Could "98.7 Earl FM" be going Hot AC?

[BRH]

Just wondering what others might think. I noticed that Citadel just segued it's Memphis Adult Hits station, "Kim FM" to Hot AC. And as several people have mentioned, WOKI "Earl FM" has dropped a lot of the older 70's classic hits type stuff over the past few months and added a lot more current Hot AC type artists like Nickleback, the Fray, Gwen Stefani, etc. They seem to have almost segued into a Hot AC at times, but you still hear the occasional oddball Adult Hits tunes every now and then. Also, they seem to be de-emphasizing the "Earl" name more lately and using "98.7 WOKI" some now. They also just added a new morning show, "Angie and Joe".

So what do you think? Is it just a tweak in the music lately, or do you think they may move 98.7 to a straight ahead Hot AC format soon? Personally, I think it would probably be a good move. You already have "Jack FM" across town in the Adult Hits format, and WMYU "93-1 the Point" dropped Hot AC to go all 80's awhile back. I think a move to Hot AC or even a rhythmic AC, "Movin" type format might be a good move for Citadel with 98.7. There is certainly some room in between "Star" and "B97.5", and I think a female targeted format like Hot AC would make a lot more sense then the more male targeted Adult/Variety Hits format. Also, personally, I'd love to see the horrible Earl imaging and station id's gone. They have to be the worst sweepers I've ever heard. I'd love a more mainstream sound with a regular voiceover guy and a jingle package maybe.

Anyway, anybody think they may go towards Hot AC with 98.7?

 

[AlbumOldies]

Interesting thought. However, I've not listened to Earl at all for several months - got tired of the lame ID's and didn't really care for the format, so I deleted it from both vehicles radio push buttons, like I did WIMZ several months ago. At least Earl did have some variety - same can't be said for WIMZ and their horribly restrictive playlist. Since the Crossville station at 105.7 and 107.3 went to mostly 70's I've been listening to them most of the time. Otherwise, NewsTalk 100 and occasionally AM 670 and 1040 get most of my time in the day, and nights go to out of town AM stations WSB and WLW. It gets awful tempting to go to XM - what I get on Direct TV is nice.

At any rate, to get back to your post, Earl can certainly use a makeover.

 

[RMarino]

I liked "Earl" at first, but since they've been dropping the '70s/early '80s titles for hot AC music about 6 months ago, I've since switched them off. I would like to see something different on that frequency. Rhythmic AC (Movin) might actually work well. Even though it's not doing that well nationally, it does do well in markets with lower-than-normal ethnic population and no adult ethnic format (such as urban AC or smooth jazz.) Knoxville certianly does apply in this case. So lets get movin!

 

[BRH]

RMarino;

I kind of agree. I know the "Movin" format is not setting the woods on fire in a lot of markets but I think it might do well here. It could be tailored in a pop/dance/rhythmic direction and not lean too urban and would have plenty of exclusive rhythmic pop titles to draw from from the 80's and 90's that aren't heard elsewhere here. Also, it would make sense for the smaller signal because it would be a unique format and it would also compete really well for some of Star's and B's audience. Also, Knoxville really needs more female targeted stations at the moment. I don't understand Citadel's need to fosus more on male targeted formats at all of their stations. A "Movin" type format could steal Star's adult demos and B97.5's younger end. Also, it would take some from Hot 104.5 as well. It would certainly seem to make sense to do an exclusive format like this that is not being done since 98.7 is not the best signal and cannot compete well in direct competition with better signals doing the same format.

I listen quite a bit to the Movin format online on WMUV "Movin 100.7" in Jacksonville, and I actually like it a lot. It's a fun format with lots of stuff that isn't being played in other places. For those not familar with it, it takes rhythmic artists from the 80s, 90s, and today and mixes them together for a target of females from their mid 20's through their late 30's. It features dance from the 80s and 90s like LaBouche, C &C Music Factory, Black Box, Expose, etc. mixed with some more adult, fun, hip hop gold like Nelly, Will Smith, etc; and current rhythmic pop like Gwen Stefani, Beyonce, Shakira, etc. It's all bundled together under the slogan "Music that Makes You Feel Good".

Anyway, I'd love to see them take 98.7 in this direction and as I said, I think it would make sense since it would be a more exclusive format. Also, it leans adult enough that it could be sold better than a really young format like the former Hip Hop format they did as "Wild". I think one of the factors though for Citadel may be that they don't want to put any real money or effort into the 98.7 signal. The current Adult Hits format is basically a cheap jukebox. I don't know if they are willing to put the money into better production, sweepers, jingles, and some dj's on this signal or not. I think that may be the biggest factor in them leaving Earl as it is for so long.

