Nothing more than an observation and opinion from somebody who’s seen the movie and has the swag.
WBEN has been the object of a competitor’s promos in the past and weathered the storm, albeit by way of the parent company buying the offending station and flipping it to sports. When Larry Levite owned WBEN and the Rich family owned WGR, the challenger under the guidance of Randy Michaels’ Critical Mass, set out to reposition WBEN, the established news/talk station, as “old and ineffective.”
In recent history, WUWU attacked 97 Rock in the AOR wars, WMJQ attacked Kiss in the early days of the CHR wars and WHTT very subtly and only occasionally nudged the very established WBUF in the Classic Hits days of the mid to late 80s. 97 Rock wacked WHTT when 104 flipped to Oldies and The Fox traded on-air jabs with 97 Rock in the Classic Rock battle of the very late 80s and early 90s.
Taking on a news-talk competitor is a messy and more recently iffy process. Like an effective political campaign, this sort of ad campaign requires the 3-M’s: Message, Manpower and Money. WGR promoted an aggressive 24/7 newsroom, which had reporters on the street and broke news stories as they happened, airborne traffic and weather on the tens and talk personalities that were flamboyant, if not inflammatory.
It helped that WGR had an equally large signal and the rights to the Bills and Sabres. Chuck Finney and Darryl Parks were the PDs for the first two phases of the "War on WBEN." During their reign, a guy I know produced and voiced a fair amount of those "attack" promos.
At the time, attack promos were a good way to get existing (news-talk) listeners to talk about your station and rev up your troops. However, on-air promos reach only the people who are listening to your station. It's a good start, but the real goal is to build cume. These days, cume-building requires massive outside promotion and advertising. An active, two way website is a must, as is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TV.
It’s necessary to have an aggressive fulltime show producer who lines up guests. WGR had the quirky but tenacious Doug Young. A promotions director and PD that concoct bigger than life promotions to attract TV coverage should be standard operating equipment. Also helpful, billboards on the Kensington or Youngman, and maybe the morning or afternoon guy doing his/her show live from those billboards to stimulate plenty of talk, ink and pub. And if the morning guy trades punches with the business manager, that helps too, but it’s not recommended. Using newspaper ads to build the cume yields very little these days.
Which radio stations in Buffalo do the most aggressive, notable promotions? 97 Rock, the Edge, Kiss, WYRK and to a large extent, WGR. Today, Entercom owns WGR and WBEN. Each is well positioned. The WGR attack promos of the 90s were unique and although they stirred the pot quite effectively, they weren’t everybody’s cup of tea. A certain segment of the audience enjoyed them, but older listeners didn’t “get” them.
Those same attack promos might not be anywhere near as effective today. I suspect that when 25-44 year old listeners, especially males, hear attack promos these days; they process the message as “just more of the same media hype.” What Brad Riter is doing is a start, a jab in the ribs of WECK’s powerful and established competitors. But if the ploy doesn’t go beyond the promos and if it’s not backed up with substance, it won’t generate the needed momentum to build cume and increase the share of the station.
I'd suggest the best way to reach Persons 25-44 these days may be to use humor and well-written and produced promos... and in WECK's case, maybe a little self-deprecation. The Bud Lite commercials, the E-Trade Babies, and the attitude and irony of TV shows like The Office and The Daily Show are good examples.
It might be best to leave the attacking up to the air personalities, much like what Howard Stern used to do in the days when he lampooned Scott Shannon and John DeBella, but even this also is probably best done with humor, sound bites and a touch of irony. One more thing, radio message boards don't really count as outside promotion. Most people here are radio realists, if not jaded skeptics.
That’s the way I hear it from this side of the radio speakers and read it from this side of the monitor. Savor the day.
WBEN has been the object of a competitor’s promos in the past and weathered the storm, albeit by way of the parent company buying the offending station and flipping it to sports. When Larry Levite owned WBEN and the Rich family owned WGR, the challenger under the guidance of Randy Michaels’ Critical Mass, set out to reposition WBEN, the established news/talk station, as “old and ineffective.”
In recent history, WUWU attacked 97 Rock in the AOR wars, WMJQ attacked Kiss in the early days of the CHR wars and WHTT very subtly and only occasionally nudged the very established WBUF in the Classic Hits days of the mid to late 80s. 97 Rock wacked WHTT when 104 flipped to Oldies and The Fox traded on-air jabs with 97 Rock in the Classic Rock battle of the very late 80s and early 90s.
Taking on a news-talk competitor is a messy and more recently iffy process. Like an effective political campaign, this sort of ad campaign requires the 3-M’s: Message, Manpower and Money. WGR promoted an aggressive 24/7 newsroom, which had reporters on the street and broke news stories as they happened, airborne traffic and weather on the tens and talk personalities that were flamboyant, if not inflammatory.
It helped that WGR had an equally large signal and the rights to the Bills and Sabres. Chuck Finney and Darryl Parks were the PDs for the first two phases of the "War on WBEN." During their reign, a guy I know produced and voiced a fair amount of those "attack" promos.
At the time, attack promos were a good way to get existing (news-talk) listeners to talk about your station and rev up your troops. However, on-air promos reach only the people who are listening to your station. It's a good start, but the real goal is to build cume. These days, cume-building requires massive outside promotion and advertising. An active, two way website is a must, as is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TV.
It’s necessary to have an aggressive fulltime show producer who lines up guests. WGR had the quirky but tenacious Doug Young. A promotions director and PD that concoct bigger than life promotions to attract TV coverage should be standard operating equipment. Also helpful, billboards on the Kensington or Youngman, and maybe the morning or afternoon guy doing his/her show live from those billboards to stimulate plenty of talk, ink and pub. And if the morning guy trades punches with the business manager, that helps too, but it’s not recommended. Using newspaper ads to build the cume yields very little these days.
Which radio stations in Buffalo do the most aggressive, notable promotions? 97 Rock, the Edge, Kiss, WYRK and to a large extent, WGR. Today, Entercom owns WGR and WBEN. Each is well positioned. The WGR attack promos of the 90s were unique and although they stirred the pot quite effectively, they weren’t everybody’s cup of tea. A certain segment of the audience enjoyed them, but older listeners didn’t “get” them.
Those same attack promos might not be anywhere near as effective today. I suspect that when 25-44 year old listeners, especially males, hear attack promos these days; they process the message as “just more of the same media hype.” What Brad Riter is doing is a start, a jab in the ribs of WECK’s powerful and established competitors. But if the ploy doesn’t go beyond the promos and if it’s not backed up with substance, it won’t generate the needed momentum to build cume and increase the share of the station.
I'd suggest the best way to reach Persons 25-44 these days may be to use humor and well-written and produced promos... and in WECK's case, maybe a little self-deprecation. The Bud Lite commercials, the E-Trade Babies, and the attitude and irony of TV shows like The Office and The Daily Show are good examples.
It might be best to leave the attacking up to the air personalities, much like what Howard Stern used to do in the days when he lampooned Scott Shannon and John DeBella, but even this also is probably best done with humor, sound bites and a touch of irony. One more thing, radio message boards don't really count as outside promotion. Most people here are radio realists, if not jaded skeptics.
That’s the way I hear it from this side of the radio speakers and read it from this side of the monitor. Savor the day.
