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Fresh start and other 2012 predictions?

W

wffm78

Anyone else notice that 102.1 is not using the heritage WDOK calls or the Soft Rock imaging...just calling themselves Christmas 102.1? Could a post holiday switch (perhaps to Fresh?) be in the offing for 2012? Consider this move a possibility as sister Q104 is moving into a more CHR direction, and WDOK's demos have to be aging? This was done last year in Detroit with WNIC (which moved to Fresh) and in Cleveland where 106.5 flipped from Mix to Lake, while playing essentially the same music.

My other thoughts...I see 92.3 staying sports, but revising lineup in the face of continued low ratings. No switch to 98.5 UNLESS sports rights are acquired, or the ratings start bumping up.

107.3...no idea what the format hole is for a one station operation, but my bet is on Rubber City taking it back to the WAVE/soft AC format...which would be a hole in the market if 102.1 moves in a Fresh direction. Or, they do a much tighter AAA format under adult supervision.

My 2 cents....light it up, boys...
 
92.3 is going to have to rebuild the first half of the day. Kiley and Booms are awful. Now that they have had time to find their groove...they are still awful. As for the talking heads, they are just too sterile. Also, they do a terrible job of branding their show, as the two of them always refer to the show as "Baskin and Phelps" and not "Talking Heads". They even do it in promos. I'm surprised that the PD hasn't ended that. New show - no consistency in the branding of it - not a good formula. As for Bull and the Fox, I sort of dig it most of the time. However, those guys spend WAY too much time bickering back and forth on the phrasing they use instead of talking sports. "Hillis is a great player" "Well, I wouldn't say great. I'd say he's a good player." "He's more than good, maybe he's an above average player". They do it ALL THE TIME and it's annoying. Maybe it's just a way to fill all 5 hours.

Ken Carmen - the jewel of their lineup. Don't mess with him, or move him down to where he would have to clean up his conversation.

Just a thought - maybe cut some of these shows down to 4 hours and add an additional show in the middle. 5 hours - generally too long to beat up a nominal topic.
 
Don't know why WQAL would change anything. I've seen the most-recent Cleveland PPMs ...and QAL's female numbers are incredibly strong. Maybe it's me, but...when you're a solid #1 in your target demo...why mess with success?

WDOK is really kind of limited to what they can do. If they move too much younger, they begin to infringe on their own sister station WQAL.

Should be highly interesting to watch CBS work on 923TheFan...both in on-air host lineups and when they finally decide to market the station.

My bet is the Indians next flagship affilliate will be 923TheFan. Then the Tribe will be able to grow the number of stations on their network without a 50kw AM breathing down the necks of every Indians' network station within 150 miles of Cleveland. The team has more stations paying at least some broadcast rites, and the down-line, smaller market radio affilliates will have larger audiences and should be able to sell more advertising with WTAM gone. Everybody (except WTAM) wins.

The ability to hear a team's games 750 miles away at night might sound cool if you're one of maybe a couple hundred baseball or radio freaks who live far away...but that doesn't make the station or the baseball team one cent more.

Other stations, other formats? Who knows.

P.S.: With the Cavs season beginning on December 26th, I assume Jeff Phelps will be gone quite a bit of the time any way. So, that'll force CBS to pair Andy Baskin up with another co-host...hopefully somebody who has a more upbeat style. Nothing wrong with either Andy or Jeff, but they're both kinda laid back. IMHO you need a mix of personality types...not 2 of a kind.
 
Hope WDOK doesn't change their music playlist too much. Still like the '80s and '90s pop and soft rock songs they play.

And when did WTAM lose the rights to the Indians games? Somehow I never heard anything about that.
 
What some of us are guessing is that when the Indians current Cleveland station contract is up, CBS will win the next contract....not WTAM. Can't remember when the current WTAM contract expires, but, I think it's after next season.
 
wffm78 said:
Anyone else notice that 102.1 is not using the heritage WDOK calls or the Soft Rock imaging...just calling themselves Christmas 102.1? Could a post holiday switch (perhaps to Fresh?) be in the offing for 2012? Consider this move a possibility as sister Q104 is moving into a more CHR direction, and WDOK's demos have to be aging? This was done last year in Detroit with WNIC (which moved to Fresh) and in Cleveland where 106.5 flipped from Mix to Lake, while playing essentially the same music.
Click to expand...

