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CHR in Columbia

C

carolinaradio

In the latest book, SP12, WNOK got a 7.7 share 6+. How much longer until somebody tries to challenge them? Or are they too difficult to chip away at, like when New 92 tried to compete with WCOS?

The most likely company to challenge them is Cumulus, but none of their stations look to be doing poorly enough to justify a flip. 106.7 (a viable competitor for 'NOK needs a strong signal) seemed most likely, but they've had an impressive rebound lately. 98.5's recent changes in the last 6 months look like they've helped improve their numbers, and I bet they have improved their demos also. I don't see 107.5 or 103.1 being touched.

Cumulus typically doesn't waste time making changes, and it seems like they would have done it by now if they wanted to go CHR. WNOK just seems to be doing too well to have that audience to itself. I don't see any other companies giving it a go.
 
I really thought that the new owners of Double O would take a stab at it. If I were them, and I'm not, I would have put CHR on 92.1 and did a music intensive show to combat the non stop talk of Ace and TJ. Everyone wants to take a crack at WCOS but no one has the nerve to take on WNOK. Makes no sense to me.

WNOK is the vulnerable one.
 
iHeartRadio initially had Magic 98.5 listed as "All The Hits i-98.5." Cumulus also registered i985hits.com several months ago. I'd have thought they'd have pulled the trigger by now, but, with them improving, maybe Cumulus decided it wasn't worth flipping after all.
 
I have noticed WTCB going a little hotter lately. Seem to be playing less 80s and mixing in Bruno Mars, Rhianna and some other WNOK recurrents. Maybe that is the game plan. Take WTCB hotter and put WOMG in position to protect WTCB from someone else going AC. Steve FM appears to be about done. And by the way, by the looks of 12+, Clear Channel is taking a bath on the move of sports to 560. WVOC News/Talk is doing about the same on FM that it did on AM, but the Urban it replaced did just as well there. But 560 is five shares down from where it was before the flip. And the loss of that urban helped both Inner City and Cumulus. Bet they wished they had that one back.
 
Kent said:
iHeartRadio initially had Magic 98.5 listed as "All The Hits i-98.5." Cumulus also registered i985hits.com several months ago. I'd have thought they'd have pulled the trigger by now, but, with them improving, maybe Cumulus decided it wasn't worth flipping after all.
Click to expand...
That was over 6 months ago, so it seems to me that if 98.5 was going to go CHR, it would have by now (actually, that wasn't registered with the same company Cumulus normally uses). 98.5 isn't an awful signal by any means, but I don't think it's the best for CHR. I find it interesting that iHeart would have had any "i-98.5" information in the first place. That would indicate to me that at the time, they were extremely close to flipping the switch. I actually think WOMG sounds better since Cumulus took over.

I agree that both of the former Double O signals have better potential, but the new owners seem to want to play what they want more than be competitive. When 92.1 stunted with CHR under Double O's ownership before Carolina 92.1, it actually sounded really good.

Bugz said:
I have noticed WTCB going a little hotter lately. Seem to be playing less 80s and mixing in Bruno Mars, Rhianna and some other WNOK recurrents. Maybe that is the game plan. Take WTCB hotter and put WOMG in position to protect WTCB from someone else going AC. Steve FM appears to be about done. And by the way, by the looks of 12+, Clear Channel is taking a bath on the move of sports to 560. WVOC News/Talk is doing about the same on FM that it did on AM, but the Urban it replaced did just as well there. But 560 is five shares down from where it was before the flip. And the loss of that urban helped both Inner City and Cumulus. Bet they wished they had that one back.
Click to expand...
That strategy would make sense. WTCB still plays a couple fo 70s songs an hour, though, which seems like overlap with WOMG. A lot of AC's have dropped that era.Saving the 'TCB AC heritage but going somewhat hotter to try to chip away at WNOK makes sense...while retaining the older 'TCB listeners at 98.5. Clear Channel could always take Steve-FM Hot AC to try to keep anyone else from going CHR. Woody moving to 1320 sure didn't help them.
 
Woody is not about ratings. Woody is about revenue. He brings his loyal clients and Cumulus cashes the checks.
 
The story of this book (besides the rebound of WTCB) is 560 AM. The power bill alone is probably 10-15k a month, plus rent to SCANA for the tower site and transmitter building. There is no way that facility is not a money pit.

'ARQ also had a bad book. My money is on a combined ARQ/Fox male rock station and ESPN on the other Class A. ESPN radio sounds great when they don't have the crappy brokered afternoon show on. When 107.5 goes to CBS Sports Radio, if ESPN is on another FM, there is a chance at some really decent upper demo male numbers at little or no cash outlay.
 
Bugz said:
Woody is not about ratings. Woody is about revenue. He brings his loyal clients and Cumulus cashes the checks.
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No doubt does he bring revenue, but it doesn't look like he brought any listeners with him, surprisingly. I thought his departure from 98.5 would hurt them badly overall, but they had a pretty decent book with their new direction in mornings and have more than likely lowered their demographics in the process. I wonder if moving Woody to 1320 from 98.5 was in preperation for the CHR flip that didn't happen?

