How many years has it been since Clear Channel has had any real success in Atlanta? I go back to the days when The Peach was actually doing pretty well, but after an abbreviated dip in the ratings they abruptly change to Lite (how original) and shortly afterwards the whole thing blew up. I understand why it happened, they had a GM who did not know much about programming and would approve any moronic idea, but that was many calendar pages ago. Why are these big stick CC stations still in the ditch? Any opinions on why?
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CC Atl
- Thread starter Ele
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I don't profess to be an expert programmer but having worked in Atlanta radio for over 30 years, I seriously doubt that revenue for CC Atlanta would be less this year if they had just let WGST, 96Rock and Peach gradually evolve over time. There is a natural tendency for management to think that you have to drastically change a format, but I don't think that is true. I know that the comparison isn't exact, but would Hellman's mayonnaise and Heinz ketchup be #1 if they changed their taste every few years?
I'm not trying to defend Clear Channel, but the change from Peach to Lite was not due to an abbreviated dip. Peach had an older audience than desired, and CC did focus groups. They played songs and asked participants which station they thought played the songs. Whenever a current, upbeat song was played, the participants tended to say B98.5 even though both Peach and B98.5 played them. Peach had tried new positioning as "Today's Peach 94-9," but it wasn't working. So CC knew it needed a new identity.
As far as blowing up Lite for country, Deskins was the GM. I don't know this for a fact, but I would bet that came from higher up on the chain than Deskins, meaning Corporate.
As far as blowing up Lite for country, Deskins was the GM. I don't know this for a fact, but I would bet that came from higher up on the chain than Deskins, meaning Corporate.
RoddyFreeman said:
This was at a time when CC launched a bunch of new country stations in markets with a single dominating station: Atlanta, San Diego, St. Louis, and Tampa were a few that come to mind. I think the general lesson was that established brands and talent will usually win. But it definitely caused a "disruption in the force" for a few years, and all of those stations became trade reporters with influence.
B98.5 was running spots saying that they didn't play "sleepy elevator music" showing someone sawing Z's next to a radio with peaches coming out of the speaker.RoddyFreeman said:
The fact that Peach didn't change their moniker when they flipped from Beautiful Music didn't help that stereotype...BM and Peach were synonymous because of all of ATL's BM stations (WLTA FM 100, WSB-FM "Great 98...All Day, All Night, All Nice", WKXI 94, WKLS "96...that's Klass", and wasn't WBIE 101.5 BM before flipping to country?), Peach was the last ATL station to flip out of the BM format. Plus, they had the most memorable moniker of at least the last 3 to flip (WLTA, WSB-FM, and WPCH).
An instructive story regarding the Peach "elevator music" of yore:
The owner of an extremely successful major market station (may have been Chicago) was once asked if it bothered him that his station drew only two per cent of the market. "No", he said without hesitating. Why not? Because he and his sales team KNEW their two per cent demo that listened religiously. That 2 per cent was older; married; professional; made a half million dollars and up a year; bought Rolls Royces, Mercedes, BMW's; wore the most expensive threads; ate at the most trendy restaurants; had beautiful mansions here and, often, second homes in Europe or other great locales. He didn't have to waste his time worrying about the other 98 per cent of the market. He played very astutely to his 2 per cent and it was making him and his staff very wealthy while the other stations scrambled here and there for the rest, mainly for much younger demos who changed, vacillated and shifted as often as the weather.
Back in the day, so called "elevator" music was very good to PEACH...very very good indeed... and the station's numbers and cumes were far higher than two per cent of the market.
The management should have followed its gut, hung tough, and told the consultants or other "wise" media and agency heads muddying the waters to go to hell. If it'd stayed the course (plus kept its call sign) WPCH- 95 FM would probably still be a great broadcasting presence in Atlanta today, considering what's on the air presently.
That dude in Chicago wisely chose to follow what Socrates observed a long, long time ago: "Know thy self (aka audience)". Remain loyal to them and they'll remain loyal to you.
That's why so much radio sucks today. Management either doesn't know how or have the courage to think for itself.
Its a lot like how the country is NOT running these days.
