Clear Channel Montgomery

[mrlayne]

i'm still hearing rumors from sources at B'ham's clear channel cluster that HQ could be flipping formats in the capital city.

with the departure of long time Hot 105 PD Michael long, could this be a sign?

i would think clear channel would want to protect their top 5 status by bringing in a modern rock station like Atlanta's Project or a CHR to take down Y102.

 

[Poledo]

Why is modern rock such a fixture on the monkey town radio dial? I can easily understand the Auburn station, but what makes the format hot in the Gump?

 

[mrlayne]

well because it could/would provide interesting competition for the gump, which is Alt rock.

of course Clear Channel could go back to oldies and bring back WQLD

 

[StrayKats]

If there would be a change - I'd still think Magic 97's format would switch to the powerhouse 105.7 signal, and possibly vice versa. Just me, but I don't see anything happening to Hallelujah 104.

I still think the wild card is 106.1 - which is pretty well available throughout Montgomery, not to mention covering Auburn and Columbus. This station after the first few years after South 106 got started has been a disaster, getting embarrassed in the ratings in Columbus by Kissin 99.3 and maybe registering 0.5 in Montgomery. Even the distant station in Roanoke gets higher rankings in Auburn than South 106 someone told me, and 100.9 in West Point and Kissin often do as well.

A CHR on that powerful stick would be significant competition to three stations at one time - Montgomery's Y102, Columbus' heritage 107 Q, and Opelika's 96.7 - I think that's where the change will be - and it will be promoted, possibly simultaneously, as a Montgomery and Columbus and Auburn station.

They missed out on the boat long ago when they could have been THE classic hits station for three markets. Personally, I wish they'd go back to the days of old WRFS. Now THAT was radio.

 

[tomservo]

Do these multi-market spanning competitors actually work, though? Case in point, WYDE. Birmingham, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Gadsden and it doesn't do squat in any of the markets. All of the Mobile and Pensacola stations with competition only do good in one market, never the other (unless it's the ONLY format available, like WBLX). The only multi-market signal that I can think of, that does well, is 941-ZBQ which does well in both Tuscaloosa and Columbus. But it's really the local heritage station for both markets IMHO and top 40 competition comes from other rimshots (WQEN and WLZA to some degree).

The problem with signals like 106.1 is that you can only succeed in one market at a time, IMHO. Play Columbus commercials and people will tune out in Montgomery. Play Montgomery ads and people in Columbus will forget about it. Play Auburn ads and lose both bigger markets.

If it were a format that wasn't available elsewhere, it could shed that problem. I remember Z 105.7 being a player of sorts in Montgomery, Columbus and Dothan, but that was before the competition diversified. I am not sure, but I don't think that three market performance holds up as much anymore.

 

[Poledo]

Clear Channel is a big company with plenty of national advertising resources. Put the right format on 106.1 and ONLY put national and regional commercials on the station. Don't attempt to sell local spots. Rush though the COL and such in the TOH ID. The whole thing could be automated or satellite fed on the cheap side. With a unique format, wouldn't that solve the problem of people even knowing what city the station was broadcasting from or to? As long as the listeners find some music they like on the dial and the signal is decent, everyone should be happy happy happy.
... but would such a situation make enough money to keep the owners happy?

I'm been thinking about the feasibility of such a scenario with country (classic country, a southern rock/country hybrid, or maybe (hopefully) Americana) on one of the 100kw Mobile/Pensacola stations to try to compete with WKSJ in Mobile and whoever is the #1 country outlet in Pensacola.