The Rebel is now R.I.P. like it's namesake James Dean. ;D If I remember correctly Marty Thompson actually gave them the Rebel name when he was P.D. So where do their listeners go? Do you think that The B and K99 will get a little kiss in the next ratings period? And do you think that Middletown bars will see an uptick in business as former radio people drown their sorrows? I hate to see people losing their jobs in the current emplpoyment environment & wish them well as they look for new opportunities.
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Country radio ratings
- Thread starter TANKSBACK
- Start date
I kind of liked the Rebel...K99.1 always seemed a little lackluster to me. Wonder why it never made any impact?
First, my sympathy goes out to everyone who was associated with the WPFB stations. I've been in that position myself and I know what they're going through. I hope their time on the beach is as short as possible.
Why didn't it work? Actually it did do reasonably well for a while. I'll offer a couple of general opinions. And none of these are necessarily the opinions of my employer. They are based on my experience in country radio, and mine alone.
When listeners are generally satisfied with a radio station, it's an uphill climb for any would be competitor to gain a foothold. Particularly if the competitor does not have the same or similar resources that a company like Cox has. They, like other companies for which I have worked such as the old Nationwide group, research the product, they research the music, the listeners...everything. This is no secret, its common knowledge.
When Rebel went on the air, it made a mark...and good for them. But, I think as it aged, the premises they were making began to sound flimsy, at best. Among them:
"We play the best new music first". Only teenagers care about that, and just about any consultant in the business would tell you that. On any top 40 chart, usually 20 or so of those songs prove to be stiffs. Yes, K-99.1 may have been very conservative, at one time, musically speaking, but they played pure hits, not stiffs. Rebel's current list (at least the one they published) was often upwards of 50 to 60 songs. The last time I saw a country playlist that big, was on WAVI in 1968. (Even WONE generally stuck to 35 to 40 songs with a couple of album cuts
here and there. I have that in an interview I did with former WONE PD Terry Wood.)
"You won't hear this song on K-99.1" ...if it was big hit, that might have a been a selling point. But usually, it was a song that died around mid-chart. If K didn't play it, it's probably because it wasn't a hit with Dayton listeners.
The fact is: many of the perceived "negatives" they asserted on-air about K-99.1 never existed. And most people, if they legitimately compared the two stations realized this, and tuned them out over time.
At the end of the day, what they were left with, I suspect, were what some consultants call the "2 percenters"...that's the 2 percent of the general population that's going to hate your radio station for whatever perceived injustice they feel exists with the big gun. (In Dayton, or Cincinnati).
Kinda reminds me of the WCOL-FM/Wild Country 98-9 battle when I worked there. They couldn't beat us on music, so they tried to rile the bar crowd up by being zany, out of control, you know, the "Anti-WCOL". Problem with that is, when it doesn't work, the competition tries harder to be crazier, and out of control. The death knell in Wild Country's case was when they adopted the on-air slogan "The Best Damn Country" and management told the jocks to curse on the air at least once a shift. Any consultant would tell you that's over the line to country listeners and stay far away from that. To Rebel's credit, I'm not aware that they ever went that far.
But, usually when a tactic isn't working, you try a different tactic. In 20 years, Rebel never tried that. Whether that was because they were believing their request lines, or whatever, I don't know and would not speculate. And, after a while, all the K-bashing only resonated with the "2 percenters". You can't create a negative if it's not a valid negative to begin with. That's what you find out in doing real, paid for perceptual audience research. The bar crowd is not indicative of the audience as a whole.
To its' credit, Rebel did, often win their hometown audience in Butler and Warren Counties. Maybe as time went on they might have tried being the hometown station playing truly the best music with the local news and information, with less of the bashing. Who knows?
And, anyone who has listened to K-99 today knows it's a far different station from what it was even 5 years ago.
I admit, I chuckled last week when I heard someone there say that K-99.1 never played "The Ride" by David Allen Coe...that only Rebel played it.
Not true. K played it early on...as an oldie. You see, the song is actually a lot older and predates K's arrival on the scene in 1989. I think it might have even pre-dated Rebel.
Who played it first? WBZI-FM and was a chart topper for them. I know. I played it there, and David Allan Coe came to our station for the live interview (we were the only station in town with the guts to put him on the air live)...in fact, he did 3 hours on the air with the late Jack Bartley and we all (station staff, CBS rep and David) went to dinner at the Cattlemen's Inn in Beavercreek that night.