The owner of an extremely successful major market station (may have been Chicago) was once asked if it bothered him that his station drew only two per cent of the market. "No", he said without hesitating. Why not? Because he and his sales team KNEW their two per cent demo that listened religiously. That 2 per cent was older; married; professional; made a half million dollars and up a year; bought Rolls Royces, Mercedes, BMW's; wore the most expensive threads; ate at the most trendy restaurants; had beautiful mansions here and, often, second homes in Europe or other great locales. He didn't have to waste his time worrying about the other 98 per cent of the market. He played very astutely to his 2 per cent and it was making him and his staff very wealthy while the other stations scrambled here and there for the rest, mainly for much younger demos who changed, vacillated and shifted as often as the weather.
Back in the day, so called "elevator" music was very good to PEACH...very very good indeed... and the station's numbers and cumes were far higher than two per cent of the market.
The management should have followed its gut, hung tough, and told the consultants or other "wise" media and agency heads muddying the waters to go to hell. If it'd stayed the course (plus kept its call sign) WPCH- 95 FM would probably still be a great broadcasting presence in Atlanta today, considering what's on the air presently.
That dude in Chicago wisely chose to follow what Socrates observed a long, long time ago: "Know thy self (aka audience)". Remain loyal to them and they'll remain loyal to you.
That's why so much radio sucks today. Management either doesn't know how or have the courage to think for itself.
Its a lot like how the country is NOT running these days.
That all sounds good, but the reality is that without strong 18-49 or 25-54 numbers, stations in major markets cannot bill at a level commensurate to the value of their signal. Look at the upheaval at oldies stations about 4 years ago. What caused that is their billings were declining because their audiences were aging.
That said, I never felt that CC should have blown up Peach...or Lite. I think they looked at what Kicks was billing and decided they wanted a share of that.
That said, I never felt that CC should have blown up Peach...or Lite. I think they looked at what Kicks was billing and decided they wanted a share of that.
I agreed with Dan Mason that “Peach” was doing as well as it was mainly because of its name. Changing the name was truly a blunder. Keep the name, fix the dreadful formatics. . .they didn't and the numbers went into the toilet. The sales department could not believe that they screwed up their only top ten station. That is all history, my question is, after all these years why hasn’t CC been able to get it together.
I agree with Ele. The "Peach" product could have evolved to reach younger listeners. Blowing up name brands is not always a good idea.
ClearChannel has some very successful stations. And they have others which are very "not" successful. Why is it that they have programming guys making hundreds of thousands yearly who can't understand why this station works and why that one doesn't?
These guys decide to change formats and what's the first thing they do? Play 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 freakin' songs in a row that every other radio station is already playing.
That's the launch. 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 songs in a row. Wow! Like.......I'm so going to listen and break off my radio dial.
ClearChannel needs a "Power Pig" effort. Something so bold.....so unique.....that everyone will have to tune in just to see what all the water cooler talk is all about.
There seems to be a general lack of creativity and energy in radio management today.
And yes.....I could do better.
These guys decide to change formats and what's the first thing they do? Play 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 freakin' songs in a row that every other radio station is already playing.
That's the launch. 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 songs in a row. Wow! Like.......I'm so going to listen and break off my radio dial.
ClearChannel needs a "Power Pig" effort. Something so bold.....so unique.....that everyone will have to tune in just to see what all the water cooler talk is all about.
There seems to be a general lack of creativity and energy in radio management today.
And yes.....I could do better.
jabba17 said:
Yes and NO. IMHO the 96 Rock brand was "priceless". The problem with 96 Rock was they got lazy and "leaned too much" on The Regular Guys morning show. IMHO after 10 AM the music was lacking. Then The Regular Guys "edginess" came back to bite them in the a$$ (the uncensored bit played over a commercial and the bathroom bit with the Hispanic Announcers (which was not funny!) No Regular Guys, no ratings, no $$. Had they taken a "familiar song" classic rock approach after 10AM (no non charting album cuts) with 700 to 900 songs in regular rotation, verses the River's former very tight song list (less than 400 or 500 songs IIRC), 96 Rock would still be around even without a "shock" morning show.
96 Rock was definitely mailing it in on the music mix towards the end. They could have changed the music mix--even radically--and picked up new active rock listeners without losing a lot of heritage when they changed to Project.secondchoice said:
I would have kept the 96 Rock name, dropped the classic/softer rock, and played nothing older than the 80s except for some obvious exceptions like old AC/DC from the 70s, and then even sparingly. I would have kept the 80s AOR--at least the harder stuff that River wasn't playing back then. The rule of thumb would have been if River was playing it (or might play it), the new 96 Rock wouldn't.
WKLS would have kept a lot more listeners while bringing in the Buzz crowd, and probably eliminated the possibility of Rock100.5 even being born.
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