Don't read too much into it. They're just going all out for Christmas. I highly doubt that WDOK will try to fix what ain't broke.

Tim said:
What some of us are guessing is that when the Indians current Cleveland station contract is up, CBS will win the next contract....not WTAM. Can't remember when the current WTAM contract expires, but, I think it's after next season.
Click to expand...

Correct. The Tribe is locked into WTAM through the 2012 season...after that, it's up for grabs. 92.3 The Fan will go all in to try to snag the contract, but 1100 won't let it go without a hell of a fight

Tim said:
With the Cavs season beginning on December 26th, I assume Jeff Phelps will be gone quite a bit of the time any way. So, that'll force CBS to pair Andy Baskin up with another co-host...hopefully somebody who has a more upbeat style. Nothing wrong with either Andy or Jeff, but they're both kinda laid back. IMHO you need a mix of personality types...not 2 of a kind.
Click to expand...

I think Mr. Phelps could continue to do his show from the road via ISDN. Kevin Kiley does this often on his show on Monday mornings due to being the sideline guy for Sunday Night Football on Westwood One. And as I said before, I think Baskin and Phelps purposely set their show up the way they did to be the anti-RBS. Baskin is a big message board reader, and he knows full well all the complaints about the "drama" (real and kayfabe) that goes on at the Galleria between 9a-1p. So he and Phelps go about their show like a couple of guys having coffee, shooting the breeaze about sports.
 
wffm78 said:
Anyone else notice that 102.1 is not using the heritage WDOK calls or the Soft Rock imaging...just calling themselves Christmas 102.1? Could a post holiday switch (perhaps to Fresh?) be in the offing for 2012? Consider this move a possibility as sister Q104 is moving into a more CHR direction, and WDOK's demos have to be aging? This was done last year in Detroit with WNIC (which moved to Fresh) and in Cleveland where 106.5 flipped from Mix to Lake, while playing essentially the same music.

My other thoughts...I see 92.3 staying sports, but revising lineup in the face of continued low ratings. No switch to 98.5 UNLESS sports rights are acquired, or the ratings start bumping up.

107.3...no idea what the format hole is for a one station operation, but my bet is on Rubber City taking it back to the WAVE/soft AC format...which would be a hole in the market if 102.1 moves in a Fresh direction. Or, they do a much tighter AAA format

My 2 cents....light it up, boys...
Click to expand...

You must know everything.......
 
No, don't know everything. Like most folks on this board, I have an interest in media (and radio). I highly doubt you will find media managment types on here...this is more like a fantasy football league thing. 107.3 is most likely going to change formats and approach with a new owner, and 102 has made some adjustments in their on air presentation that sounded kind of interesting. Just my guesses and speculation. Time will tell if any of this means anything.
 
I think WDOK is keeping up the current demos as the ones from ten years ago have aged. They aren't playing 60's music and playing less 70's music. My guess is that they'll continue to focus on 80's, 90's, 2000's and present day music, with increasingly less (maybe even no) 70's. They'll still be known as "102.1 WDOK" as opposed to "Fresh," but won't use "Soft Rock" on-air anymore. Not much will change there.

WNWV will no doubt sound much different at least early in the year. It won't be the same as it is right now. I think the music, imaging, and on-air hosts will be a lot different as well. Not sure about the name.

WKRK will retool their line-up if the ratings continue to underwhelm. Some hosts will stay, and some won't.

There will probably be surprise changes with weekday/weeknight hosts leaving, moving and/or arriving that many have not seen coming. It goes for radio and television.

Here's more of my guesses: WMJI will add more 80's (they are in Christmas mode), WHLK will add more songs to keep ratings from falling, WGAR gets an afternoon host (hopefully whoever they hire pans out better than the morning guy who was on between Jim Mantel and Brian Fowler), and probably minor tweaks at WFHM.

