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AMP 103.3 is flipping at 10am on 5/28
- Thread starter bostonradio
- Start date
It was promoted as a “Jack/Mike”-like Adult Variety Hits format, but in its brief existence not much more imagination was used in programming the music than typical gold-based AC hits.
That's how I remember the format. I don't remember promotion at all, but then, I was observing from afar and didn't know how Clear Channel was promoting the station on billboards, in print, on television. WHBA came and went in a matter of a few months. I do recall seeing billboards on a trip back to the Boston area for the slightly longer-lived EDM station that took its place.
looks like everyone on air-staff. from the RAMP trade this morning:
"...confirmed the exit of former AMP Radio morning show producer Matt Shearer, midday personality Corinne Kimball, afternoon talent Vanessa Hale and night jock JD. Former TJ Show morning hosts TJ Taormina and Loren Raye left the station in late March, as did producer/imaging guy Nick Benevenia"
https://ramp247.com/free-agent/big-change-at-wods-boston/
Nick Benevenia actually put out a nice blog post on life and death of AMP 103.3 (2012-2020). Good/honest read from an insider.
https://nickbenevenia.substack.com/...ampaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy
There was very little (if any) external promotion of WHBA, I just meant their on-air imaging implied "Variety Hits" though the format was nothing unusual.
The EDM "Evolution" format was at least a genre of music popular in some dance clubs that was not on the air elsewhere in town, and after 101.7 flipped to country "The Bull", "Evolution" was continued first on the HD2 of Kiss-108, then on the HD2 of 101.7 for a while until it was replaced by the current LGBTQ format.
The Harbor was 5 months.It started in July of 2012 then EDM started the following Dec.
The flip to country was June of 2014
There was a wheel of formats done in a week's time when WTKK dropped talk...classic rock, variety hits, etc (Power, Nova, Mike, The Bone) till it settled on Hot with rhythmic AC. January of 2013.
The flip to country was June of 2014
There was a wheel of formats done in a week's time when WTKK dropped talk...classic rock, variety hits, etc (Power, Nova, Mike, The Bone) till it settled on Hot with rhythmic AC. January of 2013.
The Harbor was a 5-month stunt. Last full month of its programming it tripled 'FNX's audience size and share. Just facts, not opinions.
Big may or may not be a stunt. I personally believe it will be short-lived. That's an opinion, not a fact.
It's definitely a stop gap because AMP was bleeding money heavy during Corona. They spent more money on jocks every week than they were bringing in sales.(a few weeks ago they actually added their former midday jock who was on maternity back to the the lineup - she was hosting nights from home).
Large percentage of 250,000 college student population left town when campuses shut down in mid-March. Entire concert and movie scene shut down in March which in affect killed all of AMP's promotion and marketing activities.
No inside knowledge but I'd expect some kind of Entercom cluster reset once things get back to normal in late summer as far as listening goes.
Very little or no promotion behind The Harbor. Definitely no TV. Maybe a billboard or two but it was a brief existence and 8 years ago seems like ages.
Can't see Entercom buying any TV time for Big right now. We're in the summer season of TV reruns and no sports so no one's really watching except for news which is primarily over 55-crowd. This is a GenX format with listeners 40-55 being the sweet spot.
I stopped listening to the radio regularly just over a year ago. My P1 Station was Mix! Music has evolved so much and Mix continuing to evolve with this "new music", the station simply became unlistenable to me!
If the Corona Virus effectively killed Amp Radio, it is only because the station was already on its last legs.
Even as I actually knew a couple of people who liked and listened to the station, the format had to go! Besides, it has been quite apparent that unlike CBS, Entercom did not have faith in the AMP format.
I do not think that the new format is merely a place holder either. For the first time in years, I now have a reason to listen to the radio again!
Someone mentioned that Mike-FM was not doing well. That doesn't seem to be how I remember it!
If I recall, the station had ok ratings complete with very low overhead! I was a regular listener to Mike-FM too, although admittedly they were getting stale the last year that they were on.
While Big 103 is no Mike-FM, it is a very welcome change to have the Adult/Variety Hits format back.
If this is only a place holder, then what else can they even try? (OK, R&B is still quite plausible, but 97.7 it was only doing just ok. IHeartRadio could still theoretically program such a format on 94.5 instead.
