Tibbs2 said:
BH was a team player and fired up about Fly when he was there. When it was bought,from Hale, it was done right. You're wrong about the format being known for blowing people out. I have no clue if it's billing well. The formats usually a tough sell, especially in a tourist town with 600 stations. I'd suspect the typical in-house drama casued Holmes to fly North. But, the opportunity to climb the numbers ladder (market increase) and make more money may have been more of a factor in the end. BH has stated his reasons long ago, though.
Back in the mid 90's I seriously considered a similar format for 98.1 before the signal came South. I have to admit, when I couldn't figure a way to make K-92 work financially, and Ron Hale came in, I would have never thought the Fly-type format would do as good as it has on the 92.1 frequency because of the smaller signal.
Wonder where things would be if it had been 100kw Fly 98?
Fly 92.1 was launched very well. We had a great staff in place. We had a GM that believed in us. Our PD (Jo Valentine) hired three LIVE, full time jocks from medium markets (myself, Dylan Paul and later Kaane) to launch it. Most stations like this would have been launched with a morning show and automated all day to start. By the way, a lot of people don't give Jo enough credit in the launch of Fly. It was his vision and his baby every step of the way. Too many people have focused on the failures of Mix 103.1 under his watch.
Programming and promotions couldnt work together, and the regional Qantum guy (Jonathan) had his head up his *ss. I don't say that very easily because everyone likes to slam people but this guy loved to visit the market and cause problems rather than ask how he could assist in our success. I'll never forget when he came to town one week after I had already put in my two weeks notice. He took me to MCDONALDS to explain to me how moving to market 66 as APD/nights is a huge career mistake and that it would be much better to stay in Destin and be PD of Fly & Mix. The offer to be PD was nice but to offer it to me by blowing smoke up my butt was the wrong way to go about it. I couldnt have left any faster. (For the record, Qantum owner Frank Osborne was an extremely nice guy, supportive of us and the station. No one, including myself at the time, had the balls to explain to him what the regional guy was doing).
The reward for a great launch was the firing of Jo, firing of the GM, talked me out the door and then Dylan and Kaane followed. They also let Cindy O'Shea resign which was a HUGE loss to that cluster. Through all the drama though, Fly plugged along. Even as they hired one unqualified person after another to become PD.
My time at Fly wasn't a sentence at all. I had a blast and even learned a few things. I wasn't looking for a gig at the time. In my head, I was committed to Fly for a year, then I was gonna look for something bigger. WSNX/Grand Rapids approached me with the APD/night gig, plus weekends in Toledo (VT) and live in Detroit whenever I wanted and I couldnt say no.
From what I'm told, Fly bills very well. It certainly couldnt hurt to give Fly a bigger signal. It's success will continue as long as they don't let the music skew too urban. It has to keep the pop crossover/hip hop/party feel and NOT urban street feel to win both ratings and sales.
