COAST 100.9 Classic Rock No More

[Little RF Man]

And don't get me started about BAS programming decisions. It's like they consciously do the exact opposite of what one should do, like they are going to catch everyone off-guard with their stupidity. Many comments have been posted here about how the flip should have taken place, nearly every one is better than what actually happened.

I could just hear the discussion in the war room prior to the decision, "Well, country music stations make up one-fifth of all radio stations in America, so that means alot of people listen to country. And there are six or seven country stations that we can listen to, so that means alot of people in our area listen to country, so we should change to country." Brilliant. How are you going to market that? With localism? Nope. Better programming? Nope. Hopefully they reserved a table for their own Brand Your Business event, they could learn a thing or two, you know, before their business goes In The Crapper.

 

[Little RF Man]

ESPN 95.3 makes more sense. Caters M25-54 and 18-49. Partnered with WKFM's country format, equal parts men and women, plus NASCAR, the sales team would have no issues selling either.

Great idea. The music/sports hybrid does not work. Pick one and go all-in. The 95.3 signal is great, the engineer knows what they are doing. Put every game on the air that you can, supplement with the ESPN stable of talk-talent(Mike&Mike), and do at least one daypart of local talk. PMD could be great, have someone else be the KFM/LKR news director and have Truxell host. Or keep Truxell as news director and put Mark Fogg out of his misery and bring him on as the PMD host. Are you kidding me...Truxell - Fogg - ESPN Radio. This would be unique, it's loaded with local content, and it would be led by the two biggest names in LOCAL sports. You can afford to bring on Fogg because half of the LKR morning show can be dismissed, along with the afternoon jock. (BAS are you taking notes) "Well, WLEC tried all-sports and it didn't work". Comparing an FM signal to an AM signal that can't be received south of Bogart Road? You're kidding right? If all departments(programming, promotions, and sales) go ALL-IN, it can't lose. The radio ranch now has the leadership to make it work, you watch this happen....

 

[chy chy rottenqueeve]

That all sports idea didn't work on WLEC, it REALLY wouldn't fly on WLKR (an even SMALLER town). WLKR could even make some decent #s with a local FM News/Talk +Sports & the same music they run now in off hours as fill.

That makes no sense. WLKR serves the same market as WLEC. And it's an FM. Better quality signal.

Why does it make no sense to have WLKR have LOCAL News/Talk/& sports & sports talk & of course games & local announcers throwing in their own bump music & evening programming like music talk shows when there's no high school sports(Beatle Brunch, Elvis Only, ...something as fill to take up time when there's no show on yet? Sure sounds like something locals would keep on in stead of fake satelite BAS.
" Sad that the veteran sales/program staff has to explain BAS' mistakes to veteran clients & listeners .

 

[kentuckymedia]

can someone tell WQKT that sports and music dont work? Its an easy sell, but it tanks your ratings! WQKT has the potential to bill 2 mill a year easy if they got their act together, but instead they are so deadset on playing Hoochie Township Junior High Basketball Warmups!

 

[chy chy rottenqueeve]

All sports in a small market is like committing radio harey carey. Even Detroit's "The Fan" & Cleveland's WKNR aren't the hottest spots on the dial & never will be. All sports is too one dimensional. It's not something you can rely on for normal info other than gung-ho loudmouthed dumb callers/jocks yelling & grunting at each other & an occasional intelligent Costas interview because it's breaking format by being semi-non sports related. It just doesn't jive in a small, muchless medium market. Plus the public gets overdosed on hearing about Danbury J.V Tennis or Hopewell Louden Band Camp.
Local News/Talk with a sports flavor or hourly updates is another thing(what most smart news/talk formats do). Erie/Huron counties would eat it up especially if there was a credible local info related talk/call in show on PM Drive and an occasional song here & there near the top of the hour & local guests & city officials, police, business owners, local contests, etc. WLKR could accomplish this easily in that Erie County area. WLEC could have done it & made bookoo $ when CC owned them especially in the summer with Cedar Point just down the road.
BAS on the other hand could not fathom an idea like this since it would require human beings, reality & creativity. Now the entire BAS "empire of deception" is exactly what they planned & hoped for; nothing but an unmanned garbage barge of background noise & swindeling that any business would be a fool to spend $ with. Maybe this summer at the fair they can have a life sized cardboard standup of their imaginary "Coast Country morning guy" to immortalize the true bogusness of their on-air content, for K-96 staffers to point & guffaw at .

