Re: And the real answer is...
> > Great point. Concerning music formats, in these kind of
> discussions, radio insiders focus too much on what happens
> between the songs. In other words, formatics....talk breaks,
> promos, liners, spot clusters, production value, etc. We
> overemphasize the importance of what we bring to the table
> sometimes. I'm not saying that stuff is unimportant but most
> listeners don't notice your hard work....they're tuned in
> for the music. You can be the best produced station in town
> with the best jocks but if your format has a small potential
> audience for the market to begin with, good luck.
>
> If I'm a country fan in State College, I'm listening to the
> Frog. What else? It may be the most annoyingly produced
> format in the market but its my music.
> THATS what brings a listener to a station in the first
> place...its music. Its
> very difficult to compare stations in different formats,
> especially in a market
> of 127,000. If there is any luck for the Frog in this case,
> its the fact that
> no one has decided to take them on WITHIN THE FORMAT and
> split the country pie.
> It stands to reason that, in a rural, whitebread market,
> country is going to be
> a hot format. And when you're the only game in town its hard
> to mess it up.
>
I have to agree with skymaxx, the music is what brings people to a station. Not the imaging and definatly not the jocks, well maybe a little of the jock. I hate the egotistical jocks that think the people come to listen to them. So far from the truth unless you are Howard Stern or someone of that likelyness. State College doesn't have that. I think that no one has gone after the Frog is the same reason that no one really goes after 3WZ, and those who have, failed. The reason is both those stations are a staple in the community. Froggy has alwasy been THE country station, except for when GMR was country and I don't think the frog exsisted then (I could be wrong though, I was only a youngin back then). For 3WZ, when you have the TV Channel, Your banners posted all throughout the mall and the WJAC News, people tend to notice. Been around along time.
Back to the orginal post. I have to say that I have not been in the buisness as long as say Steve Jones, or Glenn Turner, or Even Tommy Edwards. Though listening to all 3 of those guys as a kid and working with Glenn in other ventures I learned alot. I take what I have learned from those 3 and tie them into today with some of the programming decsions I make today. With the help of the PD mind of Dave McCall and some advice from Steve I sometimes make a good call and sometimes make a bad call, then again what PD hasn't. When you mess with format and names all in a little under 2 years you are bound to lose a few listners and gain a few.
Froggy and 3WZ are consistent, they don't mess with a machine that is running good, even when 3WZ took the hit in the ratings, they messed with nothing and look what happened back to the top 3. No luck involved, why fix something that isn't broke?