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FM 100 The Fan now local in afternoons

Good guy. Disappointing hire.

This was a chance to define and differenciate. More same ole.

They will still win the sports battle.

But serious success = Major leauge play by play.. that won't hapen
 
I agree with Marty on this one. Radio One had a real opportunity to go in new direction but instead we get a nice guy who we have heard on how many different stations now? Nothing against the new host but the market needs someone fresh. I guess the next step will be to hire Wildman. I am disappointed with the afternoon choice on FM 100 Fan and will stick with Mo.

FM 100 Fan has several good things going for them with Tom Gamble and being on FM. But they have no major league sports team and they really need to be creative in how to program and market a sports station without that. I remember when WTVN lost the Buckeyes to WBNS. Everyone thought WBNS would really make an impact. Instead WTVN told everyone they had the best coverage and proved it that the had before and after the game.

Radio One has taken the easy path because they really donm't know how to do All Sports, For years Radio One only put their Dayton sports property WING on cruise with a very weak local show. Now Main Line has it and is making some money but still is missing the many opportunties to counter C.C. Will FM 100 cover at least 50 of the Reds home games with an on site reporter, are they going to broadcast live for many of the Bengals training camp workouts, are they going to do special programming before and after every Bengals game, are they going to send one of their local hosts to spring training next year and are they doing special programming for the Bearcats being in the dance again?

You have to find your niche with an all sports station. If you establish it and really train your sales staff how to sell it you will make money despite what ratings you may have.

Radio One brought the station with no creative programming other than Tom Gamble. The One thing is FM can help an All Sports station if their programming is better than their AM competition. If not you will find guys even in their 20's willing to be on AM because of Lance or Mo.

With FM 100 - it may be the time t either dump the sports programming on 1360 or really refocus it and not keep it on cruise control.
 
To be fair, it is probably better to wait and hear what his show will sound like and hope it won't be the "same old - same old" with Reds, Bengals, etc. and the host going on and on without going to the telephone for public input. I would very much like to have more coverage of high school sports on radio here. While some play-by-play of football and basketball games would be great, I would at least settle for some interviews with coaches of area teams.
 
To Cincinnati Kid.

I agree that high school play by play would be great to hear on FM 100. WMOH does a really nice job and there is a void now in Middletown since WPFB was sold. If you know what you are doing you can establish a nice revenue stream with high school sports. Tom Gamble knows every coach in the area and Skinner has a lot of contacts too in making interviews with local coaches a natural. Plus, the PD should look at doing a weekly High School coaches show too.

I truly hope that Radio One will make follow through with the type of coverage I suggested. They have plenty of time to get ready for the Bengals and can get someone to cover the Reds too.. Please don't get me wrong about Richard Skinner. He knows his stuff and did an excellent job on the breakdown of the NCCA tourney today.I told severaL friends in January this hiring was coming.
Skinner's challenge is to be fresh and work out to beat out Mo or Lance on some stories too.
 
I'm glad to see them go live and local in the afternoons. Finally an alternative to the annoying, stuttering Mo Egger. With Tom Gamble mornings and Skinner in the afternoons I doubt I'll be tuning to 1530 much anymore. Only thing that would drive me to do that would be if FM 100 added Wildman Walker. Hopefully he stays put over on ClassX.

The concerns about FM 100 not having many teams are legit, but it seems to me Ohio State is the most logical one for them to snag, especially with the (if you believe the other thread on this board) inevitable demise of WDJO. I would certainly like to see the Buckeyes on a signal that I can hear after dark.
 
Would you not consider Will Chambers (co-host of morning show), Rick Ucchino, and Chad Brendel to be "fresh?" Chambers and Ucchino I consider to be very good, good enough to replace Gamble or Skinner if either decides to leave. Brendel just completed his first day so I can't say anything yet.
 
Major league sports will be hard to get. The Reds just re-upped with WLW for five more years. Xavier just re-upped as well. Not sure what the radio rights status for UC is. The Bengals' rights will be up after 2013. The issue is 100.3's signal strength. I start losing the signal on I-71 North around Kings Island, which is about 25 miles from downtown. Some FM Cincy stations you can pick up for an additional 25-40 miles (WEBN and 96ROCK are two examples). I don't know how far south 100.3's signal reaches. It's fine in Florence, KY. But I never need to go any further south than that.

I agree Ohio State should be on 100.3. No disrespect to the Miami Redhawks, but there really isn't much of an interest in them, even in Oxford (judging by their attendance figures).
 
And I doubt Wildman will ever end up on The Fan, especially after his comments on their Facebook page February 25, referring to them as a "sad sack station with sad talent and clueless management."
 
Based on their coverage range, I don't see any Cincinnati teams going on FM 100. That's one reason that I suggested the station do more coverage of high school games and activities. No station here does that. I also think more time should be given to callers. While some of them can be outlandish, it's better than the host droning on and on.
 
100.3 has about the same signal range as 97.3. I have to believe that Radio One will sell one of their properties in Cincinnati in the future.
 
This station is doomed to fail. Rehashing sports voices who have failed before is not the way to go....they really should have gave the 'young voices' like Chambers, Ucchino, etc. the stage...plus, even though I am a sports fan, there are too many sports stations as it is. The TV commercial is hideous, there is NO way that attracts listeners.
 
