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old_skuel
Guest
99.3 fired the staff today. Word is a Hispanic format is on the way soon. Currently they are stunting.
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What are they stunting with?
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fairchild
Guest
About a year too late, but I guess that solves the question of whether or not to go all sports.
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fairchild
Guest
Aren't there two other stations that are at least part-time Hispanic?
I don't speak Spanish, so I've never counted.
I don't speak Spanish, so I've never counted.
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Anonymouse
Guest
Reynolds Radio Talk/Sports “99.3 Talk-FM” KZTK White Oak/Tyler/Longview, TX has dropped its format.
With the move a local general talk show in mornings hosted by Terry Miller and an afternoon sports talk show hosted by Bryan Houston are out along with the syndicated Dennis Miller and Mark Levin. The station is stunting in preparation of launching a new format.
http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/80933/99-3-kztk-drops-talk/
With the move a local general talk show in mornings hosted by Terry Miller and an afternoon sports talk show hosted by Bryan Houston are out along with the syndicated Dennis Miller and Mark Levin. The station is stunting in preparation of launching a new format.
http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/80933/99-3-kztk-drops-talk/
radioaircheck said:
Sounds of a construction site.. with an announcement of a "we're building a new radio station". The stereo carrier is back on too.
fairchild said:
Two simulcasting for the Tyler and Longview markets.
"La Invasora" KOYE 96.7 Palestine & KCUL 92.3 in Marshall owned by Access 1
"Brisa Kompa" KPMA 103.1 Pittsburgh & KZXM 94.3 Bullard, owned by Waller Media
Both sound like satellite formats to me, it will be interesting to see what Rusty does. I just wonder if theres enough Hispanics and Hispanic businesses in East Texas to support 3 stations.
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fairchild
Guest
Just heard it. It's nothing but construction noises with an occasion voiceover from Dave Moreland that they're building something.
Stunting. There is absolutely no better way to indicate that you are firmly stuck in the past than by stunting, and taking your radio station off the air for God knows how long in favor of running background noise.
Stunting. There is absolutely no better way to indicate that you are firmly stuck in the past than by stunting, and taking your radio station off the air for God knows how long in favor of running background noise.
fairchild said:
I don't know about that. It got your attention, which, I'm sure, is the intent. Most stations don't generate much income over the weekend, so why not? Besides, you have to play something while you rebuild studios, load music files, move studio-transmitter links, fix the transmitter site, etc. I'm not privy to what they are doing, but I can understand the need to lock the doors and put it on auto-pilot while you make whatever changes you are planing.
I did it a couple of weeks ago with KDOK. It was "Beatles 1240" for a few days. It did get attention, and it helped a lot while we got our ducks in a row.
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fairchild
Guest
I think we'd agree here that your KDOK (which we're all fans of, honestly, good luck with it) is quite different from 99.3 FM. As for getting attention, I didn't hear it on the air first. That station was drawing a 0.5, almost no one heard the actual switchover. I saw it here, and then found out more by looking on Facebook, where there appear to be some angry comments from a couple of listeners (the same comments every format change gets, basically).
It's not 1986 anymore. If you take a station off the air for background noise, people are going to go on to the next station. Or a CD, or their iPod, or Amazon Cloud player, or sat radio, or Pandora, or any of the other options that exist now that weren't there twenty years ago. That sense of curiousity isn't there on a wide-spread level like there used to be. A new format doesn't mean a new source of entertainment that didn't exist before. A potential listener doesn't have to wait for you to unveil a new format because they can already find it pretty much anywhere already.
Living in the past is what's killing radio, and it's a shame.
It's not 1986 anymore. If you take a station off the air for background noise, people are going to go on to the next station. Or a CD, or their iPod, or Amazon Cloud player, or sat radio, or Pandora, or any of the other options that exist now that weren't there twenty years ago. That sense of curiousity isn't there on a wide-spread level like there used to be. A new format doesn't mean a new source of entertainment that didn't exist before. A potential listener doesn't have to wait for you to unveil a new format because they can already find it pretty much anywhere already.
Living in the past is what's killing radio, and it's a shame.
Living in the past is what's killing radio, and it's a shame.
