carolinaradio said:
I was passing through Savannah a few days ago and listened to Triad's 98.3 JackFM and 107.9 WLOW (The Coast). I guess I'm a little confused here? 'LOW, musically, sounds a lot like WGCO before the flip from Oldies. So I'm guessing what the point of this whole thing was? 98.3 had good ratings as Oldies, went to Jack, the station SUNK ratings-wise..now it looks like they're trying to re-create the Oldies format on WLOW. Wouldn't they have done better just leaving WGCO and WLOW as they were? Now they've messed with WLOW and have hurt it in the process.
Now isn't WSGA 92.3 already playing Adult Hits? Doesn't make much sense for a market like Savannah to have two Adult Hits stations (plus JohnFM). There is no reason a format like Oldies shouldn't work in Savannah, on a good signal that reaches Hilton Head and surrounding areas. Any ideas or thoughts on the future of WLOW and WGCO?
I said exactly the same thing in December 2005, re: 107.9 The Coast sounding like Oldies 98.3...
http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,23737.msg178429.html#msg178429
"...Triad's whole deal with blowing up Oldies 98.3 is that they weren't getting the ad revenue or demo they wanted. But that doesn't wash as 107.9 The Coast is playing alot of solid gold oldies. So which is it? Either the Oldies format works or it doesn't. There's no in between there."
I don't know what the deal is with WLOW. I surmise that maybe the Triad suits wanted to make a mea culpa in a small way to the displaced Oldies 98.3 listeners by spinning oldies tunes sprinkled here and there. Meanwhile their horrid "alternative" station (when it's actually active rock) is the radio equivalent of nails on a chalkboard and they still cling to the hopeless belief that three people are listening to their Classic Hits station, WGZO (103.1 The Drive). Also, it seems as if their country station (106.9 The Gator) hasn't been doing all that well, even on a C1 signal. I don't see them abandoning 98.3 JACK FM. If 107.9 The Coast's numbers are flat, they might bring back Oldies but they'll have an awful lot of egg to scrub off their faces after making such a big ruckus about how the demo wasn't there for Oldies, hence the WGCO flip.
104.9 John FM is no longer owned by Triad and I definitely would not call whatever the hell John Broomfield's playing on that station Adult Hits. Every time I scan past the station, it sounds like you're listening to The Weather Channel's music beds. I keep expecting to hear, "Your Local Forecast..."
As for WSGA, Tama's stations have never been a real viable, visible presence in Savannah and never will be. They mainly stick to promotions in Hinesville and their stations seem to change formats every six to eight months.
It'd be nice to see the Savannah radio landscape shaken up a bit. I'm not just talking about a real alternative station, I mean format flips that create an "Oh, wow!" factor and will get more discussion on this board started again.
