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Dave FM story
- Thread starter rho01
- Start date
Rodney Ho said:
They should go to an upbeat live oldies format with jingles. Like this. Ironically it says 929.
http://loudcaster.com/channels/929-pop-gold-radio
From what I can tell with my resources, they lost a few heavy users...meaning there was a PPM panel change. It is truly amazing how losing just 2 or 3 meters can screw a station over.
With that said, why aren't current panelists tuning in? The station is all over the place. I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable radio person, but I'm not sure how I would even define their format at this point. It is so all over the place. Also, while Steve Craig, Sully, Margot are above average jocks, they're not "stars." Mara is a star and compared to the rest of the station her ratings back that up. Steve & Sully would be better suited to middays or nights. Steve isn't a morning show anchor and Sully isn't a strong enough afternoon talent. So with the music being all over the place along with personalities that are just "above average", there is no reason to tune in.
Flip it to classic hits....pattern it after CBS FM in NYC. Do what you can to grab Steve McCoy and Tripp West. Put Steve in mornings with a female news reader/sidekick. Mara in middays. Tripp West on PM drive. Oh and call it Z-93 once again.
With that said, why aren't current panelists tuning in? The station is all over the place. I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable radio person, but I'm not sure how I would even define their format at this point. It is so all over the place. Also, while Steve Craig, Sully, Margot are above average jocks, they're not "stars." Mara is a star and compared to the rest of the station her ratings back that up. Steve & Sully would be better suited to middays or nights. Steve isn't a morning show anchor and Sully isn't a strong enough afternoon talent. So with the music being all over the place along with personalities that are just "above average", there is no reason to tune in.
Flip it to classic hits....pattern it after CBS FM in NYC. Do what you can to grab Steve McCoy and Tripp West. Put Steve in mornings with a female news reader/sidekick. Mara in middays. Tripp West on PM drive. Oh and call it Z-93 once again.
Does the station actually have a focus? Every time I ever tried to listen, it simply seemed to be a listless format aimed at no one in particular.
I'm not a radio expert but as a casual listener, my opinion is that they haven't tried anything long enough to see if it really works. Every time you start to think you know what they are, they change and completely alienate their audience.
Personally, I thought they were at their best when they were kind of a lighter alternative/indie station, playing more stuff like older Elvis Costello, Shins and Eels. Not so much that that music mix overly appealed to me but I thought they had a good niche and were playing a lot of stuff nobody else was playing.
Since then, they have seemed to alternate back and forth between playing more alternative (compete with 99X), and then classic rock (compete with River), and back to alternative and now back to classic rock. Now instead of having a unique niche, they are tweening between 99X and River. Every time they change, they alienate their audience and start from scratch.
Personally, I thought they were at their best when they were kind of a lighter alternative/indie station, playing more stuff like older Elvis Costello, Shins and Eels. Not so much that that music mix overly appealed to me but I thought they had a good niche and were playing a lot of stuff nobody else was playing.
Since then, they have seemed to alternate back and forth between playing more alternative (compete with 99X), and then classic rock (compete with River), and back to alternative and now back to classic rock. Now instead of having a unique niche, they are tweening between 99X and River. Every time they change, they alienate their audience and start from scratch.
Rodney Ho said:
Dave's ratings were solid (in the 3.0-4.0 range) literally until whatever month it was that Lindy took over Star 94 - that month, Star skyrocketed and Dave plummeted by almost the exact same amount, and Dave never recovered
I have no clue why no one from Dave saw this pattern and concluded that they'd better drift towards Hot AC, but they didn't, and now it's too late, since B98.5 already made the move to go after Star
I still think they could recover somewhat by transitioning to straight Alternative - I don't think they'd lose any listeners, and they'd definitely gain some - or I guess Classic "Pop" Hits, but I'm not sure there's a lot of money in targeting people in their 50s/60s
BTW, I want to write a story on why everyone on this board constantly wants Dave to flip formats, but they're fine with Rock 100.5 (which has ratings lower than Dave, and much lower billing numbers) :
I'm guessing it's because they want a CBS Classic Hits station, rather than a Cumulus one
I'm guessing it's because they want a CBS Classic Hits station, rather than a Cumulus one
I
IT_Guru
Guest
atlantaboy said:BTW, I want to write a story on why everyone on this board constantly wants Dave to flip formats, but they're fine with Rock 100.5 (which has ratings lower than Dave, and much lower billing numbers) :
I'm guessing it's because they want a CBS Classic Hits station, rather than a Cumulus one
The answer is simple: listen to AGH and then listen and look at some of the ratings of CBS' Classic Hits stations such as WCBS & WOGL. CBS supports the format and each one of their stations is programmed a little differently in a way that is "tailored" to the city that particular station is in. Cumulus on the other hand could care less about the format and doesn't know (or possibly care) about programming a successful Classic Hits station.
I don't know how to answer this question without sounding obviously bias. Most of the people on this board like 50's 60's and 70's pop (not rock but pop). I'm assuming most on this board are between 50 and 70 years old (old farts). Now, I have to agree with Atlantaboy when it comes to the ability to make money while skewing to such an older age. With that being said, I'm going to agree with the classic pop music lovers when they say that CBS does an awesome job with classic hits. So yeah, I'll give them credit!
Rock 100.5 has horrible ratings but DAVE has much bigger signal so they are at the top of the priority. In addition, rock 100.5 did not all of a sudden drop; Rock has always had pathetic ratings but their constant switching back and fourth between mainstream and classic rock is funny.
