I heard it @ 5 yesterday morning (3/16) driving into work. The station liner was clear but then the subsequent audio was lousy. The show sounded like it was being transmitted in single sideband. Later on the audio was better. Too bad business snooze & talk is on any station, let alone 2 stations.
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550 back on
- Thread starter N1WVQ
- Start date
Putting aside your feelings about whether you'd listen to business talk and the viability of the format from a ratings standpoint, I'm curious about people's thoughts on this question:
From an economic standpoint, shouldn't WPRV and (to a lesser extent) WHJJ be just slightly concerned about the new 550?
I'm thinking they should, if only because of the very basic economic principle of supply and demand.
Quite simply, the supply of business talk radio hours now available for sale in the Providence market has increased. If I'm a financial professional in the area, I've got more options in terms of where I can advertise and where I can buy time.
Regardless of what you think about the format, the balance of pricing power has now shifted in favor of financial professionals. It's much more of a buyer's market than it was last week.
If I a financial advisor paying WPRV for time, I'd definitely check into what 550 is charging for time. I'm not saying I'd automatically switch, but I'd be crazy not to at least inquire.
Thoughts?
From an economic standpoint, shouldn't WPRV and (to a lesser extent) WHJJ be just slightly concerned about the new 550?
I'm thinking they should, if only because of the very basic economic principle of supply and demand.
Quite simply, the supply of business talk radio hours now available for sale in the Providence market has increased. If I'm a financial professional in the area, I've got more options in terms of where I can advertise and where I can buy time.
Regardless of what you think about the format, the balance of pricing power has now shifted in favor of financial professionals. It's much more of a buyer's market than it was last week.
If I a financial advisor paying WPRV for time, I'd definitely check into what 550 is charging for time. I'm not saying I'd automatically switch, but I'd be crazy not to at least inquire.
Thoughts?
With business talk, there's always too much supply & not enough demand. That being said, WHJJ is a talk station. They're too busy worrying about WPRO. As for 790, they'd be smart to dump this current format. Maybe 1320 has more to worry about with 550 because usually business talk stations are bolstered by brokered time. Again, 920 has nothing to worry about (they're not even in the same category of talk) & 790's ratings can't get much lower.
I don't think WPRV cares about ratings. I mean, look at the line-up Ron St. Pierre slept-walked his way into putting together. Which is appropriate given how high the level of boring/bad radio on that station is.
I think Citadel looks at WPRV as a way to generate cash and I disagree with your take on the balance of supply and demand.
Bottom line, there is no way Citadel has the kind of pricing power it had a week ago when it comes to WPRV. Again, if I'm a financial advisor on WPRV, I'm at least going to have a conversation with WBZS about their rates. From a business perspective that's just a no-brainer.
I think Citadel looks at WPRV as a way to generate cash and I disagree with your take on the balance of supply and demand.
Bottom line, there is no way Citadel has the kind of pricing power it had a week ago when it comes to WPRV. Again, if I'm a financial advisor on WPRV, I'm at least going to have a conversation with WBZS about their rates. From a business perspective that's just a no-brainer.
But who's listening to either station? WPRV is there to add clearances to some of the ABC Radio/Citadel Media Service shows (like Imus, John Batchelor, Bob Brinker). 550's raison d'etre is what? The only thing I can think of is if Salem has any business talk shows it syndicates. The same people who could look @ 550 could also ask 1320 what their rates are!mrkadison said:
If any financial advisors go from 790 to 550 then they're going from a station with a .3 rating in the January ARBs to a 0. They get what they pay for. Over 99% of the population ISN'T LISTENING to either! So, where's the demand?
I looked @ 790's website. There aren't that many local shows. Most are 1 or 2 hour per week. Don Sowa's on for an hour each weekday. Let's say 550 takes all of those shows. 790 flips to something else. Citadel doesn't care. I dunno what Cumulus would do.
This isn't the matchup of the century. Sorry.
I don't think it's the matchup of the century either, I just think it's the newest matchup in the market.
As for 550's raison d'etre, sir, I recommend you widen your gaze.
Seriously, look at what Salem is doing nationally with the biz talk format and I think that provides some clues. To me, anyway, it boils down to one thing: opportunity.
I think Salem is looking around and identifying markets where they sense an opportunity to make money and provide better business programming. I realize the format isn't your cup of tea, but my hunch is Salem wouldn't be methodically adding biz talk stations if they didn't have a plan.
As for 550's raison d'etre, sir, I recommend you widen your gaze.
Seriously, look at what Salem is doing nationally with the biz talk format and I think that provides some clues. To me, anyway, it boils down to one thing: opportunity.
I think Salem is looking around and identifying markets where they sense an opportunity to make money and provide better business programming. I realize the format isn't your cup of tea, but my hunch is Salem wouldn't be methodically adding biz talk stations if they didn't have a plan.
Any success 550 might achieve will be entirely due to external promotion. The low (or very high) end of the dial is always problematic for building audience because most people don't even look much away from the center. The exception might be if a low-frequency station is a powerhouse with one of the 5 strongest signals in a given area. Then a radio "seeking" would at least be able to find it....provided all the presents hadn't already been used up.
When it first turned on WLKW (990) had the right format for the era but would have done little without the incredible promotion job the Bo Bernstein ad agency did for them. I believe the cost of the initial campaign cost more than all the equipment, including the six towers and Belchfire-50.