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The past is where radio was great! And just switching to a format from another format does absolutely nothing for you. 99.3 did exactly that when it switched from Jack to Talk, and it was like the tree in the forrest saying. ....Nobody heard it ! And no one listened to it the .5 share is evidence of that. The stunting may not have worked in your opinion but there are alot of people talking about the format change that weren't with the last change!
So stunting obviously worked!
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The past is where radio was great! And just switching to a format from another format does absolutely nothing for you. 99.3 did exactly that when it switched from Jack to Talk, and it was like the tree in the forrest saying. ....Nobody heard it ! And no one listened to it the .5 share is evidence of that. The stunting may not have worked in your opinion but there are alot of people talking about the format change that weren't with the last change!
So stunting obviously worked!
BTW if 99.3's is flipping to a Hispanic format, shouldn't the language of the stunting be in Spanish too? ;D This time 99.3 needs to make a big splash in the hispanic community with billboards, bumper stickers (anyone remember them?) and remotes at stores and clubs. Just dont plug some satellite format in and think anyone is going to listen.
On KOOI's Sunny 106.5's facebook page at www.facebook.com/sunny1065 there were plenty of angry female listeners who were upset with the firing of Dave Moreland, then the dropping of Delilah. Most of them were removed. I haven't seen any angry comments about the switch to classic hits.
On KOOI's Sunny 106.5's facebook page at www.facebook.com/sunny1065 there were plenty of angry female listeners who were upset with the firing of Dave Moreland, then the dropping of Delilah. Most of them were removed. I haven't seen any angry comments about the switch to classic hits.
Well, I guess you are damned if you do, an damned if you don't. There is always someone who is unhappy when a station changes format, no matter how minuscule the audience may be. I can only base this on my own experience, but I've found that conjuring up a radio format isn't particularly quick or easy. It is a lot of work. I suppose that may not be valid if you are merely switching from one satellite delivered format to another. It can be about as easy as changing channels on your TV.
That doesn't seem to be the case here. I hope the new format won't be just another satellite feed. I guess we'll see. 99.3 did have a of of satellite fed programming, but it also had some locally produced shows. That means some people are not going to be employed when the station flips. It is a difficult position for both employees and the General Manager. I've been on both ends of that, and it isn't fun. There is no good way to fire someone.
Since, it is pretty hard (or at least awkward) to be loading new programming into the computers while current talent is actually on the air, I'm not sure how else you would do it. They are likely to get pissed off as soon as they figure out what is going on, and that could be extremely awkward if they are still on the air. I can think of something to bridge the change that is much more entertaining than construction noises, but I can see why they are doing it.
I'll certainly agree that radio has a big problem of "We've always done it that way," but sometimes things are done that way because it works. I'm curious, how would you handle it? You may have some good ideas. I might need them.
That doesn't seem to be the case here. I hope the new format won't be just another satellite feed. I guess we'll see. 99.3 did have a of of satellite fed programming, but it also had some locally produced shows. That means some people are not going to be employed when the station flips. It is a difficult position for both employees and the General Manager. I've been on both ends of that, and it isn't fun. There is no good way to fire someone.
Since, it is pretty hard (or at least awkward) to be loading new programming into the computers while current talent is actually on the air, I'm not sure how else you would do it. They are likely to get pissed off as soon as they figure out what is going on, and that could be extremely awkward if they are still on the air. I can think of something to bridge the change that is much more entertaining than construction noises, but I can see why they are doing it.
I'll certainly agree that radio has a big problem of "We've always done it that way," but sometimes things are done that way because it works. I'm curious, how would you handle it? You may have some good ideas. I might need them.
I've been in that exact situation where I was told I would be laid off in a few weeks because the station was in the process of moving into a cluster and automating. I was even loading the music on the then-new Audio Prophet system for extra overtime pay. But I liked the people I worked for (they didn't want to get rid of me - orders upstairs) so I didn't want to burn bridges.
With everything on a computer now there's always a chance for an angry employee to do some program sabotaging. Or with nobody in the studios at night sneak back in to steal things. That happened to a station in Lawton Oklahoma last year where a former employee stole the control room computer holding the whole station's music library and spots. The morning jock had to play music off an Ipod.
