Entercom Launches Alt 98.7

[MarkW]

CBS then Audacy has been playing monkey business with the revenue credited to 98.7 for years, dating back to the CHR days. If one were to believe the reported billing numbers, the CHR/Pop format would've never been tossed to the curb. That said, a narrow win over WDVD is actually somewhat believable to me given cluster strength at Audacy plus the fact DVD has always billed under its weight class (an issue that became exacerbated once Cumulus stepped into ownership). WDVD in recent years has been billing around $4 million per annum, and in the past year, DVD has seen some of its worst AQH shares of the PPM era.

Spot loads on 98.7 have also increased dramatically over the past six to twelve months. Breaks containing multiple PSAs are now uncommon, and I'm hearing an increasing number of mainstream advertisers on that station.

I'm also dubious of WYCD being the number two billing music station. Top five certainly but I'm skeptical of a second place positioning. If they are indeed in second, it's a photo finish between them, Riff, and NIC.

Otherwise, the rank ordering looks about right.

 

[CassChopper96]

CBS then Audacy has been playing monkey business with the revenue credited to 98.7 for years, dating back to the CHR days. If one were to believe the reported billing numbers, the CHR/Pop format would've never been tossed to the curb. That said, a narrow win over WDVD is actually somewhat believable to me given cluster strength at Audacy plus the fact DVD has always billed under its weight class (an issue that became exacerbated once Cumulus stepped into ownership). WDVD in recent years has been billing around $4 million per annum, and in the past year, DVD has seen some of its worst AQH shares of the PPM era.

Spot loads on 98.7 have also increased dramatically over the past six to twelve months. Breaks containing multiple PSAs are now uncommon, and I'm hearing an increasing number of mainstream advertisers on that station.

I'm also dubious of WYCD being the number two billing music station. Top five certainly but I'm skeptical of a second place positioning. If they are indeed in second, it's a photo finish between them, Riff, and NIC.

Otherwise, the rank ordering looks about right.

I assume the reason why 98.7 ditched the CHR format was because it couldn't comptete with channel 95.5?

 

[CassChopper96]

CBS then Audacy has been playing monkey business with the revenue credited to 98.7 for years, dating back to the CHR days. If one were to believe the reported billing numbers, the CHR/Pop format would've never been tossed to the curb. That said, a narrow win over WDVD is actually somewhat believable to me given cluster strength at Audacy plus the fact DVD has always billed under its weight class (an issue that became exacerbated once Cumulus stepped into ownership). WDVD in recent years has been billing around $4 million per annum, and in the past year, DVD has seen some of its worst AQH shares of the PPM era.

Spot loads on 98.7 have also increased dramatically over the past six to twelve months. Breaks containing multiple PSAs are now uncommon, and I'm hearing an increasing number of mainstream advertisers on that station.

I'm also dubious of WYCD being the number two billing music station. Top five certainly but I'm skeptical of a second place positioning. If they are indeed in second, it's a photo finish between them, Riff, and NIC.

Otherwise, the rank ordering looks about right.

I assume that the reason why 98.7 ditched the CHR fromat was due to it not being able to compete against channel 95.5? I still don't understand who flipping WDZH to Soft AC to Alternative makes sense from a $$$ perspective

 

[CTListener]

CBS then Audacy has been playing monkey business with the revenue credited to 98.7 for years, dating back to the CHR days. If one were to believe the reported billing numbers, the CHR/Pop format would've never been tossed to the curb. That said, a narrow win over WDVD is actually somewhat believable to me given cluster strength at Audacy plus the fact DVD has always billed under its weight class (an issue that became exacerbated once Cumulus stepped into ownership). WDVD in recent years has been billing around $4 million per annum, and in the past year, DVD has seen some of its worst AQH shares of the PPM era.

Spot loads on 98.7 have also increased dramatically over the past six to twelve months. Breaks containing multiple PSAs are now uncommon, and I'm hearing an increasing number of mainstream advertisers on that station.

