Haven't seen any mentions of this on here yet, but Power 106.9 was back in place as of 8 this morning.
http://www.cnyradio.com/2009/08/31/clear-channel-restores-urban-format-on-106-9/
Even the website is finally back to normal. Joel Delmonico was on Reith today explaining they were just "having some fun" to see how many people noticed as they get ready to countdown to the new tower. Yeah, I'm sure that was THE reason... just as sure as the moon's made of cheese.
I think it was a pretty dumb move on CC's part. As Dave Bullard noted, it's stupid for CC to steal from its own candy store. Sure, I can agree there's the thinking, "if people are going to check out a new station, it might as well be one in the same family." But it's not like Foxfur did a ton of outside promotion telling people about the switch. Chances are the only people who knew about Wolf were those who were listening to Radio Disney, those who heard by word of mouth, or from reading about it online or in the paper. CC flipping to Power only drew MORE attention to the entire situation, very counterintuitive. And it made them look a bit desperate, smashing it all together less than 2 hours after 105.1 launched. Probably helped Wolf more than it protected B104.
What else doesn't make sense? 106.9 is NOT between 104.7 and 105.1 on the dial, so it's not like people were going to find 106.9 by accident and think they found the right station. Next, why Power? I'm guessing the urban community was
thrilled to see their station was considered the "expendable" one for CC's little radio experiments. Last but not least, why just a weekend? As if CC didn't already show it's concerned about the competition, it's like they suddenly realized how bad it looks and decided to sober up. If they were hoping to intimidate Foxfur by launching YC on Friday, chances are they only had Foxfur laughing at them this morning.
ROCKTHEMIC said:
a hot NEW country station does not and should not play 20 year old Garth songs!
I don't think Wolf's name necessarily means it's all "new" as in, new songs... but new as in a new approach, a new station. When there's only one country station in the market, usually the only complaint from listeners is that they don't play enough "classic" country because they're just concentrating on current hits, like a CHR. But since they're the only country station, they don't really have to budge, because people will still listen anyway. WFRG in Utica took notice when Clear Channel launched Bob 102.5 years ago -- they saw Bob playing more classics, so Frog started playing more classics. Now that Bob is long gone, Frog's classics are basically limited to a 2-song feature in the midday show.
Basically, any newcomer in a market with one country station will HAVE to play a significant amount of older titles, for that "wow" factor listeners get when they hear a good song they haven't heard in forever... some of the same appeal that comes with listening to Movin (just in the concept in general, not getting into the fact Movin plays certain oldies way too often).
In the end, I think CC's best strategy would be to simply tweak the playlist on B. They should have never done anything with 106.9. It just made no sense at all. Even if they were going to keep YC going long-term, it would erode B more than Wolf. While they look sheepish by taking YC back off the air, it was a good move to discontinue it sooner rather than later. If CC simply plays more classic titles on B, that's the best they can do to keep curious listeners from tuning away.
CC needs to remember, that B is the "king of the mountain" when it comes to country radio in Syracuse. Defense requires less effort than offense, but it has to be done properly. Gotta keep the poker face intact, and resist the urge to make sudden kneejerk reactions or to produce liners comparing yourself to the competition.
Wolf, on the other hand, has its work cut out for itself. Wolf needs to get its name out there, to make loyal B listeners aware that it exists. Then, it needs to make sure listeners who sample have a reason to keep coming back. The minute-long narrative with the history of Syracuse back when it was just Native Americans and wolves, is not necessary. It's a nice effort, something different... but when you're trying to hook listeners, you need to have high-testing songs going as often as possible. Minimize the liners, minimize the commercials.
On the plus side, Wolf's newness means it doesn't have many clients, so the stopsets will be shorter and less frequent for now. They also have Skip Clark, the former music director from B, so he has some insight into the Clear Channel playbook. But (granted, I'm not an engineer), B still has a 50,000-watt tower compared to Wolf's 33,000 watts. Even though Wolf's transmission height is 35 meters higher, there are parts of Madison County (the county where Wolf's transmitter is located) where the station gets fuzzy, but B104 still comes in crystal clear from Oswego County.
Still, it seems a worthy competitor, and we'll see what happens when they add personalities. It could take awhile to get even a 5 or 6 share, but if they aim well at B's weaknesses, they could get some modest numbers. Being live and local at times when B is not (basically anytime outside of AM drive) will help, along with the usual suite of local contesting, frequent remotes and appearances at other big (non-remote) events. It's just a matter of how much Foxfur is willing spend to fight this war. Simply being a competitor where there was formerly no competition will get you a certain degree of success -- but it takes cash to be a "real" threat. And, considering the financial headlines, it's probably the best time to try to compete with CC... the big guys
can play a strong defense, but those once-bottomless pockets aren't so deep anymore. For example, I doubt they'd go as far as putting live/local jocks back in the air on middays and afternoons just because Wolf is doing it.
