F
FCR
Guest
I'm jumping into this thread late but had to get my two cents on the Free FM in Pittsburgh discussion.
Free FM as a format was failing prior to K-Rock's flip. If you listened to the station and read this board, K-Rock's demise was inevitable in the months leading up to its death. We knew FM talk was on the way for 93.7.
CBS Radio's new CEO, Dan Mason, wasn't announced to replace Joel Hollander until about a week before K-Rock's flip. Mason doesn't like Free FM. That's why when he took over he started rebranding them as FM talk stations and flipping the ones performing the worst. But by the time he reprised his CEO title, it was too late to stop the inevitable flip of K-Rock.
All the stations that flipped to Free FM did so in late 2005 and the beginning of 2006. Pittsburgh was late in the Free FM game. Because of that, the station will be around at least a year to see what it does. But The Zone is a Free FM station, it just doesn't call itself that. (Go to their website; the title bar at the top of your browser still says Free FM.)
My last thought is that Free FM didn't perform well but it could have. The concept was good, but the execution was bad. And starting off with David Lee Roth at the morning drive helm didn't help.
Free FM as a format was failing prior to K-Rock's flip. If you listened to the station and read this board, K-Rock's demise was inevitable in the months leading up to its death. We knew FM talk was on the way for 93.7.
CBS Radio's new CEO, Dan Mason, wasn't announced to replace Joel Hollander until about a week before K-Rock's flip. Mason doesn't like Free FM. That's why when he took over he started rebranding them as FM talk stations and flipping the ones performing the worst. But by the time he reprised his CEO title, it was too late to stop the inevitable flip of K-Rock.
All the stations that flipped to Free FM did so in late 2005 and the beginning of 2006. Pittsburgh was late in the Free FM game. Because of that, the station will be around at least a year to see what it does. But The Zone is a Free FM station, it just doesn't call itself that. (Go to their website; the title bar at the top of your browser still says Free FM.)
My last thought is that Free FM didn't perform well but it could have. The concept was good, but the execution was bad. And starting off with David Lee Roth at the morning drive helm didn't help.