Cumulus invasion underway at Citadel already?

[MikeShannon914]

Sources tell me the former ABCRN is already having visitors with clipboards...

Since this transaction is REALLY upon us now, any speculation (or educated rumors) on who stays and who goes, what formats stay or go, etc? On the outside looking in, kinda senseless to have staffs on both news/talk stations and both country stations, particularly in management and programming...hell, in sales for that matter. I don't think anyone would be surprised if Tyler's not in the new budget...the framework's already in place at WBAP, and it makes money. You merely turn it over to KLIF's people to keep the thing percolating along...and to keep their hands off it.

Just for fun, ponder with me some strange, but not completely impossible scenarios: Krock and Mark Davis swap stations. The Ticket moves to 570. KSCS goes pop oldies/AC Gold (against KLUV; the obvious is to go classic rock, but not after The Bone debacle. And whether Eagle goes country or not, the idea of making KSCS skew old country and KPLX new--a waste of time.) But one thing I don't see changing is the 820/96.7 simulcast...best idea yet for taking an otherwise lame FM signal that just happens to blowtorch it deep into the heart of Republicanville. Hated the decision as a listener, but it made good biz sense. Then again, do you take 96.7 for The Ticket-FM, and send WBAP to 104.1/1700/wherever?

Then again, what about KSCS going "Edge"? I can't see them giving the Edge's demo the time of day, but there's been a particular unrest amongst Edge listeners for more than a decade, about how the station's lost direction, is not what it used to be, etc...Citadel is already Gimarc-friendly, and...nah, just a pipe dream. After seeing the quick death of KEGL, I doubt modern/alt rock is on any programmer's to-do list in this market.

(BTW, there's some faction out there that hates when I start speculating on this board...so watch for the influx of 'new members' coming out of the woodwork to do damage control. Honestly, folks, I really don't know more about this change than the rest of you do...but I always seem to strike a nerve somehow. Ya got me.)

And please forgive me if I don't find the revolving door at CC very interesting at all right now. Eagle's numbers were never great since they came back, and when a station is VT'ed, what, 19 out of 24 hours a day, well, you gotta expect some erosion of listenership. I would bet that, if this "Bull" is a cookie-cutter format of CC's already, it will simply use the Jack model and run on hard drives 24/7 or syndie garbage...just like Mix does. I don't think CC will be happy until it's all VT'ed or piped in on each of their stations. And don't think they aren't pondering over "Denise" the robot DJ...she can do traffic reports, BTW, and she's conveniently being tested right there in CC City, TX 78209.

 

[noneofyourbeeswax]

KSCS goes pop oldies/AC Gold (against KLUV)

This makes sense if they do it right. Heavy on Beatles, Elvis, etc and less late 70s. Go back to the way KLUV was 10 years ago. That audience is there and it'd do great.

"Then again, what about KSCS going "Edge"? I can't see them giving the Edge's demo the time of day, but there's been a particular unrest amongst Edge listeners for more than a decade, about how the station's lost direction, is not what it used to be, etc..."

The big problem with this idea is The Edge's ratings in the past year or so. I think it's foolish to come in and try to take on a heritage alt station who kill it in multiple demos.

 

[arnoldevns]

I shake my head and laugh at these suggestions. There is simply no reason to make wholesale changes at all these stations.
Until someone has some concrete knowledge of changes at these places, all of these discussions are pointless conjecture.

 

[davideduardo]

KSCS goes pop oldies/AC Gold (against KLUV)

This makes sense if they do it right. Heavy on Beatles, Elvis, etc and less late 70s. Go back to the way KLUV was 10 years ago. That audience is there and it'd do great.

KSCS is only a tiny amount behind KLUV in billings for the last reported year. Why blow up a station with high billings to fragment another station that has only slightly higher billings? All you'd get is a fraction of the billing initially and the losses would take years to make up.

An Elvis - Beatles - 60's format would be a significantly over-65 listener base, and would generate nearly no agency sales. It would be lucky to bill a third of what it is billing now.

 

[metroneck]

The Eagle is a cool station, no need to blow it up...again. Just do it right, get the right people. They're doing the same thing/lineup they did at the end of the Eagles last flight, that crashed. Go back and look at the glory days, learn from your successes and failures. Right now they're just recreating their failure.

