Is Classic Rock 101.1 going away?

[awp69]

Well, that’s pretty depressing and seems like they just threw away a bunch of shares because a new country station certainly isn’t going to drive more listeners to 101. Oh well, nothing much outside of X98.5 interests me in OTA radio in the market. Guess it will stay that way.

 

[Kent]

Well, that’s pretty depressing and seems like they just threw away a bunch of shares because a new country station certainly isn’t going to drive more listeners to 101

Country and urban have the highest shares in the market. So, maybe it’s a case of Audacy riding in the direction the horse is going. Having said that, you can only realistically divide up 11 or 12 shares so many ways. If Big Buck manages to drive up interest in the format, country shares might go up for a few books, but they’ll level off within a year.

 

[MarkW]

I would be remiss if I didn't mention how absolutely rotten 93.3's playlist is these days. When did that station become so incredibly lame?

 

[101tm]

I’ll be curious to see if 101.1 adds Audacy’s Katie and Company and Rob and Holly, considering its slightly off kilter approach to the format.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention how absolutely rotten 93.3's playlist is these days. When did that station become so incredibly lame?

WTPT made some “adjustments” I noticed starting this week to lure over some of the WROQ listeners, mainly adding more 80s and cutting back on anything post-2000.

 

[MarkW]

It reminds me of 105.7 in Greensboro now. Seems like they are trying a "middle lane" approach to try to bridge the gap between WROQ and the former sound of WTPT. I doubt WROQ listeners will be satisfied, and longtime WTPT listeners are going to wonder why their favorite radio station suddenly sounds so wimpy and lame.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong and this will succeed; time will tell.

 

[KyleSmith1988]

Beasley Stations WDHA and WRAT in NJ, Plus WMMR in Philly, Have for A Long Time Mixed Some Classic Rock, With Active/Modern Rock in their Playlist.

Also In Philly is Beasley's Classic Rock on 102.9 WMGK / Sister Station to WMMR. Perhaps it's Helpful & Complementary to WMMR in that market. Competition is with Alternative Rock on WRFF 104.5 from Iheart.

I Remember when Audacy got rid of 94 WYSP Rock In favor of FM Sports Talk WIP on 94.1 ... and also when R1 Ended Y100 Rock on 100.3 (Changed to Urban) Many years ago.

 

[101tm]

It reminds me of 105.7 in Greensboro now. Seems like they are trying a "middle lane" approach to try to bridge the gap between WROQ and the former sound of WTPT. I doubt WROQ listeners will be satisfied, and longtime WTPT listeners are going to wonder why their favorite radio station suddenly sounds so wimpy and lame.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong and this will succeed; time will tell.

That approach was already tried in the market with Real Rock 104.9, which was a clone of WVBZ. But at that time, the market had 93.3 The Planet and WROQ, leaving little room for it.

I checked Mediabase and all of the spins for almost all remaining active rock currents are down or gone on WTPT. The station is heavily dayparted with the format being more active rock with currents from 12am-5am.

 

[RoseCatkw_21]

so that's it... 101.1 is just country like wssl 100.5 and 92.5?

 

[KyleSmith1988]

I think / prefer some neighboring / market bordering Country Stations, such as 99.3 WCON, 106.1 WNGC, 101.7 WGOG, WCSL 92.9 and 92.1 WMNC, much more appealing IMO with a similar or deeper variety but also sounding much more local.

 

[RoseCatkw_21]

I think / prefer some neighboring / market bordering Country Stations, such as 99.3 WCON, 106.1 WNGC, 101.7 WGOG, WCSL 92.9 and 92.1 WMNC, much more appealing IMO with a similar or deeper variety but also sounding much more local.

I don't think those are in market station for Greenville

 

[KyleSmith1988]

I don't think those are in market station for Greenville

Yea, Gotta Be Lucky enough, only certain parts of the Upstate get to hear a Local Station from a Neighboring Market ... Or one that covers only Part of the Market ... That's Difficult in Greenville because its near the Center of the Market, Just like Columbia is near the Geographic Center of SC.

WBAV does gets ratings in GSP but thats likely because of Coverage Reaching Eastern Parts of the Upstate. Distant Listening is rarely promoted tho.... Except in the case of 98.9 WYRD - Who's probably still very proud of Themselves for Being Able to Reach Neighboring Areas near Charlotte, Columbia and Atlanta ... (After Moving to 98.9).

 

[RoseCatkw_21]

Yea, Gotta Be Lucky enough, only certain parts of the Upstate get to hear a Local Station from a Neighboring Market ... Or one that covers only Part of the Market ... That's Difficult in Greenville because its near the Center of the Market, Just like Columbia is near the Geographic Center of SC.

WBAV does gets ratings in GSP but thats likely because of Coverage Reaching Eastern Parts of the Upstate. Distant Listening is rarely promoted tho.... Except in the case of 98.9 WYRD - Who's probably still very proud of Themselves for Being Able to Reach Neighboring Areas near Charlotte, Columbia and Atlanta ... (After Moving to 98.9).

maybe south carolina is a small state when some Augusta stations have signal in Columbia

 

[KyleSmith1988]

maybe south carolina is a small state when some Augusta stations have signal in Columbia

yea, Just like 89.7 WMHK (K-Love) just east of Columbia, is a Powerful (mostly) East-West Signal - but I can also hear them most of the time to the North here in the Gaffney area, even beating out the Greenville SC translator also on 89.7 ... (Even With their Null to the North, Which Protects 89.9 WDAV near Charlotte).

