• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Chance Showing True Colors About New Role At KGOW?

DToTheJ

DToTheJ

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2011/05/changes_at_1560_is_kgow_losing.php

"... [Chance] McClain is being a team player, but his disappointment over the demotion is apparent. "I guess this is the natural evolution of a growing company," he told Hair Balls via e-mail. "I appreciated the opportunity to put my spin on the sound and content of 1560 for the first few years of the company and hope that people had some laughs. The gang at 1560 will continue to try to put smiles on faces and I am glad to be a part of it."
 
Despite endless spin about favorable demographics, listener/advertiser response, dissing traditional ratings measurement systems, and boasting of a fanatically loyal audience, the cold hard facts of low Arbitron numbers are imposing a reality check on KGOW. As a stand-alone operation it is on a road to oblivion unless things improve. Asian language is in their future if they don't turn things around. I suspect plenty of debt and red ink sloshing around the halls at 1560.

Cue "The Game" fanboys....
 
Mediafrog+ said:
...Asian language is in their future if they don't turn things around...
Click to expand...

I really don't see that happening. Keep in mind, David Gow now owns SportingNews Radio. I can't imagine him flipping the flagship station of his national network.

One advantage KGOW has is that it doesn't really have to answer to Wall Street. As long as Gow is happy with the income level, then nobody else's opinion matters. That being said, obviously they would like to do better. So, changes have to be made.
 
Lazy J said:
One advantage KGOW has is that it doesn't really have to answer to Wall Street. As long as Gow is happy with the income level, then nobody else's opinion matters. That being said, obviously they would like to do better. So, changes have to be made.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but Gow does have to answer to the people who gave him the money to run the station and buy SNR. The only difference between that and Wall Street is those people have names and faces.

I can definitely hear the changes, and frankly I can't disagree with them. Besides the "best sports talk" liner (which really shouldn't be a big deal), promos are now topical and changed daily instead of being the same joke repeated for 3 to 6 months. (Also, don't get me started on the lame movie clips they used to throw between spots instead of IDs. They ceased being funny after a week and were really lame after about a year.) They're even doing PPM appointment setting in promos. That's smart.

It's a good start. Now if they can get someone to also pay attention to detail with their automation they'll really be in good shape. Here's some free advice to 1560: if you forget to program a legal ID during Travis Rodgers and instead start a spot at 59:50, at the top of hour the tone that fires will fade out the spot that's playing. Now you've missed a legal ID *and* you've lost money. Then at the end of the stopset, you rejoin the network 10 seconds early and we hear the PI spot you were supposed to cover. Happens every day when I drive home.

Then the engineer could go turn up the processing at the day site to match loudness with the processing at the night site so they wouldn't be the quietest AM on the dial during the day. That would really rock.
 
I like the changes and they have stepped up the professionalism a bit. The problems they have had all along still remain. There's no local pro franchise to hang their hat on. Signal is still shotty in some part of town. Still have a dead spot at I10 at the West Loop for example. Competition is still very tough after John & Lance. I agree that adjusting for PPM is very smart, but again some of their issues may be insurmountable. As long as Gow's investors are ok and tame, he has enough money to keep riding it out. The longer they go, the better chance they'll have to resolve some of the above mentioned issues in the long run. I suspect they they bill between $100K and $120K per month, which is probably well short of break even, but again longevity will improve that too.
 
You'd think if Gow had to make a choice between the two for further funding, that he'd choose SNR as it has the most potential for long term financial success. Is there a back story on how Clancy Wood was involved in Gow's purchase of SRN, then quickly left? Clancy's a smart, experienced operator who'd made a lot of money for companies and himself in the radio business. He'd offer the expertise and experience Gow needs to run SRN and KGOW.
 
Okay,

Maybe somebody can explain these to me:

1) How is it that in a town this size we have four Sports/Talk stations, the best of which pulls barely a one share and combined they all have a 2.2. Yet we don't have a single Oldies station which could actually garner an audience and a fatter bottom line? Or am I just stupid?

2) With all of the above mentioned Sports stations why are Tom Franklin and Craig Roberts out of work? Are all of these other alleged Sports talents that much better? I doubt it!


Wonderingly,

Colonel St. James
 
ColonelStJames said:
Okay,

Maybe somebody can explain these to me:

1) How is it that in a town this size we have four Sports/Talk stations, the best of which pulls barely a one share and combined they all have a 2.2. Yet we don't have a single Oldies station which could actually garner an audience and a fatter bottom line? Or am I just stupid?