Dave should do one of the three and this is me being non-biased:
1- Ok, Ok, yes, classic hits (cbs version) is a good one and there is a void.
2- CHR - There are numerous cities with multiple CHR stations. Perhaps Q100 needs some competition.
3- Alternative. 99X sucks. Folks, I'm sorry but 99X has a pathetic playlist and they would not know what alternative was unless it slapped them in the face. An alternative station that mirrors Radio 104.5 in Philly would kill 99x. Besides, 99x gets nowhere so technically Atlanta does not have an alternative station.
Rock 100.5 has horrible ratings but DAVE has much bigger signal so they are at the top of the priority. In addition, rock 100.5 did not all of a sudden drop; Rock has always had pathetic ratings but their constant switching back and fourth between mainstream and classic rock is funny.
Dave should do one of the three and this is me being non-biased:
1- Ok, Ok, yes, classic hits (cbs version) is a good one and there is a void.
2- CHR - There are numerous cities with multiple CHR stations. Perhaps Q100 needs some competition.
3- Alternative. 99X sucks. Folks, I'm sorry but 99X has a pathetic playlist and they would not know what alternative was unless it slapped them in the face. An alternative station that mirrors Radio 104.5 in Philly would kill 99x. Besides, 99x gets nowhere so technically Atlanta does not have an alternative station.
Couple a things:
There probably is some truth to the PPM panel change point raised earlier.
Also, when Dave was hitting those higher shares, they were right in a sweet spot for AAA.
Mumford and Sons, Avett Brothers, Florence and the Machine, Adele, Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Black Keys etc. were all breaking and had the sales to show it. At the time, many of these artists had not yet crossed over and were at least semi-exclusive to Dave FM.
There probably is some truth to the PPM panel change point raised earlier.
Also, when Dave was hitting those higher shares, they were right in a sweet spot for AAA.
Mumford and Sons, Avett Brothers, Florence and the Machine, Adele, Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Black Keys etc. were all breaking and had the sales to show it. At the time, many of these artists had not yet crossed over and were at least semi-exclusive to Dave FM.
IT_Guru said:atlantaboy said:BTW, I want to write a story on why everyone on this board constantly wants Dave to flip formats, but they're fine with Rock 100.5 (which has ratings lower than Dave, and much lower billing numbers) :
I'm guessing it's because they want a CBS Classic Hits station, rather than a Cumulus one
The answer is simple: listen to AGH and then listen and look at some of the ratings of CBS' Classic Hits stations such as WCBS & WOGL. CBS supports the format and each one of their stations is programmed a little differently in a way that is "tailored" to the city that particular station is in. Cumulus on the other hand could care less about the format and doesn't know (or possibly care) about programming a successful Classic Hits station.
Cumulus's best station in the Cinncinatti cluster (6+) is WGRR (BTW #2 in the market),
http://www.radio-info.com/markets/cincinnati
WLS FM does well, listed at oldies, due to the occasional 60's song played, but they really are a classic hit station.
IMHO: The last station that really did classic hits well in Atlanta (not counting the brief True Oldies channel) was Fox 97 before Cox ownership. The old Fox97 ran a fairly broad recognizable playlist without "burning" any songs. I always wondered why nobody in Atlanta radio has not got copies of WQXI's (or 94Q) and Z93's playlist for the 1970's and early 1980's as a starting point. If you want to take into account the people who have moved into to the market, look at WABC, WNBC, WLAC, and WLS (when these were top 40) play lists. Especially WLS which held on playing music even after FM took off. With most of the music being played OTA coming from computers it's not like you have to "find" a cart, CD, 45 or album from the library.
I think it may have something to do with the very unstable morning spot, with drastic host changes over and over and the repetitive play of Adele. I liked Jimmy and Yvonne and while I like Steve too, typically there is a morning "team" that format seems to work the best. As for the music, they are still playing songs before the other stations start running them into the ground and that is what they are known for, but once the other stations start crashing and burning them, Dave needs to move on to something newer, examples Gotye, Pumped up Kicks, ANY Adele song. I like to hear the mix of old and new and when they do their theme weekends they are refreshing. I don't know what the "fix" is for them. They have a good presence in the community and I really like Margot, she's great. Just some observations, if they do a flip, having grown up in the 70's and 80's as a lot of their listeners, I feel that that era has some great songs that never get heard sadly, that would be a music well to draw from, just NOT Landslide and all the worn out tunes, some Guess Who would be great! Since they are on the low side of listeners any mix could be an upturn for them, they don't have too much to lose.
Yeah, if they want to flirt with the classic rock, there are tons of classic rock artist and songs that Atlanta radio won't touch. Digging deep with Peter Gabriel, YES, Kansas, and other progressive rock bands while hitting hard with the modern alternative songs. One thing that 99X has done that I don't like is that they only play the cream of the crop songs for each artist. For example, according to 99x, The Strokes has one song and that's last night. Such a fabulous band to only limit to one song.
If Dave wanted to stick with its roots but a more modified sound, I suggest to go Alternative.
If Dave wanted to stick with its roots but a more modified sound, I suggest to go Alternative.
scripps said:
This is a really good point
Look at what Dave has in power rotation right now - the only one that's generating any kind of excitement (i. e. downloads) is Little Talks - I feel like most people who love Of Monsters And Men are relatively young though, and they don't want to sit through old album cuts by The Police, The Cars, R. E. M., etc.
Meanwhile, they're letting Star take Ed Sheeran (exclusively), along with Adele, Gotye, and Fun
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