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Fred Winston takes fall for WLS-FM ratings slide

Jan Jeffries ruined a great format that people loved. WLS-FM was #4 or #5 in the market now the station is in a free fall thanks to Jeffries.
So who takes the hit--the air talent.
Jeffries should be out for ruining a great radio station.
 
True Oldies WLS was a great station. Biondi's Friday Night All Request show was THE BEST!. Jan Jeffries, senior vice president of programming for Cumulus Media and program director of WLS-FM changed the music and turned off the mikes. You have the best DJ's in the country working at a station where they can not talk and have fun. It is sad to see Fred be treated like this. Doesn't Cumulus get it!
 
Stinks. 

Not always my first choice, but I do enjoy a good 70s-80s based classic rock station.  WLS is not one of those.  It's just mess.  According to Rob Feder's album, a spokeswoman (who declines comment about anything of substance), says the usual boilerplate stuff:  "We're going in a different direction" and "A lot of good things are happening at WLS"

Yeah, right. 

To be clear....as much as I'd like to see the old "True Oldies Channel" based format retained for my own personal tastes...I understand the move the music and the format in a direction to attract younger demos.   However, my humble "one man's opinion" is what they've come up with sounds awful.

My personal tastes notwithstanding, I had really expected ratings in the money demos to pick up by Jeffries & Co. "going younger"....but the evidence so far suggests that more than a few listeners agree with me regarding how bad this abomination sounds.
 
manager told fred winston"we're going in a different direction"how many of us in radio getting the Ax have heard that line of Crap? the direction they're going is in a death spiral that is clear... look, if they're going to shut off the mic's of Great Talent like Fred Winston, why pay the salaries? hire some college kid newbies on the cheap to VT or babysit and read liner cards and call it a Career. i think you can look for them to dump "This Format" whatever it is, and do what everybody else does THESE DAYS, BAD RADIO on the Cheap. sign me up for another year of Sirius/XM
 
Gee. could it be the music? Jan Jeffries has ruined a once great station. New direction? How about a reverse direction back to mainstream oldies..stuff like Motown, 70's pop..great 60's classics. So, Fred gets the axe. How are the others doing?

Just reading the stuff WLS-FM plays on Yes.com bores me.
 
I think we all know better. It isn't a great talent like Fred with an established career record here.

So yea, I'm not buying it!
 
I'm not expecting a return to 60's-based Oldies (as nice as it would be), but I think the fact that K-Hits is beating WLS-FM in target demos shows that a pop-based mix with a high-energy, personality-driven presentation is the way to go. WLS-FM would be wise to return to that, even if it's in a more 70's/80's-based form. Or they could just concede the format to K-Hits and try something different. But what they're doing now clearly isn't working.
 
I thought it was doing well consistently when it ran the Shannon Oldies. It couldn't have cost much to run...couple of live jocks and the satellite for the rest. I rarely hit the button for another station. Even when Biondi was talking over intros he's ramped for nearly sixty years, it was better than most stations. I guess my wife is right - I'm finally old enough that no one cares what I like. The demise of WLS-FM moved me to 50s on 5 at Sirius/XM.
 
Strikes me as ironic that a jockless recreation of "WLS Musicradio" out of DALLAS is actually sounding better than the current version of WLS-FM....which, even without Fred, is still dripping with (underutilized) talent.

This definitely should not be the case. Oh, but wait....a lot of "good things" are happening at WLS as they move off in their "different direction".
 
cyberdad said:
Strikes me as ironic that a jockless recreation of "WLS Musicradio" out of DALLAS is actually sounding better than the current version of WLS-FM....which, even without Fred, is still dripping with (underutilized) talent.

This definitely should not be the case. Oh, but wait....a lot of "good things" are happening at WLS as they move off in their "different direction".
Click to expand...

So sad but true. I too, don't expect them to reverse their decisions, it's too late now.

Glad you like that online one Cyberdad!
 
Cumulus intentionally killed oldies / TOC / Classic hits 106.7 in Atlanta for all news. The station was getting traction, a little older than the desired demos but Citadel did a remarkable job starting this station even in bankruptcy. Then Cumulus took over and 106.7 eventually failed.

IMHO: WLS FM will be NASH Country after they change "direction" and fail.
 
Arbitorn said:
I thought it was doing well consistently when it ran the Shannon Oldies.
Click to expand...

It was not doing well in the ages that get sales.

It couldn't have cost much to run...couple of live jocks and the satellite for the rest.
Click to expand...

The bulk of costs are not the air talent.
 
DavidEduardo said:
]
I thought it was doing well consistently when it ran the Shannon Oldies.
Click to expand...

It was not doing well in the ages that get sales.
.
[/quote]

I understand that. Is there evidence to suggest advertisers are getting on board? They're up against some well-established brands in the space they're trying to occupy. As a manager, that wouldn't bother me in the slightest if I knew I had a better product. Which IMHO, this is certainly not. My opinion being also widely shared on another Chicago radio board.

I'm not editorializing here....just wondering what's going on. As I alluded to earlier, I thought a move to 80s-90s based classic rock done correctly might spark both ratings in the money demos as well as revenue. My best guess is that there's an audience flush going on, and t something else completely different is in the works.
 
I noticed the change on the KRBE HD2 feed of True Oldies here in Houston. Luckily, there is a second station that broadcasts oldies on their HD2 feed. I have found myself listening to the other guy's station as it has the 50s-70s music AND it's commercial free. I used to stream WLS online before, but not anymore.
 
I'm convinced (have been for about 10 years) that Jan Jeffries has some kind of bestiality pics of the Dickey brothers or something of that nature stashed away in a safe place. How do you keep a job like that when your legacy in broadcasting is killing so many once-revered radio stations? Oh, wait a minute. I forgot; it's Cumulus.

TDO
 
I know the stations 'see' the ratings before they are published and we do not see hours or money demo's, but WLS FM has had "improved" ratings the last couple of months. Was Fred's shift "holding" them back? Of course there are lots more avails and money demos come into play, but when everything expensed, which makes more AM or FM? I realize nobody with the real numbers will put them out, but someone with ""knowledge" of market #3 might give us an educated guess. I wonder if "Nash" will ever make to Chicago? What station could Cumulus buy to make it happen?
 
cyberdad said:
DavidEduardo said:
]
I thought it was doing well consistently when it ran the Shannon Oldies.
Click to expand...

It was not doing well in the ages that get sales.
.
Click to expand...

I understand that. Is there evidence to suggest advertisers are getting on board? They're up against some well-established brands in the space they're trying to occupy. As a manager, that wouldn't bother me in the slightest if I knew I had a better product. Which IMHO, this is certainly not. My opinion being also widely shared on another Chicago radio board.

I'm not editorializing here....just wondering what's going on. As I alluded to earlier, I thought a move to 80s-90s based classic rock done correctly might spark both ratings in the money demos as well as revenue. My best guess is that there's an audience flush going on, and t something else completely different is in the works.
[/quote]

About the only thing I would say, though is that "oldies" is not "classic rock". They are both gold based formats, obviously, but they mean different things. A 80's based classic rock with a few staple 70's and a few 90's songs seems to be doing well in a number of markets right now.
 
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