CC Sandusky running for the hills!

[cARLOS Blake]

By the end of 2007, budget cuts, low moral, low pay, jobs being gift wrapped & handed to people who have no experience while veterans are left positionless, no incentive, corporate giving a "I don't give a rat's a$$/they'll be sold soon anyway" attitude & no trade outs allowed for jocks for anything has left CC Sandusky with a whopping 14 people biting the dust by years end, and with BAS taking over in '08 they may just match that #. That would leave them with a GM, Production Director & about 3 solid sales people. That's a record!

 

[FredRichards]

Sounds like the Lima cluster.

 

[radiotower40]

I was curious what BAS was, Is that another radio company, and is CC completely bailing out of Sandusky,and if so does that
happen Jan. 1st or later in the year?

 

[kentuckymedia]

Clear Channel is selling the Findlay and Sandusky stations in effort to chunk off the remainder left before the big sale to New York investors.

Here is how they see Findlay: CC Findlay will be a simple ran cluster. They will most likely keep Big D and Bubba in morning drive, its syndicated and easy to run. When it comes to the rest, look for WCKY to take on the ABC Today's Country approach. However the station once sold will require the placement of the WTTF Call Letters as Clear Channel is keeping WCKY calls. Look for Thunder Country or something.

WPFX could stay the course as Classic Rock, BAS likes the format. Plus it already has one of the terrible animal names the Bas likes. So it could relatively just remain 107.7 The Fox.

WTTF-AM will be the most staffed station in the cluster. Operating at 1600 WTTF Tiffin/Fremont. Remember, thats their home base, they want to keep it looking pretty and smelling fresh!

Here is how they see Sandusky: CC Sandusky makes good coin. They bill in the ballpark of 4 mil for that little market. BAS realizes this and will most likely move the consolidated efforts of WMJK to their Fremont Lair which houses 4 on-air studios and 2 production studios. One of the most sofisticated sat facilities ive ever seen. They also have switched the entire cluster over to Nexgen.

WLEC will remain with a sports oriented format. It makes them cash and thats what Bas is all about, making the bottom dollar.

WCPZ is too close to WFRO to call it the Eagle. Dont be surprised to see them change the name. They do this to clean out the house and start fresh. I could see Leisure 103 coming back...maybe? How about 102-7 The Point? Or they could do JACK FM. I hate to see the last happen, but its a possibility. Most likely they will use the Hot Hits Sat Feed that ABC offers.

WCKY will run out of Findlay but dont be surprised to see them have sales offices in Sandusky and Fremont, they will use that as their Flagship station.

WMJK I assume will remain Classic Rock, it makes too much sense for them to dump it since they flipped The Wolf to Oldies.

 

[cARLOS Blake]

WMJK could have the same old classic rock feed the WOLF used to have when it was still AOR Instead of running girl's volleyball & boy's high school wrestling on a classic rocker like before, they could now put it on 92.1 the WOLF since WOLF runs auto racing & such, while WLEC can be completely devoted to Browns, Indians, Cavs & high school football, baseball & basketball & high school fantasy league discussions.(WOLF carries Bengals, right?)
WCPZ will have to get rid of the Mix name since it's CC, unless they wanna call it "MICKS 1027". I doubt if it would go "Leisure" again since back in the 80's it was known as "Leisure ROCK 103" & it's not a rock format now although you can still be greeted by Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand, Lit & even Blue Oyster Cult back to back with Hannah Montana or Mercy Me. Today on WCPZ's Drive at 5 I couldn't believe my ears: I heard Peter Paul & Mary "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" then 10 minutes later flipped back & heard Kanye West "Stronger". Talk about a culture shock mess! Another question is will Sandusky's new GM be axed when CC dumps the cluster????

 

[kentuckymedia]

BAS once taking control of the market will interview everyone for their jobs.

They will most likely move 100.9 to Fremont. It really is a Fremont station to begin with, so thats not a big change. They will dump the local programming and go syndicated from ABC.

Keep 1450 and 102.7 in The Hut and they may move Traffic there as well since the building is quite spacious from what I understand.

In Sandusky, they will keep a Production Director, Local Sales Manager, Operations Manager, 2 News Directors, 2 Sports Directors and 1 utility on-air person who can handle both stations. They will also keep most of the sales folks. The company is extremely sales driven as it is owned by the former Sales Manager of Cumulus.

1450 will most certainly keep the Sports Format it currently has. As for 102.7, they may shift that into either Hot Hits by ABC or maybe Jack. Howeve the name will most likely change. I was thinking about Beaver 102.7? Thought you would like that Carlos. I am leaning toward 102-7 THE POINT, The Best Mix of Music.

