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espn 92.9

Dr. Pepper said:
sounds like they're "knockin' it out of the park". put an afternoon show on that sounds pretty good. natl cbs guy for college hoops (mphs loves hoops) and the local sports writer for the paper. probably makin' more money going after guys 18-55 than dudes 13-24.

They are the #2 sports station in town, behind WHBQ. They are even trailing KWAM. That can't be good. They are certainly making money, just listen to the infomercial block on weekends.
 
sounds crazy i know but i think entercom made the decision that it's a better business to go after guys 18+ than potheads. the alt rock audience is a much less desirable audience than active sports fans and oh by the way 93x wasn't exactly a ratings juggernot! sux when business gets in the way, oh well.
 
How much of a hindrance is the signal in all this?

The last time I did a dial scan in Memphis, I was around Stateline and Elvis Presley and 92.9 was nowhere to be found. Granted, my car stereo is a bit deaf on FM, but still… I was barely to the suburbs and it was too weak to hear!
 
Zach the tower is in North Memphis off Jackson Ave. The signal is best inside the 240 loop, Downtown, and to the North in Frasier and Raleigh. I still don't know why that stick was always programmed at an audience that mostly lives between or outside the 60 & 70 dBu contour and not to the one inside the 70 dBu contour where most listening happens for any station. I guess that probably one reason the station has never had any ratings playing music.

92.9 has to protect WKRA in Holly Springs. They are slightly directional and send a little less signal to the S/E as a result.


I have noticed the HD is back on lately but the HD2 is just dead air.
 
My off-the-top-of-my-head speculation per tower location would be to note that it was under Belz ownership in the beginning, and was probably placed on existing Belz property.
 
Rob, wasn't that the original Arrow that Belz owned? Isn't she a relative of the Pollack Media that owned KWLN and sold to Barnstable? I remember the Target debacle there.
 
IIRC, Ms Belz was Mr. Pollack's sister. Pollack owned "The Lion" 98.1, licensed to Osceola, which sprang into prominence when Rock 103 went CHR as Z-103. After 103's return to AOR (as the Eagle 102.9), The Lion faded, going oldies then CHR (or was it CHR, then oldies? on-board memory corrupt, but someone will know), and ending up in the Barnstable stable, with a license move to Millington.

In the oldies and Z98 days, they had killer studios downtown, across Main street from the former Plough palace. I had a meeting with the oldies PD Keith Abrams one day, and chuckled to myself that I was in his office discussing employment right across the street from the office where I was canned at WMPS when they went country in 1978. I guess nothing ever came of the meeting, because I didn't work with 98.1 until the Star 98 days, with Mark and Dana. Abrams is "da man" with Clear Channel in Cleveland, OH now.

Sorry for moving a 92.9 discussion to 98.1, but there was that Pollack - Belz connection there.
 
Back years ago when Belz owned 92.9 MFS! that was by far and away my favorite station. They were a cool station that did a lot of promotion in the city and had a good mix of classic hard rock artists and newer stuff. They didn't just play Led Zep and Pink Floyd along with newer music, you were going to hear a variety of bands. The problem came down to the signal. Even in part of Memphis it was hard to hear. Put is this way, lol, a friend of mine used to live in Tipton County and 92.9 once came out and did a promotion which was technically cool but few people showed up because you couldn't hear the radio station. The playlist was great and they had some good deejays like Syd, Paul Marshall, and others that were entertaining.
 
Dr. Pepper said:
sounds crazy i know but i think entercom made the decision that it's a better business to go after guys 18+ than potheads. the alt rock audience is a much less desirable audience than active sports fans and oh by the way 93x wasn't exactly a ratings juggernot! sux when business gets in the way, oh well.

I know many sports fans that are pot heads. But that doesn't mean it's a direct answer to my question.

If we are talking about the rock format on 92.9 then we need to talk facts. The station signed on Rock in '95 under Belz Broadcasting with Pollack being the brother in law. They had Howard Stern in the mornings and when the music was aggressive as "hell on wheels" the station peaked in the low 3 share. However it averaged mid to high 2 share most of the time. Which is huge considering the crappy signal.

But Michael brings up a good point. The demographics within the range were quite different in 1995 compared to 2010. (Collierville and Olive Branch residents could listen online, I guess.)

Stern brought in ratings, but it was hard to pitch the station to the VP of First Tennessee Bank with Howard in the picture here in the bible belt.

That’s why I laughed about Rover saying he was #1 in Memphis, when it was apparent the station continued in the 2 share range until Howard left in 2005. There was a solid drop off. Not considering the corporate “Infinity-Cressman-Entercom” effect.

Which adds to the attitude of Dr Pepper’s point. “It was low before we had it, therefore its acceptable to be low a year after the flip.” That’s far from hitting it out of the ball park.

Hell, I don’t know what they should do with this frequency. FM Spanish? Maybe? It’s great coverage on the Summer Ave and Jackson Ave corridors.
 
I'm on a phone so I don't really have the tools to verify what I remember, but wasn't there Spanish on 96.1 or something like that? I recall the signal being marginal over most of the metro, but dunno about the ratings. Seems like only 1030 rated...
 
Again, a weak signal covering the wrong demographic. Do you know where the Hispanics live in Memphis?

Sure Hickory Hill was covered by 96, but what about the rest?
 
96.1 can't really be heard inside a building anywhere in Shelby county. Desoto and Tate yes but the signal is about the same as 95.3's and isn't even very good in a car anywhere really north of the Airport.

1030 has seen some numbers but I don't think you could use 96.1 as a comparison just because of the fact the signal is far to limiting.

95.7 hd2 is Spanish not that anyone can hear it.

They should have beat 95.7 to the punch by putting gospel on it. Too late now. Not sure I would want to go after any other Urban format in town. It could be a costly battle and end just as badly as it did for Power 99.
 
StereoBrain said:
Again, a weak signal covering the wrong demographic. Do you know where the Hispanics live in Memphis?

Sure Hickory Hill was covered by 96, but what about the rest?

I'm afraid I don't really know where they congregate, although I've seen a lot of stuff along Summer Ave, Austin Pea and maybe US-51 north of downtown.

I think what I was trying to convey with my post from the other day was, did the Hispanic community show enough interest in the other rimshot to make flipping 92.9 Spanish a smart move. Considering where it covers and where they apparently live, I'd say yes. 96.1 never made sense to me even when I knew zero nothing about Memphis. Even then it was a head scratcher.
 
96.1 was simply a signal inside the flinn blg that was available to lease and run with. The group that operates 1030 got it and tried to run with it also. Part of that time they also ran Spanish on 1240 also. It even had a live morning show on it. So they had 3 signals running a Spanish format for a period.
 
Dr. Pepper said:
sounds like they're "knockin' it out of the park".

Tee-Hee-Hee!!! A 0.8 on an FM signal? Lol!

To add insult to injury, has anybody seen the numbers for FM-100? CBS/Infinity had ratings well into the 4 share when they had it.

Entercom Sucks!!!
 
Sports, even on FM, is not a highly-rated format. Even though they may be performing lower than it was under 93X (which I wish were still around), I'm willing to bet they're making more money, especially when you take into consideration that mostly-satellited programming means less overhead.
 
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