When it first turned on WLKW (990) had the right format for the era but would have done little without the incredible promotion job the Bo Bernstein ad agency did for them. I believe the cost of the initial campaign cost more than all the equipment, including the six towers and Belchfire-50.
R
riradio02842
Guest
Does anyone else think it's interesting that Salem decided to go with business/talk instead of one of their usual religious formats? You would think they would be easily be able to trump WSTL with a Christian music format since the 550 signal is so much beter. WARV would be tougher to go up against considering they've been in the market for a while with a decent signal.
Personally, I've been hoping for an oldies station (obviously automated/satellite) to pop back up on AM, but I guess that's never going to happen in Providence. Perhaps Scott Shannon will return to WPRV if 550 steals some of their listeners...
Personally, I've been hoping for an oldies station (obviously automated/satellite) to pop back up on AM, but I guess that's never going to happen in Providence. Perhaps Scott Shannon will return to WPRV if 550 steals some of their listeners...
N1WVQ said:
Bo Bernstein did a huge variety but the strongest was on billboards. In an ear when those things were plain white with some pictures and text, WLKW's were black with strong colors on the lettering and vivid geometric shapes that were added on and, in some cases, went beyond the borders of the frame. I don't recall any bumper stickers. Yes, TV spots and promotional press released - bios on personalities. I even recall a brief period of direct mail. The original "cast" included Pete Barstow (who may still be in advertising in Providence though I think he should be retired by now); Tony Rizzini, Dave Wolfenden (who was first of the originals to leave), Bob Basset and Paul Garnett on the weekends. Pete was the Program Manager (he liked "manager" better than "director"). George Allen replaced Bob when he went over to TV. I had weekended for a couple of years and took over from George when he also went TV.
I've looked around for pictures of some of the billboards (and bus cards) but have come up empty so far. The campaign was used as a case study in a marketing textbook that was hot (in those circles) about ten years ago. The book also spoke well of a later WLKW campaign that capitalized on 7-up's "uncola" campaign...this one was "un-rock", agains with vivid colors and a lot of black.
As to the 550 signal, I never heard it during the Disney days and have no idea what processing they might have used or are using now. With an all-talk format there is a device that produces a killer signal but would sound terrible with music. It's something I learned about from WHDH-850 back in the 70s. At the time it was made by CRL and later sold under the "Amigo" name. It's a limiter designed for shortwave stations. EXTREME bandwidth limiting and a whole lot of punch, hell on negative peaks as it should be but pushing the positives to the limit which would raise hell with the old RCA backup but the newer solid state (is it a Nautel) should handle it with no sweat. Problem is, they're not made anymore. The power supply in them was OEM'd from a company that went out of business. That was the weak spot. I still have one in service at a rural Alaska station, the older CRL model, and right above it is one of the Amigo units arranged so they can be switched from the studio WHEN the CRL fails. They're good for about 2 years and then the power supply pops and is sufficiently potted that there's no point in even trying to fix it. When CRL merged and did a "last call" on power supplies I bought a couple and stuck them in the rack with the limiters. One has been used, so there's one spare and then......
I do remember WLKW's Unrock ads in the Providence Journal and Evening Bulletin.As to the Amigo, I've heard of it in passing,but never actually saw one. I believe friend and former 'LKW chief Dana Puopolo has something similar at his station here in Philly, WURD 900. Signal jumps out of the speaker on 1 kW day power, and the 105 watt night signal gives CHML a run for the money. A report on the National Radio Club mailing list from a listener on the Cape, says 990 is still off the air and CKGM Montreal comes in with sports talk.
DG02816 said:
Good as the "unrock" campaign was, the original several-months long introductory promotion was incredible. I didn't work there at the time but still believe they spent more on that promoition than they spent on all the equipment.
For the Amigo, if you ever talk with Dana, I noted that it and the CRL original have bridging inputs and Lo-Z outputs. What I did was to tie inputs and outputs in parallel and route the power cords through a substantial relay run (through one more stage) by the Burk R/C. In the relaxed position the CRL is in service. If it quits, just set the right position and trigger so the Amigo pops in. Given that only one unit can function at a time (no power to the other) the input/output paralleling doesn't matter. Trick is to exercise it every now and again but I can do that from my home a thousand miles away. That and swap exciters (25-kW Nautel AM) just to be sure the B will be there when needed. Run the generator, too, since nobody on site seems to remember to exercise it!
Speaking of 550...
NOBODY is more starstruck by a hot night time DJ than an aging ex-night time DJ...let-alone two of 'em!
So we BOTH called Tom Kent's request line
Dueling iPhones!
I got through first.
Yukking-it-up in the background, my client, Curtis Media President Phil Zachary.
In the 70s, when I was on WPRO, Phil was the competition on WGNG (which was SMOKIN' back-in The Day).
Tonight -- in-the-cool-of-the-evening here in North Carolina, and back home there in Rhody -- TK played our request: http://getonthenet.com/HCandPZwithTK.mp3
NOBODY is more starstruck by a hot night time DJ than an aging ex-night time DJ...let-alone two of 'em!
So we BOTH called Tom Kent's request line
Dueling iPhones!
I got through first.
Yukking-it-up in the background, my client, Curtis Media President Phil Zachary.
In the 70s, when I was on WPRO, Phil was the competition on WGNG (which was SMOKIN' back-in The Day).
Tonight -- in-the-cool-of-the-evening here in North Carolina, and back home there in Rhody -- TK played our request: http://getonthenet.com/HCandPZwithTK.mp3
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