Findlay is the interesting sticky in the mix as they say. 107.7 is really the only station worth keeping there. They could keep 103.7 in the facility, but they also have a brand new facility in Fremont with 4 on-air studios. So they may move 1600 to Fremont or 103.7 and make that the company flagship.

103.7 will be rebranded with the WTTF calls, maybe take on the Thunder Country name?

107.7 is up in the air, who honestly knows whats going to happen with that station.

 

[Rusty Muck]

BAS once taking control of the market will interview everyone for their jobs.

They will most likely move 100.9 to Fremont. It really is a Fremont station to begin with, so thats not a big change. They will dump the local programming and go syndicated from ABC.

Keep 1450 and 102.7 in The Hut and they may move Traffic there as well since the building is quite spacious from what I understand.

In Sandusky, they will keep a Production Director, Local Sales Manager, Operations Manager, 2 News Directors, 2 Sports Directors and 1 utility on-air person who can handle both stations. They will also keep most of the sales folks. The company is extremely sales driven as it is owned by the former Sales Manager of Cumulus.

1450 will most certainly keep the Sports Format it currently has. As for 102.7, they may shift that into either Hot Hits by ABC or maybe Jack. Howeve the name will most likely change. I was thinking about Beaver 102.7? Thought you would like that Carlos. I am leaning toward 102-7 THE POINT, The Best Mix of Music.

Findlay is the interesting sticky in the mix as they say. 107.7 is really the only station worth keeping there. They could keep 103.7 in the facility, but they also have a brand new facility in Fremont with 4 on-air studios. So they may move 1600 to Fremont or 103.7 and make that the company flagship.

103.7 will be rebranded with the WTTF calls, maybe take on the Thunder Country name?

107.7 is up in the air, who honestly knows whats going to happen with that station.

WLEC will most certainally dump Fox Sports Radio for ESPN Radio (keeping with the ABC theme with BAS... though in THIS case, "Disney/ABC" runs ESPN Radio, while "ABC Radio/Citadel" manages all other ABC satrad networks...). Essentally a network swap between WLEC and daytimer WLKR/1510, which airs ESPN during the day - WLKR-AM will likely take FSR and Romey, with Fox News at the TOH. So... "ESPN 1450 WLEC" and "Fox Sports 1510 WLKR" should be on the horizon.

In any event, their AMD team of Mark Fogg and Steve Schoffner will obviously be blown out for "Mike & Mike in the Morning" - pretty much a "must-carry" for ESPN affils. Schoffner will keep his ND stripes, and Wiedenheft should be reassigned back to the news dept. If Fogg isn't moved over to WCPZ, he could be a goner... but given his sports PBP experience, he might be retained as said sports director. Along with Mike Lowry.

Middays and overnights on WCPZ are VTed anyway, so those would be patched with some ABC satrad of some sort. Their AMD team of Randy Hugg and Nancy Krause will depart of their own volition. It would be nice to see Ace Callahan and the others existing personalities stay, but CC might have those contracts run out at the takeover (similar to what happened with WQIO/WMVO two years ago).

WCPZ itself should be rebranded what it was fifteen years ago: "102.7 WCPZ: The Hit Point for the North Coast..."

As to these sales, I would believe that BAS will not make it official for several months, similar to Saga holding out on their purchase of CC's Ashland/Mansfield cluster.

- nate81

 

[mikey102]

WCPZ was known as "The "North Coast FUN Point" not hit point. Also PM driver Mo Z leaving the station at the end of next week.

 

[cARLOS Blake]

WCPZ itself should be rebranded what it was fifteen years ago: "102.7 WCPZ: The Hit Point for the North Coast..."



- nate81

Nate, WCPZ actually used to be called the "Fun Point" which former GM John Cavinee thought up when it was still owned by Signal One. It was "The Fun Point for yesterday's classics & today's big hits". Some announcers there off the air referred to the "Fun Point" as the "clitoris of the northcoast". (Hope that's not too harsh for all the little kiddies on here)!

Back in the 80s then they were still Leisure Rock 103 the theme was"From the Islands to the Inlands" which Gold 101 blatantly stole a couple years after 'CPZ stopped using it. They may have even called Gold 101 the "Fun Point" if I remember correctly. Yes, Kent, people notice these things.
I actually think they had the best handle & logo back when Kim Colebrook owned them the first time when they dropped the "Fun Point" & just called it "Yesterday's Classics & today's hits-102.7FM WCPZ".

