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Frank & 'Beans'

J

John1

The conventional wisdom of the "bean counters" has been that you can't sell "older" formats, which was why Nassau switched it's oldies station in Trenton to classic hits 5 years ago. The format really appeals to 45+ (and leaning toward the 'plus' range) so why is Nassau creating so many classic hits stations? They are doing well so far in other markets, but again is it worth it if only attracting older listeners? Can they sell this station, especially with similar format Y-102 dominating the market for many years? I would assume the loyal 107.5 Alive sponsors will not be on Frank as most were far from Reading and seemed loyal to the Christian format.

Frank is also running a lot of promos as a "Reading" station. "A station custom designed for Reading." As others have stated, is that a smart move? How many listeners really relate to Reading as a radio market on a station that reaches much of the Lehigh Valley, far suburbs of Philadelphia, rural Berks, etc.? Could that hurt as much as it helps? WIOV does well in Lancaster and Reading (being located in Ephrata between them) but doesn't target a specific market on air. Should Frank be more generic in its location?

Has anyone seen any application for call letter changes? Right now they're saying 'WBYN Boyertown, that's for the government, everyone else calls us Frank.' The other Franks got new Frank-like call letters.
 
> Frank is also running a lot of promos as a "Reading"
> station. "A station custom designed for Reading." As
> others have stated, is that a smart move? How many
> listeners really relate to Reading as a radio market on a
> station that reaches much of the Lehigh Valley, far suburbs
> of Philadelphia, rural Berks, etc.? Could that hurt as much
> as it helps? WIOV does well in Lancaster and Reading (being
> located in Ephrata between them) but doesn't target a
> specific market on air. Should Frank be more generic in its
> location?

Do you think that saying a station is from Reading is that big of a deal? When people outside the area ask where I live I say Reading, not Berks County even though I don't actually live in Reading. People still refer to this area as Reading. Heck, we still use the Monopoly board Reading reference as a joke.

How many millions of people listen to Howard Stern even though he is based in New York City and most of the time he references things in New York City? How about the millions subscribed to XM (based in Washington DC) or Sirius (based in NYC)?

On a more local level - WYSP and KYW still pull decent numbers in the market, yet they both say Philadelphia.

Bottom line: you can say you are from Boise, Idaho and if people like you, your format and the presentation they will listen. I think more and more that 'local' only applies to sports teams and newspaper names.

Just my .02.

-Scott
 
> Do you think that saying a station is from Reading is that
> big of a deal? When people outside the area ask where I
> live I say Reading, not Berks County even though I don't
> actually live in Reading. People still refer to this area
> as Reading. Heck, we still use the Monopoly board Reading
> reference as a joke.>>

It depends, if when they add jocks they give Reading traffic and Reading weather it may alienate some listeners in the Lehigh Valley & Philadelphia suburbs. 107.5 Alive was more regional and had a sponsor base all over the region. WJBR in Wilmington blankets the Philadelphia and southeastern Pa. region, but they promote being a Wilmington station - traffic, weather, sponsors. They do great in Wilmington but show up at the bottom of the Philadelphia ratings. Will Lehigh Valley listeners tune in as long as WODE plays basically the same music? Will they tune in if WODE changes format?
Remains to be seen, but it seems looking at ratings around the country that if there is a local station in a format they will select it over one that is not as local. I wonder how what part of the WFMZ audience watches both the Lehigh Valley and the Berks edition news? Do they segregate it because they assume it is two different audiences? Anyone have any figures on that?


> How many millions of people listen to Howard Stern even
> though he is based in New York City and most of the time he
> references things in New York City? How about the millions
> subscribed to XM (based in Washington DC) or Sirius (based
> in NYC)?>>

Different situation - New York is a media town, people are used to shows coming from New York. But the Howard Stern affiliates came on in the breaks with local traffic, news, weather & sponsors. And people selecting satellite radio know they are not getting local shows, and don't care, it is generic programming. WSM in Nashville was simulcast on Sirius, but recently Sirius had them create separate programming doing away with the Nashville traffic & weather & information. I'm not sure how WLW will be run on XM.


> On a more local level - WYSP and KYW still pull decent
> numbers in the market, yet they both say Philadelphia.>>

People tend to accept "moving up" for listening more than moving down. With a bigger market station you will probably expect to get more talented "major market" hosts who have moved up the ranks. Also, KYW does well in the Lehigh Valley & Reading because there is no all news station, and YSP did well because of Howard. Again in Wilmington, which has 2 stations with large news blocks, KYW does poorly although covering the market.


> Bottom line: you can say you are from Boise, Idaho and if
> people like you, your format and the presentation they will
> listen. I think more and more that 'local' only applies to
> sports teams and newspaper names.>.

I think you're right that people don't care where something comes from if they like it - but they may be more inclined to listen to a station like Frank if they gave no specific location rather than emphasizing Reading. The fact is they may not care about reaching anyone but Reading-Berks, and if so, anyone else listening doesn't matter. Musicradio WABC had listeners all over the northeast but only those in the tri-state mattered to the bottom line. But if WODE changes format under new owners and they want to compete in the valley, I would think it would be better to play down the Reading image.

We'll see how it plays out - appreciate your 2 cents!
 
> It depends, if when they add jocks they give Reading traffic
> and Reading weather it may alienate some listeners in the
> Lehigh Valley & Philadelphia suburbs. 107.5 Alive was more
> regional and had a sponsor base all over the region. WJBR
> in Wilmington blankets the Philadelphia and southeastern Pa.
> region, but they promote being a Wilmington station -
> traffic, weather, sponsors. They do great in Wilmington but
> show up at the bottom of the Philadelphia ratings. Will
> Lehigh Valley listeners tune in as long as WODE plays
> basically the same music? Will they tune in if WODE changes
> format?

Is it possible that Nassau and Access.1 have an agreement that 107.5 will NOT target the Lehigh Valley now that Access.1 will be owning The Hawk?
 
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