That does lead me to one big question though. Why did Radio One decide to do alternate programming on WILD-FM and not either simulcast or move the original programming instead? Also, why did they seem less than invested in making it work either?
In any case, I welcome Big 103! I believe that they are carving a niche enough to fit right in. I only see their numbers going up!
If the Corona Virus effectively killed Amp Radio, it is only because the station was already on its last legs.
Even as I actually knew a couple of people who liked and listened to the station, the format had to go! Besides, it has been quite apparent that unlike CBS, Entercom did not have faith in the AMP format.
I do not think that the new format is merely a place holder either. For the first time in years, I now have a reason to listen to the radio again!
Someone mentioned that Mike-FM was not doing well. That doesn't seem to be how I remember it!
If I recall, the station had ok ratings complete with very low overhead! I was a regular listener to Mike-FM too, although admittedly they were getting stale the last year that they were on.
While Big 103 is no Mike-FM, it is a very welcome change to have the Adult/Variety Hits format back.
If this is only a place holder, then what else can they even try? (OK, R&B is still quite plausible, but 97.7 it was only doing just ok. IHeartRadio could still theoretically program such a format on 94.5 instead.
That does lead me to one big question though. Why did Radio One decide to do alternate programming on WILD-FM and not either simulcast or move the original programming instead? Also, why did they seem less than invested in making it work either?
In any case, I welcome Big 103! I believe that they are carving a niche enough to fit right in. I only see their numbers going up!
The former imaging director for Amp explains his thoughts here: https://nickbenevenia.substack.com/p/1033-amp-radio-goes-silent
He details the rise and fall of the Amp brand from 2008-2020
Something I found particularly relevant.
“ The decision to abandon a youth-centric format in favor of “variety hits” aimed toward Generation X is deeply unsettling. The radio industry is slowly moving away from younger Americans and doubling down on older generations, who are more likely to consume radio and attract advertisers with their expendable income. This makes sense from a business perspective, but it is disappointing to see radio giving up on youth culture, and spells disaster for the future of radio.
It’s easy to say “Millennials and GenZ don’t listen to radio” but it’s important to consider what radio has offered those generations. Beyond the AMP brand, there has not been another radio format committed to youth culture. Without representation on air, they’ve turned to podcasts, TikTok, and YouTube. Radio has been writing off young Americans, and in turn, they may have written radio off. If Millennials and GenZ don’t grow up with radio, they may never discover what makes the medium special. If the twenty-year-olds today don’t listen to radio in their thirties, the commercial radio industry will collapse.”
He details the rise and fall of the Amp brand from 2008-2020
Something I found particularly relevant.
“ The decision to abandon a youth-centric format in favor of “variety hits” aimed toward Generation X is deeply unsettling. The radio industry is slowly moving away from younger Americans and doubling down on older generations, who are more likely to consume radio and attract advertisers with their expendable income. This makes sense from a business perspective, but it is disappointing to see radio giving up on youth culture, and spells disaster for the future of radio.
It’s easy to say “Millennials and GenZ don’t listen to radio” but it’s important to consider what radio has offered those generations. Beyond the AMP brand, there has not been another radio format committed to youth culture. Without representation on air, they’ve turned to podcasts, TikTok, and YouTube. Radio has been writing off young Americans, and in turn, they may have written radio off. If Millennials and GenZ don’t grow up with radio, they may never discover what makes the medium special. If the twenty-year-olds today don’t listen to radio in their thirties, the commercial radio industry will collapse.”
The statement is emotional but shows a lack of understanding of the radio business.
With most radio buys targeting 25-54 or a subset, a 20 year old... or a teen... is not generally a viable audience target for radio and has not been for decades.
But demographics were not Amp's problem; it was the lack of success of the station itself. The Amp stations that have been changed or which may soon be changed are under-performers, low billers and unnecessary buys for clients. Agency buys that go quite a few stations deep don't generally duplicate formats unless the buy is really extensive.
He’s been in the radio business for 15+ years. I’d reckon he has an understanding.
18-34 is hardly ‘teens and 20 year olds’. He makes a good point in that the AMP brand is one of the only formats that been targeted at millennials, ever.
He also asked if these 20 year olds aren’t listening to the radio now, will they at 33?
After four times that number of years in the business, I can say that it is very common for those not in management not to understand the economics of broadcasting. The production assistant you quoted is very obviously one of those.
