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Energy Flipping to Top 40

Trevor Simpson sent an email to Energy listeners.

"The newsletter and corresponding blog ( www.clubberscommute.com ) will feature news, events, updates, music and social networking allowing you to stay connected to the like minded individuals that have become connected through Energy 92.7."

As far as I know, clubberscommute will not be a local station.
 
I'm happy that San Francisco has a Top-40 station right now. Also, I knew that Energy 92.7 wouldn't last that long because of their ratings. Every since the debut of Energy. Their ratings went down hill. Dance is a hard format to sell.
 
CHRles said:
Sounding great so far. Top 40 for the win!

Songs played so far:
Kelly Clarkson "Walk Away"
Pink "Get The Party Started"
Livvi Franc "Now I'm That Bitch"
Flo-Rida "Be On You"
Linkin Park "New Divide"
Kerri Hilson "Knock You Down"
Michael Franti & Spearhead "Say Hey"
Crazy Town "Butterfly"

Actually "Walk Away" was the last Energy song. It only got played because we had to spend an extra couple minutes to disable all the windows sounds on the interim automation computer so you wouldn't hear all those silly "ding" sounds when Josh puts the logs in.

It took till 9 because of (1) a snafu with a bank wire that delayed closing and (2) a problem with one of the audio cards in the 'puter that took an hour to get to the bottom of, and a little more to get everything right. Then the updated music and imaging had to be loaded.

Getting my car keys back from the parking guys who went home at 7 was another adventure.

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution

Viva
Rev. Eng. Weav
 
e-dawg said:
I'm happy that San Francisco has a Top-40 station right now. Also, I knew that Energy 92.7 wouldn't last that long because of their ratings. Every since the debut of Energy. Their ratings went down hill. Dance is a hard format to sell.

Ditto
 
e-dawg said:
Dance is a hard format to sell.

That last sentence is true.

But I would think that a city like San Francisco could maintain a dance station and perhaps in the near future another station will flip and go this route. Energy lasted close to 5 years so in that sense, the proof is there.
 
Dance is a hard format to sell.

Not when you understand the audience you deliver with it, especially in San Francisco.

Energy had a Power Ratio that most stations would kill for.
 
Personally, I think this was a bad move. Granted, I'm a huge CHR fan and am always happy to have new CHR outlets, but I'm also a dance fan and Energy has been the premier dance station in the U.S. since it's debut. Also, while not having huge overall numbers, the core audience that Energy had was extremely loyal, dedicated, and has money to spend. Also, signalwise, it was a perfect fit. The 92.7 signal will never be able to compete with a true mass appeal format. It simply doesn't have the coverage. It is tailor made for a specialized, niche format like dance. Now, "92.7 Rev FM" will be banging heads directly with Movin and Wild. And guess what, if 92.7 shows any foothold, either CBS or Clear Channel will adjust Movin or Wild to more of a mainstream CHR approach and will kill 92.7 immediately. I think this is just doomed. I believe it will be similar to the short lived urban/rhythmic disaster ("The Beat") that 92.7's previous owners tried a few years ago. I'm hoping that they might return to dance, but my guess would be when it fails, it probably goes Spanish or Asian :(

Anyway, if dance can work anywhere in the U.S. as an FM format, it's in San Francisco. This has been proven. Energy had built up a true, passionate, core audience that spent money and came out to support the station and the community it created. Here's hoping that someone else will realize that and pick up the ball and get dance back on the air in S.F. (maybe even a non-commercial station, who knows). Anyway, as I said, I love CHR, but I hate to see Energy go even more.
 
AlwaysInTheKnow said:
Dance is a hard format to sell.

Not when you understand the audience you deliver with it, especially in San Francisco.

Energy had a Power Ratio that most stations would kill for.

Indeed. Energy had been billing $5M a year. Had it not been for the crushing debt service, missing the interest payments allowing Wells Fargo to forclose, they place could have gone on quite nicely. The ratings were pretty weak, but they still got national accounts and lots of quirky local ones. People who wanted to reach "Lifestyle" listeners paid pretty well.

Wells started discreetly shopping the place and when Royce International offered essentially 6M in cash, they went for it and foreclosed. The last two months, since the word came down, have not been fun.

Well, Ed paid cash for the place, seems to have the cash flow to run it until sales kick in, and may be able to sell all the stations's time as a bunch. That may make enough difference that going head-to-head with Movin' doesn't matter. We'll see.
 
