While we are offering program wishes... I wish The Fan would expand their FM footprint. 93.7 is mostly okay inside the perimeter, but they could sure use more power and signal help in Gwinnett, Cobb, and Forsyth.
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99X Dropped from 99.7 HD-2 and 98.9 FM
- Thread starter RadioDoogie
- Start date
Agree. It's laughable that one of the best teams in the majors has such a pitiful flagship station.
No kidding! But dare to suggest a pop oldies station and you get admonished.
That is complete nonsense..
What you will get admonished for is being blatantly racist... Not every format is meant to be for everyone. If it works in the coverage area it would've been done... Oldies is not being done on FM signals in most markets as it doesn't make money. The Classic Hits audience is in the suburbs where the translators are not strongest. The demos within in the perimeter are who you need to serve on a translator...
That's quite the reach.
I can't speak for MrRadio but as for me, it is more of an observation from the past and what stations ATL has produced lately. But don't worry I will never suggest a Classic Hits/AC station on this thread again and what I'd like to see ATL have one.
So you think me wanting to see a signal incorporate an oldies format is racist?
No, but saying that if you suggest Oldies as opposed to Urban will lead to admonishing is coded...
And you missed the point yet again about where Oldies is not a financially viable format for a large group in any market. It is a flanker on a rimshot or a for a standalone operator barely trying to survive.
iHeart, Cumulus, Radio One, and Audacy Atlanta are putting on formats that they can sell. I know a programmer who pushed for years to do Classic Hits on his station and they couldn't find advertisers that wanted to support it. And that's a 35-54 demo based format. Now focus older and see if you can find a station willing to do it.
Coded? Nobody said anything about race. I want an oldies station because I'm old, not because I think one format is better than the rest.
I haven't listened to Fox FM for a while but at one time weren't they doing some kind of hybrid "pop" oldies format? I haven't seen them in the ATL ratings but apparently they are buying a couple of stations outside Atlanta so I assume they have some money coming in. They canned Southside Steve for a more "non Atlanta sound". sound.
Correct, they are and they have several translators around the city trying to fill in all the gaps. Apparently what they're doing is working for them, and I am happy to see it. I listen online when I can but having a nice, big signal would be awesome.
Check out the new WKRP in Cincinnati sometime, too (not the awful sequel series to the original, but the radio station they just signed on). Neat music mix, kinda eclectic, really fun.
You're correct. FOX FM has a Classic Hits format and is comprised of 4 translators in the Atlanta market, 102.1 in Atlanta, 99.3 in the southern suburbs, 100.1 in the western suburbs, and 100.9 in the northwest suburbs.
The reason they don't show in the ratings is they don't subscribe, and as a non-subscriber, Nielsen won't even let them encode for the PPM.
That's harsh. Can the agencies "see" Cumulus station's numbers even if they aren't subscribing? I know Cumulus can't market Neilson numbers.
Not a fan of the Cloud company but maybe Neilson deserves to be sued.
I don't think so based on what someone high on the food chain at FOX FM told me. You have to feel bad for Cumulus salespeople. IMHO, Q99-7 is sounding super great, and they have no ratings to sell.
I hate to ask, I really do, but what the hell does coded mean? I could look it up on google or something, but I'd rather see an answer from someone who actually uses the word.
This doesn't seem correct to me. My understanding is that in PPM markets, Nielsen tries very hard to make sure everyone's encoding, including non-subscribers, because that's how they maximize the universe of people using radio and how they (try to) ensure the overall numbers are accurate. I know there are a lot of small AMs and college stations I've seen on even the deep fringes of PPM markets that end up with encoders even though they're definitely not paying Nielsen for numbers.
Any insight on this, @davideduardo ?
Very abbreviated answer: in the 50-ish or so largest markets, Nielsen uses "portable people meters" (PPMs, little pager-like devices) that are given to ratings panelists instead of the older diaries they used to get (and still get in smaller markets).
The PPMs are constantly listening to ambient audio as they're being carried by ratings panelists. Stations that "encode" have a device in their audio chain that inserts a coded series of pulses into their audio. In theory, the pulses are supposed to be masked by the station's own audio in a way that human listeners don't hear the encoding, but the PPM devices can hear and log them. In practice, there are a variety of reasons why the encoding can be audible - or more often, that the devices designed to enhance the audio for better encoding are actually distorting the audio in a way that can be grating to the human ear.
Well, the owner of FOX FM told me that. He had been speaking with them about subscribing. I’m going to text him for clarification.
I'm pretty sure even non-subscribers do have the PPM encoder in their audio chain. A non-subscriber told me they had the PPM encoding device in Winston-Salem, NC (Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point is a PPM market).
He responded that Nielsen has been doing this for the past 2 years. I guess it’s not impossible that he’s wrong, but I think he knows.
yeah, he certainly knows his own situation. it's surprising, though. i was under the impression that they wanted every station to be encoded, even non subscribers.