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Cousin Brucie Returns To 77WABC To Host Saturday Night Rock & Roll Party
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
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Excuse me, aren't you the same person who has repeatedly told us radio can't make money targeting senior citizens? Personally I've always felt there's an opportunity there, and I point to Zoomer Media in Canada as evidence. But I've never heard you refer to the 65+ market as a "profitable slice" before. Always to the contrary, in fact.
Anyway, this is the most buzzworthy thing Cats has done with WABC. If the radio forums are any indication, there's a strong appetite among the target demo for some old fashioned AM top-40 radio with the screaming DJs to match. Sure the sound quality sucks and the style is outdated but people love their nostalgia, that's the whole point. It's like the old Thunderbird at the classic car show, a terrible vehicle by today's standards but who wouldn't stop to admire and love it anyway?
All the best to Brucie for a successful show with devoted sponsors and great ratings. The best case scenario is that the show does so well, Cats will ultimately blow out the terrible daytime programming and go all-in on the nostalgia...keeping a Sunday morning slot reserved for himself to bloviate, of course.
Unfortunately at 85, Brucie isn't as much of a screamer any more. But I agree that they may find there are better ratings in boomer music than in boomer talk. The guys at ME-TV FM have done well in Chicago. The key is to figure out if they can make money with it. That's why a lot of other owners haven't tried it. The goal isn't just to get ratings but to make money.
Most stations can't make money off that demo.
I doubt that in transactional New York City that WABC can make money. But I don't think it was bought for that.
In smaller markets, ratings from Niesen and Eastlan are not important. If you are in Lamesa, TX, you can sell just on results, not demographics. And in medium markets, folks like our contributor in Buffalo, do well with a small capital station serving a group that no big owner wants to deal with.
I could never do that, as programmer, as manager, as owner. It's a different world requiring special owners. Either markets with little transactional business or ones with no ratings. And they require a local owner with many contacts and loads of dedication.
I don't think Zoomer in CA is particularly profitable. The AM has been readjusting for several years... but it even succeeded at all I think due to the CANCON rules and the Canadian government's steps to both keep AM alive and to not allow a proliferation of AM stations that are daytimers or have poor local coverage or are otherwise cripled.
The greatest value of having the show is the huge amount of promotion it is getting. It will not get a huge audience, but it gives them five stars on the refrigerator door.
The show will do nicely, but not great. It will get a few sponsors, likely ones being vendors to Cats' supermarkets, and all will be happy and they will get a nice halo effect from the effort.
But MeTV on FM is, of course, not on AM. And while it seems like a poor facility, it is actually competitive with the Hancock and whadda-they-call-the-Sears-Building-now located traditional FMs.
But mostly MeTV FM is a promotion for the TV function, just as Radio Disney was a brand extension for the other Disney enterprises. Were it more successful, the format would be on scads of other FMs, even on rimshots and limited signals looking for an exclusive position. But corporate owners are looking at automated buying and limited sales staff costs, not a format that depends on having good to great local sellers and a magnificent GSM.
And the Cat person is not looking for a music format. He is looking for a voice. He can afford just to break even. Some people hunt and fish and play golf, and spend thousands of dollars to bring back a couple of tiny trouts. Mr Cat just thinks bigger. But the trophy feeling is the same.
And maybe that's the goal here too. Radio as marketing, not traditional spots & dots. That may be a better approach.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/sh...hould-WABC-Go-to-Oldies-on-the-Weekends/page3
This is what I meant but back then when the thread started Cumulus owned 77WABC and 95.5 WPLJ. At the time Red Apple was not considered yet to get 77WABC and EMF was waiting for approval to get 95.5 WPLJ. There was a thread about getting Oldies on 77WABC for ratings reasons. I thought at the time it would never happen due to the fact that if Classic Hits were to exist heading to this now decade of the 2020's the playlists would have to lean for the late 80's-90's playlists for Gen X listeners and have 2000-2005 playlists up for consideration for Gen Y/Millenials. Oldies in the 2020's would have to go in that direction as KRTH Los Angeles has been doing in recent years.
However there was a group called 2k1 that was considering doing oldies with more 2000's songs in their playlists but that was before the COVID-19 Pandemic started. Note this outlet was supposed to attract the remaining audience on FM though.
https://2k1radio.com/
https://demo.2k1radio.com/
This is what I meant but back then when the thread started Cumulus owned 77WABC and 95.5 WPLJ. At the time Red Apple was not considered yet to get 77WABC and EMF was waiting for approval to get 95.5 WPLJ. There was a thread about getting Oldies on 77WABC for ratings reasons. I thought at the time it would never happen due to the fact that if Classic Hits were to exist heading to this now decade of the 2020's the playlists would have to lean for the late 80's-90's playlists for Gen X listeners and have 2000-2005 playlists up for consideration for Gen Y/Millenials. Oldies in the 2020's would have to go in that direction as KRTH Los Angeles has been doing in recent years.