 

[TheBigA]

The Eagle is a cool station, no need to blow it up...again. Just do it right, get the right people.

I don't know. If I'm Clear Channel, I'm not happy about Cumulus having a country monopoly in Dallas. If CC has an underperforming FM (and they do), I'd flip it to country, just like they did in Tampa and Atlanta. It may not beat either KPLX or KSCS, but it will steal listeners, and may force one of them to flip down the road. And it gets you into an active, currents-based format with great sales demos. And I bet the record labels in Nashville and the people who make the music charts are praying for this right now. Lots of upside here for them, even if it's all automated.

 

[metroneck]

The Eagle is a cool station, no need to blow it up...again. Just do it right, get the right people.

I don't know. If I'm Clear Channel, I'm not happy about Cumulus having a country monopoly in Dallas. If CC has an underperforming FM (and they do), I'd flip it to country, just like they did in Tampa and Atlanta. It may not beat either KPLX or KSCS, but it will steal listeners, and may force one of them to flip down the road. And it gets you into an active, currents-based format with great sales demos. And I bet the record labels in Nashville and the people who make the music charts are praying for this right now. Lots of upside here for them, even if it's all automated.

There are alot of active Rock stations in top ten markets that are the stars of the cluster, and CC is giving up a rock Monopoly if they shoot the Eagle. I disagree. If I was going to flip KEGL to a new format, I would just do another CHR, beat Cumless to the punch. Look at how well AMP has faired in LA against KISS. Speaking of, the FAN should have gone AMP two years ago, that stick would be top 5 by now.

 

[TheBigA]

There are alot of active Rock stations in top ten markets that are the stars of the cluster, and CC is giving up a rock Monopoly if they shoot the Eagle. I disagree.

The game is about making money, and there's more money for country in Dallas. Even if their ratings stay the same.

 

[charles123]

The Eagle is a cool station, no need to blow it up...again. Just do it right, get the right people.

I don't know. If I'm Clear Channel, I'm not happy about Cumulus having a country monopoly in Dallas. If CC has an underperforming FM (and they do), I'd flip it to country, just like they did in Tampa and Atlanta. It may not beat either KPLX or KSCS, but it will steal listeners, and may force one of them to flip down the road. And it gets you into an active, currents-based format with great sales demos. And I bet the record labels in Nashville and the people who make the music charts are praying for this right now. Lots of upside here for them, even if it's all automated.

There are alot of active Rock stations in top ten markets that are the stars of the cluster, and CC is giving up a rock Monopoly if they shoot the Eagle. I disagree. If I was going to flip KEGL to a new format, I would just do another CHR, beat Cumless to the punch. Look at how well AMP has faired in LA against KISS. Speaking of, the FAN should have gone AMP two years ago, that stick would be top 5 by now.

AMP in L.A. is owned by CBS Radio, not Cumulus

 

[Bob LaBlah]

And Speaking of CBS - How much are they pulling in with KRLD FM ? Are they gaining in the Men demo or are they looking like KEGL ? A CHR would compliment their roster - so would Country.

 

[bucwhyl]

While Clear Channel and Cumulus are playing their chess match, if I were CBS, I'd slip right in and crank up the "Amp" on either 107.5 or 105.3.

 

[TheBigA]

And Speaking of CBS - How much are they pulling in with KRLD FM ? Are they gaining in the Men demo or are they looking like KEGL ? A CHR would compliment their roster - so would Country.

Of course CBS did the country thing a while back. They're not as aggressive about it as CC.

I think if anyone wants to do country in Big D, it's CC.

 

[radioaircheck]

That would be ironic if CBS took105.3 back to Young Country.

 

[little1]

Sources tell me the former ABCRN is already having visitors with clipboards...

Any idea if your sources are in a position to know? My sources (who work at the "Mothership") say they've been told to not talk to anybody at Citadel, not go there, etc, etc. If visitors from Cumulus are showing up at the artist formerly known as ABCRN, perhaps it's corporate suits, not local Cumulus'ers (Cumulians?)

Just for fun, ponder with me some strange, but not completely impossible scenarios: Krock and Mark Davis swap stations.