I'd rather see a station with a longtime format do a "farewell weekend" to say thank you to their listeners instead of shocking them with a quick flip.
As for KDOK I think you did the stunting right Chuck. I wonder if you received any angry comments from KXAL Classical or Jazz fans.
With everything on a computer now there's always a chance for an angry employee to do some program sabotaging. Or with nobody in the studios at night sneak back in to steal things. That happened to a station in Lawton Oklahoma last year where a former employee stole the control room computer holding the whole station's music library and spots. The morning jock had to play music off an Ipod.
I'd rather see a station with a longtime format do a "farewell weekend" to say thank you to their listeners instead of shocking them with a quick flip.
As for KDOK I think you did the stunting right Chuck. I wonder if you received any angry comments from KXAL Classical or Jazz fans.
With a .5 share on a 34kw FM station that reaches Longview and Tyler quite well, I doubt there were that many angry listeners. If the ratings are correct only half of a person was listening LOL. So one side of that person wanted to call to complain, but the other side just said to heck with it ....The side that said to heck with it was the side listening to 99.3 LOL
billyg said:
No one was angry, at least not that I know of. I had three or four callers who said they were sorry the format was missing. I'm sure there were more that were disappointed, but after giving it a good run for over two years, it failed to make a blip in the non-com ratings and community support was almost non-existent.
I pointed out those callers that they can still get it on 104.7 with a good antenna and a lot of luck or on line at www.kxal.org. They seemed good with that. One person was frantic that the Kilgore College basketball broadcasts would go away. When I said "No problem, they will still be there," he said "Cool. the music is much better now." Another person called in after a few days of the new format. I think it was Wednesday. He said, "I have you on at work, and I just noticed that the song you played wasn't Classical." He wasn't unhappy, he just noticed the change and wanted to know what was happening. Apparently, it took a while for him to notice. Maybe good music is universal, no matter what the genre.
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fairchild
Guest
600kogo said:
People are only talking about it here, and I'd think that's mostly because on these boards, we've had several threads over the past year talking about Reynolds problems with his stations (ratings, paychecks, possible format changes, the BMI lawsuit against the Blaze, etc). I'd venture to say as many people in the radio industry are aware of that station as are in the entire general public.
billyg said:
I know that came with a smiley-face attached, but that's actually a really good point. If you want to create buzz for a Hispanic station, flip those announcements to Spanish. The conservative talk/sports folks aren't going to stick around, and the average Hispanic listener isn't listening to the track on 99.3 right now. Flip it, and start some buzz.
Chuck said:I'm curious, how would you handle it? You may have some good ideas. I might need them.
There's no good way to fire people, you're absolutely right. No one wants to do that, but in all honesty, with ratings going from 0.4 to 0.5, everyone at that station had to know they were living on borrowed time. I'm sure the Hispanic format will be totally satellite, at least in the early days. The way I see it, there's no reason to hold off on the format flip. The "construction" stunt isn't going to draw in the audience that will listen to the Hispanic format, in fact, all they're doing is prolonging the anger the remaining listeners to 99.3 had. They're venting today, but instead of getting it all out at one time, they'll let the station have it again on Facebook and Twitter when they find out the station's gone Hispanic. There's no crossover appeal there. Rip off the Band-Aid and start the new format, and start selling it. I'm not sure if the sales staff is still there or not, but I assume some of them would have to be. Give them the new format and hit the ground running.
As for putting in the liners, spots, etc, Dave Moreland is still on staff. He's a radio pro. I'm certain there would have to be at least one or two radio pros there who would stay on for an extra week or so to help the flip, work on their resumes, etc. I'm sure you couldn't trust everybody on staff, but there must be a couple of vets you could rely on in the short-term. If nothing else, the jocks at the Blaze (which is still in place as far as I've heard) could be pressed to help put in the liners and spots until they stabilize.
All it takes is a plan, and that may be the problem.
On a related note, I'm really glad I found these boards. Good talking with you guys, and listening to some other good ol' radio folks.
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Anonymouse
Guest
billyg said:
Interesting. Which station? I'm near the area now.
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fairchild
Guest
Maybe they're not going Hispanic after all. Right now (Friday night/Saturday morning, about 1:15am) they're playing club music as "The new maximum hits Power 99.3 FM."
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