Per Crossing Broad, a best-of compilation show will air 6-8pm with the station running the national ESPN Radio feed from 8pm onward. The sparse report says weekends won't be touched but that seems a fairly obvious way to pinch a few more pennies so I wouldn't be surprised if that happens soon as well.
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Fanatic cutting evenings
- Thread starter Jstnpspck
- Start date
Weekends not being touched for now should last…..a couple of weeks maybe.
Maybe Classic Alternative…Classic Alternative is emerging as a popular new radio format, often replacing traditional "Classic Hits" or "Classic Rock" stations. It focuses on alternative rock from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, featuring artists like The Cure, Depeche Mode, R.E.M., and early MTV-era hits, serving as a nostalgic counterpart to 90s rap/R&B formats. From wiki…can’t hurt cheap to run…
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Maybe not.
Judging by the ratings, practically no one is listening to the Fanatic whatever they do. So they might as well save money.
6pm feels like an odd time to cut live programming or have commuting habits changes so much that 6pm-7pm is longer considered "drive time?"
They're not going to switch formats to Alternative, classic or otherwise.
You realize the same company that owns the fanatic also owns WMGK. They play a lot of classic alt there. No need to duplicate or compete with one of their owned stations.
The focus for Beasley moving forward is digital. There is a lot of digital money is sports content.
Beasley Sees ‘Turnaround Business’ As Digital Revenue Climbs 18% In Q1.
Beasley Media Group executives used the company’s first-quarter earnings call to frame 2026 as a rebuilding year centered on digital growth, debt reduction and operational discipline. While revenue and EBITDA
Ehhhhh. I wouldn't say WMGK plays "a lot" of classic Alt. An occasional top testing Pearl Jam or Nirvana track yes, but not "a lot."You realize the same company that owns the fanatic also owns WMGK. They play a lot of classic alt there.
Beasley Sees ‘Turnaround Business’ As Digital Revenue Climbs 18% In Q1.
Beasley Media Group executives used the company’s first-quarter earnings call to frame 2026 as a rebuilding year centered on digital growth, debt reduction and operational discipline. While revenue and EBITDAwww.insideradio.com
Of course, there can be discussions on what is considered "classic Alt," but glancing at their playlist since Midnight, I'd tag maybe 6 songs as "Classic Alt" total in almost 12 hours. (Pearl Jam- "Even Flow", Ramones- "I Wanna Be Sedated," U2- "Beautiful Day," REM- "It's The End of the World as We Know It", Alice in Chains- "Would" and Bush- "Comedown"), all of which also solidly fit into the Classic Rock folder.
Would squeezing a Classic Alt station into their cluster hurt WMMR and WMGK? Possibly. But stations have threaded openings like that before with a little work across all stations. (Like Audacy shifting B101 softer before flipping WTDY from CHR to Hot AC)
The real issue is they want a sports station. Companies have shown that a low rated sports station is worth more than a top rated rock station.
My sense is commuting habits have changed a lot since the pandemic. Rush hour starts earlier. I’m sure Beasley looked at the hour by hour ratings before making this decision.
It appears Beasley is getting the cost savings they're looking for in that Kevin Cooney has announced he's leaving the station. It does seem like Beasley is using pruning shears here as opposed to a chainsaw like they just did at WCSX in Detroit where a 20+ year morning host just got the axe.
Everyone here, and everyone paying for advertising in this market, knows that The Fanatic is dramatically not where sports fans tune on the FM band. But it is a male-targeting format that does get some listeners, making it marginally profitable considering the company's cluster. It can make them a little extra money. "You wanna buy MMR and MGK, great. For a little more, we can also get ya on The Fanatic." In other words, The Fanatic is surviving the exact same way Alt 104.5 is surviving. I promise that iHeart is constantly looking for a way they can get more money from their ownership of 104.5 FM. In that same vein, I can promise that Beasley is constantly looking for a way they can get more money from their ownership of 97.5 FM. If some format rears its head, then one or the other will do it. But neither thinks the way to do it is to cannibalize the anemic listenership of the other. As things stand, The Fanatic flipping to some flavor of Alternative would make as much sense as Alt 104.5 flipping to some flavor of Sports. Not. Gonna. Happen.
It's a fair comparison. The fact that Alt clears Woody in the morning scores points with iHeart.
Wouldn’t 106.1 be in the same boat with constant dismal underperforming ratings lower than 104.5 and 97.5, if any they should be the first pulled plug. It’s odd they are still around most listeners go to 105.7, 99.9, 98.5, 104.1 and 92.9 whereas 104.5 and 97.5 have very little competition.
The goal of radio is not to get ratings in 6+ Nielsens. They don't care about them. They care about making money. The fanatic creates digital content that makes money. So it's possible to make money from sports that they can't make with music. Alt carries the iHeart national shows, including Woody. That's why they exist. Not for local 6+ ratings.
The ratings say that most listeners go to 106.1 with 105.7, 99.9, 98.5, 104.1, and 92.9 trailing far behind. They are the #1 rated Spanish language station in the Philadelphia market. They get ad buys based on that fact, regardless of your continuing campaign saying otherwise.
Maybe now 97-5 will start running more of the national ESPN Radio play-by-play broadcasts of NBA and MLB games in the evenings.