AlwaysInTheKnow said:
Dance is a hard format to sell.

Not when you understand the audience you deliver with it, especially in San Francisco.

Energy had a Power Ratio that most stations would kill for.

According to the most reliable and reputable industry source, from '05 through '08, KNGY had a power ratio of about 0.9, which put it right below KITS, KMEL and KBRG.
 
Power ratio and knowing how to sell aside, David alluded earlier to the real problem...the signal doesn't cover enough real estate. To be honest, the KSJO rock network was probably the best use of the 3 little "92" stations. Individually, they just don't have much coverage.
 
Every since Energy 92.7 debut in 2005. Their ratings have been slipping downwards to .6 from nearly a 2.0 in the beginning. Granted their are some loyal listeners and advertisers. In the final, it is hard format to sell. How many national accounts are paying the similar rate as Energy vs. Live 105, 106 KMEL, WIld 94.9, and Movin 99.7? Besides KTU in New York City which some people called it Rhythmic AC [classic dance]. Which Dance format station has been successful in the United States? I do missed Energy 92.7, but I can understand the format flips.
 
e-dawg said:
Every since Energy 92.7 debut in 2005. Their ratings have been slipping downwards to .6 from nearly a 2.0 in the beginning.

I looked at the 12+ trend data available in a number of sources, and from Winter of 2005 to the last Diary book, Spring of 2008, the station never got over a 0.9. The average in '05 was a 0.6, in '06 it was 0.5, in '07 it was a 0.7.

How many national accounts are paying the similar rate as Energy vs. Live 105, 106 KMEL, WIld 94.9, and Movin 99.7?

Rates are based on cost per point, among other things. The more listeners you have, the more you charge. Energy got rates that were commensurate with the audience size.

Besides KTU in New York City which some people called it Rhythmic AC [classic dance]. Which Dance format station has been successful in the United States?

WMIA, Miami.
 
I was there almost from the begining. I was the first night guy on the station and my time there with Chris Shebel I am proud to say we had the highest numbers the station ever had. The station in the begining was more of a Dance/40/rythmic ac. The idea was to have a CHR feel with a dance music mix. Ultimately the station took a more pure dance direction with an odd mix of 80's & 90's gold. It is a bit sad to see a unique radio brand go... I just looked at the music mix on Mediabase and it looks like Helen Kellar is running selector. Poor music mix, weak imaging and less than stellar signal=a big yawn! and they have the Chutzpah to us the slogan " The Revolution" lol wow
 
Look what Amp Radio has been able to do in Los Angeles with Kiis FM,Power 106 and others...I think Mainstream was a great choice for those who don't want to hear so much hip-hop...Signal strength will be a challenge,but they will double that AWFUL 0.6 12 plus in one trend if they just sweep music...Then add talent in a few weeks/months...Good Luck 92-7 REV FM!!!
 
They need to mix the music a little, the long hip hop blocks makes it sound like movin, they should do rock, hip hop, rock, etc.
 
I am disgusted by the switch over from KNGY (Energy) radio to something that does not resemble quality radio.
Is there no one out there who can keep some kind of standard for radio? With all-due respect to those of you who work in radio, the industry sucks
especially in many of these switch overs which happen suddenly without warning to good stations and programs which have been running for many years.
There are many angry and upset listeners now in the Bay Area who woke up and went to bed with this station and there
are definitely concerns that the motivation was partially due to homophobia. I am encouraging everyone to boycott the new station
(which may happen naturally since the quality is so poor!). It is sad that anyone can suddenly change your daily music on a dime
without any warning or notice whatsoever! Back in the 90's when WLOL in Minneapolis went off the air they had the decency to
let everyone know well in advance and there was a slow, sad countdown to the end. It was done well and people were allowed to grieve!
I know I may appear dramatic but sometimes radio can become like a community or family to many and it is a shock when that is suddenly taken
away from you or maybe you are merely a highly sensitive or developed auditory person (like me) and the music which surrounds you has a huge impact on your psyche.
It's too bad that radio doesn't have the grace to let it's dedicated listeners know in advance of these shifts...
 
Ginger35 said:
... It is sad that anyone can suddenly change your daily music on a dime
without any warning or notice whatsoever! ...

It's too bad that radio doesn't have the grace to let it's dedicated listeners know in advance of these shifts...

Thank the lawyers.
 
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