Impossible. I know a lot of people here don't like David Eduardo, but is information is generally right on target. And he posted the same thing I'm hearing re KSCS's billing
aside- there's a total of about half a dozen abosolute cash cows in this market. WBAP is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, cows on this range. I would think it would be IMPOSSIBLE for a GM to make that change to a cash cow like WBAP.

The Ticket moves to 570.

Not impossible, but very unlikely. If Susquehanna or Cumulus wanted to do this, they could have done it years ago. Facts are the Ticket, with it's piss poor signal is the #1 station with Men 25-54 and is another one of those half dozen cash cows. I'm not sure how much extra audience the Ticket would draw from 'outlying outposts', and how much audience KLIF would lose with a much shrunken signal. I think conservatism of radio management will come into play- why change, and risk revenue decline on either when you don't need to.

KSCS goes pop oldies/AC Gold (against KLUV; the obvious is to go classic rock, but not after The Bone debacle.

See David's post. KSCS does extremely well. Maybe not cash-cow well, but they're surely profitable. Why change a station that's doing well.

And whether Eagle goes country or not, the idea of making KSCS skew old country and KPLX new--a waste of time.)

Why? KSCS has done better that they're doing now. If they tweak the 2 stations to compliment each other, rather than cannabalize each others audience, perhaps they could both do better.

But one thing I don't see changing is the 820/96.7 simulcast...

LOL- that's the one thing I do see changing. WBAP has a 50KW flamethrower, Ticket has a 8 thousand watts of craptastic-ness. 96.7 is a clearly better signal than 104.1, I'd give the lesser signal the 3rd best signal as a simulcast, and let the better signal have the 4th best of the 4 (104.1) as their simulcast.

 

[TheBigA]

If they tweak the 2 stations to compliment each other, rather than cannabalize each others audience, perhaps they could both do better.

Depends. In Houston, that worked for Cox. But in Austin, CC has two contemporary country stations going against each other, and they tend to alternate each book at the top. Listeners seem to keep both in their presets and simply switch when a song they don't like or a stop set comes on.

 

[Sgt. Hans G. Schultz]

The Ticket moves to 570.

Not impossible, but very unlikely. If Susquehanna or Cumulus wanted to do this, they could have done it years ago. Facts are the Ticket, with it's piss poor signal is the #1 station with Men 25-54 and is another one of those half dozen cash cows. I'm not sure how much extra audience the Ticket would draw from 'outlying outposts', and how much audience KLIF would lose with a much shrunken signal. I think conservatism of radio management will come into play- why change, and risk revenue decline on either when you don't need to.
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Whenever this is mentioned, I never see stated the most obvious reason for it to not happen. Suqua-now-Cumulus had/has a station with an awful, crappy signal that makes a boatload of money. It's not a question of "How much more reach will you get on another stick?" but "What are you gonna do with that *el stinko* signal that's left?" If the current programming is removed from that gawdawful signal, what are you going to put on it that will make ANY money??? Answer: NADA! Might as well pull the plug. The Ticket is going NOWHERE but up on the P & L sheet.

 

[spk1]

Employee's that have contracts with Citadel have been emailed that they are not going to enforce the non-compete clause in their contract.

 

[Bob LaBlah]

Employee's that have contracts with Citadel have been emailed that they are not going to enforce the non-compete clause in their contract.

Wow.

Talk about Elephant in the room.

 

[idiggraves]

Seems your speculations about what is actually going to happen with the newly acquired radio stations, as far as performance is concerned, are moot. In today's Wall Street Journal (B7), I just read that after acquiring 220 more radio stations, Lou Dickey's FIRST order of business is to "challenge Groupon" with that daily deals thing Cumulus is pushing now- SweetJack.

Dickey says: "Disc jockeys can promote SweetJack deals on air without using ad inventory. If, for example, SweetJack members receive an offer for unlimited popcorn at an Atlanta Hawks NBA game, the next day our morning guys can talk about how full they are."

Oh and I'm sure for no talent fee for what seems like a shady way to bring in revenue for the big wigs.

Proof Cumulus' priorities are still a tad out of whack.

 

[TheBigA]

Oh and I'm sure for no talent fee for what seems like a shady way to bring in revenue for the big wigs.

Talent gets paid from ad revenue too. Revenue doesn't just go to big wigs. And typically, something like this is covered in a talent contract.