Marty was one of the main on air hosts for The Mountain and this opens up both audience and advertiser opportunities. He's living in Germany which I'm sure limits what he is able to do. The fact that locals still remember a station which went off the air, what 10 years ago, says something about the niche it filled. Similarly formatted KINK is a top five station in Portland in the June book. Little early to be counting this out there RadioRon.
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Another piece in the KPNW puzzle
- Thread starter leethalweapon
- Start date
This is an awesome move! Even though Marty’s involvement is limited, his name still carries significant weight in this market. Again, credit to Hubbard for trying something different and investing in it.
It might start to go up again by a few point shares since Marty is now on the station.
In spite of his legacy at a former AAA station years ago, somehow I doubt just his arrival will drive any sort of immediate bump.
Most listeners in those days have long left the area, or won't make the connection. Since Amazon rolled into town, Seattle/Tacoma has had a pretty significant population churn.
He's on Saturdays for a few hours, that's not going to drive ratings in any real way. Jocks on music stations, rarely, unless they're outstanding, don't drive ratings with their quips between records. They need to do some marketing on this thing to start growing the cume.
This is a similar situation with Rosalie on KFOG in San Francisco. She wasn’t a huge part of the station, but she was a recognizable name with superb talent and a passion for the AAA format. That’s what Marty brings to the table. They (Hubbard) are assuming that KPNW listeners will still want to tune in on the weekend and hear a diverse mixture of music.
I missed that part. Marty is only voicetracking a Saturday show? Oh sure, that will be a huge juggernaut...Not.
As you point out, weekends don't drive ratings. And I agree that being stingy on marketing hasn't helped them either.
Weekends do drive ratings. But they drive 6 AM to Midnight, Monday to Sunday.. That is what we see in the token free data Nielsen gives out like peanuts to monkeys in the zoo.
But agencies and ratings driven time buyers look mostly at M-F 6 AM to Midnight and, occasionally, the daytime dayparts on weekends. In this case, "occasionally" means "seldom".
But in this example; having legacy market talent who may or may not be recognizable to the current audience voicetracking a Saturday show, isn't going to move the overall weekday needle in a seriously substantive way. Running Marty on a Saturday could be a test balloon to see if there's interest before committing to potentially a weekday drivetime commitment.
Veteran AAA programmer and DJ Randi Kirshbaum joins KPNW for Sundays 10 AM-3 PM.
Likely this will be voicetracked from her Maine residence:
www.allaccess.com
https://news.****************/articles/c41995/KPNW-Seattle-Adds-Randi-Kirshbaum-to-On-Air-Lineup
Likely this will be voicetracked from her Maine residence:
10 Questions with ... Randi Kirshbaum
BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS: KQRS/Minneapolis 1970-1975 WKTK/Baltimore 1975-1976 WHFS/Washington DC 1976-1978 WBCN/Boston 1978-1983 WMGX/Portland, ME 1982-2020 WCLZ/Portland, ME 2011-2020 WRNR/Baltimore 2021-2023 WNCS/Burlington, VT 2022- present 1. How did you become interested in...
It will be interesting to find out who is chosen as the final and most important piece of the puzzle - morning drive The continued hiring is a good sign that Hubbard is not giving up on the new format.
Oh… maybe once they get more weekday personalities it might help drive ratings even if slowly.
Looking at the playlist, they haven't made any adjustments that I can see. When they started, they were using a 1000-song playlist. They still are. The actual number is 1084, which is 100 songs more than KEXP. Comparing the two stations, KEXP plays a lot more currents. That may explain why they do so well in 18-34. KPNW has the biggest playlist in town. Does anyone care?
I really thought it was the other way around. The currents on KPNW are repeated often, and do seem to be a small number with an occasional new release added to the rotation. I don't see how KPNW would appeal to a younger regular KEXP listener. Much of KPNW's music falls into the category of Classic Alternative, which is why I think they may have success by focusing on Classic Alternative with a small number of currents, this would mean eliminating the Zeppelin, Supertramp, ELO, etc. As much I personally like it, maybe the music is too much all over the place, trying to please too many types of rock listeners who already have a go to station for what they really prefer. Trying to do AAA like KPNW in a market as fragmented as it is in Seattle, may not work in 2023. The few successful heritage AAA's in other cities, began over 40 years ago, with a long time loyal audience that has kept them around. Even KEXP can be considered heritage. It may be 40 years too late, to start one now.
I agree. KPNW plays about 25 currents 30 times each. KEXP plays over 50 currents less than 10 times each. I was shocked at the number of old Neil Young songs KPNW plays. But you're right, there is no focus. It's more like a college radio station. Some of it reminds me of WUMB at U-Mass. Meanwhile, KNDD is getting much better numbers with a much smaller 400 song playlist. Once again proving that big playlists don't lead to big ratings.
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It didn't work when KMTT was around. What's the definition on insanity?
I usually look at M-F 6a-7p and M-S 5a-Mid I'll buy mostly from in demo AQH but also consider CUME to determine overall spend level. Use 000's not ratings when possible. There are always additional factors, bonus spots, mentions, promotions and something like a endorsement can drive an annual so that's where the real benefit is to the station for adding someone like Marty who long time buyers like myself are familiar with.
This is where a low rated station can merchandise its assets. When you don't have ratings, sell what you have, and in this case, they have heritage talent. A similar situation is KEGL in Dallas, where iHeart has heritage talent but gets a 1 share. They're using their talent in sponsored golf tournaments and other events around town. So they get a car dealer who might not buy the ratings as a sponsor for the charity golf tournament. It's still money, even though it's not on air.
Not sure I'd call Marty legacy talent, other than he'd been in the market several years ago during a consecutive run. It's been something like twelve years since he was on the air in Seattle. Given the population churn in the market and the mirage that was AAA in Seattle, trying to sell Marty to agencies or local advertisers likely would be a challenge.
And maybe that's where this all leads, a pure 25-54 agency demo play. I just don't see trying to bring KMTT back from the dead as being enough by itself.
My point is that typically a station with ratings like this will eliminate talent. That's not what they're doing.
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