Story does say Buffalo is his hometown.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
97 Rock REALLY steps in it
- Thread starter ckg279
- Start date
Maybe...it says he's programming another classic rock in Erie along with this one.
Russo is Joe's real name.
You can take the guy out of Buffalo, but you can't take Buffalo out of the guy. He's coming home. Market size doesn't matter in this case. Believe it or not, people like living here. A lot.
And it's solid fact that living in metro Buffalo is a helluva lot cheaper than living in metro Kansas City.
Then it makes sense. The morning show debacle was his gain. The story says his background is with Classic Hits, yet he wasn't hired for WHTT. Classic Rock or Hits are often interchangeable anyway.
It also says he's in charge of the new throwaway AM Talk Format. That's added value I suppose...
Last edited:
That is generally true in a comparison of any landlocked zero growth market when compared with a growth market. Cleveland vs. Nashville. Pittsburgh vs. Atlanta. And so on.
Coastal markets have slightly different real estate considerations as most can only grow in a 180° arc and the coastal properties are generally more expensive.
Real estate values determine even the cost of groceries, and expensive rent means expensive heads of lettuce.
Last edited:
Only in terms of housing (and that's going up quickly too).
Everything else costs the same or more. And NY taxes are higher.
One thought I had when I saw this announcement was that they're not simply replacing a PD, but putting someone in who knows the market and the station. That says to me that they know the value of this station and what this PD will bring to it. It'll be interesting to see what he does with the morning show.
The morning show is the priority. The good news? It may not be as big a train wreck as first thought. In your own sunny way, you ↑ alluded to this in the ratings thread as 97's Person 12+ performance in February-March-April held steady. Could be 97 Rock morning show listeners don't care so much about a cutting edge comedian, a perky news reader and ringmaster as much as they just want to be re-assured that while they slept the world didn't blow up, hear a topical or humorous tidbit without going off the rails, maybe an interview with a rock star or person in the news, and hear the hits. There are actually people who can do this. The new PD just has to find the right people, put them in place and coach them. Not an easy task, but certainly doable. The other equally important issue for Joe Russo is assuring a staff of mercurial legacies that he's not going to re-invent the wheel. They'll be watching him and testing him, and comparing his every move to the guy who was in the chair for more than 30 years before he was shown the door.
The staff reports to the PD not the other way around. If Corporate has empowered the new PD to make changes, then he will implement them. They may be happy to "stay the course", but the format is aging out. He may have been hired to "apply a new coat of paint"...
True, but there may have been a "marching order" to not rock the boat and to apply changes gradually. If the station is billing adequately, that would be a normal guidance to a new PD.
One of my favorite national PDs once said to me that only about half of all new PDs made it. The half that did not had one of two failings:
One kind would be, typically, moving well up in market size and go into paralysis and do nothing or very little. The station would become stale and start slipping
The other kind would decide they had to "piss in all four corners of the room" to mark territory, and change everything, even the things that had established the station brand. This one was the most destructive, and had to be found quickly and released.
KCMO last year out-billed 97Rock by almost exactly two to one.
To a large degree, this ↑ would be due to market metrics, #34 to #59. But there may be more than a smidgen of programming excellence involved in the figures, which contributed to Joe Russo being hired as the next PD of 97 Rock.
His first job is to sort out the morning show. It'll be interesting to see where he goes with that. It's likely to tell us a lot about the direction of the station going forward.
KCMO does well, ranked at 7th in market billings, in between the two country stations. Ahead of it are also Urban, Talk, AOR, Classic Rock and CHR.
It may not matter all that much. The new direct format competitor (WBUF) has the typical Morning Zoo show and the ratings have tanked. 97 Rock has stayed flat thus far since they fired their Local morning show. There's no demand for that product it seems. Cumulus may find that one person in the morning will suffice...
If the guy who's doing the morning show produces equal and sustaining month-to-month ratings, Cumulus just may conclude that less is more, especially at it applies to salaries. That said, one person in the morning is a very heavy lift. Expect them to add support personnel and re-shape the show, perhaps with the present host. Thus far, he's managed to keep patrons in the store.
Maybe the people who are still listening just prefer tunes instead of tedious jock banter(even the same shopworn songs).
Cumulus sees that WBUF is getting nowhere with a "Zany" all talk morning show. They may deduce that "less is more". 97 Rock is the FM version of WBEN. It's image is set in stone. They're the "Free Bird" station. No new patrons are looking for this store...
Last edited:
Again: if songs research well, they are not worn out.
So? As long as it has salable demographics, they can stay that way for years.
- Status