 

[RussAllen]

<------Touching my nose ;D

I think one of the factors though for Citadel may be that they don't want to put any real money or effort into the 98.7 signal...I think that may be the biggest factor in them leaving Earl as it is for so long.

 

[BRice16]

As of July 1st, the music has shifted even more toward a Hot AC/Rock AC format. They have also dropped all on-air mentions of Earl, with all liners and ID's reading simply "98.7 WOKI."

 

[Tennessee_Steel]

...And it's about as boring and bland as I've heard it in a long time. I miss the original mix of music that accompanied Earl's debut, and even the goofy Earl liners. The station at least had some personality then. I don't have access to detailed Arbitron data. Was Earl really doing that badly in its key demo, given the length of time in format and the shoddy signal?

Now I just have to figure out what station to move into my preset for Earl.

 

[RMarino]

Now I just have to figure out what station to move into my preset for Earl.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that liked Earl's original format only to be disappointed by WOKI as it sounds now. I have a couple of suggestions for replacing the 98.7 spot on your presets:

First of all, check out 107.3 FM. It's the Knoxville translator for Crossville's 105.7 WLSQ with just about the best '70s format I've ever heard.

Second choice, I've heard some interesting music coming from 91.1 Falcon Radio. They are a high school run station with a good variety of music from the '60s to the '80s.

 

[RussAllen]

Can anyone tell me why they named the station Earl in the first place? Not a diss, just curious.

 

[jetfli]

Can anyone tell me why they named the station Earl in the first place?

I believe Citadel Knoxville wanted an East Tennessee sounding name for its variety hits station, and just before the time of the naming, "Earl's in the Trunk" was a popular Dixie Chicks song, so it was fresh on their minds. Of course the "real name" of Earl the Citadel format is Ed, and most of its stations use the Ed name on air. It was originally Fred, but XM objected, so Citadel changed the name. To complicate matters, Citadel now owns the distribution rights to the Jack format, through its purchase of ABC Radio. So what do you think might just happen in ABC-distributed Jack markets with Citadel stations not using the format, once the current contracts run out?

 

[RussAllen]

I believe Citadel Knoxville wanted an East Tennessee sounding name for its variety hits station, and just before the time of the naming, "Earl's in the Trunk" was a popular Dixie Chicks song, so it was fresh on their minds. Of course the "real name" of Earl the Citadel format is Ed, and most of its stations use the Ed name on air. It was originally Fred, but XM objected, so Citadel changed the name. To complicate matters, Citadel now owns the distribution rights to the Jack format, through its purchase of ABC Radio. So what do you think might just happen in ABC-distributed Jack markets with Citadel stations not using the format, once the current contracts run out?
[/quote]

Thanks. Until u brought it up I hadn't thought about the Dixie Chicks in almost two years ;D

Seems like "Ed" is just as East TN as "Earl" is. I guess "Smoky" (as in mountains) or "Rocky" (as in Top) would cause a legal fight.

NE way since the station was supposedly being programmed by "award winning Program Director Mike Hammond" (Citadel's press release quote) wasn't Earl's success pre-ordained or something? I guess when he's not programming a heritage country/full service station on a class C stick with no legitimate direct competition in Knoxville he's not all that.

 

[BRice16]

To complicate matters, Citadel now owns the distribution rights to the Jack format, through its purchase of ABC Radio. So what do you think might just happen in ABC-distributed Jack markets with Citadel stations not using the format, once the current contracts run out?

Since the Jack stations are doing sooooo well here in Knoxville ad across the country.

 

[RMarino]

First of all, the name of the song is "Goodbye Earl", not "Earl's in the Trunk." Secondly, that song hit the country charts in March 2000 and Earl-FM debuted late 2005 I believe. So I highly doubt that the song had anything to do with the name of the station. If it did, then it would be an odd reason.

Citadel now owns the distribution rights to the Jack format, through its purchase of ABC Radio. So what do you think might just happen in ABC-distributed Jack markets with Citadel stations not using the format, once the current contracts run out?

Well since Citadel's 98.7 is no longer Adult Hits and since JACK-FM here is not doing so well, I'd say absolutely nothing will happen. If South Central wants to renew JACK for 95.7/106.7 I think Citadel would let them.

