1080 never learns

[PowerCow106]

So as most of you will remember, about three years ago Genesis tried to replace the first two hours of The Colin Cowherd Show by putting on local guy Brady Ackerman in his own show. Ackerman was, at best, ill-prepared and showed that he was unable to carry a show by himself and his show was promptly slaughtered in the Arbitrons by 740 and their syndicated FSR.

Two months ago, after getting Marc Daniels and Steve Egan fired, Terry Bowden decides to leave 1080 and get back into coaching. By this point, Ackerman had replaced Daniel Dohm as Bowden's sidekick/MC for reasons that were never really explained to anyone's satisfaction.

Did Genesis do the smart thing and hire someone from out of market, or bring back someone who left the market like Young Andy Garcia or Clark & Davis? No, they go the cheap route and give the show to Ackerman, with Bowden reduced to making "special appearances" via phone.

Congratulations in advance to my old buddies Jerry and Shot for winning their timeslot.

 

[radio_connector]

I actually know someone that worked at 1080 for awhile and I quote, "I've never been so happy to get a job and so disappointed all in the span of two weeks..." He didn't bash the place out of respect but I can tell he wasn't at all impressed with management or their methods for programming. Here is the truth about sports talk; it is an incredibly difficult format to sell. Listening to their breaks they struggle to get any direct business that will sustain. You need a vast amount of resources and a dedicated audience to sell it and make it work for a client. An AM station based in Kissimmee doesn't have either. Guess what sports fans it doesn't exist in Orlando. Not to mention the technical obstacles of the station. It doesn't get into the affluent portions of Central Florida. The network itself has come a long way from the day's of the fabulous sports babe - old school ESPN programming. In my opinion there are just too many other factors working against this station for it to be successful in this town...

Here is what I would do with this station. I would forget all the local programming besides the traffic and a local sports segment in the drive times...like a sportscenter update of sorts except local. Satellite works, look at the top stations, and give it 6 months. If it doesn't work go broker and bag the sports. I would likely do something with tourist in mind because of the influx down there. You need at least a 50Kwts signal with something at night to even think about making any money off of programming in AM. A local AM radio station with an inferior signal trying to sell a format that has failed in much larger markets than Orlando (see WMVP in Chicago) it's just too big a hill to climb. I am just assuming here but I would think that 740 is much more sustainable because they have been here longer and they are attach to the CC cluster where they get buys attached to other stations. For direct business they have an advantage as well, I may be wrong however.

 

[larnov]

Brady Ackerman is the worst I have ever heard, A real snoozefest

So as most of you will remember, about three years ago Genesis tried to replace the first two hours of The Colin Cowherd Show by putting on local guy Brady Ackerman in his own show. Ackerman was, at best, ill-prepared and showed that he was unable to carry a show by himself and his show was promptly slaughtered in the Arbitrons by 740 and their syndicated FSR.

Two months ago, after getting Marc Daniels and Steve Egan fired, Terry Bowden decides to leave 1080 and get back into coaching. By this point, Ackerman had replaced Daniel Dohm as Bowden's sidekick/MC for reasons that were never really explained to anyone's satisfaction.

Did Genesis do the smart thing and hire someone from out of market, or bring back someone who left the market like Young Andy Garcia or Clark & Davis? No, they go the cheap route and give the show to Ackerman, with Bowden reduced to making "special appearances" via phone.

Congratulations in advance to my old buddies Jerry and Shot for winning their timeslot.

 

[smedge2006]

Here is the truth about sports talk; it is an incredibly difficult format to sell.

That's not what industry reports tell us -- they say Sports has the highest power ratio (dollars to 12-plus shares) of any format in radio. I presume the reason we have three and four sports talkers in many markets -- as compared to one or two conservative talkers or one or zero liberal talkers -- is because it's EASY to sell, even with no numbers. Hell, it's easy to sell even when it's a pig in a poke. There's a guy on the west coast who's been selling spots in one-hour sports SHOWS -- not even an entire station -- on small brokered outlets for years, conning advertisers by claiming he can deliver Bucs players -- and the gullible advertisers eat it up. So I don't buy the argument that sports is hard to sell -- unless you're totally incompetent -- which is at least arguable in the case of Genesis (woof woof, woof woof, woof woof).