However there was a group called 2k1 that was considering doing oldies with more 2000's songs in their playlists but that was before the COVID-19 Pandemic started. Note this outlet was supposed to attract the remaining audience on FM though.
https://2k1radio.com/
https://demo.2k1radio.com/
Zoomer is now targeting Boomers. If you listen to AM 740 in Toronto, it's usually now playing '70s and '80s music, and sometimes even '90s music. It's been quite a few years since they started transitioning the format from Adult Standards to Classic Hits.
Zoomer always targeted boomers, where do you think the name was derived from? Maybe they're targeting more of the bottom end of the boomer age range now but that's about as low as they can go. Anyone younger than that didn't grow up listening to AM radio for music and they won't be attracted to it now, no matter how many more recent songs get added to the playlist.
That's the same reality WABC and all other AM stations face too. It's probably going to work for a while at WABC for the nostalgia and celebrity factor, and because it's a hobby station for Catman who can afford to run whatever he wants whether or not it makes money. But the nostalgia value is in its twilight years before the show gets even gets started due to the age of people who can still remember and relate to it.
Remember that we are talking about Canada where music repetition rules on FM pretty much prohibited hot rotationTop 40 on that band. So Top 40 endured as viable through the 80's in Canada, while it had moved to FM in the US by the late 70's or very early 80's depending on the market.
CHUM, the poster child of Canadian Top 40, migrated to a hot AC (CHR without the rock) in the mid 80's, and then became an oldies station for two decades up to 1999. All music formats with adjustments made to serve the same listener base over a 43 year history, all on AM.
And in the US, AM CHR that lasted through the 70's got those born in the late half of the 60's and those are not Boomers. A station that targets those 50 and older gets a nice slice of Gen X as well.
You are forgetting that there seems to be the start of a few stations that target 55+ with local ownership and one-on-one sales, such as Buddy's station in Buffalo. Not a profit center for big groups, but likely viable for very local "connected" owners.
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I just heard about this on Curtis’ show the other day.
Lol, I’m sure Morrow has his jingles, but I have quite a few for him if he doesn’t.
I dunno . I listened on Labor Day last year to the throwback. Out of nostalgia mostly, not so much for the music. Hope it works, at least for a while.
I didn’t know he was 85. At least 4 of his co workers , ( Ingram. Lundy, Leonard and Harrison) are no longer. Shame.
Some nice sentiments here for a change.
Lol, I’m sure Morrow has his jingles, but I have quite a few for him if he doesn’t.
I dunno . I listened on Labor Day last year to the throwback. Out of nostalgia mostly, not so much for the music. Hope it works, at least for a while.
I didn’t know he was 85. At least 4 of his co workers , ( Ingram. Lundy, Leonard and Harrison) are no longer. Shame.
Some nice sentiments here for a change.
Time marches on, but I say Bruce's show is interesting and brings in some listeners. So what if they're older? Give him a chance to succeed. I'm looking forward to hearing it. Older people enjoy music too. We're not dead yet.
Granted I heard his first Saturday Party show in 1963. So I say "keep on keeping on". Us older folks are still here. We like the music, so I say "Go Go Cousin Bruicie"--Bring it on!
After the retirement of Chicago icon Dick Biondi, I say give us the last person who can play 50s & 60s music and make us happy.
Go Go Cousin Brucie. You are the last person standing for 60s music and we are here so let it play.
Granted I heard his first Saturday Party show in 1963. So I say "keep on keeping on". Us older folks are still here. We like the music, so I say "Go Go Cousin Bruicie"--Bring it on!
After the retirement of Chicago icon Dick Biondi, I say give us the last person who can play 50s & 60s music and make us happy.
Go Go Cousin Brucie. You are the last person standing for 60s music and we are here so let it play.
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Your comment made me think that Cousin Brucie has to think of the past glories and especially ghosts of WABC's past. Imagine returning to a place where virtually all your co-workers and management are gone. Indeed, Bruce is "the last person standing." In Bruce's time originally at WABC saw Herb Oscar Anderson then Harry Harrison in AM drive, Ron Lundy middays, Big Dan Ingram in the afternoon, Chuck Leonard followed Bruce for a long time. Overnights there was Charlie Greer, then Jay Reynolds. Of course, there was the PD Rick Sklar who scheduled Bruce in that coveted "teen slot" that certainly made his career and lots of success.
I suppose it's the reality if life and our mortality. But to return to WABC after all these years I'm sure we'll give Bruce a lot of memories and personal reflection.
Yes, he was the good mayor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o2-fs5RZQ
Here is Cousin Brucie during his time at WCBS-FM in 1992. Wow he's been at the mike for nearly 6 decades first at WABC-AM in the 1960's and early 70's to now back at WABC-AM/WLIR-FM
Here is Cousin Brucie during his time at WCBS-FM in 1992. Wow he's been at the mike for nearly 6 decades first at WABC-AM in the 1960's and early 70's to now back at WABC-AM/WLIR-FM
Bruce was on 1010 WINS before he was on WABC. (IIRC, he adopted the name "Cousin Brucie" while at WINS, but that's another story.)
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andreajesus
Guest
actually, the Cuz has been at the mike for a little OVER six decades - he started out on a Bermuda station in 1957.....
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andreajesus
Guest
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