away to MGK or possibly Ben.
But let's change the topic a bit. Radio is supposed to be more than just a jukebox. Their talent overall with a few exceptions are all second rate compared to the air staffs at Beasley. Despite the firings of Andre Gardner, Eric Johnson, and the woman from Preston and Steve, Beasley talent is still better overall. And talent is what can make the difference in a competitive situation. OGL specifically has fired some big names over the past ten years and replaced them with lesser talent.
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The other side of that conversation is if they lean male, they're taking away from their sports station. The sports station could easily go to #1 depending on how well the Phillies do this year. The sports station makes a lot more money than the classic hits station. Once again, the main issue for WOGL isn't men or women. It's the over55s who are hurting the age demos.
So has Beasley. If you're a male and you want local talent, listen to WIP. If you're an older male, listen to KYW or WPHT. Lots of live & local talent there. They need to economize somewhere, and WOGL is where they do it. Audacy's sports station is KILLING Beasley. The money they spend there pays more dividends than the money they spend at WOGL.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Without requoting, taking what BigA said about making moves that don't in the process cannibalize the other stations in a cluster. And this is nothing new ...
Remember years ago, when iHeart was still Clear Channel? Here in L.A. they programmed their FMs to be female-friendly, with slightly overlapping age demos ... KIIS-FM as a pop CHR, KOST as a soft AC, KBIG as a Hot AC, and KYSR as an Alternative without the harder songs. They called it the "wall of women" and promoted it that way to the agencies. The numbers were reasonably consistent in the female demos across all four stations; they both complented and protected each other.
Beasley is using a similar playbook: WOGL is programmed to not cannibalize WIP. It's really that simple.
Remember years ago, when iHeart was still Clear Channel? Here in L.A. they programmed their FMs to be female-friendly, with slightly overlapping age demos ... KIIS-FM as a pop CHR, KOST as a soft AC, KBIG as a Hot AC, and KYSR as an Alternative without the harder songs. They called it the "wall of women" and promoted it that way to the agencies. The numbers were reasonably consistent in the female demos across all four stations; they both complented and protected each other.
Beasley is using a similar playbook: WOGL is programmed to not cannibalize WIP. It's really that simple.
I think music...music talent...and sports and sports talent are different animals. When you want to bitch (and after today there is plenty to bitch about the Phillies), you aren't going to be listening to WOGL. I don't see WOGL cannibalizing a sports talk station.
In your LA example, that worked well because there wasn't a Classic Hits and AC station in the same cluster. You have that in Philly and that is part of the problem. And much of this can fall on the shoulders of David Field. Bringing the B 101 name back was a mistake. No one did more research than Jerry Lee so there was a legit reason to change the name to More FM to begin with. And a more contemporary mix than now. Had they let More FM alone and kept TDY CHR (or maybe flip into a real young country format to go up against XTU) OGL would be in better shape today and would have done a more natural progression in the Classic Hits format than what has happened. But time will tell. Ratings in the next two months will tell the story.
Men like music and they like sports. The same men can like both things and listen to two different stations depending on their mood at the time.
There is little risk of WOGL or any other music based station "cannibalizing" WIP.
An argument can be made, for example, that classic rock and all sports are complementary. See WMGK and WPEN-FM, owned by Beasley.
Depending on competitive dynamics of a specific market, having two radio stations within the same cluster target similar demos can make great sense.
And what does this show? That these big companies have no business owning as many stations as they do. I don't expect round the clock air staffs in 2025. I do expect talent to the level of Cadillac Jack and Harvey Holiday manning the main dayparts. Ross Britain and the Breakfast Club was fantastic. Im not saying bring these talents back. But OGL will never compete with Preston and Steve or the MGK morning show with what's showing up on air there now. It's more than just music. OGL is not built to win.
Why is this so hard for some people to understand? For just one thing, it's a win if Sales can say, "We're going to charge {cost} to run your ad on B101 and TDY because, between the two, we're delivering {XX amount} of females." (That's an over-simplification, of course, but you get my point.)
Name the legendary talent at WCBS. After Scott Shannon left. who replaced him? How can he compete against a 40 year vet Jim Kerr?
Race Taylor.
He's not in mornings
Well I'd be trying to find one. But it is Audacy. And their financial woes. And perhaps they are starting to just "get by" with this station now like they have with OGL. Truly sad that CBS FM could be on their way down. But to my ear at least they still have the music right. The audience isn't stupid. TSL for all radio continues to go down year after year. Listeners are understanding that great radio isn't being done anymore and are spending more times with podcasts and their own music libraries. Spot loads continue to be problematic with radio as well.
It's more than an Audacy problem. It's a generational problem. If we're talking about playing 50 year old music, the talent connected to that music is either gone or going away. As I said, how does iHeart replace Jim Kerr or Carol Miller at WAXQ? There are no replacements, as there was no replacement to Scott Shannon. Who replaces Preston & Steve?
There is no way to fix spotloads until radio finds another revenue stream. Because right now, spots are it. The number of spots hasn't changed, but the public perception has. So the choice is this: Find another way to make money from radio, or cut costs to the bare minimum the way the streaming services have. That's the choice. What do you suggest?