As for what will happen with the listeners? Don't know. You see, usually the audience expands with competition and contracts when competition goes away. My guess is neither station (K or WUBE) will see more than a couple of tenths of a point, if that.
Just my personal two cents from a programmer's perspective.
Why didn't it work? Actually it did do reasonably well for a while. I'll offer a couple of general opinions. And none of these are necessarily the opinions of my employer. They are based on my experience in country radio, and mine alone.
When listeners are generally satisfied with a radio station, it's an uphill climb for any would be competitor to gain a foothold. Particularly if the competitor does not have the same or similar resources that a company like Cox has. They, like other companies for which I have worked such as the old Nationwide group, research the product, they research the music, the listeners...everything. This is no secret, its common knowledge.
When Rebel went on the air, it made a mark...and good for them. But, I think as it aged, the premises they were making began to sound flimsy, at best. Among them:
"We play the best new music first". Only teenagers care about that, and just about any consultant in the business would tell you that. On any top 40 chart, usually 20 or so of those songs prove to be stiffs. Yes, K-99.1 may have been very conservative, at one time, musically speaking, but they played pure hits, not stiffs. Rebel's current list (at least the one they published) was often upwards of 50 to 60 songs. The last time I saw a country playlist that big, was on WAVI in 1968. (Even WONE generally stuck to 35 to 40 songs with a couple of album cuts
here and there. I have that in an interview I did with former WONE PD Terry Wood.)
"You won't hear this song on K-99.1" ...if it was big hit, that might have a been a selling point. But usually, it was a song that died around mid-chart. If K didn't play it, it's probably because it wasn't a hit with Dayton listeners.
The fact is: many of the perceived "negatives" they asserted on-air about K-99.1 never existed. And most people, if they legitimately compared the two stations realized this, and tuned them out over time.
At the end of the day, what they were left with, I suspect, were what some consultants call the "2 percenters"...that's the 2 percent of the general population that's going to hate your radio station for whatever perceived injustice they feel exists with the big gun. (In Dayton, or Cincinnati).
Kinda reminds me of the WCOL-FM/Wild Country 98-9 battle when I worked there. They couldn't beat us on music, so they tried to rile the bar crowd up by being zany, out of control, you know, the "Anti-WCOL". Problem with that is, when it doesn't work, the competition tries harder to be crazier, and out of control. The death knell in Wild Country's case was when they adopted the on-air slogan "The Best Damn Country" and management told the jocks to curse on the air at least once a shift. Any consultant would tell you that's over the line to country listeners and stay far away from that. To Rebel's credit, I'm not aware that they ever went that far.
But, usually when a tactic isn't working, you try a different tactic. In 20 years, Rebel never tried that. Whether that was because they were believing their request lines, or whatever, I don't know and would not speculate. And, after a while, all the K-bashing only resonated with the "2 percenters". You can't create a negative if it's not a valid negative to begin with. That's what you find out in doing real, paid for perceptual audience research. The bar crowd is not indicative of the audience as a whole.
To its' credit, Rebel did, often win their hometown audience in Butler and Warren Counties. Maybe as time went on they might have tried being the hometown station playing truly the best music with the local news and information, with less of the bashing. Who knows?
And, anyone who has listened to K-99 today knows it's a far different station from what it was even 5 years ago.
I admit, I chuckled last week when I heard someone there say that K-99.1 never played "The Ride" by David Allen Coe...that only Rebel played it.
Not true. K played it early on...as an oldie. You see, the song is actually a lot older and predates K's arrival on the scene in 1989. I think it might have even pre-dated Rebel.
Who played it first? WBZI-FM and was a chart topper for them. I know. I played it there, and David Allan Coe came to our station for the live interview (we were the only station in town with the guts to put him on the air live)...in fact, he did 3 hours on the air with the late Jack Bartley and we all (station staff, CBS rep and David) went to dinner at the Cattlemen's Inn in Beavercreek that night.
As for what will happen with the listeners? Don't know. You see, usually the audience expands with competition and contracts when competition goes away. My guess is neither station (K or WUBE) will see more than a couple of tenths of a point, if that.
Just my personal two cents from a programmer's perspective.
Kahuna1 said:K-Fod
When's the next book signing ;D
Funny one, Kahuna! I keep threatening to write one someday. Lord knows, I could probably fill one. But, as we all have...there's stories we'd want to tell, and a few we wouldn't...
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