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Big 98.1

Seltzer said:
This isn't going to get it done.
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Old music attracts old people. That's really very basic. There aren't other variables to adjust. They're doing the same thing in other markets for the same reason.

Seltzer said:
Definitely not meeting P1 listener expectations.
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You're not reading what I'm saying. The P1s are too old for the station target. They need to adjust the demos of their P1s and that means changing the music.
 
Looking at the last 40 songs played on Big 98.1 in the past few hours, very few seem to be anything that would even raise a listener's eyebrows. The songs by Dr. Dre, Warren G/Nate Dogg, Pras/Mya, Eminem, and Jaz-Z might perk up an ear or two, but I can't imagine many people changing the station because of them. And again, that's five songs out of 40 over the course of three hours.

The weekend stunt was a "thing" for sure, but aside from that, the station is simply moving forward in time (as all Classic Hits stations should), in a way that follows the cluster strategy they've developed. I'm a male in the station's age demographic, and I prefer hearing the new adds versus the staples like "Hotel California," "Take Me Home Tonight," "Don't You (Forget About Me)," etc.

I know Philadelphia's radio scene hasn't given us much to talk about lately, but are we perhaps blowing Big's library shift out of all reasonable proportion?
 
It's apparent to me 98.1 is trying to peel listening away from 95.7.

They probably cross cume pretty heavily with Ben FM, and 95.7 has been kicking 98.1's butt in the demos that matter for a while now. (I suspect 95.7 also cross cumes heavily with B101.)

I like 98.1's reconstructed playlist. Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles sound out of place, but for the most part, the song selections and overall flow are good. I'd listen regularly if I lived in the Philly area.
 
TheBigA said:
I haven't heard Benson Boone or Teddy Swims on BEN.
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But Variety Hits isn't a currents format, is it? It was created to play '80s and '90s music at a time when Oldies stations were playing '60s and '70s music. And it's now playing mostly '90s to 2010s music.

That's the problem in a market with both a former Oldies station (WOGL) and a Variety Hits station (WBEN-FM): you can't modernize the playlist of the former without running into direct competition with the latter. And when it also happens to be a Rock-heavy market, you can't lean WOGL more towards Rock or Alternative without running into competition with a number of other stations (WMMR, WMGK, WRFF), so the only choice WOGL has is to lean more towards Rhythmic.
 
kevtronics said:
But Variety Hits isn't a currents format, is it?
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That's what I said:
TheBigA said:
Maybe, but B101 plays currents, and they aim more towards women.
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I was responding to the comment that WBEN shares audience with WBEB.

kevtronics said:
That's the problem in a market with both a former Oldies station (WOGL) and a Variety Hits station (WBEN-FM): you can't modernize the playlist of the former without running into direct competition with the latter.
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In LA and Dallas Audacy owns both classic and variety hits stations (KRTH and KCBS).

The way to handle it is by adjusting percentages. There are enough songs that you can do that.

People here are freaking out when they hear songs that might not fit. But they're taking those songs out of context from the rest of the format.
 
ksradiogeek said:
Philly’s not the kind of market where two country stations can co-exist and succeed. This isn’t the South.
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Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Des Moines aren't in the South either, and they all support two country stations. My small market of Hanover-Lebanon-White River Junction NH/VT supports three.
 
CTListener said:
Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Des Moines aren't in the South either, and they all support two country stations. My small market of Hanover-Lebanon-White River Junction NH/VT supports three.
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And what are the demographics and advertiser makeup in those markets? (One of those markets you listed I lived near for a time and know the makeup of very, very well.)

That should tell you.
 
101tm said:
For what it’s worth, different market, but the Audacy classic hits station in Phoenix that shares the same name and (shared?) imaging, (Big 94.5/KOOL) is running a well varied all-80s weekend.
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"What it's worth" is likely a low number. It's been known for years that weekend listening is lwoer than weekday listening, for a variety of reasons that I won't bore you with here.

Now, presume that on a three-day weekend, you're going to have an even lower percentage of your regular weekend listeners because they are somewhere else and/or doing something that doesn't involve listening to the radio.

Just as stations tend to schedule syndicated weekly shows on Saturday or Sunday because overall listening by their regular audience is already lower, doing a holiday weekend "theme" that breaks the usual format rules is safer. Personally, I'd just stick with the regular format and not bother, but I (thankfully) do not work for Audacy or iHeart.
 
kevtronics said:
But Variety Hits isn't a currents format, is it? It was created to play '80s and '90s music at a time when Oldies stations were playing '60s and '70s music. And it's now playing mostly '90s to 2010s music.