By the way, for those who have been in the market longer than I have, isn't the new sound of 98.7 WOKI just the same as when they were 98.7 The River?

 

[cheapman]

Maybe saying "goodbye" to "Earl" wouldn't be such a bad idea. The River had a very loyal audience.

 

[BRice16]

From a ratings standpoint, none of the stations that made big changes in 2005 are better off two years later. WNOX has roughly the same numbers despite now being on the strongest signal in the market. They killed Wild 98.7, which made one of the members here very, very happy and essentially replaced it with the Sports Animal (albeit on a different frequency), which bills far, far more than Wild ever dreamed of with similiar ratings (although different demos, obviously). The Sports Animal has proved to be a huge success in this college sports-intensive market. Knoxville listeners (and ad buyers) even warmed to Jim Rome, which was forced on Knoxville by corporate. The only weak link they have is Smokies Baseball, but that's a very lucrative time buy, so it's not going away and the Fox Sports Radio show that would be on instead is almost as painful to listen to.

The WOKI station, now on 98.7 got the raw end of the deal, however. maybe The River's numbers didn't justify the 100,000 signal, that's fine. But the changes that Citadel made after they got bumped to 98.7 have proved, in the long run, to be a huge mistake. The River had a very affluent and very loyal listener base that resulted in decent sales figures. Corporate ordered a hit on the AAA format, citing low ratings. Funny thing is, Early never came close to even the lowest ratings the River ever had. I suppose it was better, in the end, because the Citadel River never held a candle to the Dick Broadcasting River.

Over at South Central, they killed off Oldies in the fall of '05, replacing it with a satellite feed of JackFM. Again, here's a station that has never approached the ratings of its predecessor that was killed for low ratings. Despite the very low costs of Jack, this has been a financial mistake for SS. The fallout of killing Oldies ended up taking TK off of his longtime #2 in the market morning show at B97.5, replacing him with Ashley and Brad, who each worked different shifts at Oldies. Ratings wise, it's a push in the mornings at B, but they show doesn't bill nearly what it did with TK. In addition, the SS sales staff used to be able to sell remotes with Ashley and Brad on Oldies and could charge top dollar for TK remotes. Without jocks, they can't sell anything on Jack. I guess they're not concerned since Jack is so cheap to run, but I think Knoxville as a market lost out on that deal. Listeners in this market never warmed up to jockless radio, but SS fell in love with how cheap it is.

By the way, since some had mentioned contracts for Jack, I thought I'd throw out that the original deal between SS and ABC Radio for Jack was reported to be for 5 years. The Sports Animal was forced to re-up with Fox Sports recently because 1180 AM's new owners re-signed with ESPN for four more years last month, before Citadel took over ABC.

 

[SuperQ]

Brice16, I don't have enough time in my life to correct all the errors, misconceptions and outright falsehoods in that post.

Unless you are inside one of the buildings, don't believe what a part-time promotions intern is telling you. There is just no substance to virtually anything you said about any of those moves.

 

[RussAllen]

BRice16 is usually pretty accurate with his assessment on the goings on over at SS and Citadel. Perhaps SuperQ has a different source(s) with a different take(s).

Meanwhile, I was very, very happy when WYIL went away for purely selfish reasons, I assure u. I mean, my signature says it in a subtle way :

 

[RMarino]

Meanwhile, I was very, very happy when WYIL went away for purely selfish reasons, I assure u. I mean, my signature says it in a subtle way :

Haha, very good Russ. I always wondered what that referred to. ;D

 

[jetfli]

From a ratings standpoint, none of the stations that made big changes in 2005 are better off two years later. WNOX has roughly the same numbers despite now being on the strongest signal in the market.... The Sports Animal has proved to be a huge success in this college sports-intensive market.... The Sports Animal was forced to re-up with Fox Sports recently because 1180 AM's new owners re-signed with ESPN for four more years last month, before Citadel took over ABC.

While some of your statements regarding WNOX & the Sports Animal are correct, your assesment of what they mean are incorrect. While you begin your post by saying "none of the stations" and then at least come back to recognize the advent of the Sports Animal as being successful, you miss the point of WNOX keeping "roughly the same numbers."

Before the changes occurred, WNOX carried quite a bit of the local sports programming that has come to be heard on the Sports Animal, including the very popular afternoon sports talk program. It accounted for a large part of the success of the station, pre-change. For the sports programming to be ripped off of WNOX and moved to another station, which would be competing for listeners even though owned by the same company, you would have expected WNOX to take a ratings hit for the loss of programming. Because that didn't happen, because WNOX kept "roughly the same numbers" despite the success of the Sports Animal with some of WNOX's former programming, WNOX's post-change performance would have to be considered a big success.