2) With all of the above mentioned Sports stations why are Tom Franklin and Craig Roberts out of work? Are all of these other alleged Sports talents that much better? I doubt it!


Wonderingly,

Colonel St. James
Click to expand...

Well Colonel - the issue here is that the question you pose makes absolutely perfect sense as you are a radio icon in this town, and makes perfect sense to those of us in this business that are passionate and love what we do. However, very few people in radio anymore have your experience - they're not interested in something like having a true oldies station. While we both understand that it comes down to dollars, what most people in radio - and most advertisers, fail to understand is that those who love the oldies format are still quite active out there, and they have a decent amount of disposable income, regardless of the economy - but, they choose to ignore this demographic.

As for sports radio - yes, it's a good format - but stop and think about it, overall it's limited in it's appeal.

Oh well, getting off my soap box now.
 
ColonelStJames said:
Okay,

Maybe somebody can explain these to me:

1) How is it that in a town this size we have four Sports/Talk stations, the best of which pulls barely a one share and combined they all have a 2.2. Yet we don't have a single Oldies station which could actually garner an audience and a fatter bottom line? Or am I just stupid?

2) With all of the above mentioned Sports stations why are Tom Franklin and Craig Roberts out of work? Are all of these other alleged Sports talents that much better? I doubt it!


Wonderingly,

Colonel St. James
Click to expand...

And, to take it a step further, why no all-news station? The closest thing we have is KUHF. Not knocking them (they do a great job) but doesn't a major city the size of Houston deserve more?
 
I don't often post on these boards ... but putting aside KGOW ... which didn't seem to know it was a sports station for several years (when you tuned in did you hear sports talk vs. personal "inside" conversations about how someone got drunk over the weekend?).

As for Classic Hits and upper end demos ... here's a flash for advertisers: women account for 85% of all consumer purchases. Women over 50 control net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation's financial wealth .(MassMutual2007). Ad male demos and I don't understand why advertisers wouldn't go after the boomers. Can you tell I've gone over to sales?
 
EdS said:
As for Classic Hits and upper end demos ... here's a flash for advertisers: women account for 85% of all consumer purchases. Women over 50 control net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation's financial wealth .(MassMutual2007). Ad male demos and I don't understand why advertisers wouldn't go after the boomers. Can you tell I've gone over to sales?
Click to expand...

Here's the state of TV in 1992: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...9206240857_1_viewers-golden-girls-advertising

Here's the state of TV now: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559604576174983272665032.html?mod=e2tw

...although this piece claims that part of the reason the networks are skewing older is the younger audience is too busy watching cable: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/03/why_has_the_tv_audience_gotten.html The answer is probably somewhere in the middle.
 
EdS said:
As for Classic Hits and upper end demos ... here's a flash for advertisers: women account for 85% of all consumer purchases. Women over 50 control net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation's financial wealth .(MassMutual2007). Ad male demos and I don't understand why advertisers wouldn't go after the boomers. Can you tell I've gone over to sales?
Click to expand...

And here's another flash: That information is from 2007, reflecting the then financial bubble mania, before the crash that began in 2008. I would ignore any research that came out before then, because it was all, quite frankly, total hype and complete B.S.

The reality, which has become glaringly apparent over the last three years, is that boomers are in a tight financial squeeze. Incomes have been stagnant for years; most haven't saved much, if anything for retirement; 401k's took a pounding in the market bust; Social Security is in trouble, and really doesn't pay very much; banks accounts are earning NOTHING; pensions are disappearing; housing values (where may people have most of their net worth) have fallen dramatically (and still have much further to go); good paying jobs are disappearing and being replaced by lower paying ones...shall I go on?

And another flash: Most of the bubble mania pre-2008 was supported by massive amounts of debt. Reality check: Debt does not equal wealth.

The notion that boomers have tons of money to spend is one that is constantly pushed by financial hucksters, but the reality is much different. I would suggest a fresh, more sober look needs to be taken at economic realities for the over-50 crowd.

And one more question: Advertising is supposed to get listeners to try different things. Is the Classic Rock audience, which has been content to listen to THE EXACT SAME THING for 40+ years the type of demographic that will try "something new" ?
 
KGOW is like revenge of the nerds gets a radio station. They're so desperately trying to appeal to 'cool', but there just nerds. N E R D S
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom