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How long until 101.1 FM News Fails? Implications in meantime...

I

illinimatt81

Anyone want to take a stab at how long it will take for 101.1 FM News to be declared a failure? 2 full quarters? At least a year?

Once 101.1 FM News fails do you think CBS will keep the simulcast of WBBM 780 on 105.9 FM or do you think they will pull that once they no longer need to defend their turf? I must say Bears games sound better on FM!

Finally anyone want to take a stab at any guesses as to where Q101's former format may pop up? Seems there is a huge niche to fill there if executed correctly. Q101 certainly needed work, but it seems unlikely the format will be off the airwaves in Chicago for long. No obvious frequencies that may be up for a flip that I can see at the moment. Maybe when Merlin Media folds the investors will reconsider to recoup losses.

93XRT has a tremendous opportunity here and they are blowing it IMO.
 
illinimatt81 said:
Finally anyone want to take a stab at any guesses as to where Q101's former format may pop up? Seems there is a huge niche to fill there if executed correctly. Q101 certainly needed work, but it seems unlikely the format will be off the airwaves in Chicago for long. No obvious frequencies that may be up for a flip that I can see at the moment. Maybe when Merlin Media folds the investors will reconsider to recoup losses.

93XRT has a tremendous opportunity here and they are blowing it IMO.
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XRT's listeners buy from their advertisers. The Q101 listeners *shoplifted* from their advertisers.

XRT is an adult radio station. They tried outhipping Q101 way back when Q101 flipped but found out that they were turning off their core audience. Q101's audience is not what advertisers want--and even if the all-news format doesn't work for WWWN, they will NOT go back to Godmack and Slayer.
 
Merlin has invested far too much into 101.1 to give up on it so quickly. They'll give it at least 18 months, knowing that it can take a very long time to develop an audience for a news or news/talk station. It is way too soon to write any obituaries about this station - despite it's pitiful start.

By the way, I tend to agree with Mr. Jeffries about the audience characteristics of XRT versus Q101. And that's a big reason why WWWN is on 101.1 and not on 97.9. $$$$$
 
The WKQX calls are parked on a 95.9 in Watseka, IL; however, it is too far to reach Chicago (sorry, no Q96 ;))

For those north of Chicago, you might be able to pull in WLUM 102.1 out of Milwaukee although there's always the issue of IBOC hiss/interference on 101.9 (and stations on 102.3)... 95.1 WIIL is another rimshot station with an alternative/active rock format as well :)

If 101.1 were to drop News-Talk, I'd sooner expect Urban AC, Sports or Country than Modern Rock, I'd have to admit...
 
BRNout said:
Merlin has invested far too much into 101.1 to give up on it so quickly. They'll give it at least 18 months, knowing that it can take a very long time to develop an audience for a news or news/talk station. It is way too soon to write any obituaries about this station - despite it's pitiful start.

By the way, I tend to agree with Mr. Jeffries about the audience characteristics of XRT versus Q101. And that's a big reason why WWWN is on 101.1 and not on 97.9. $$$$$
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+1. But WWWN strikes me as SHOCKINGLY bad. All this veteran talent and it still sounds amateurish.
 
cyberdad said:
+1. But WWWN strikes me as SHOCKINGLY bad. All this veteran talent and it still sounds amateurish.
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Oh yes, I totally agree! It still sounds rough, and they've had plenty of time to at least work with the talent on sounding smooth. The way in which the format is presented is not my 'cup of tea' (nor am I their target demo). That said, bad is bad and I've never seen - or heard - so much normally strong talent sound so amateurish.

Still, I maintain that Merlin will give this time to gel. Really, they have to. And the justification that "spoken word formats take a long time to develop audiences" is true. But that will not happen unless Merlin gets its act together and soon. Right now, the station is unlistenable and WBBM is basically beating it to death.

danikayser84 said:
If 101.1 were to drop News-Talk, I'd sooner expect Urban AC, Sports or Country than Modern Rock, I'd have to admit...
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Some may roll eyes at this, but if you look at consistently strong performers in the market, V-103 has been consistently near the top. Crawford's various lame iterations of Soul 106.3 have failed to diminish that achievement - lousy signal and poor programming being the two main reasons. So yes, urban AC is a potential format for a full-sized downtown signal.

Country certainly is another format that would work well too. US 99.5 gets strong ratings, yet they're far from invincible. The market is underserved as far as this format goes. I maintained that CC should have taken WNUA country and still think that they made a mistake. Yeah, they get good ratings with young demos now, but they're also saddled with crap power ratios. You don't make big bucks with spots for pawn shops (Cash 4 Gold), Mexican grocery stores, and herbal vitamins. Country delivers excellent power ratios = more $$$.

Lastly, I don't see a sports format coming to 101.1. If news failed, Merlin would likely be reticent to hire another two dozen people to start a sports formatted station from scratch. Not to mention that CBS (670) and Disney/ESPN (1000) have this format pretty well covered in the market. To make it work, Merlin would have to spend HUGE bucks on talent and on broadcast rights for major Chicago sports teams. I don't see that happening on the heels of a flip from news. Furthermore, sports would mean eating into WLUP's audience - so a reshuffle would end up taking place there as well. Nope, I don't see it.

So, if they blew out news (again, hypothetically), my prediction is that it would replaced by an urban AC or a country format. Because that's what would make the most sense.
 
I have sampled 101.1's offerngs and have indeed found them amateurish; less than what a Major Market expects. IF they don't improve, then the market will be turned off and management will need to blow up the operation simply because the "ALL NEWS" listener will have gone elswhere unlikely to return.

Polkas anyone?
 
i think its dumb that merlin would change the only best rating alternative rock station in the metro area. i found out that Q101 had better ratings than news 101.1 fm the pass couple months. aparently broadcast company don't know what best for the area
 
radiorock89xfm said:
i think its dumb that merlin would change the only best rating alternative rock station in the metro area. i found out that Q101 had better ratings than news 101.1 fm the pass couple months. aparently broadcast company don't know what best for the area
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And the ONLY modern rock station in Chicago, for a genre of music where the fans do not listen to radio at all or are not the audience advertisers are interested in. And not to mention a station that had lousy ratings outside of morning drive for years (yes, people did listen to Mancow, but they weren't interested in anything else on Q101) and a station that had been going down in the numbers for months, even years and was not turning a profit for Emmis.

And need I point out that one book is too soon for a new format, particularly a news-talk format, and that the stunting was designed to DRIVE OUT the old Q101 listeners more than ATTRACT new listeners.

Finally, have you ever heard of WNUR, WHPK, WLUW and even WZRD (and similar stations in the suburbs)? These non-commercial stations play REAL alternative music--not the phony "alternative" music Q101 played--and have been doing so for years without commercials. Are they too weird for YOU?
 
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