I'm also dubious of WYCD being the number two billing music station. Top five certainly but I'm skeptical of a second place positioning. If they are indeed in second, it's a photo finish between them, Riff, and NIC.

Otherwise, the rank ordering looks about right.

Audacy is publicly traded. Isn't cooking the books a no-no for companies like that, or is it just a matter of seeing what they can sneak past the regulators?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Specific station revenue (and even specific market revenue) isn't something that Audacy (or their competitors) report in their regulatory filings. As such they are not bound by SEC regulations.

 

[MarkW]

WDZH as a CHR was getting slaughtered in A18 to 34, A18 to 49 and A25 to 54 by WKQI, WDVD, and WMGC. The station never had a successful long term morning show with any longevity. Rat and Puff sounded like radio for teenagers. Before they came aboard, the station hired the morning man from WSNX in Grand Rapids, but gave him no supporting cast, and his show was easily the worst of all of them (all he did was take calls from depressing losers).

The best morning show was Chris & Julia, but by the time they came aboard, the station's reputation as a kiddie station had already been cemented, and about four months later, CHR was gone.

Billing figures published by third party sources suggested Amp Radio was billing around $6.5 million a year near the very end of its run. I think the real number was likely lower.

 

[101tm]

Wasn’t the original “Amp” format in general targeted at the lower end of 18-34? I may be wrong, but I believe that was the initial goal when KLSX (then KAMP) in LA flipped to the brand initially. Seems like the goal was to make older/more established CHR’s sound “old.”

I’m nowhere near the market, but WDVD seems like it could use a refresh. The last time I streamed them it sounded pretty boring… and their logo looks straight out of 2002. Musically it’s pretty on point.

 

[davideduardo]

Wasn’t the original “Amp” format in general targeted at the lower end of 18-34? I may be wrong, but I believe that was the initial goal when KLSX (then KAMP) in LA flipped to the brand initially. Seems like the goal was to make older/more established CHR’s sound “old.”

That is a time honored way of launching a Top 40 or CHR station: go for the less traditionalist youngest demos first, and then build upwards. It does not really work that way today as the youngest demos are secondary users of radio and won't set a trend.

 

[MarkW]

I’m nowhere near the market, but WDVD seems like it could use a refresh. The last time I streamed them it sounded pretty boring… and their logo looks straight out of 2002. Musically it’s pretty on point.

I live dead center in the market (I'm about 8 miles from their TX site).

The hot shot PD they brought in with Boston and Toronto PD experience has definitely fallen short of my expectations. The station is definitely in need of a refresh. I'm not so sure I'd agree that the music is "on point." I think the station has gone too rhythmic / teenage pop. The lead of the morning show and the afternoon drive jock are gentlemen in their 50s. Hearing dad or grampa trying to sound "hip" to current pop culture is rather amusing.

The voicetracked Adam Bomb at night is lame & boring. No phoners, no bits, just reads liner cards trying to sound enthusiastic about the music. He probably pre-records the show from his house and spends less than an hour on it daily. At least that's how it sounds on the air.

Finally, I dislike the station imaging V/O artist, who is a holdover from the station's prior PD. He and the older air talent mix like oil & water.

I think the playlist needs to feature a wider variety of 90's and 2000's gold, should feature fewer currents & recurrents (they should not be eliminated entirely), and should have more genre balance (read: bring back artists such as the Killers, Green Day, 90s Aerosmith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Wallflowers, Dishwalla, etc.).

 

[CTListener]

I live dead center in the market (I'm about 8 miles from their TX site).

The hot shot PD they brought in with Boston and Toronto PD experience has definitely fallen short of my expectations. The station is definitely in need of a refresh. I'm not so sure I'd agree that the music is "on point." I think the station has gone too rhythmic / teenage pop. The lead of the morning show and the afternoon drive jock are gentlemen in their 50s. Hearing dad or grampa trying to sound "hip" to current pop culture is rather amusing.

