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Ashtabula format flip

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Sweet Home Ashtabula makes their first programming move.

Look for CHR/Pop WZOO-FM 102.5 (102 Zoo) to drop the format sometime later today for a 60's and 70's oldies format.
 
Uh-oh... something's going down; 102 Zoo's website is down.

If this station flips to oldies, what will this do to WMJI (owned by CC)?
 
What will it do to WMJI (Cleveland)?

Nothing.

The Cleveland FMs do not come into most of the Ashtabula area with any kind of major signals.

102.5 does not reach into WMJI's primary coverage area.
 
This doesn't effect 'MJI at all, WZOO is a 3kw (maybe 6, not sure) station that covers the snowbelt counties and thats about it.

The switch has been pulled though.
http://www.102zoo.com

Is that a VERY BAD attempt at ripping off WMJI's logo or what!?
 
Is that a VERY BAD attempt at ripping off WMJI's logo or what!?
Click to expand...

I've gotta' beleive that Embrescia & Co. got permission to use the "Magic" name and logo from Clear Channel.... either as part of the sale or a side deal. Otherwise CC's lawyers would be all over them for trademark infringement.
 
I'm not sure, but i believe WMJI's (CC) servicemark on that logo has expired.

Plus, it's similar but not identical to the present WMJI logo. It's actually closer to a former logo design that WMJI used in the late 90s/early 00's.


What's even more similar is MAGIC's website is so close to the CC templates. Roger McCoy did a great job with the design.


I do have issue with the positioning statement... "Greatest Hits of the 60s & 70s" is era definition, which pigeonholes the station. "Greatest Hits of All Time" is a larger umbrella that allows the station to grow and prevents having to re-position later down the road.


I would think that the new "Magic 102.5" would be as live as possible to serve the local market. That cluster does have Prophet, which makes VT'ing easy.



I've been thinking of buying a Prophet system (home version is $1600) and then start marketing to former CC clusters. With Prophet you can WANCast your tracks from home.
 
Note that WTHZ/94.1 in Greensboro, North Carolina now call themselves "Majic 94.1..." and their rendition of the "Majic" logo is just about identical to the late 90's/early 00's WMJI logo. WZOO's logo really looks more like an homage to WMJI's - and so does the "Magic Oldies 102.5" positioner. Yes, "Majic Oldies 105.7" admittedly sounded somewhat clunky, maybe even a bit forced - on WMJI back around 1999.

I'm curious as to who service marked WMJI's logo in the first place. My guess would be either OmniAmerica or Nationwide, and then Jacor/CC subsequently inherited it through the years.

- nate81
 
A "homage to WMJI"? Is that what they say these days when a station/company has no ability to be creative and original? The oval was added to the WMJI logo about 1997. WDOK ripped it in about 2001, by the way.

From what I know, the whole "Majic Oldies" phrase was forced on the locals when Clear Channel national programming "experts" started messing with the station in about 1999, cooking up these clunky "positioning statements" that they wanted the jocks to blurt out like "Majic Oldies" and "Oldies Equals Majic".
 
Equals!!! HA!

Never has a clunkier phrase spewed from my lips!

"The equation for your station...Oldies EQUALS Majic 105.7..."

-The Scottster, genius
 
HHH said:
A "homage to WMJI"? Is that what they say these days when a station/company has no ability to be creative and original? The oval was added to the WMJI logo about 1997. WDOK ripped it in about 2001, by the way.

From what I know, the whole "Majic Oldies" phrase was forced on the locals when Clear Channel national programming "experts" started messing with the station in about 1999, cooking up these clunky "positioning statements" that they wanted the jocks to blurt out like "Majic Oldies" and "Oldies Equals Majic".
Click to expand...

I do apologize. But it could be called an homage, that is, if you like buying a crappy $5.75 pressed oatmeal crezanda tables instead of getting a real wood table.

"Majic Oldies" was Clear Channel's postioning answer to WZJM/92.3's disasterious turn under the "Jammin' Oldies" banner, which was trademarked under WZJM's then-owner, AMFM. (IIRC, after the AMFM/CC merger, the "Jammin'" slogan became CC property, and as WZJM went from AMFM to Infinity, they had to label the station "music that makes you feel... good." Of course, Luczak became their PD at that point.)