 

[billalm]

A few points to think about.....
-- Both sports stations in Orlando are a joke.
-- Marc Daniels and Steve Egan were fired over budgets, not because someone "got them fired".
-- Jerry O'Neil still sells most of the airtime on 740. Yeah, you read that right... the majority of his salary is from being a sales rep and not an air talent. He knows how to sell the product and the the timeslot makes money no matter what the ratings say. That's why he's still there.
-- I also agree that 1080 has a severe disadvantage when it comes to signal and ownership. 740 should be stomping them in ratings AND revenue. However, the power of ESPN Radio and the half-ass programming 740 serves up has in the past had the stations dead even in the books. If 1080 went ESPN 24/7 plus some play by play here or there, I'd expect more success.

 

[PowerCow106]

A few points to think about.....

-- Marc Daniels and Steve Egan were fired over budgets, not because someone "got them fired".

The Orlando Sentinel radio/tv guy said that the final straw for Marc getting fired was that Terry Bowden had doubled his ratings against them.

I think Marc's biggest problem was his inability to get the complete Orlando Magic broadcast package. That would have saved him. It is vitally important for the longterm survival of 740 that they get the rights to broadcast Magic games themselves when the contract comes up next season.

 

[billalm]

While I respectfully note PowerCow's usually "inside" informational posts, I too know how it works most of the time over there. If that's what the writer in the Sentinel said, so be it... but I disagree. Doubling a rating in one period, in one time slot, on stations such as these that compete for the same niche audience isn't gonna get a market veteran like Marc Daniels canned. It's all about the money man... And about the Magic, WQTM doesn't need the team's broadcasts to survive. The station has been around for over 10 years (on 540 originally) and in my opinion has always better off without the Magic. Clear Channel isn't in the business of buying rights to sports teams any more anyway... and the cost to swipe the rights from WDBO would be unjustified. Besides, I think the Magic has always been happy with WDBO, a solid city grade nightime signal, and a news station that doesn't cater to the unhappy sports fan when the team sucks. If the Magic ever made a move to WQTM I'd be very surprised.

 

[Parttimer]

With the possible exception of Charlotte, Orlando has the worst sports talk I've ever heard for a decent-sized market.

CC has WDAE, one of the highest-rated sports stations in America right down the road in Tampa, and can't find anyone interesting in Orlando? Now problem #1 is the lack of local content. With only 1 pro franchise and UCF to talk about (and Gators-Noles talk) there's not much the local audience can get paasionate about, and the national shows do the national content much better. Fox Sports Radio is horrible since Tony Bruno left, so even the national programming on 740 isn't that good.

It might make sense for 740 to lure Todd Wright away from Sporting News radio for a daytime gig. He does his show from Florida anyway (he has said he'd leave that gig for a spot at 620, but unless Duemig moves on at some point I don't see that happening). Wright can attract a local audience talking about national content.

If the ESPN content was on a decent signal it would clobber 740. I actually find it very strange that ABC bought a blowtorch of a signal for Radio Disney and hasn't taken the same steps to ensure that their sports product gets a quality presentation around the attractions. I mean, really, they could buy an FM and have all kinds of shows presented from the Disney World property. There are even a few sleeper AM signals that aren't bad, like 1270 Radio Luz and 950 (right next to Radio Disney on 990...).

 

[FrankF]

Re: ESPN and WDYZ in Orlando

>> If the ESPN content was on a decent signal it would clobber 740. I actually find it very strange that ABC bought a blowtorch of a signal for Radio Disney and hasn't taken the same steps to ensure that their sports product gets a quality presentation around the attractions. I mean, really, they could buy an FM and have all kinds of shows presented from the Disney World property. There are even a few sleeper AM signals that aren't bad, like 1270 Radio Luz and 950 (right next to Radio Disney on 990...). <<

That's most likely because Orlando really isn't much of a sports town, so why bother. And as if you didn't know already WHOO is not Disney owned so their probably just happy that ESPN is just on in this market as an affiliate.
Funny thing about The Radio Disney station here. When WDYZ reduces power at night you cannot receive the station well at all on Disney property. They should look into that and see if it's possible to operate a low power translater on 990 somewhere on Disney property that could go on at night and run enough power to cover the land there that is used with a decent signal.
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WDYZ&service=AM&status=L&hours=N

 

[orlandocasey]

Since Radio Disney is piped into every room on Disney property through the TV, I don't think they mind too much if you can't hear it in your car.