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Classic Country 95.5 The Hawk Switching Back To K95.5

You guys are probably right (unfortunately) about classic country on 107.1. One thing I've learned over the years is to never get my hopes up in this market.
 
Now that the longtime owner of T100 passed away questions will be asked about which direction t100 will go. Will Mr Pricer's son continue running it or will he sell it? That remains to be seen too. So who knows? We might have 2 country stations bail out of the format.
 
I trust everyone knows that I was kidding in wanting oldies/classic hits for 107.1, and that there were two reasons for the wink smiley that I included in that post. Still, wouldn't it be funny if we had even more stations playing the stuff?! I think so -- if we're going to be a laughingstock market, then we might as well be as big a one as we can possibly be.
 
You might as well say Columbus radio has been a laughingstock since the mid 90's. While other cities get new 2nd or 3rd hit music station we get a new oldies or country station.
 
Interesting to read the posts...

I'd love for Columbus to have a REAL jazz station, not the NAC crap...they play Clapton and call it jazz...seriously? Who does that? It is an insult to every real jazz musician and real jazz music fan.

As I recall from being told, Columbus USED to be one of the very finest jazz markets in the country, not because of WBBY but WBBY was great because of the local jazz enthusiasts and the who's who of players who would make their way to and through Columbus in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's.

OK, since I've done a good job of making friends I'll get off my soapbox and just let the people with the money and the signals make the decisions of how they want to try and make their money back.
 
the marv said:
While other cities get new 2nd or 3rd hit music station we get a new oldies or country station.
Click to expand...

Oldies-based formats do very well in PPM. That said, so does CHR. And if there's any time that WNCI seems vulnerable, it's now. My understanding is that WNCI is *the* cash cow among CC/Columbus FMs, so when they dip in the ratings as they have recently, CC takes a *big* sales hit.

Not meant as a knock at their current PD, but I'm just amazed they let Tony Florentino go.
 
Nu_Roo_2 said:
Not meant as a knock at their current PD, but I'm just amazed they let Tony Florentino go.
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I have always HATED the music they played WNCI, from adolescence through adulthood and I am a huge CHR fan. One of the few times WNCI ever sounded good was during the time Tony Florentino was there. HUGE LOSS.
 
the marv said:
At the time WCOL entered the country music field we had K95.5 a rimshot, 98.9 the river with a downtown signal but 3000 watts, and T100 another rimshot. WHOK dominated the country scene when WCOL was playing oldies. Nationwide saw the success they had in Cleveland with WGAR and since WCOL had a strong signal went after the country audience. 98.9 the river took the biggest hit with the switch of WCOL to country.
Click to expand...

You almost have it right. Nationwide's format finder research showed that a full signal country station could quickly take over all comers and dominate the ratings. That's why WCOL flipped to country.

Had the same ratings option existed under the oldies format...it would have stayed. But, the research showed the potential for about a 6 to 7 share for oldies (and a "graying" audience) and the potential for double digit shares (and a more demographically compatible) audience for a country format.

WBNS-FM was also watching this very closely back then. Had WCOL stayed oldies, WBNS-FM was prepared to flip to country. But, Nationwide's flip made that possibility irrelevant and they stayed oldies for a few more years, but never matched WCOL's highest ratings in the oldies format.

I was there. I saw it.
 
When WBNS FM went oldies in 1991 WCOL management asked themselves why they didn't go country the first time since we didn't have an intown full grade signal then. I also remember that WMGG was also thinking returning to country in 1990 and of course listeners convinced them not to. I know out there in Dayton WHKO is now a successful country music station after years of being easy listening as WHIO FM and they never looked back. I think WBNS would of had the same success if they went country the first and be the same way.
 
the marv said:
When WBNS FM went oldies in 1991 WCOL management asked themselves why they didn't go country the first time since we didn't have an intown full grade signal then. I also remember that WMGG was also thinking returning to country in 1990 and of course listeners convinced them not to. I know out there in Dayton WHKO is now a successful country music station after years of being easy listening as WHIO FM and they never looked back. I think WBNS would of had the same success if they went country the first and be the same way.
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Given WMNI's country heritage, not moving country to WMGG has to be one of the most boneheaded moves of all time.
 