That being said... I best remember the station when they called themselves "Majic 105.7 WMJI." "Majic Oldies" was forced and pretentious, and it eliminated the WMJI calls from being mentioned. The sad part is... WMJI was tops in the market, and people identified the call letters with the station, just like WMMS was way back when. WMJI equaled GOLD.

And whoever thought among all of the Jacor/CC muckety-mucks that adding "Oldies" to the "Majic" name was totally oblivious to the (well-founded) notion that the phrase, in the not-so-distant-future - would become passe simply due to demographics. Yes, WMJI evolved at that point where the 50's songs were being phased out... but it was completely counter-productive. Today, it's difficult now to find a station that proudly labels itself "OLDies," no?

- nate81
 
HHH said:
A "homage to WMJI"? Is that what they say these days when a station/company has no ability to be creative and original? The oval was added to the WMJI logo about 1997. WDOK ripped it in about 2001, by the way.

From what I know, the whole "Majic Oldies" phrase was forced on the locals when Clear Channel national programming "experts" started messing with the station in about 1999, cooking up these clunky "positioning statements" that they wanted the jocks to blurt out like "Majic Oldies" and "Oldies Equals Majic".
Click to expand...


Actually "Majic Oldies" and "Oldies Equals Majic" came from Jacor research arm Critical Mass Media. Funny enough former WMJI Program Director Joel Lind, at CCM at the time, is the braintrust behind both positioners.

Those of us at WMJI at the time tried to say the slugs best we could...but after 5-6 months we stopped saying them in whole. They were stupid.

IMO "oldies" in a positioner is not a good move. It pigeonholes the station AND has "old" in the positioner.
 
From what I know, this "Oldies Equals Majic" and "Majic Oldies" business that was forced on the locals by corporate in 1999, deepened the already uncomfortable relationship between PD Denny Sanders and Corporate Cleveland Programming chief Kevin "Pig Vomit" Metheney.
Sanders was very much against calling the station "oldies", and had phased out the reference by 1999, knowing that it was a "pigeon hole" (as you say) phrase. Having a WMMS background, he understood the need to be "universal" with marketing and positioning in order to cast as big a net as possible. It worked with WMMS, and it worked with WMJI, whose 1996-1999 numbers were phenomenal.

When Jammin 92 switched to Jammin Oldies, Jacor/CC Corporate--who never understood WMJI--swooped down on the station and started ordering all of these rash moves in mortal fear of the new competitor. Sanders fought back and reportedly stopped some of their proposals, but these--along with a radically narrowed playlist--stuck. Metheney and Sanders fought like crazy during this period, and only when the ratings went down in later 1999 and early 2000, was Sanders allowed to restore some of the old programming elements and open up the playlist again.

The station returned to #1 25-54 in Summer '00 and Fall '00, but in early 2001, Metheny announced that Sanders was to be let go in a "cost cutting move". Curiously, upon Sanders' departure, WMJI went back to the mid 1999-early 2000 model, and within a short time fell to #3 25-54. It took them a good couple of years to recover, and still do not have the overall time period strength or cume that they did in the late 1990s.
 
HHH said:
When Jammin 92 switched to Jammin Oldies, Jacor/CC Corporate--who never understood WMJI--swooped down on the station and started ordering all of these rash moves in mortal fear of the new competitor.
Click to expand...

Which was laughable. WMJI had so much strengths that no one in corporate SHOULD have logically been afraid. But then again, this is logic discussed here, so... ::)) You don't fear the competition - you seek to destroy. WMJI had the advantages, and obviously garnered the Browns radio rights with CC for added ratings insurance.

It would have been one thing if WQAL flipped to rhythmic oldies and not WZJM (which made sense, given WQAL had Larry Morrow, Dan Deely and Jan Lynn on their airstaff at that time). Moreover, WZJM made the horrible move of retaining most of the previous formats' airstaff. Yes, Action Jackson succeeded at it... but no one else did. Having Morrow, Deely or Lynn - along with Mike O., Lisa Dillon, Billy Bass and Sandy Bennett - could've changed the equation, no?

The format was - and is - like WDOK's "flashback weekends." Good weekend format, and if on an AC station, a nice departure from the norm. But you couldn't - and can't - do it every day. And it came at the expense of a top-rated CHR format, literally handing that demo on a silver platter to CC and WAKS. Which is why I reference this move as THE all-time dumbest in Cleveland radio history.

- nate81
 
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