 

[VODood]

All sports in a small market is like committing radio harey carey. Even Detroit's "The Fan" & Cleveland's WKNR aren't the hottest spots on the dial & never will be. All sports is too one dimensional. It's not something you can rely on for normal info other than gung-ho loudmouthed dumb callers/jocks yelling & grunting at each other & an occasional intelligent Costas interview because it's breaking format by being semi-non sports related. It just doesn't jive in a small, muchless medium market. Plus the public gets overdosed on hearing about Danbury J.V Tennis or Hopewell Louden Band Camp.
Local News/Talk with a sports flavor or hourly updates is another thing(what most smart news/talk formats do). Erie/Huron counties would eat it up especially if there was a credible local info related talk/call in show on PM Drive and an occasional song here & there near the top of the hour & local guests & city officials, police, business owners, local contests, etc. WLKR could accomplish this easily in that Erie County area. WLEC could have done it & made bookoo $ when CC owned them especially in the summer with Cedar Point just down the road.
BAS on the other hand could not fathom an idea like this since it would require human beings, reality & creativity. Now the entire BAS "empire of deception" is exactly what they planned & hoped for; nothing but an unmanned garbage barge of background noise & swindeling that any business would be a fool to spend $ with. Maybe this summer at the fair they can have a life sized cardboard standup of their imaginary "Coast Country morning guy" to immortalize the true bogusness of their on-air content, for K-96 staffers to point & guffaw at .

"chy chy" ...interesting you pick the two worst sports stations in Detroit and Cleveland. But what about the two best, WTAM and WXYT?

Yes, WTAM is talk as well as sports. But do you hear music programming? No. And you won't.

Have you any programming experience?

WXYT/The Ticket Detroit is KILLING it in PPM and is Top 10 P25-54 and Top 5 M25-54. Making $$$ hand over fist. WXYT is doing so well that CBS has copied it for Dallas and will be rolling out more sports/talk stations in other markets.

 

[nightfly61]

"chy chy" ...interesting you pick the two worst sports stations in Detroit and Cleveland. But what about the two best, WTAM and WXYT?

Yes, WTAM is talk as well as sports.

no it's not, WTAM it's considered News/Talk. Just because they air & talk about sports they are not Sports.
chy chy(?!) you're technically correct here;
WXYT= #15 with a 2.9 in Detroit
WKNR= #13 with a 2.9 in Cleveland(only true Cleveland sports station)

But do you hear music programming? No. And you won't

WTAM does not count as Sports- it is News/Talk and yes you will hear music. Triv plays music in the afternoon all the time especially on his "Motown Friday". Sometimes it has bits & talk overtop but there are songs.

 

[VODood]

"chy chy" ...interesting you pick the two worst sports stations in Detroit and Cleveland. But what about the two best, WTAM and WXYT?

Yes, WTAM is talk as well as sports.

no it's not, WTAM it's considered News/Talk. Just because they air & talk about sports they are not Sports.
chy chy(?!) you're technically correct here;
WXYT= #15 with a 2.9 in Detroit
WKNR= #13 with a 2.9 in Cleveland(only true Cleveland sports station)

But do you hear music programming? No. And you won't

WTAM does not count as Sports- it is News/Talk and yes you will hear music. Triv plays music in the afternoon all the time especially on his "Motown Friday". Sometimes it has bits & talk overtop but there are songs.

nightfly....so naive.

You are quoting 12+ numbers. They're cosmetic, they mean nothing. For sports stations it's M18-34, 18-49 and 25-54. Those are the demos that matter. I could go further and use other demo cells like M35-54 and M45-54. If the station performs well in those demos it's a bonus.