The voicetracked Adam Bomb at night is lame & boring. No phoners, no bits, just reads liner cards trying to sound enthusiastic about the music. He probably pre-records the show from his house and spends less than an hour on it daily. At least that's how it sounds on the air.

Finally, I dislike the station imaging V/O artist, who is a holdover from the station's prior PD. He and the older air talent mix like oil & water.

I think the playlist needs to feature a wider variety of 90's and 2000's gold, should feature fewer currents & recurrents (they should not be eliminated entirely), and should have more genre balance (read: bring back artists such as the Killers, Green Day, 90s Aerosmith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Wallflowers, Dishwalla, etc.).

If your station is going to play '90s and '00s gold, what's wrong with having a 50-year-old jock or two playing it? They were in their 20s and 30s themselves when that music was popular. If I were a 25-year-old listener in 2022, I'd respect a DJ who know both the current music and the acts that laid the groundwork for it.

 

[MarkW]

Nothing at all is wrong with that! That's what they OUGHT to be doing and is exactly what I'm proposing.

 

[jt99]

What surprised me most about the billing ranking was that WCSX wasn't higher.

 

[davideduardo]

CBS then Audacy has been playing monkey business with the revenue credited to 98.7 for years, dating back to the CHR days. If one were to believe the reported billing numbers, the CHR/Pop format would've never been tossed to the curb.

When a cluster reports to Miller-Kaplan, they have considerable leeway in how they allocated the revenue from multi-station buys. Some operators just do straight division: a three station buy gets split on the books with a third each. So even if one station has a much higher rating and is really responsible for attracting more of the buy, a station group can allocate internally and for Miller-Kaplan however they want.

Revenue reporting is not a requirement. Some stations don't even participate in joint market reporting. Estimates done by industry analysts use additional input from leading stations to try to accurately estimate individual station income, but, since station by station revenue is not required to be precisely reported even to the IRS or FCC, we always will deal with estimates.

That said, a narrow win over WDVD is actually somewhat believable to me given cluster strength at Audacy plus the fact DVD has always billed under its weight class (an issue that became exacerbated once Cumulus stepped into ownership). WDVD in recent years has been billing around $4 million per annum, and in the past year, DVD has seen some of its worst AQH shares of the PPM era.

As recently as 2014 WDVD was up at almost $10 million, dropping pre-pandemic to around $5 million. And in the last two years it has, indeed, been at around $4 million. The whole market was off nearly 25% from 2016 to 2020 due to the local economy; it actually increased in 2021 and 2022! So WDVD underperformed.

Spot loads on 98.7 have also increased dramatically over the past six to twelve months. Breaks containing multiple PSAs are now uncommon, and I'm hearing an increasing number of mainstream advertisers on that station.

But, unless one of us is a Detroit insider or with Cumulus, we won't know till mid-2023 what it did this year.

I'm also dubious of WYCD being the number two billing music station. Top five certainly but I'm skeptical of a second place positioning. If they are indeed in second, it's a photo finish between them, Riff, and NIC.

Remember, the differences between stations can often be minimal. It is not uncommon to se a half-dozen stations with almost identical revenue in a larger market. In fact, in Detroit there are 7 stations all between $6.8 and $7.8 million for 2021. At that point, we can say they are in a very close tie.

 

[MarkW]

When a cluster reports to Miller-Kaplan, they have considerable leeway in how they allocated the revenue from multi-station buys. Some operators just do straight division: a three station buy gets split on the books with a third each. So even if one station has a much higher rating and is really responsible for attracting more of the buy, a station group can allocate internally and for Miller-Kaplan however they want.

Revenue reporting is not a requirement. Some stations don't even participate in joint market reporting. Estimates done by industry analysts use additional input from leading stations to try to accurately estimate individual station income, but, since station by station revenue is not required to be precisely reported even to the IRS or FCC, we always will deal with estimates.

Excellent info, and that definitely jibes with the circumstantial evidence I've seen over the years.