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Could The All-Christmas Field Become Crowded??

J

Joseph_Gallant

Guest
On the Buffalo/Rochester board, Northeast Radio Watch editor Scott Fybush wrote that Rochester's WFKL-93.3 (a/k/a "Fickle") has gone all-Christmas (the flip was this morning, November 23rd), the third station in that market to do so (with perhaps a fourth on the way).

WFKL is under the same ownership as WMKK-93.7 (Entercom), has a similar "Jack"-like format (what Entercom calls "Fickle" in Rochester, they call "Mike" here; but WFKL does have a morning show whereas WMKK does not), and based on 12-plus numbers for both stations on Radio and Records.com, neither is overly successful.

Could Entercom decide to have "Mike" play 24/7 Christmas music??

Were they to do so, which I think isn't very likely, they'd have to do it very quickly, given the rumors WMJX-106.7 will also take the plunge at any time.

Last year, WODS-103.3 was the only all-Christmas station in the market. This year, it might have quite a bit of company.
 
> On the Buffalo/Rochester board, Northeast Radio Watch editor
> Scott Fybush wrote that Rochester's WFKL-93.3 (a/k/a
> "Fickle") has gone all-Christmas (the flip was this morning,
> November 23rd), the third station in that market to do so
> (with perhaps a fourth on the way).
>
> WFKL is under the same ownership as WMKK-93.7 (Entercom),
> has a similar "Jack"-like format (what Entercom calls
> "Fickle" in Rochester, they call "Mike" here; but WFKL does
> have a morning show whereas WMKK does not), and based on
> 12-plus numbers for both stations on Radio and Records.com,
> neither is overly successful.
>
> Could Entercom decide to have "Mike" play 24/7 Christmas
> music??

Since all-Christmas tanked ratings-wise for Entercom on 93.7 when they put it on "Star" before, it doesn't seem likely that they would try it again on the same frequency on "Mike"... but I guess you never know.
 
> On the Buffalo/Rochester board, Northeast Radio Watch editor
> Scott Fybush wrote that Rochester's WFKL-93.3 (a/k/a
> "Fickle") has gone all-Christmas (the flip was this morning,
> November 23rd), the third station in that market to do so
> (with perhaps a fourth on the way).
>
> WFKL is under the same ownership as WMKK-93.7 (Entercom),
> has a similar "Jack"-like format (what Entercom calls
> "Fickle" in Rochester, they call "Mike" here; but WFKL does
> have a morning show whereas WMKK does not), and based on
> 12-plus numbers for both stations on Radio and Records.com,
> neither is overly successful.
>
> Could Entercom decide to have "Mike" play 24/7 Christmas
> music??
>
> Were they to do so, which I think isn't very likely, they'd
> have to do it very quickly, given the rumors WMJX-106.7 will
> also take the plunge at any time.
>
> Last year, WODS-103.3 was the only all-Christmas station in
> the market. This year, it might have quite a bit of company.
>

I think that Boston is only big enough for one Christmas station. If WMJX goes all Christmas, it will be interesting to see which station gets the higher ratings.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Retro on 11/23/05 11:23 PM.</FONT></P>
 
> > Could Entercom decide to have "Mike" play 24/7 Christmas
> > music??
>
> Since all-Christmas tanked ratings-wise for Entercom on 93.7
> when they put it on "Star" before, it doesn't seem likely
> that they would try it again on the same frequency on
> "Mike"... but I guess you never know.

Though an all-Christmas format would be a pretty good lead in to a new, female targetted format...

And, regarding WFKL: Are any of Entercom's variety hits stations doing well? Mike has been a lame duck in the ratings. They also have those Charlies in Madison, WI and Portland, OR.

(side note: Boston and San Francisco were both beaten to becoming Infinity-owned Jacks by Entercom and Bonneville, respectively. And in both markets, the Jack-clones (Max in SFO) have been disappointing. Could Infinity have done a better job?)
 
> And, regarding WFKL: Are any of Entercom's variety hits
> stations doing well? Mike has been a lame duck in the
> ratings. They also have those Charlies in Madison, WI and
> Portland, OR.

Charlie in Portland, OR seems to be doing well. They're in 4th place 12+.
 
Maybe a week or so before the holiday...but now would be overdoing it

> Could Entercom decide to have "Mike" play 24/7 Christmas
> music??
 