Triv playing music doesn't make it "music programming". Triv is an idiot. Yes, I know he gets numbers... but not b/c his show is good. It's not. It's b/c there's no meaningful direct news/talk/sports competition in PM drive except for Maxwell on WMMS (a music station but he's doing a talk show) who works for the same company. WKNR is the only other sports station in Cleveland and it's still relatively new on a much weaker signal than WTAM. The rest of the market is all music programming.

I'll note that when WGAR and WMJI had Danny Wright and Scott Howitt respectively, both beat Triv on a regular basis. Even WMMS' Slats beat Triv. All of the aforementioned were let go, within weeks of one another, to put Triv over the top.

WTAM is technically a news/talk station. However, it carries Indians, Cavs and Browns, as well as some college sports programming. Even though sports is not in WTAM's positioning I can call it a sports station.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

As I wrote when Craig Karmazin took over WKNR...

WTAM is the leading sports station in the market, and always will be.

It serves as a news/talker most of the day, and doesn't even have a full-fledged weekday sports talk show now that Bob Frantz replaced "Sportsline".

But like Kevin Keane before him, Frantz in the 7-midnight slot also has to dodge the myriad of play-by-play commitments to the Cavaliers, Indians and (occasionally) the Browns.

He also has a sports background, so if that's needed, he can dial that up instantly. (For that matter, same with the station's most popular local host, Mike Trivisonno.)

And the station airs "Weekend Sportsline" and other sports-oriented programming on Saturdays and Sundays, when it's not selling time to a guy hawking mutual funds, a French advertising executive, or a community activist currently facing some trouble.

So, in effect if not "technically", WTAM is the "sports leader" in Cleveland, and WKNR has to compete with it.

 

[nightfly61]

So going by that thinking then I guess since WKNR runs top of the hour(non sports related) news and when Mike & Mike or Costas talk about something other than sports, that makes them a News/Talk.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

So going by that thinking then I guess since WKNR runs top of the hour(non sports related) news and when Mike & Mike or Costas talk about something other than sports, that makes them a News/Talk.

Nope. Not at all.

For one, WKNR runs no news, period. They run ESPN Radio SportsCenters, and local sports updates from Metro Networks. They have no network radio newscasts, and take no local news from Metro or anywhere else.

No, the "sports thread" through WTAM is much more than hosts occasionally talking sports. In addition to all of the above mentioned examples, WTAM sports director Mike Snyder is on the "Wills and Snyder" morning show...and does a lot of long-form sports interviews.

And when a big sports story breaks - like the hiring of new head coach Eric Mangini recently - I'll bet dollars to donuts that listeners will hit up WTAM first. On the day Mangini was officially hired, WTAM officially blew out Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and ran talk about the Mangini hire all day (bringing in the aforementioned Triv early, at 12 noon, and putting on night host Bob Frantz in his former 9-noon slot).

Your comparison ("what if WKNR didn't talk about sports every so often") isn't equal.

But most importantly? WTAM and Clear Channel Cleveland are the flagship stations of the three major professional sports teams. 'TAM itself is the primary flagship for the Cavaliers and Indians, and carries the Browns when they aren't carrying one of those two teams.

WTAM is definitely classified as a "news/talk" station, but there's still the "major league" sports image because of all I mentioned above.

 

[Shelloutfalter]

Does the legal team at J. Rizer and Associates know about this?

 

[kentuckymedia]

shellout...what is there to know? KNR is sports, TAM is full service.

 

[nightfly61]

Ohio media...just because you think "they run a lot of sports" does not make them Sports...they're NEWS/TALK
Coast to Coast AM
Local News/Traffic
Fox News
Rush
Becker
Triv
Glenn Beck...
If all 3 Cleveland sports teams were sold & gone WTAM would still be NEWS/TALK. Period...just like they have been since thier Top 40(Radio 11 WKYC) days in 1969.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Ohio media...just because you think "they run a lot of sports" does not make them Sports...they're NEWS/TALK
Coast to Coast AM
Local News/Traffic
Fox News
Rush
Becker
Triv
Glenn Beck...
If all 3 Cleveland sports teams were sold & gone WTAM would still be NEWS/TALK. Period...just like they have been since thier Top 40(Radio 11 WKYC) days in 1969.

nightfly, please go back and read my message.

