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AMP - The good, The bad, The ugly?

K

kentuckymedia

Guest
Since the last thread seemed to be getting off topic about AMP, and I have tried to petition Radio-Info to just start an AMP board, why not just post your thoughts here.

I have never been employed or associated with AMP. However, our agency was asked to come in and complete a "research study" for their Bloomington stations some 3 years ago. We met with the GM and Sales manager. I think his name was Sandy? He was really excited that we would be coming in to research the needs of the market for such a decent, discounted price.

We then met with the owner and his minions later in the afternoon when they arrived in a conference room to discuss the process, etc. It was at the point when the older owner walked in, he asked "Why in the hell do we need to pay you money to tell us what we already know"?

So after a 5 minute meeting of the minds, we decided that we werent that in need of working with AMP. Later that afternoon, we had a message that they wanted to meet with us in Indianapolis to discuss a radio station they owned in Fort Wayne (yeah right!)

To make a long story short, a few of my associates and myself decided to help the company in steering a few of their stations in the right direction. We also supplied them with multiple people who could program the #1 stations blindfolded. However once they were under management by AMP, they would call terrified, upset and wanting to leave the business all together.

I never truly understood the concept and the madness on why they operate the way they do. AMP has some teriffic signals, including heritage Top 40's WAZY, WBWB and WNDV. Talk about having major power. Plus they operate in fantastic markets and own the sports franchises in the state. Yet, they just DONT GET IT.

Radio is about creativity, understanding your audience, making business decisions that become solutions, and a healthy enviroment. Thats what makes radio win, not knee jerk reactions, not understanding the music, etc.

They have done a few things right. Karen Rite is a top notch PD and they are giving her the tools to win. Sandy is a great GM in Bloomington. And selling out of Fort Wayne was a very smart move. They also had some great GM's in the past running clusters including Rick in Lafayette, Jack in South Bend and others.

While we could dedicate an entire web-site to the things they have done wrong, here are just a few.

South Bend: What are they thinking with the "Stream". Are you serious? WZOW, you dont even want me to get started.
Lafayette: The voyage of 2006/07. They finally turned around a sinking ship then ran everyone off.
Bloomington: Not working with others to grow the potential of the market. It has a population of over 120,000 people, and they just let it sit there.
Fort Wayne: That was a cluster f**k since the day they took over, and they overpaid way too much.
 
I do have to give AMP some props. The day after the news broke about the WGLM sale, AMP called nearly all of the employees at the station asking to meet with them about potential employment.

This may come as a surprise, but despite all the horror stories I've heard from nearly all of the past AMP employees I've talked with, I was sad when I didn't get the call. :'(
 
Sorry to hear you didnt get one of the calls. But all together, WGLM was kicking their ass in most of the main demos and dayparts.
 
cold_coffee said:
Like I said on the other thread, the AMP bashers come from the competition. To bad
Art kicked your ass in business! Sorry!
Click to expand...

cold_coffee would know about getting an ass-beating. just look at the last two year's of ratings for his station.
 
Actually cold coffee, amp bashers come from emplyees, ex-employees, consultants, clients, agencies, competitors and listeners. In some cases, the basher has been more than one of the above. I'm not sure they should be called "bashers", just good honest people that hate to see bad things happen to the business of radio.
 
lurkerjock, you said it right.

I have talked with about 20 other consultants and when I mention Artistic, its like nails on a chalkboard. Its known in the business as one of the worst companies in the business, and yes..I think Clear Channel may actually be ran better than Artistic, which is sad!
 
cold_coffee said:
To bad Art kicked your ass in business! Sorry!
Click to expand...

Comparing AMP and KVB's business performance is kind of like comparing a Lowes to a local hardware store. The choices at the local place are limited and more costly to the consumer making it harder to bring business.

AMP owns 4 stations in-market giving them an automatic advantage for the potential to garnish higher billing and a better bottomline. Because KVB's fate was solely in the hands of a 6,000 watter that couldn't penetrate into the downtown businesses where so many listeners worked (on-line streaming was NOT an option), meeting that bottom line was much more difficult to meet. The only advantage WGLM had over the competition was it was the only adult contemporary station in the market. Agencies and local businesses bought us for that reason. WGLM also couldn't lower the rates like AMP and Schurz, which made it that much more difficult to sell the station going against $5-9 spots.

Despite the obstacles set up against WGLM, the place was seeing an upswing in its last 6-months. The on-air product was better, phones were hot (to the point where I was getting e-mails from the network asking what we were doing on our end), billing was up, and after the fall book came out, the agencies were approaching US to get on. All in all, WGLM left the commercial side on a high note.

What annoys me about statements from my former competitors is that they dismiss KVB as a non-player and a horribly-run operation. If WGLM was so bad, WASK-FM wouldn't have been calling their oldies station Lafayette's "Official at-work station," a staple liner of many ACs across the country, for last few years, Z and B's sales departments wouldn't be trying to sell their stations to agencies as 'hot ACs,' BOB wouldn't be sold as Lafayette's answer for WGLM (the weekend adult hits format was actually bringing GLM's overall numbers down and alternate plans were being discussed), and the competitors wouldn't have been talking about wanting to put the place out of business for so many years.
 
Rowdy, I totally agree with you.

I remember seeing a rate card for WXXB at $5 per spot. I just about spit out my coffee (and no, it wasnt cold). Then to find out in fall of 2007, WAZY was selling spots for the same rate. Talk about cutting your own throat.

I also agree that WGLM was going places. Looking at the last Eastlan Market sweep, WGLM in 12+ was off a bit, but in the 25-44 demo, it placed #2. WGLM in 2007 beat WKHY, WASK, WAZY, WXXB and more.

The smart move for Artistic would have been to apply Waitt Active AC format on their 95.7 signal to make room for the loss of 106.7. Then move Rock back to 95.3 where it belongs. When it was on 95.3, the station was at its highest ratings since the Alternative days.
 
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