>
> And, regarding WFKL: Are any of Entercom's variety hits
> stations doing well? Mike has been a lame duck in the
> ratings. They also have those Charlies in Madison, WI and
> Portland, OR.
>

Yeah, but 93.7 wasn't doing all that well ratings-wise as Star either. Are Mike's numbers significantly different than Star's were?
 
> > And, regarding WFKL: Are any of Entercom's variety hits
> > stations doing well? Mike has been a lame duck in the
> > ratings. They also have those Charlies in Madison, WI and
> > Portland, OR.
>
> Charlie in Portland, OR seems to be doing well. They're in
> 4th place 12+.
>

I think they're number 1 25-54.<P ID="signature">______________
The Place for the Latest Happenings in Radio
www.freewebs.com/radiostuffandnews
</P>
 
> Yeah, but 93.7 wasn't doing all that well ratings-wise as
> Star either. Are Mike's numbers significantly different
> than Star's were?

Star's numbers were, during it's best times, around a share higher than Mike.
 
> > Charlie in Portland, OR seems to be doing well. They're in
>
> > 4th place 12+.
> >
>
> I think they're number 1 25-54.

Any chance Entercom could clone the music blend and move the PD out to Market #9?
 
> > > Charlie in Portland, OR seems to be doing well. They're
> in
> >
> > > 4th place 12+.
> > >
> >
> > I think they're number 1 25-54.
>
> Any chance Entercom could clone the music blend and move the
> PD out to Market #9?
>

Boston is #11 in radio, not #9.

Why is it so hard to grasp a fact that musical tastes and demo break downs
are different from market to market? What works in SoCal or Northwest may
not necessarily do well in Boston and vice versa. You and Gallant are just
shooting your mouths off just for the sake of filling up the bandwith without
understanding the business.
 
Re: Boston

> > > > Charlie in Portland, OR seems to be doing well.
> They're
> > in
> > >
> > > > 4th place 12+.
> > > >
> > >
> > > I think they're number 1 25-54.
> >
> > Any chance Entercom could clone the music blend and move
> the
> > PD out to Market #9?
> >
>
> Boston is #11 in radio, not #9.
>


Boston is still #9
 
Re: Boston

> > > > > Charlie in Portland, OR seems to be doing well.
> > They're
> > > in
> > > >
> > > > > 4th place 12+.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > I think they're number 1 25-54.
> > >
> > > Any chance Entercom could clone the music blend and move
>
> > the
> > > PD out to Market #9?
> > >
> >
> > Boston is #11 in radio, not #9.
> >
>
>
> Boston is still #9
>
Boston is #11 as of the current fall book.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/radio/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001012849
 
> Why is it so hard to grasp a fact that musical tastes and
> demo break downs
> are different from market to market? What works in SoCal or
> Northwest may
> not necessarily do well in Boston and vice versa.

Mike FM has been criticized early on for having a music blend that is unlike some of the more successful variety hits outlets. If you've listened to the station, you'd notice that a decent amount of music that was held over from the former format.

From informal listening, there's a great deal of rhythmic oldies like Prince, Donna Summer, The Gap Band, and other songs that are clearly held over from the format. Sure, many Jack outlets play these artists, but there's just way too much Donna Summer on WMKK. In addition, Mike has some songs like "Angel" by Shaggy and "Lonely No More" by Rob Thomas that are simply too far out of the typical variety hits spectrum.

Your point about local music tastes is certainly something that Entercom is considering. The excess of Donna Summer is easily because of her local connection with the area. But Star burned out Summer, and Mike is doing so by overplaying many of her songs, rather than playing one or two hits in current rotation and subsituting songs every few months. If variety is key to the sucess for the variety hits format, Mike's failure to impliment this could explain the ratings.

Yes, market music tastes are fairly essential to the success of the format, but the demos, M/F 25-54, are designed to be the same, with a 50/50 split between men and women listening. Either way, Entercom has a winning product in Portland, and a flailing product in Boston. Why shouldn't Entercom attempt to modify the music blend on WMKK?

> You and Gallant are just shooting your mouths off just for the sake of
> filling up the bandwith without understanding the business.

I figured that someone would say that eventually. Look at his posts and look at mine: we're not the same person.
 
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