Burlington Radio

[the professor]

How does it stand as we head into 2010?

Still a market loaded with Rock and rock-oriented stations. WIZN, The Buzz, Champ, Rock 102, Kool 105. Can and will they all survive? I say no. Look for changes in 2010 from 1 or 2. Most likely candidates would be Champ and Rock 102 in my mind. Rock 102 is late into the game. Champ was DOA when Vox took it back over. WIZN should benefit from Champ format adjustments. Kool does okay though a real boring radio station and The Buzz is successful.

I don't see many other moves in the market.

WOKO is going nowhere and Eagle will continue the fight.

Star does what it does with that ungodly signal and MP103 isn't a threat to them.

I think Vox will stay the course with oldies on 96.7.

95 Triple X has no reason to do anything different---great position in the market.

The Point is The Point. Sounds better than it has in years but will only get so far due to their ownership.

Everything else....including the new 107.1.....will go nowhere.

The AM dial is pretty dead though I do like Charlie and Ernie on WVMT. WJOY is nothing...WEAV isn't much either.

As always...your thoughts are welcome. Even encouraged.

 

[MassMusicMan]

Still a market loaded with Rock and rock-oriented stations. WIZN, The Buzz, Champ, Rock 102, Kool 105. Can and will they all survive? I say no. Look for changes in 2010 from 1 or 2. Most likely candidates would be Champ and Rock 102 in my mind. Rock 102 is late into the game. Champ was DOA when Vox took it back over. WIZN should benefit from Champ format adjustments. Kool does okay though a real boring radio station and The Buzz is successful.

Wizard needs to capture their 1990's lightning in a bottle...and they can do that thanks to Champ seemingly sacrificing the older tunes. Heard the afternoon jock on Champ on Christmas Eve...awful. He took 45 seconds to say 10 seconds worth of content.

Didn't listen to the Buzz or to Rock 102, but the latter is only as relevant as the marketing effort behind it. Consider who owns them, and then answer your own question about how relevant they can be in B-P.

Kool is dull, but plays the songs that Wizard and Champ seem to have forever abandoned. Lucky for them, Kool is the most focused musically of the three, but could stand to have their jocks do more than "here's blank with blank." That's what the internet is for.

WOKO is going nowhere and Eagle will continue the fight.

Great to have JT back in the market as Lobo on Eagle. A great talent, and a perfect fit for that format.

Star does what it does with that ungodly signal and MP103 isn't a threat to them.

You can't outheritage Star, but there is an audience for Ingrid Michaelson and Matt Kearney. MP could own that franchise in B-P...but as always, it comes down to spending money, which they don't have.

I think Vox will stay the course with oldies on 96.7.

Of course they will. That frequency is Ken Barlow's plaything - nothing more.

95 Triple X has no reason to do anything different---great position in the market.

They're listenable.

The Point is The Point. Sounds better than it has in years but will only get so far due to their ownership.

I'll take your word on that one.

Everything else....including the new 107.1.....will go nowhere.

Huh, why did you single that one out? (scratches head). I'm dismayed that they get jammed by WORK at the 89 cloverleaf, but that's okay, because we have this thing called the internet that enables radio listening.

The AM dial is pretty dead though I do like Charlie and Ernie on WVMT.

Class acts.

WJOY is nothing...

You ever heard of this sports franchise called the Boston Red Sox? I hear they're pretty popular.

WEAV isn't much either.

Are they even on the radar without Rush?

 

[Oldbones]

Heard the afternoon jock on Champ on Christmas Eve...awful. He took 45 seconds to say 10 seconds worth of content.

I'm not familiar with the Burlington market, but this is becoming rampant. I don't know if it's just that if no one is doing aircheck sessions with the staff anymore or if these jocks see rambling breaks to be "personality", but for someone like myself who was in the biz when brevity was the rule it's quite annoying to listen to. Whatever happened to "one thought per break"?

 

[MassMusicMan]

The problem with Champ is that their PD is now running 107.1. Who's running the asylum? The guy too busy pattering over oldies in the adjacent studio?

 

[the professor]

To answer Will's comments...

***The problem with Champ is that their PD is now running 107.1. Who's running the asylum? The guy too busy pattering over oldies in the adjacent studio?***

Mary Cenci is the PD at Champ now.

<<<I think Vox will stay the course with oldies on 96.7.>>

**Of course they will. That frequency is Ken Barlow's plaything - nothing more.**

Don't understand you're thinking on that. Look at radio across the country and see the re-emergence of classic hits/oldies formats in all size markets. 96.7 is alone in that.


<<95 Triple X has no reason to do anything different---great position in the market.>>

***They're listenable.***

Much more than that..they have for many years gotten it and continue to do so.


<<Everything else....including the new 107.1.....will go nowhere.>>

***Huh, why did you single that one out? (scratches head). I'm dismayed that they get jammed by WORK at the 89 cloverleaf, but that's okay, because we have this thing called the internet that enables radio listening.***

Non-compelling programming, a morning show that is over and a signal that cuts in and out in the car in Burlington area. Even the internet won't make this station a player.

