94.7

[cyberdad]

Given Citadel's paid religion lineup of stations, perhaps they could use whatever connections they have with the "great beyond" and bring us this lineup....

Jim Runyan 6-10am
Joel Sebastian 10-2pm
Jim Stagg 2-6
Art Roberts 6-10
Gary Gears 10-2am
Yvonne Daniels 2-6

Barney Pip, Mort Crowley, Gene Taylor weekends.

Now THERE'S an all-star team! And from where they'd be broadcasting from, they'd have no need for money, so they'd fit right into Citadel's cost-cutting schemes!

 

[InTIMadate]

Citadel's power is only greed. I'm sure Yvonne isn't hanging in the area available to the Mitch Dolan today or in the after life.

Any predictions on Imus's first day at WZZN?

 

[clone]

I bring it up because it's the same frequency (94.7). Every market has a signal that never succeeds. In LA it's the old KZLA signal. ABC spent millions of dollars trying to compete with WKQX for the New Rock/Alternative format and failed.

Except they took the cheap route on morning drive where the Zone was concerned. Nothing they had could take on Mancow and Stern. Ironically, less than a year after WZZN flipped, Stern was gone to Sirius and Mancow was off in Chicago.

Every format change they did on that station for about 20 years led to direct competition with an established station in the same format.....Z95 vs. B96, WLS-FM Talks vs. the Loop, Kicks Country vs. US99, CD 94.7 vs. WCKG, Zone vs. Q101. All failed. Finally they hit upon oldies with no competition, and it's still struggling. Maybe it truly is Chicago's cursed frequency, though AM 1000 is also in the running.

Eh, there's no such thing as a "cursed" signal, just years and years of poor management. Let's start with Z95. A cheap knockoff of a New York station that would have probably done OK, had it actually sounded like the station they were trying to emulate at the time. There were Hot Hits stations in BFE Indiana that sounded better. No one wanted to spend the money to make it #1.

WLS-FM was trying to compete with WLUP. Except that WLUP was a rock/FM talker, not a just simulcast of a News/Talk product. Two different types of listener altogether.

Kicks Country was another bad idea, taking on a heritage country station in one of the largest markets in America. I mean US99 had, what, a thirteen year head start on them?

CD94.7 was OK, just didn't bill.

Onto The Zone. Started off to kill a suburban rimshot competitor. Again, probably would have succeeded had it sounded anything like the competitor. They found out that few people listen to 80's when the station doesn't *sound* like it's from the 80's. So it slooowwwlly morphed into a sort of "classicnewwave80salternative". Wouldn't have been bad as an HD-2 for a true 80's "Zone", had they actually been able to pull it off and HD existed in 2001. After that is a blur, no one was even sure what the hell kind of music they played, and they usually had a tweak planned for right after the next legal ID. Billy should have considered himself lucky to break a 1.0. They may have spent millions, but generally target demos were people who don't carry diaries and those with limited income. Needless to say, billing was through the roof. Also managed to ruin a halfway decent competitor in the process, so all was not lost.

We end the saga with Scott Shannon. If there is a cheaper way to run an oldies station in Market #3, Citadel's going to find it. Don't be suprised if you start hearing a lot more of Scott again, and I'm sure our favorite Nappy Ho is going to fit right in here in Chi-Town.

 

[Tom Wells]

Chicago people have a preference for home-grown Chicago products and businesses.
Mr Imus sounds like New York and always has.
I suppose Citadel is totally ignorant of how people have stayed away from Macy's department store.

Marshall Field's is gone, and we DON'T care how much Macy's advertises here.
This is NOT new York, and Chicagoans are not suddenly going to change their minds on such things.

If they succeed in this it will be a miracle.

 

[InTIMadate]

"Billing was through the roof"?

They never broke $8 mil and Zemira was hiding expenses in the WLS AM budget. Check your numbers. T94.7 has never "billed through the roof."

Meanwhile, The Point in Houston and Tampa makes good money and decent ratings playing 80's.

 

[clone]

They may have spent millions, but generally target demos were people who don't carry diaries and those with limited income. Needless to say, billing was through the roof. Also managed to ruin a halfway decent competitor in the process, so all was not lost.

Whoosh....

"Billing was through the roof"?

They never broke $8 mil and Zemira was hiding expenses in the WLS AM budget. Check your numbers. T94.7 has never "billed through the roof."

Meanwhile, The Point in Houston and Tampa makes good money and decent ratings playing 80's.

That was the sarcasm whizzing past. It's OK, I have a hard time conveying it in print. And yes, 80's can make decent coin, if you know how to do it.

 

[EnbyCee]

I bring it up because it's the same frequency (94.7). Every market has a signal that never succeeds. In LA it's the old KZLA signal. ABC spent millions of dollars trying to compete with WKQX for the New Rock/Alternative format and failed.