With all the tourist activity in that area I think it would be a great idea to have Mix 1027 change to "103-The Beach" year round & play fun summer, upbeat beach, boat & island oriented music in the summer & just be a Hot AC that sounds like it knows what it's doing & not having stale old slow Sarah McLaughlin, Natalie Merchant & (gag), Alanis Morrisette screeching at you every 2 hours. It needs to sound fun-not like a cross between 89X and WVNO.

 

[cARLOS Blake]

Also does anyone agree that whoever takes over WCPZ should adjust the processing? It's overall sound is a very flat, dull sound like a home c.d player patched to a 1978 home stereo with the tone turned down. It needs to sound crisp & crystal-ly with a punch so those monotinous old "client friiendly" space filler songs on there at least don't sound as dry as they really are. Plus all the announcers sound too bass-ie & no crispness at all.

 

[Rusty Muck]

WCPZ was known as "The "North Coast FUN Point" not hit point. Also PM driver Mo Z leaving the station at the end of next week.

Thanks... see, my memory isn't THAT perfect! Didn't Jeff Baxter do imaging for both WLEC/WCPZ in the early 90's - because I do remember him intone "The North Coast FUN Point" on 102.7 before the Jacor buyout...

- nate81

 

[mikey102]

Your memory is really good Nathan! That was Jeff Baxter doing the imaging back then.

 

[VODood]

Your memory is really good Nathan! That was Jeff Baxter doing the imaging back then.

Baxter was in-house? Or was he the station VO?

 

[mikey102]

He was in-house.

 

[cARLOS Blake]

Jeff Baxter had been the voice of WRKG, Lorain when Jeff Storey was GM there & when Storey came to Sandusky & changed WLEC to Big Band Nostalgia he brought the voice of Baxter & eventually Dick Conrad.
Little known fact: ONE of Baxter's voice clips has survived & can still be heard every weekday on the Morning Mix with Randy & Nancy immediately following the news; it's Baxter saying"And Now...One More Story".

 

[BoredOp0930]

Wow...

ANOTHER cluster of stations being gutted and replaced with satellite garbage!? No wonder people listen to MP3 players more and more.

This gives me a little more incentive to just bail on this business-I think I got into it TOO late.

The last one out, please turn out the lights...

 

[JNight]

Baxter can also be heard doing the promo's and "Call Us Now at..." over WNIR 100.1 FM in Kent during the day. Great voice then and still sounds great today.

 

[RF Man]

WPFX could stay the course as Classic Rock, BAS likes the format. Plus it already has one of the terrible animal names the Bas likes. So it could relatively just remain 107.7 The Fox.

WTTF-AM will be the most staffed station in the cluster. Operating at 1600 WTTF Tiffin/Fremont. Remember, thats their home base, they want to keep it looking pretty and smelling fresh!

Fremont and Tiffin are not the same market. 1600 cannot be heard in Fremont with any kind of real potency.

Here is how they see Sandusky: CC Sandusky makes good coin. They bill in the ballpark of 4 mil for that little market. BAS realizes this and will most likely move the consolidated efforts of WMJK to their Fremont Lair which houses 4 on-air studios and 2 production studios. One of the most sofisticated sat facilities ive ever seen. They also have switched the entire cluster over to Nexgen.

Fremont does not house 4 on air studios. They only have one. As far as the most sophisticated sat facilities, if you consider two sat dishes sophisticated then I guess so.

 

[WiseOwl]

ROTF Laughing my rear off

Carlos Said:
& no trade outs allowed for jocks for anything

That's the funniest thing I've every read on the board. Ever. Serisouly Ever!
Just because you work at radio you should be allowed to trade out the companies airtime for personal gain?
Who ever said as a jock you were entitled to tradeouts?


has left CC Sandusky with a whopping 14 people biting the dust by years end

Does Sandusky even have 14 employees?

 

[Rusty Muck]

Re: ROTF Laughing my rear off

Carlos Said:
& no trade outs allowed for jocks for anything

That's the funniest thing I've every read on the board. Ever. Serisouly Ever!
Just because you work at radio you should be allowed to trade out the companies airtime for personal gain?
Who ever said as a jock you were entitled to tradeouts?


has left CC Sandusky with a whopping 14 people biting the dust by years end

Does Sandusky even have 14 employees?

With Mo Z leaving last Friday, that would be THE TOTAL. IIRC, 15 people work for WCPZ, WMJK and WLEC. BAS would certainly slash that down to seven or eight (given kentuckymedia's projections, and a prospected relocation of WMJK to Fremont...)

- nate81