Tropo Conditions Also Frequently Bring 104.3 WBBQ from Augusta GA into the Upstate as well.

Upstate 101.1 Nulls Slightly towards Columbia / Sumter because of the Big DM on 101.3

 

[eacalhoun1]

I notice Mix Charlotte is playing ALOT More 80s & 90s hits, in addition to current hits. That's something I can kinda tolerate. Magic wasn't like that, they played alot more current hits, then maybe an older hit every few songs or so.

BTW, I was up in Gastonia and Shelby last night, 99.3 was mostly a solid signal the entire way. 100.9 was a better quality signal (in Stereo) but only makes it west to about Kings Mountain before fading…

Hmm, I thought it was just me but Mix’s music (80s, 90s) is better now that it’s on the two inferior signals; but also at 107.9 HD2 for those who have the tuners. I think Catawba county (then north and west) took the biggest signal hit after Mix’s move. Hickory has a LPFM and translator at 99.3 and 100.9, but the HD signal covers Catawba pert near perfectly.

 

[freqdev]

ironically you can hear the new station on the Iheart radio app

 

[KyleSmith1988]

ironically you can hear the new station on the Iheart radio app

So Iheart can Literally Promote their Local Competition on their platform, and even that wouldn't negatively affect their local stations all that much ... 😉

Reminds me of that Burger King Ad that Provokes McDonalds by Showing a Moldy Old BK Burger 😂🍔

 

[Kent]

So Iheart can Literally Promote their Local Competition on their platform, and even that wouldn't negatively affect their local stations all that much ... 😉

From iHeart's standpoint, having Big Buck on its app means people stopping there for Big Buck also see WESC and WSSL. It's free promotion.

I don't know the specifics of the Audacy deal, but I understand iHeart has the right to air a preroll ad on your stream if you're on its platform. I also understand it charges more for that preroll ad than it does in-stream ads. I would guess that larger broadcasters like Audacy don't have to air as many, if any, iHeart spots in-stream as smaller broadcasters do. iHeart, however, requires smaller broadcasters to cede a large chunk, if not all, of the online inventory streamed through its app. It takes a commission on every one of those spots.

 

[AMRocks]

I’ll listen to 102.5 The Lake, X-98.5 and The Fan, but this market has become painfully void of any choices. No classic rocker. No AC on a signal I don’t have to change leaving Simpsonville. No classic hits. Charlotte, Columbia and Charleston have all of those formats plus more variety. I generally listen to radio on the iHeart in the car. I actually prefer it over SiriusXM which I also have. It’s nice to hear well programmed, other “local” stations (even if they’re voicetracked), in other markets. GSP has lost all of the variety it had just a half decade ago. The markets I mentioned above actually have basic formats that this market doesn’t even have or can’t support. But we have 3 country stations and 3 or 4 sports talk stations (in a not-big sports market).

There are a lot of religious stations, but most are crappy rimshots/translators or on the non-comm part of the band except for 94.5, 103.3 and 103.9.

I’ll be curious to see what the first full book for 101.1 looks like once the rock numbers are out of the picture.

Audacy doest expect to get any big numbers from this station. Yes, they DO expect to make some money off it, but I'm sure the idea is to syphon some listeners from all the country stations in the market, including some from 99.9, so they can topple those big ratings from iHeart. It will only boost the look of Jamz and, more importantly, WORD. (I know, they don't own Jamz, but I still think they'd rather just tear down iHeart. Summit isn't as nearly big.)

 

[ksradiogeek]

Audacy doest expect to get any big numbers from this station. Yes, they DO expect to make some money off it, but I'm sure the idea is to syphon some listeners from all the country stations in the market, including some from 99.9, so they can topple those big ratings from iHeart. It will only boost the look of Jamz and, more importantly, WORD. (I know, they don't own Jamz, but I still think they'd rather just tear down iHeart. Summit isn't as nearly big.)

Nailed it. If they can even slice off a bit of the country duo’s revenue and cut into their numbers, Big Buck will do fine.

 

[101tm]

Audacy doest expect to get any big numbers from this station. Yes, they DO expect to make some money off it, but I'm sure the idea is to syphon some listeners from all the country stations in the market, including some from 99.9, so they can topple those big ratings from iHeart. It will only boost the look of Jamz and, more importantly, WORD. (I know, they don't own Jamz, but I still think they'd rather just tear down iHeart. Summit isn't as nearly big.)

For years the iHeart Greenville cluster has been those country stations. They had to do very little to have a lock on the audience. 102.5 they’d throw a bone to occasionally, 104.9 was always a toss in because the country stations were such monsters, especially WSSL. They didn’t need to compete. Part of me actually likes 101.1 going country because it’s going to wake iHeart up.

If I’m Audacy, I’m firing all cylinders and adding more 80s classic rock to 93.3 to try to keep the competition going WROQ had with 102.5. WROQ going away only strengthens The Lake which throws a bone to iHeart.

JAMZ was hurt a bit by The Block, but like you said, Sunmit is no iHeart.