I wonder if CC will eventually sell 560 like they did with 730 in Charleston after the conservative talk programming moved to 94.3 FM.
 
carolinaradio said:
I find it interesting that iHeart would have had any "i-98.5" information in the first place. That would indicate to me that at the time, they were extremely close to flipping the switch. I actually think WOMG sounds better since Cumulus took over.
Click to expand...

They even had an i-98.5 logo up for Magic on iHeartRadio when Cumulus first migrated its stream there! As recently as three weeks ago, it still listed Magic as Top-40, but it had the correct logo and name.
 
Radio-info posted the tease on the newsticker: Is WNOK an unbeatable CHR?


The answer to that question is: No. With the right programmer, the right music, and the right owner, you could probably have WNOK on the mats within 18 months. It can be done. But it can't be done cheaply. You can't voice track, you have to spend money on promotions, you have to out-research Clear Channel, which researches absolutely everything. Identify WNOK's weaknesses, run a tight ship and then hammer away at them while they have to sit there and take it with their hands tied behind their back by corporate.

Sadly, no one will be willing to spend the time or effort to make it pay off.
 
If Cumulus went CHR, it would be even more cookie cutter and cheaper than WNOK. Cumulus has launched a handful of CHR's across the country and they have typically had little effect on the heritage CHR's they try to go up against. They put less in to them than Clear Channel, and it shows.

I honestly don't think WOMG (or WTCB) is performing to the point where a flip to a ~3 share second-rate CHR with no guaranteed success makes sense. I don't see a Cumulus CHR doing much better than that...maybe worse. It looks like Cumulus may feel the same way. Would be interesting to know how close they came to blowing up WOMG. The spring numbers for both Magic and B106 were the best for both stations in quite a while.
 
Columbia will never have a second CHR... It has been tried and tried and will never happen. I have always said for a second CHR to even come close to NOK it would take big money and there is no way an owner will wanna spend that kind of money. I know this was 20 years ago and the radio landscape was way different, but the results was just the same. You had Z96, C103, Power 103, and Yes 97 who all came and went and had a life span of 3 to 4 years. Heck today most station don't even give a format the chance to grow even one year before the plug is pulled as we have seen in Charleston with it's many format changes... CC1
 
carolinaradio said:
If Cumulus went CHR, it would be even more cookie cutter and cheaper than WNOK. Cumulus has launched a handful of CHR's across the country and they have typically had little effect on the heritage CHR's they try to go up against. They put less in to them than Clear Channel, and it shows.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with you here. In '05, out of all the CHR's Cumulus had, only TWO in the entire company that had competitors were winning their 18-34 battles against those competitors. At the time, I was a weekender at one of the two CHR's that was losing to Cumulus, and it was brought up time and again in station meetings to try to motivate everyone to do better! A friend of mine who worked in a different market also confirmed it unsolicited after most of us weekenders were fired to make room for voicetrackers!

I understand Cumulus CHR's are doing a little better today, but I don't know how much better.
 
With all dude respect, CC, WNOK was a lot different 20 years ago, as well. They were tied in to the community locally and pretty much had their finger on the pulse of the community.

Today, they have no live jocks. Period. The one local person is the PD and he is forbidden to go on the air live. They've also got a mediocre morning team piped in from Charlotte, Ryan Seacrest blabbing away in middays, and a voicetracked chick at night. Overnights is Premium Choice.

If you went in with a tight list, creative focused promotions, and an on-air staff that made the effort to be and sound tied into the community, you could pretty much devastate the jukebox WNOK in 2012/2013.

The truth is that no owner is willing to spend the money and effort to do that in Columbia, SC. Maybe a Top 10 market, but not here where the potential payoff is less.
 
That's no different than anything Cumulus could/would do. They typically syndicate mornings in smaller markets, have no personality on mid-days, (maybe) one live person afternoons, then (barf) Perez Hilton at nights. I'd take 'NOK anyday, and most Columbia listeners probably would as well.

Cumulus CHR's are too conservative and corporate dictated (more than most CC CHR's) to really compete with an established CHR outlet that is recognized and successful in the community. They make such little effort, but seem to love putting them on the air. I think the Cumulus "i" CHR's sound like a joke. Neither WOMG nor even WTCB are worth sacrificing.

WNOK is possibly the least local and most homogenized CHR in the state. Unfortunately, seeing who is in Columbia, WNOK will continue to control the CHR market for the forseeable future.
 
No disrespect taken... that is my whole point... Sure the landscape has changed over the past 20 years, but unless you have someone willing to be live and local and spend the money it takes to take down NOK it will never happen even with all the VT'ing and syndi programming they have. I totally agree that is someone was to do it and do it right and come in with the tools it takes it could happen, but like I say I don't see it happening... CC1
 
Correct. But that is because commercial broadcasters are lazy and cheap. There is no incentive to provide service or entertainment other than the minimum necessary to sell ads. If they wanted to makes the investment, they could, and it would pay off. E.g., Bonneville/Hubbard, etc.
 
Not saying that Cumulus wasn't ready to flip WOMG to CHR, but as I noted on another thread, on a list of HD radio stations I saw several years ago, WOMG was listed as having an HD CHR channel. I believe it was on the SCBA website but I'm not certain. That may explain some confusion when listing WOMG's format on I heart radio.
 
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