 

[MassMusicMan]

Non-compelling? I heard a few minutes of Ramsey recently...he puts on a show that offers sound advice. I'd rather hear that than "blah blah liberal, blah blah death panel" on every show. Variety is good. And Dan Patrick is perhaps the most intelligent man in sports talk radio. I'd love to see him get Olbermann back on that show...those two are great together, and would be a nostalgic pairing for those of us who grew up with Sports Center in the 1990's

Hmmm...the success of letting people relive the prosperous 90's...what other show on that station fits that description?

 

[True Grit]

Heard the afternoon jock on Champ on Christmas Eve...awful. He took 45 seconds to say 10 seconds worth of content.

I'm not familiar with the Burlington market, but this is becoming rampant. I don't know if it's just that if no one is doing aircheck sessions with the staff anymore or if these jocks see rambling breaks to be "personality", but for someone like myself who was in the biz when brevity was the rule it's quite annoying to listen to. Whatever happened to "one thought per break"?

re: 'one thought per break'--if it's valid, why is the customer expected to listen to 5 or 6 commercials at a time?

 

[Lester Young]

Heard the afternoon jock on Champ on Christmas Eve...awful. He took 45 seconds to say 10 seconds worth of content.

I'm not familiar with the Burlington market, but this is becoming rampant. I don't know if it's just that if no one is doing aircheck sessions with the staff anymore or if these jocks see rambling breaks to be "personality", but for someone like myself who was in the biz when brevity was the rule it's quite annoying to listen to. Whatever happened to "one thought per break"?

re: 'one thought per break'--if it's valid, why is the customer expected to listen to 5 or 6 commercials at a time?

5 or 6?!?

If only the stop sets were that short. There's a reason why my company once spent a million dollars annually in New England radio, and today spends zero.

 

[bsboy]

Blah blah blah blah blah. Didn't I already read this post this year and twice last year and twice the year before? Yawn!!!!

As usual Will, right on with your comments.

By the way, I listen to XM. Better variety of channels and music and no blabbering jocks.

 

[MassMusicMan]

I never understood six minute stopsets either. Who listens to radio commercials for that long? What on Earth makes any advertiser believe that buying the fifth spot in a break is a good buy?

If Burlington stations were smart, they'd establish a cartel like I seem to hear here in Boston. Happens all the time - I can flip between Mix, Mike, WROR and WZLX, and hear spots on all four at the same time around :50.

 

[nhradiochild]

Heard the afternoon jock on Champ on Christmas Eve...awful. He took 45 seconds to say 10 seconds worth of content.

I'm not familiar with the Burlington market, but this is becoming rampant. I don't know if it's just that if no one is doing aircheck sessions with the staff anymore or if these jocks see rambling breaks to be "personality", but for someone like myself who was in the biz when brevity was the rule it's quite annoying to listen to. Whatever happened to "one thought per break"?

Is this typical of the format, or is it a newbie trying to learn the ropes?

 

[bsboy]

2 breaks an hour. 6 spots in each break. 50 minute music hours. It's called trying to make money while trying to fool the listener. By the way the client has no idea where they land in the spot break. When they receive the invoice they only see the times that the spot ran, not who was in the break or how many spots ran in that break. Some clients will pay extra to be first in a break, but overall, most advertisers have no idea.

 

[Dobyd]

The lineup on 107.1 is good minus the Corm and Coach show. It's funny that the only local show on the station is also the worse thing on the station. They are just phoning it in...

 

[MassMusicMan]

Some clients will pay extra to be first in a break, but overall, most advertisers have no idea.

Hey, it's their money.

 

[Lester Young]

The last time I personally dealt with a radio station salesperson (about 5 years ago), he acted shocked when I asked whether my spots would be buried in an absurdly long stop set. I'm amazed that so many business advertisers blindly accept whatever spot placement they get.

 

[MassMusicMan]

While we're on the subject of Champ, I don't much care for the "rock isn't defined by a decade" positioner either. Of course rock is defined by a decade. The 50's birthed the genre, the 70's gave us hard rock, and the late 90's gave us nu-metal. And there's very little congruity between people who fancy the rock of the last 15 years and the 70's fans.

 

[True Grit]

Some clients will pay extra to be first in a break, but overall, most advertisers have no idea.

Hey, it's their money.

Better theirs than mine. I'm guessing that if a listener is going to bail out of a stopset, they'll do it the second they hear the first commercial.

 

[Lester Young]

Some clients will pay extra to be first in a break, but overall, most advertisers have no idea.

Hey, it's their money.

Better theirs than mine. I'm guessing that if a listener is going to bail out of a stopset, they'll do it the second they hear the first commercial.

Depends on the format.

It strikes me that listeners to talk radio/news radio/sports radio are less likely to bail on a stop set than a music format, where there are competitors up the wazoo peddling the same bland music.

 

[MassMusicMan]

Exactly. If you're willing to listen to a talk show, you'll sit for another 60 seconds to hear the host do a commercial, and then stick around for more talking about things to buy. That's why the WFAN's and the KGO's of the world make all the money, and that's why I always say that music on the radio as a business concept is going away. That's why companies have such a hard-on for FM talk...the audio quality is better, the signal is better, and it makes more money.

And before anybody refutes me, CBS failed because they tried to build a talk franchise around an aging rocker, a barely amusing comedian, and then later two poor man's Howard Sterns they had fired years prior.