I remember that 99.7 frequency as numerous names. WMNI quad 100, Z100 disco, easy listening, and country as WRMZ, classic rock as WMGG, Active rock 99.7 the Blitz under the calls WBZX, 997 The Rock under WRKZ, and now back to the Blitz under the current call letters. They probably would have dominated Columbus had they moved WMNI's country music over to fm in 1990. Since WCOL went country in 1994 and we had 4 country signals on the fm dial WMNI no longer thought it was worth staying country so they went adult standards. Even though most people from the older generation miss it at least WMNI is still playing music. And some of those 80's song in their playlist you won't here on Sunny 95.
 
the marv said:
I remember that 99.7 frequency as numerous names. WMNI quad 100, Z100 disco, easy listening, and country as WRMZ, classic rock as WMGG, Active rock 99.7 the Blitz under the calls WBZX, 997 The Rock under WRKZ, and now back to the Blitz under the current call letters. They probably would have dominated Columbus had they moved WMNI's country music over to fm in 1990. Since WCOL went country in 1994 and we had 4 country signals on the fm dial WMNI no longer thought it was worth staying country so they went adult standards. Even though most people from the older generation miss it at least WMNI is still playing music. And some of those 80's song in their playlist you won't here on Sunny 95.
Click to expand...

Of course, hindsight is always 20-20. Before the 1990's, country was a lot like urban in that it didn't have the greatest demographics (from the standpoint of income). Country wasn't as mainstream as it is today.
 
Jason Roberts said:
the marv said:
At the time WCOL entered the country music field we had K95.5 a rimshot, 98.9 the river with a downtown signal but 3000 watts, and T100 another rimshot. WHOK dominated the country scene when WCOL was playing oldies. Nationwide saw the success they had in Cleveland with WGAR and since WCOL had a strong signal went after the country audience. 98.9 the river took the biggest hit with the switch of WCOL to country.
Click to expand...

You almost have it right. Nationwide's format finder research showed that a full signal country station could quickly take over all comers and dominate the ratings. That's why WCOL flipped to country.

Had the same ratings option existed under the oldies format...it would have stayed. But, the research showed the potential for about a 6 to 7 share for oldies (and a "graying" audience) and the potential for double digit shares (and a more demographically compatible) audience for a country format.

WBNS-FM was also watching this very closely back then. Had WCOL stayed oldies, WBNS-FM was prepared to flip to country. But, Nationwide's flip made that possibility irrelevant and they stayed oldies for a few more years, but never matched WCOL's highest ratings in the oldies format.

I was there. I saw it.
Click to expand...

Seven more years, actually. Granted a lot of years have passed, but I do remember Cool 92 being considerably more popular than WBNS when both ran oldies. Don't specifically remember why. Interesting that "B 97" never touched WCOL's ratings when it was the only oldies station in town.
 
Don't forget we had WSWZ 103.5 that also played oldies till Scantland bought it and made it a simulcast of 104.3 WZJZ. With WBNS + WCOL you had 3 oldies stations knocked down to 2 when WCOL went country. I think that there was only 2 years that WBNS was by themselves with it.
 
I remember in-between WCOL going from Oldies to Country, they did a countdown clock where they counted down from 10,000 to 1 and then launched the new format. Also, WCOL wasn't oldies for very long...they flipped the calls from WXGT(92X)and Rock 40 to WCOL and Oldies around October 1990 I believe(Jason could clear this up since he was there at the time)and flipped to Country in early 1994, so they were Oldies a little over three years and a few months. WCOL has been a powerhouse ever since.
Also, WHKO(K-99.1 FM)in Dayton flipped from Easy Listening(As WHIO-FM) to Country WHKO-FM sometime in 1989 and have been a dominant player ever since(Always guaranteed top 3 station 12+, usually #1 with a 9-10 share). Of course Dayton also had a rimshot in Kiss Country(Which flipped to Modern AC CLiCK last March), but it didn't even put a dent in K's Dayton dominance.
107.1 was also a CHR for awhile, simulcasting Hot 105.7 and later KISS-FM before going on its own in April 1994 when Kiss flipped to Arrow. Kiss-FM flipped to all 70s Arrow in late January 1995, so the signal has a history in CHR. My guess is Classic Country will go to 107.1. Columbus needs its umpteen Country stations as we all know. ::)
 
Noticed WINK FM 107.1 appeared to be on auto pilot this morning, with no live jocks, ect..

Also noticed they don't have any DJs listed on their site anymore:

http://www.wink1071.com/pages/4401648.php?

Also, noticed 95.5 The Hawk was also on auto pilot this morning.

Question, is the new K95 planning to go to compete with WCOL 92.3 for ratings points?
 
alans613 said:
I remember in-between WCOL going from Oldies to Country, they did a countdown clock where they counted down from 10,000 to 1 and then launched the new format. Also, WCOL wasn't oldies for very long...they flipped the calls from WXGT(92X)and Rock 40 to WCOL and Oldies around October 1990 I believe(Jason could clear this up since he was there at the time)and flipped to Country in early 1994, so they were Oldies a little over three years and a few months. WCOL has been a powerhouse ever since.
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"10,000 in a row clear static free country music" launched on February 14, 1994 at 6pm. I remember the first song being Alan Jackson's Chattahoochee.
 
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