I'm not calling 'TAM a "sports station". (Edited to add - maybe I did, at the onset. See below.)

It's a standard issue news/talker with a heavy sports lean, and thus, is a dominant competitor to the all-sports WKNR. It's almost a throwback to the old days, pre-sports format stations, where the big news/talker had a strong sports component.

As if they were reading my messages here, WTAM proved my point this afternoon. While out and about in this frigid weather, I tuned in to 1100 to hear Triv finishing up a long-form live interview with - ta da! - Cleveland Indians manager Eric Wedge.

He then spent much of the next half hour reiterating the fact that he was a sports fan, but especially, a baseball fan. That was pretty much all the content I heard, give or take a traffic report or three.

Local sports team figures are a large part of Triv's rotating group of regular interviewees, on all three teams.

Again, not a "sports station", but enough of a lean to basically force WKNR to compete with them on a sports level.

In addition to Triv, new evening/former midday host Bob Frantz can turn on a dime to cover sports topics when they're appropriate on the schedule...or if he's needed to fill-in on the Browns pre-game show (he does that every pre-season when Mike Snyder has to fill-in for Jim Donovan, who does the Channel 3 TV call for those games).

II'm not saying they're exactly like WKNR. I'm saying that their dominance of the sports "image" WITHIN THEIR NEWS/TALK FORMAT and with the games means that 'KNR has to compete with them as if they were a "sports station".

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

WTAM is the leading sports station in the market, and always will be.

OK, I can slap myself on the hands for calling WTAM a "sports station" here, when I really meant what I wrote after that, including later in that same message. See my message above this for an example of the thinking. Chuck also worded it well.

 

[Broadway Bill]

And this discussion about WKNR and the attempt to pigeon hole WTAM's format has what to do with Coast 100.9 ditching its classic rock format?

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

And this discussion about WKNR and the attempt to pigeon hole WTAM's format has what to do with Coast 100.9 ditching its classic rock format?

Absolutely nothing, which is why I'm not adding more.

 

[VODood]

WTAM is the leading sports station in the market, and always will be.

OK, I can slap myself on the hands for calling WTAM a "sports station" here, when I really meant what I wrote after that, including later in that same message. See my message above this for an example of the thinking. Chuck also worded it well.

Peception is reality. I had an OM once who told me about the "mall test". Go to the mall and ask random people, all demos, what kind of music Ozzy is. Most will say rock, or hard rock. Maybe even some will say classic rock. Aerosmith... rock. Carrie Underwood... country. The Beatles, most will say oldies, not rock or classic rock (a term invented by Fred Jacobs in the early 80s. Not an industry term til then). If a station carries sports... most will say a sports station. If a heavy music station with some sports, like WMJI used to be with the Browns... still an oldies station.

You ask the average person at the mall what kind of radio station WTAM is you'll get many non-industry type responses, and I'll bet most of them are either news, talk and or sports.

In the industry WTAM is a full service news/talk...with as OMW pointed, major sports franchises and coverage.

But to the average person....I bet you get the sports response more often than you would expect.

 

[nightfly61]

But to the average person....I bet you get the sports response more often than you would expect.

Even though it's been drilled into the average listener's head every "10 minutes on the 10's" for years...
"NEWS RADIO WTAM EELEVEN-HUNDRED"
I still have to disagree.

But back to the topic...
Why would WMJK keep "The Coast" name after the Country flip?
BAS did the same thing with 92.1 when they flipped from canned AOR to canned Oldies- they're still "The Wolf" & imaging still sez "Classic Rock". Sounds real good when going into Dionne Warwick.