The coverage issue might not be that big of a deal if 100.3 goes mono (I assume it is), and if the PPM units are inside radio locators purple circle for car listensership:

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WCFN&service=FM&status=L&hours=U

I have found music stations work well in the purple circle not always stopping scan but usually no interference. A mono signal will reject interference better most of the time so coverage should be better than a music station.

The FCC's 60 DB should stop a "scan" function on most radios:

http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/c...eq=100.3&contour=60&city=NORWOOD&state=OH.kml

so they should have most of the market covered unless a bunch Cinncinati PPM units end up in Hamilton or Lebanon.

If I was programming it I would take live and local sports talk at least 5 AM till 9 PM seven day a week unless you are covering a game. Many be even 24 live local sports talk. There is enough good sports talk talent (radio and ex jocks) that staffing it would not be that expensive. Heck you could even have "on the air' tryouts and let listeners "pick" your talent.
 
I had a Class A and the 48 would stop the scan on a good radio. It is unprotected but decent provided there isn't any interference.
 
secondchoice said:
The coverage issue might not be that big of a deal if 100.3 goes mono (I assume it is), and if the PPM units are inside radio locators purple circle for car listensership:

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WCFN&service=FM&status=L&hours=U

I have found music stations work well in the purple circle not always stopping scan but usually no interference. A mono signal will reject interference better most of the time so coverage should be better than a music station.

The FCC's 60 DB should stop a "scan" function on most radios:

http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/c...eq=100.3&contour=60&city=NORWOOD&state=OH.kml



so they should have most of the market covered unless a bunch Cinncinati PPM units end up in Hamilton or Lebanon.

If I was programming it I would take live and local sports talk at least 5 AM till 9 PM seven day a week unless you are covering a game. Many be even 24 live local sports talk. There is enough good sports talk talent (radio and ex jocks) that staffing it would not be that expensive. Heck you could even have "on the air' tryouts and let listeners "pick" your talent.
Click to expand...

Need to be a four pro sport city to be able to go live all day. Not enough content with just Reds and Bengals. College sports doesn't drive listenership, too partisan. WLW struggles to get quality content from UC talk, especially football. The Fan should bail on AM drive and go live 1p-7pm, someone doing 1-4pm and put Gamble and Skinner together 4-7pm.
 
billf82 said:
Link to commercial for FM 100 The Fan that will air on Fox Sports Ohio.

http://vimeo.com/channels/494599
Click to expand...

Uhhhh- yeah.... That spot kind of sucked.

I think it would have been more ideal to actually see and HEAR their voices in the spot rather then seeing the two of them trying to pull off horrible impersonations of Penn and Teller (that is what the spot reminded me of....)

Maybe having Gamble and Skinner yelling at each other or talking back and forth voicing their opinions about Pete Rose or The Bengals. The spot feels too contrived and not "local" to Cincinnati...

Anyone else think this as well?
 
One of the Big plus of the Fan is to have Tom Gamble on in the morning. Next take Will Chambers (he shows promise and is on the payroll) and go local 9 to Noon. I would not have gone out and hired someone for this slot but he is in the host and is local. Even though I am not a Rhome fan he is known in the market so keep him in place. On Skinner, this is where Radio One needed an experienced Sports PD to work with Skinner so he is not doing the same thing he has so many times before and failed. He knows his stuff but needs direction. Radio One is known for taking a PD in house and thinks he knows how to program anything. Look how they made WING a mess in Dayton with very little revenue and a poorly done local afternoon show.

From a management point of view you need to look where you are going to take in revenue. A strong morning show and afternoon is key but there are so many revenue streams available in the evening and week ends it is unreal. The Fan's GM and Sales Manager have not figured that out yet. And if they don't do it pretty soon Mr Liggins is going to be on their backs. The Cyclones may be fun to watch but they are not an audience or revenue stream builder. Hockey on the radio is boring for this market. Miami is in the same boat. This station could really make some serious coin even if he was run right.

It is truly amazing Radio One embark on such a format in a crowed field without experience in programming and management in sports radio. Are we seeing and hearing that they are everywhere in the community? No. Did they do any tourney high school basketball games in Feb and March? No. A sports station has to be extra agressive to build a cume and revenue base. If they had a real plan in place before they hit the air they could have had Gamble at Spring training. Do they have Reds programming segments in place to make money all season long?

I don't want to come off as being all negative but there is a real opportunity here that I hope Radio One figures out pretty soon and is a success. It is been said before when it comes to sports radio it is not the ratings you use to judge the success of the station but how strong is your revenue base.
 
I agree with everything stated in the above post. If you look at the latest ratings the combined ratings of the 3 sports stations, they are a 1.3 share. That's cutting the pie thin for both advertisers and listeners. 100.3 is not going to be in the sports radio business for long unless they are different than the competition. The Major turnoff for me is the amount of commercial breaks that run the same Public Service Announcements over and over whenever I listen to them. If they can't sell those spots, why not run clips of the morning show? Anything is better than hearing Joan Lunden on a sports station geared to a male audience.
 
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