History is amazing aint it? Once the top Urban station, it shows what happens when you don't invest in a product and just keep cutting corners until you just don't care no more.
Story telling......
Disclaimer: All statments are fictional dialogue, based on true events. [lol]
Jacor - to - Clear Channel vs. R1
:The StL Urban radio wars:
1997...... Majic 108 KMJM.... Hey guys, are we crazy? That signal is way too powerful to be an Urban mainstream. How about making a pop station on 107.7 so it can bill better and put the Hip Hop on 104.9 as Majic 105. But why would we do that? Look at how other stations with huge signals do great in other markets? WJLB, WGCI, WVEE. Yea, but I don't have so much confidence in the format, we could sell easier as Z107.7.
That's fine, but the 104.9 signal doesn't hit the south and west that good.... alot of static, and has trouble gettin through the buildings downtown so folks can't listen easy at work. Yes but it's ok because we're the only Urban in town so who cares right?!
2000... Hey, I heard rumors of a new player in town, looks like we gotta do something so we can stay on top of our game. How about make Majic 105 Urban AC as Majic 104.9 and we create a completely new Hip Hop station to super-serve the market! Lets call it 100.3 The Beat. Better signal, better billing, better ratings! No problem!
Along comes Q95-5 let the Urban radio wars begin!!!
Ooops, one year into the war, we realize that Tom Joyner isn't Hip Hop, so let's move him to Majic 104.9, duh. A local morning show that is format specific is better than Russ Parr so we can have the urban city on lock! Now we're winning the war against Q95-5 WFUN! Their numbers are constantly lower than ours!
2005.... HEY!! Great news guys, WFUN gave up! 1003. The Beat WINS!! WE WIN THE URBAN WAR! WFUN Q95-5 is now Urban AC Foxy 95-5. Once again we are the ONLY urban in town!!
Media reports outrage:
CRIES CRIES CRIES PROTEST BRING BACK Q95-5 !!! IT WAS THE HIP HOP COMMUNITY STATION !!******HELP*****!! HOW CAN THEY DO THIS TO US!!
(Sorry, we at Radio One wanted to stay Hip Hop in STL, but can't do a CC mistake after stealing Tom Joyner and put his Urban AC morning show on Q95-5 a Hip Hop station.. that wouldn't work right.) Just wait great city, Radio One Hip Hop will "live" once again we promise!
CC saga continues....
Well, with no more competition, we can cut our budget and start getting "cheap" with The Beat again... Sorry local Hip Hop-oriented morning show, we have to Dee-Lee(t) all of you only after a short run because there's no point to be local anymore since there's no competition!! Make sense?? It's all budget-cutting, that's the biz ;-)
Plus we gotta bring in sleepy, Urban "AC" Steve Harvey to show non-CC stations that it can work on Urban mainstream formats and sucker them into a contract! And it was working! To name a few, just look at WJHM, WCZQ, WBTF, KPRS, KHTE... oh crap Hot 96-5 don't exist no more because who would listen to a Hip Hop station with sleepy Steve in the AM! But it works in OUR favor in Macon GA because we have Rickey Smiley on WIBB and our competitor WLZN has OUR STEVE! So we're pimping Cumulus not only in a wrong format morning show and getting paid on that, but we have Hip Hop in the AM and better billing and ratings! Oh, sorry, we were ranting. Back to St Louis......
Steve's "advertiser friendly," and won't scare us like Star & Buckwild. See, we really don't care about format compatability, or for that matter even care to be knowledgeable about the Urban format. Urban.. Urban AC.. its all the same right?!?!? And besides, where else will the listeners tune to in the morning? HAHAHA we have Urban AC on both morning shows in STL on 100.3 and 1049 and we dont care!
2006.....
Uh oh guys, the market just got Hot on 104.1 and they say Where Hip Hop Lives.. its in their call letters even WHHL! What are we going to do?? I dunno, we already won the Urban war a few years ago against R1, and we're still on top. I really don't think they are much of a threat. Why invest in the Beat anyway, the economy isn't that good, we couldn't bring in another local morning show, our budget is strapped. But if we continue with Steve Harvey, most of our Hip Hop listeners will go to Hot 1041! It's okay, I'm really getting sick of this back and forth with the Beat. How about we just maintain being cheap, pretty soon we will be going VT'd on overnights with I heart radio anyways right? True. And DejaVu been middays tracked for years right? Listeners really don't know the difference, we've been short-changing them for years! YOU'RE RIGHT!!
2009....
Wow guys, do you see the numbers of WHHL? Yeh they really made their programming HOT didn't they and been whuppin us... What should we do with The Beat? Ah, its been 10 years, I really am sick of it. Yea, I mean who really listens to our station anyway, we made it super-generic overall. Even though some of the personalities put up with our crap all these years and still tried to make it a good station, I just don't feel like investing in it any longer. Yeh but that's the biz aint it? Of course it is! Haha we've milked the cow enough, its really getting dry. We've cut all the corners we can without becoming fully automated. FULLY AUTOMATED? Great idea!! We can move the beat to 100.3 HD-2! That way the city really can't complain that the station is "gone" haha.
What do we do about Steve Harvey. Well, the only smart thing is to move him to Majic 104.9 where he belonged all along. But why didn't we do that in the first place? Well because Tony Scott was doing good! Um yea, but now he will still have to be moved. And having sleepy Steve on the Beat cost us as we went up against Hot 104.1 in the morning didn't it? If it was inevitable that Steve was going to be put on Majic , why didn't we just...... do it.............ear-li-er................... Shut up shut up what's done is done dummy! Coulda-woulda-shoulda, you know we didn't want to invest in the Beat any longer!
So what now? Um, what else! If we turn 100.3 into a easy white female format and make an actual investment into it like we once did at the beginning of the Beat days we could have a good product huh? Oh of course, if you invest a little bit into something, then you reap the benefits! If you give up, then it sinks, just look at how we destroyed the Beat!
You're right, and besides, It won't be the first time this city only had one Urban station; the competition can HAVE it. They claim to be "urban specialists" right? Well that's what they say, but the station does sound better than what we've been doing for months on the Beat. I just wonder if the only Urban in town will end up getting cheaper in the future like we did. Who cares, we're listening to a new "SOUND!"
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Hey what about KMJM vs. WFUN? ........................................................................................................................
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