On the TV side, big anchor changes at WKYC, WJW and WOIO. The second part due to Stacey Bell already gone, and the third station continues to stink in the ratings, and might change in the mornings to stay competitive. The first would be a surprise.
 
Another big TV news anchor is reportedly about to follow Stacey Bell, as soon as the middle of the month.

No, follow as in "exiting her post", not going to Cablevision's News 12 operation. :D

Did I say "her"? Oops!


;)
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
Another big TV news anchor is reportedly about to follow Stacey Bell, as soon as the middle of the month.

No, follow as in "exiting her post", not going to Cablevision's News 12 operation. :D

Did I say "her"? Oops!


;)
Click to expand...

Let's see...

Romona Robinson
Robin Swoboda
Lee Jordan
Danita Harris
Wilma Smith
Denise Dufala
Sharon Reed

Without naming names, did she either:

1. formerly host the Morning Exchange
2. work at just one station in cleveland
3. move to a different station in town at any point
4. do a news story in the buff
 
One more clue...she has, as far as I remember, never worked before 12 noon in the Cleveland market.

I'm being coy about this because this rumor is bouncing all over the market, but I haven't received confirmation yet. If nothing happens by, say, to pick a date out of a hat, December 16th...I may spill the beans anyway.
 
That leaves three people.

Robin, Lee and Danita had stints on The Morning Exchange, Robin filled-in on FOX 8's morning news a while back, Lee and Danita had each anchored the Noon news on WEWS before, and Denise was the original female anchor of "Newscenter 8 This Morning" when it launched back in early 1988.

Those names mentioned above are probably not the rumored person.
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
One more clue...she has, as far as I remember, never worked before 12 noon in the Cleveland market.

I'm being coy about this because this rumor is bouncing all over the market, but I haven't received confirmation yet. If nothing happens by, say, to pick a date out of a hat, December 16th...I may spill the beans anyway.
Click to expand...

CleveFan said:
That leaves three people.

Robin, Lee and Danita had stints on The Morning Exchange, Robin filled-in on FOX 8's morning news a while back, Lee and Danita had each anchored the Noon news on WEWS before, and Denise was the original female anchor of "Newscenter 8 This Morning" when it launched back in early 1988.

Those names mentioned above are probably not the rumored person.
Click to expand...

Danita also spent a good chunk of years as a "Good Morning Cleveland" co-anchor, and Robin had her morning show on "The Fish" with Dan Deely, as well as being the host of what is now "New Day Cleveland" on WJW.

So that leaves Romona Robinson, Wilma Smith, and Sharon Reed.

If it's Romona, then channel 3 is in a world of hurt, since she's the franchise over there. Would that make Swoboda/Tye go 6, 7, and 11?

If it's Wilma, then it's a double whammy for channel 8 right on the heels of losing Stacy Bell (plus channel 8 probably would have been tripping all over themselves with the "Good-bye Wilma" tributes by now).

Ms. "Body of Art" may be the clubhouse leader. She's already taking the next 6-8 weeks off (probably for maternity leave), plus it's no secret she's been dying to be a main anchor forever.
 
Lower overhead. Get rid of as many big salaries as you can....though you can bet nobody will admit that.

It's my educated guess it's local TV stations everywhere slashing costs wherever possible due to TV viewing that's going crazy fragmenting over into cable channels and thus greatly reduced ad local station advertising revenues.

Plus, the rumors the major networks have been planning to create national cable channels and eventually cutting ties with local affilliates. (Why else are local TV stations insanely expanding their local new hours weekdays..the only local programming on most local TV stations is news...the rest network or syndicated shows).
 
Yep, it's Romona. Right down to the December 16th last day. :D

As noted in the PD, the rumor has been bouncing around the market like a Super Ball for months, but the specific end date has been rumored for about a month.

I'm not hearing what 13th and Lakeside is going to do post-Romona...but obviously, Robin is there and presumably at least an immediate option. And I wouldn't be surprised if Chris Tye goes along with her, or for that matter, if they have her solo a la Romona.

What she WANTS to do...I don't know.

Mark D. goes where I haven't gone yet - another high-profile African-American female anchor is gone in the market. Kimberly Gill, Stacey Bell and now Romona.
 
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