Barry Mayo Resignation at Radio One - Effect on Jack, Power or Magic?

[Nu_Roo_2]

Any thoughts on whether the resignation of 5-year Radio One president Barry Mayo will have an effect locally?

One station I'm thinking of in particular is Jack-FM, since it is a rare non-Urban-flavored station in their national stable, and its progress has been slow (although anything other than a very slow build would have been a surprise under the circumstances).  Pure speculation, but perhaps Mayo is the one who insisted the company try some non-Urban approaches, and Liggins didn't like it and is blaming him.  Or conversely maybe Mayo fought against trying non-Urban and was goaded into it by Liggins. Or maybe neither of the above.  Again, just speculating...  I would note that he made his name in Urban AC, which is now having problems in many markets, especially on the revenue side.

I know Columbus is one of numerous markets that was listed as an earnings drag in R1's recent call.  I thought it was curious that Columbus was mentioned second in that list of 5 or 6 declined-revenue markets, ahead of much bigger markets -- though they said nothing relating the list ordering to the magnitude of loss.  Cincy was in the "earnings-up" list, BTW.

http://www.radio-info.com/news/barry-mayo-radio-ones-president-of-radio-since-2007-has-resigned

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

After posting this I saw something that seems to contradict my speculation, especially with respect to Jack-FM. The March 16 Taylor on Radio-Info says:

"After a busy 2011, Radio One is “done” with format changes.
Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins explains why he chose to make so many changes last year – mostly, it was because of Arbitron’s PPM. He says in markets like Houston, Cincinnati and Columbus, there were simply too many urban stations to be viable in PPM, compared to the previous diary system. But no format changes are planned for 2012 – “We’re not even gonna look up and decide whether we should be doing something this year.” They’ll be focused on execution. Liggins says that's paying off with improvements in Cincinnati and Columbus."

Also, I took another look at the Radio-Info article where Columbus was listed second among revenue-losing markets, and it appears they were simply listing the markets in alphabetical order.

 

[xmusicmatt]

Jack makes sense for them in Columbus I honestly think.. Much as people want more Rhy radio in this market.. Rhy doesn't do well with PPMs... Power should do a Rhy CHR format, 98.9 Jack be the classic hits.. and 106.3 be the Urban Ac .. That's my opinion at least.. That should also help them $$ wise. Much as the Gospel format on 106.3 filled a nitche and had a core group of listeners I never saw it higher than a 1 + share in the ratings.

Speaking of -- the Feb PPM numbers should be out this week.

 

[lovejamminoldies]

That's exactly what should be happening and what is happening in Dayton. Hot 1029 is the Rhythmic CHR, WROU is the very hot Urban AC, and then Fly is the Adult Hits.

 

[techie2]

That's exactly what should be happening and what is happening in Dayton. Hot 1029 is the Rhythmic CHR, WROU is the very hot Urban AC, and then Fly is the Adult Hits.

Radio One sold these Dayton stations to Main Line some time ago.

 

[knowbetter]

Any thoughts on whether the resignation of 5-year Radio One president Barry Mayo will have an effect locally?

doubt it will be any, nor the recent announcement that Al Liggins will be directly running radio...which is probably more telling of anything... R! won't change until they give more latitude to the regional/local managers...

I think overall, that Jeff Wilson is a smart guy, given the opportunity, I suspect he will do the right things in the region. Would R! allow him to do that, that is the question.

 

[lovejamminoldies]

That's exactly what should be happening and what is happening in Dayton. Hot 1029 is the Rhythmic CHR, WROU is the very hot Urban AC, and then Fly is the Adult Hits.

Radio One sold these Dayton stations to Main Line some time ago.

I'm aware, but there wasn't many changes once Main Line took over despite the Z to Fly flip.