That's the problem in a market with both a former Oldies station (WOGL) and a Variety Hits station (WBEN-FM): you can't modernize the playlist of the former without running into direct competition with the latter. And when it also happens to be a Rock-heavy market, you can't lean WOGL more towards Rock or Alternative without running into competition with a number of other stations (WMMR, WMGK, WRFF), so the only choice WOGL has is to lean more towards Rhythmic.
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I suspect WOGL has viewed WBEN-FM as direct competition for some time despite past differences between the two stations.

The music changes at WOGL are an effort to gain the upper hand, in my opinion.

WOGL did have a significant classic rock lean for a time. Audacy must've been dissatisfied with the results.
 
MarkW said:
WOGL did have a significant classic rock lean for a time. Audacy must've been dissatisfied with the results.
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Wouldn't you? These is a station that was Top 5 in 25-54 just a few years ago. Not anymore. To be fair, BEN isn't there either.

These "adult hits" stations have been playing basically the same library from the same era for 20 years. It may be time for an update.

People complain about stations playing the same songs over & over. Now we have a station diverging, and what are people doing?
 
TheBigA said:
Wouldn't you? These is a station that was Top 5 in 25-54 just a few years ago. Not anymore. To be fair, BEN isn't there either.

These "adult hits" stations have been playing basically the same library from the same era for 20 years. It may be time for an update.

People complain about stations playing the same songs over & over. Now we have a station diverging, and what are people doing?
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No complaints from me, at least. I like WOGL's new sound.
 
XCountry285 said:
The signal is the problem. If your signal is limited very few people know you exist.
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You didn't say "signal" ... you said "they really need to move its frequency." That implies something different than what you are saying now.

I am not a mind reader. I answer based on what I see in the post.

If we are, as I presume from the context going backwards from your original post, that we are talking about 94.7/WXBK in New York/Newark, the former WNSH, that signal has been pretty much maximized to what is allowed by FCC parameters. I think your observation about few people knowing the station exists is likely more due to the station being religious (as WFME) for 47 years, plus about five years running Cumulus' classic Country "Nash" format before the format change under Audacy 3½ years ago.

It may well be that it's not the signal, it's that listeners don't think of checking 94.7 for anything other than the late Harold Camping's preaching. I looked at the signal contour and unless you are far away from New York City itself -- further south than Asbury Park, on the eastern end of Long Island, past Norwalk in Connecticut -- any signal issues are going to be terrain related and there's not much to be done about that. 40kW from Secaucus/Rutherford is not a "limited signal" ... and which of Audacy's other FMs do you think is better (and what are the chances of Audacy flipping any of them)?
 
K.M. Richards said:
You didn't say "signal" ... you said "they really need to move its frequency." That implies something different than what you are saying now.

I am not a mind reader. I answer based on what I see in the post.

If we are, as I presume from the context going backwards from your original post, that we are talking about 94.7/WXBK in New York/Newark, the former WNSH, that signal has been pretty much maximized to what is allowed by FCC parameters. I think your observation about few people knowing the station exists is likely more due to the station being religious (as WFME) for 47 years, plus about five years running Cumulus' classic Country "Nash" format before the format change under Audacy 3½ years ago.

It may well be that it's not the signal, it's that listeners don't think of checking 94.7 for anything other than the late Harold Camping's preaching. I looked at the signal contour and unless you are far away from New York City itself -- further south than Asbury Park, on the eastern end of Long Island, past Norwalk in Connecticut -- any signal issues are going to be terrain related and there's not much to be done about that. 40kW from Secaucus/Rutherford is not a "limited signal" ... and which of Audacy's other FMs do you think is better (and what are the chances of Audacy flipping any of them)?
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My apologies. It can't really reach the city and that's where the audience will be. Also they aren't able to compete well with Power and Hot.
 
The maps don't tell the whole story for 94.7. Even after the move to the 710 site, the real-world WXBK signal significantly underperforms the paper contours within NYC limits.

It's a combination of front-end overload from all the FMs on Empire, numerous pirates on adjacent channels in Brooklyn, and an antenna in NJ that's several hundred feet lower down than much of the Manhattan skyline that the signal has to penetrate.

Where my daughter lives in Brooklyn, you need a very good radio to get WXBK clearly indoors. And it's not like she can listen in the car, since like most city residents, she doesn't (need or want to) drive.

I can imagine on-channel boosters being useful in this situation, even if they're set up as HD-only.
 


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