Dave FM is Now Atlanta's Finest Rock

[atlantaboy]

It's funny you suggest that the AAA format may have some pretentious tendencies. Yesterday I caught some of Radio Free Lunch's
Daily Cheese, and Maroon 5/Christina Aguilera's "Moves Like Jagger" was featured. As Mara gleefully sang along, I got to thinking. Dave is essentially deriding what is arguably pop culture's current "it" song as cheesy fluff. Just down the dial, Star 94, Q100 and B98.5 all have that song in power. What else do those three stations have in common? They collectively own females in Atlanta and are each cleaning Dave's clock individually.

I think this is pretty much true of AAA stations nationwide, though - it's a format for adults that have an adversity to stuff that's too poppy (or too female-leaning)

The mistake I think Dave is making is that it's letting alternative-leaning 20-30 somethings wander over to Star, so IMO the shift to classic rock is just gonna make the situation worse

If I were their PD, I'd follow the success stories of WBOS/Boston and WRFF/Philadelphia, and go Indie-leaning Alternative with Hot AC tracks mixed in - and seriously, they don't need to play every single track ever recorded by U2, The Police, and R. E. M. - it gets really old after awhile - I'd also stay away from random deep album cuts from the 80s/90s that no one remembers, and instead focus on mellow Alternative tracks from the last 10 years that are on everyone's IPods (Death Cab, Snow Patrol, Chili Peppers, Coldplay, MGMT, etc.)

 

[secondchoice]

This discussion about AAA and play lists might not really matter. I said a previous post what ever Dave FM does musically it had better "score" in the ratings. CBS is taking on WTOP in DC with all news. IF I was at WSB 750 AM and now 95.5 I would be getting ready for an "intown" FM signal challenging them. From the press release CBS is talking up it's all news operations.

http://www.cbsradio.com/press_center/releases/pressrelease145027-11-16-2011.html

This really scary. AM lost it's music stations, is FM going to follow?

 

[atlantaboy]

CBS is taking on WTOP in DC with all news. IF I was at WSB 750 AM and now 95.5 I would be getting ready for an "intown" FM signal challenging them.

I think we need to keep in mind though how big a News market Washington DC is though (probably the biggest News market in the country) - I don't see Atlanta supporting two FM News stations, cause I don't think as many listeners here are crazy about politics/national events

 

[RoddyFreeman]

You guys are over thinking this. The music on Dave-FM is fine, and so are the jocks. The problem is the name--Dave is just too common and tired at this point. The station needs a new identity.

I have no doubt that if the name was changed to 92-9 Harold FM, the station would soar to the top. Osgood-FM would be my second choice.

Of course, Mr. Millman will be making those decisions.

 

[TheRealOtherNeil]

You guys are over thinking this. The music on Dave-FM is fine, and so are the jocks. The problem is the name--Dave is just too common and tired at this point. The station needs a new identity.

I have no doubt that if the name was changed to 92-9 Harold FM, the station would soar to the top. Osgood-FM would be my second choice.

Of course, Mr. Millman will be making those decisions.

I said this four years ago when I announced my candidacy and two years ago in a blog piece. They still haven't gotten it right.

 

[trusty]

Say you have a town that has 12 ice cream shops. Why? Well, one small group of citizens likes vanilla, another group likes chocolate, another likes cherry, another likes rocky road, etc... So, only one flavor is served at each shop to cater to each group.

Now, because there are so many shops, the customer base is small and each specialized ice cream shop can’t afford to lose a customer (Just ask the service that monitors the customer count of each ice cream shop in the town.). Also, the shop owners wonder why some of their most loyal customers sometimes go to other ice cream shops after they have worked so hard on their respective flavor.

(You know where I'm going here... ) The situation is called “fragmentation” – created by convenience; you can pick the shop to get the flavor you want without having to wait in line – resulting in the town not having a very deep list of flavors.

Then Baskin-Robbins visits the town, sees the absurdity of the situation, and makes a decision to either:
1. Avoid the town and say it’s not worth it because of all the competition – or that the townspeople are so used to the system that they just wouldn’t give any chance to an ice cream shop that offered more than one flavor;
2. Take a chance, set up shop, serve 41 flavors, and attract people who sometimes get tired of just one flavor (which is everybody).

Fragmentation. I haven’t been able to track how urban (or R&B) has split into different formats (hip-op, dance, etc.) or country splitting up (classic, modern, etc.), and what’s really so different between classic rock and classic hits that would fragment them to different stations.

Lack of variety results in boredom.


I guess the ice cream shop thing wouldn’t be the best analogy (If you have a better one, please post it.), but we know which company succeeded. You can't “play” all flavors at once; we may just have to wait in line a few minutes.

 

[DougBroda]

Atlanta is the Top 10 market with the least all-news radio time (WSB only in morning drive, right?), or at least will be after Houston gets the Radio One all-news station coming any day. CBS runs all-news stations in 5 other top 10 markets, soon to be 6, and runs very large blocks of all-news in 2 other Top 10 markets. They only own 3 stations in Atlanta. They aren't touching WVEE, and WAOK's signal misses large parts of the market. Ratings-challenged Dave's the only place they can go if they want to try all-news in Atlanta -- and wouldn't it be worth trying?

This discussion about AAA and play lists might not really matter. I said a previous post what ever Dave FM does musically it had better "score" in the ratings. CBS is taking on WTOP in DC with all news. IF I was at WSB 750 AM and now 95.5 I would be getting ready for an "intown" FM signal challenging them. From the press release CBS is talking up it's all news operations.

http://www.cbsradio.com/press_center/releases/pressrelease145027-11-16-2011.html

This really scary. AM lost it's music stations, is FM going to follow?

 

[caller10]

The problem is the name--Dave is just too common and tired at this point. The station needs a new identity.

I have no doubt that if the name was changed to 92-9 Harold FM, the station would soar to the top. Osgood-FM would be my second choice.

Yeah, Dave's got nothing on my Aunt Bee. Your favorite songs from the 80's, 90's and now!