There are individual station strategies, and there are cluster strategies. Usually, when cluster management sees the opportunity to spin off programming on one of its stations to build a new format on another of its stations, said management expects the station experiencing the loss of programming to take a hit for the good of building a stronger cluster. For WNOX to have felt pratically no hit, especially given the Sports Animal's success, is more than Citadel Knoxville could have hoped for in such a short amount of time.

As for your statement regarding the Sports Animal being "forced" to re-up with Fox Sports, before Citadel took over ABC Radio, don't forget Disney kept ESPN Radio and at this point it's still unclear just what role ABC Radio Networks plays in distribution of ESPN Radio, if any. But even at that, ESPN wants daily carriage commitments (although you'll find exceptions) with which the Sports Animal wouldn't want to be saddled, given their high levels of local programming. It remains to be seen if any exceptions would be made in order to bring ESPN to any of Citadel's sports stations that don't currently have it. Maybe someday we'll have ESPN2 for radio, although I couldn't see it going to competing clusters. It'd be more likely that Citadel would create long form talk programming for its ABC Radio Sports network, or maybe they could set up regional networks, for use in non-drive times.

 

[BRice16]

Before the changes occurred, WNOX carried quite a bit of the local sports programming that has come to be heard on the Sports Animal, including the very popular afternoon sports talk program. It accounted for a large part of the success of the station, pre-change. For the sports programming to be ripped off of WNOX and moved to another station, which would be competing for listeners even though owned by the same company, you would have expected WNOX to take a ratings hit for the loss of programming. Because that didn't happen, because WNOX kept "roughly the same numbers" despite the success of the Sports Animal with some of WNOX's former programming, WNOX's post-change performance would have to be considered a big success.

That's a really great point. The addition of Phil Williams in the afternoon and the relatively quick success of his show helped offset the loss of the state's top-rated Sports talk show. I think NewsTalk being able to maintain a consistant nightly lineup without interruptions by basketball, baseball and minor league baseball games help them build an audience at night that could count on knowing what was going to be on and help keep advertisers on a regular buying schedule.

As for your statement regarding the Sports Animal being "forced" to re-up with Fox Sports, before Citadel took over ABC Radio, don't forget Disney kept ESPN Radio and at this point it's still unclear just what role ABC Radio Networks plays in distribution of ESPN Radio, if any. But even at that, ESPN wants daily carriage commitments (although you'll find exceptions) with which the Sports Animal wouldn't want to be saddled, given their high levels of local programming. It remains to be seen if any exceptions would be made in order to bring ESPN to any of Citadel's sports stations that don't currently have it. Maybe someday we'll have ESPN2 for radio, although I couldn't see it going to competing clusters. It'd be more likely that Citadel would create long form talk programming for its ABC Radio Sports network, or maybe they could set up regional networks, for use in non-drive times.

I think the two big issues that Citadel Knoxville would have with a possible ESPN afiliation are Smokies baseball and the Jim Rome Show. Rome has gained a fairly strong foothold in Knoxville with both listeners and advertisers, something I doubt Citadel would want to give up. It's suprising, really, based on the initial resistance to Rome from inside the building and from listeners. They would have a hard time keeping Rome on two fronts, one with, like you said, minimum daily carriage from ESPN and the fact that, though Rome is not technically a part of FoxSR, Premiere certianly sells him that way and does not produce network programming other than National Sports Reports during Rome's 12-3 EST slot.

I know that many at Citadel would love to be able to provide the LIVE national sports events that ESPN Radio offers like MLB Baseball, the NBA Finals, the BCS, etc., moreso than the regular daily programming.

That said, it's a moot point as long as ESPN Radio has a contract with 1180 AM, which they just re-upped for several years. ESPN found out in Nashville that the courts do not look favorably on breaking contracts for the sake of a stronger signal.

As far as Citadel setting up another sports network under the ABC banner, I would think it is more likely that they would acquire Sporting News Radio, who is struggling mightily according to those over on the Sports Board here at RI. SNR was heard on many Citadel stations before corporate signed that national deal with Premiere for FSR and Fox News Radio on most of their stations a couple of years back. If they find a need for sports programming, it would seem that would be a direction they might go instead of launching something new, but that's just speculation on my part.