Except they took the cheap route on morning drive where the Zone was concerned. Nothing they had could take on Mancow and Stern. Ironically, less than a year after WZZN flipped, Stern was gone to Sirius and Mancow was off in Chicago.

Every format change they did on that station for about 20 years led to direct competition with an established station in the same format.....Z95 vs. B96, WLS-FM Talks vs. the Loop, Kicks Country vs. US99, CD 94.7 vs. WCKG, Zone vs. Q101. All failed. Finally they hit upon oldies with no competition, and it's still struggling. Maybe it truly is Chicago's cursed frequency, though AM 1000 is also in the running.

Eh, there's no such thing as a "cursed" signal, just years and years of poor management. Let's start with Z95. A cheap knockoff of a New York station that would have probably done OK, had it actually sounded like the station they were trying to emulate at the time. There were Hot Hits stations in BFE Indiana that sounded better. No one wanted to spend the money to make it #1.

WLS-FM was trying to compete with WLUP. Except that WLUP was a rock/FM talker, not a just simulcast of a News/Talk product. Two different types of listener altogether.

I was talking about the brief '94-'95 run as "WLS-FM Talks", which wasn't a simulcast of the AM except overnights and weekends...and the Loop was hardly playing any music at that time.

That era was another example of the cheapness that's been used on 94.7's formats, though. There was little promotion for that format (unlike the Loop, which has ALWAYS had good promotion even in its "Best Music On The Planet" 1996 nadir) and overnights and weekends they just simulcast the AM instead of airing original stuff like the Loop did.

 

[clone]

I bring it up because it's the same frequency (94.7). Every market has a signal that never succeeds. In LA it's the old KZLA signal. ABC spent millions of dollars trying to compete with WKQX for the New Rock/Alternative format and failed.

Except they took the cheap route on morning drive where the Zone was concerned. Nothing they had could take on Mancow and Stern. Ironically, less than a year after WZZN flipped, Stern was gone to Sirius and Mancow was off in Chicago.

Every format change they did on that station for about 20 years led to direct competition with an established station in the same format.....Z95 vs. B96, WLS-FM Talks vs. the Loop, Kicks Country vs. US99, CD 94.7 vs. WCKG, Zone vs. Q101. All failed. Finally they hit upon oldies with no competition, and it's still struggling. Maybe it truly is Chicago's cursed frequency, though AM 1000 is also in the running.

Eh, there's no such thing as a "cursed" signal, just years and years of poor management. Let's start with Z95. A cheap knockoff of a New York station that would have probably done OK, had it actually sounded like the station they were trying to emulate at the time. There were Hot Hits stations in BFE Indiana that sounded better. No one wanted to spend the money to make it #1.

WLS-FM was trying to compete with WLUP. Except that WLUP was a rock/FM talker, not a just simulcast of a News/Talk product. Two different types of listener altogether.

I was talking about the brief '94-'95 run as "WLS-FM Talks", which wasn't a simulcast of the AM except overnights and weekends...and the Loop was hardly playing any music at that time.

That era was another example of the cheapness that's been used on 94.7's formats, though. There was little promotion for that format (unlike the Loop, which has ALWAYS had good promotion even in its "Best Music On The Planet" 1996 nadir) and overnights and weekends they just simulcast the AM instead of airing original stuff like the Loop did.

Yes, I did forget to list "WLS-FM Talks" on the miserable failure list. But again, it was still two stations fighting over the same niche market. I also wish to apologize for the sarcasm in my previous posts, but that is where I have ended up after watching this over the years. All sarcasm aside, no one in Chicago wants to hear Imus. There isn't one person who reads this board who thinks that they do. And of course 94.7 has never had a format that billed well.

The only problem I was trying to illustrate, is that 94.7 has usually jumped on a bandwagon and tried to emulate successful stations on the cheap. The signal isn't cursed, it's just been a textbook case of corporate mismanagement since the late-80s. Many of 94.7's formats could have done well, had they been given the opportunity to.

Not to sound all late-60s, but you can really look at a radio station like a tree. Given the right amount of water (money), sunlight (talent), and soil nutrients (management), after a few years you will have something that is in-demand, healthy, and enjoyable to look at. I don't care what format you are trying to sell. Trying to substitute more of one for less of the other will result in a diseased tree (low-billing station), and without all three, it will wither and die in short-order. Chopping down the tree every six months doesn't help either, even if you are providing the basic needs.

 

[InTIMadate]

Using your analogy, all the sunlight in the world can't make a tree grow without good soil and fresh water. There has been amazing talent on 94.7. The GM/PDs and the lack of available resources provided the short-comings.

Although the term "curse" may be strong, there is a propensity of the consumer to turn away from a business location once they have been burned multiple times. I believe that, for the millions of Chicago radio listeners that passed through their formative years between 1977 and 2007, the 94.7 FM frequency has been a major disappointment that deserves little attention.

For the record, I feel the same way about KFC. No amount of promotion or talent will get me to consuming their version of chicken. Even if it is free.