There are loads of millennial-targeting formats, such as Urban, CHUrban, Regional Mexican, Reggaeton (Spanish CHR), country and others. The ones that are well programmed get great ratings.
The ones that are mediocre don't get numbers or billing... AMP in LA is one of those. It failed due to its own lack of success, not due to the industry.
One of the two highest billing stations in the US is KIIS in LA. Guess what their target is? Guess how well they do?
Hint: in February, the last "month" not influenced by the Coronavirus, KIIS averaged 20,000 AQH persons in 25-54 while AMP had less than half of that. KIIS was #1 in that demo, AMP was #20. Same ratio in 18-49 and 18-34.
It's not that 18-34's are not listening to radio. They just are not listening to AMP.
Stations that beat AMP in 18-34: KIIS, KRRL, KLAX, KXOL, KYSR, KPWR, KBIG, KRTH, KROQ, KLVE, KTWV, KCBS-FM, KOST, KKGO, KSCA. In other words, stations that don't even target 18-34 that specifically beat it. Again, the issue is a bad station, not a radio issue.
It's a nice chronology, but really misses the point. If the format had been successful, the format would still be on the air. But it was a flop, and had been for a long time. It wasn't going to get better, so might as well put it out of its misery. Entercom had no emotional attachment to it. Kevin Weatherly is gone. So it's an orphan.
The real problem that no one addresses is how do you make a radio format relevant to millennials? The model people should look at is The Breakfast Club. iHeart takes a lot of criticism for things it did a long time ago. But one thing they do pretty well now is create and establish national formats. On the other hand, it's something CBS hasn't done well for a very long time. The first big fumble was when Howard Stern left. When Dan Mason retired, that may have been the end of CBS as a creative radio company.
Another iHeart show is Bobby Bones. The have created a country version of Ryan Seacrest. He's someone who is a personality on the radio and on TV. He won Dancing With The Stars. He's part of American Idol with Seacrest. CBS and AMP had that with Carson Daily, and Carson walked away from the radio part. Instead of developing a replacement for Carson, they just gave up. That's how AMP has been running for the past few years.
AMP was created when CBS was a unified TV-radio-online company. There should have been a unified approach to this show. There should have been a core host who is on all platforms, interacting with listeners. There should have been events built around the format the way iHeart does their festivals and awards shows. There should be lots of video. There should be a lot of things. Millennials are no single platform people. If your only platform is radio, there needs to be an organized platform. Instead it was every station for itself, and no real national brand other than the name and a logo.
I can attest that until you have been in management, it's hard to grasp fully the economics of radio. I am lucky. I got to get on air and programming experience before being put in sales and finally management. Even after years of sales and the on air and programming experience, management taught me a bunch. There's nothing like sitting across the desk from a station owner who asks your game plan and follows up with "Explain how that makes me money". There is so much programming and sales didn't explain that management deals with.
WJMN had the breakfast club for a few years, got rid of it and immediately their ratings took a nose dive.
Some of you folks who are now referring to AMP (correctly) as a "flop" or "failed station" sure were singing a different tune six months ago.
"It bills well!"
"It performs decently among Females 18-34!"
"Entercom needs it to support cluster wide goals!"
"There is no available format worth taking a chance on!"
Yadda, yadda, yadda.
In my opinion, UrbanTeenager is right; many people under age 30 have little to no use for AM/FM radio. If you think their habits are drastically going to change as they age, I think you have a rude awakening in store.
"It bills well!"
"It performs decently among Females 18-34!"
"Entercom needs it to support cluster wide goals!"
"There is no available format worth taking a chance on!"
Yadda, yadda, yadda.
In my opinion, UrbanTeenager is right; many people under age 30 have little to no use for AM/FM radio. If you think their habits are drastically going to change as they age, I think you have a rude awakening in store.
Between then and now there was this virus thing that wiped out half of their audience.
There was also a lot of talk here that they'd flip AMP to some form of Alt or some replacement for WAAF, and we see that didn't happen.
I don't know that you can make such a generalization. Just because someone is under 30 doesn't mean they all think alike. What we see is that if they get what they want, they listen. It's pretty simple. There's a concern among under-30s about things such as privacy and control of their identity, and you lose both when you give your personal info to big corporations such as Spotify and Apple. So if they can get music without giving up personal info and credit card numbers, they do it. I mentioned The Breakfast Club and most of the listeners to that show are under 35. That should be a template for how to do radio in the 21st century.
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