I mention the Indianapolis Q ZOO in my post below. I think this topic can become quite relavant to the Indiana board if you want to go that route.
jimbo700 said:
The Power Pig vs Q105 will go down in the annals of history as one of, if not THE most prolific battle of wits between top programmers in radio history. It has been debated in nearly every radio publication and Internet forum on earth.
Great. Did you learn anything from those discussions? I can tell you things that publications, websites and forums won't tell you.
jimbo700 said:
But I don't think the above comment about WRBQ overreacting to WFLZ's antics are necessarily the facts. In fact I have always been under the impression that the reverse was true.
Well, then you would be wrong. I have no idea why anyone would have any other opinion of what happened. This should be interesting.
jimbo700 said:
When Randy Michaels first started making threats (to Q105, threatening to flip WFLZ to CHR) on-the-air on WFLZ (at the time an Oldies station), Scott Shannon, Q105 PD and the powers to be at WRBQ and Edens Broadcasting ignored them and went about their business as usual.
First of all, Scott Shannon was not the PD at Q105 when all of that happened, Mason Leroy Dixon was. Randy Kabrich was the other one with the title of "PD". He was the one hired to come in and do "research". Scott Shannon left in 1983, years before this stuff even happened. Terrence McKeever became his replacement on the Q Morning ZOO after Shannon left as a matter of fact. Q105 achieved such remarkable success due to the team up of Cleveland and McKeever, that there were a large number of Q ZOO's that popped up all across the country mimicking it, the Q ZOO out of Indianapolis being one of them. I can tell you story's about that as well if you'd like.
jimbo700 said:
When Michaels upped the anty and put a million dollar price tag in excgange for not flipping WFLZ to CHR, the silence from WRBQ was deafening. Then the anty went to 4 million dollars, and the rest of the media were all over it. TV and newspapers and even other radio stations. Before WFLZ ever even changed formats, they were on the front page of the Tampa Tribune. The only quote that could be mustered from Scott Shannon or anyone at Q105 or Edens was, "bring it on"!
It is Gary Edens you are referring to and actually he said in a good natured way that he was "looking forward to it, let's go" I think we all know the money thing was part of the "fun" they were having with Edens.
jimbo700 said:
Q105 staff were told to ignore all of the media attention and not to comment on the air about any of it.
When Randy Michaels and Jacor finally unveiled the Power Pig, Q105 still went on business as usual, playing 70's and 80's gold and a fairly large playlist for a CHR.
It was not uncommon to play a pinch of 70's, the 80's and current hits with that format back then. Not all CHR's did that, but plenty of them did. It was nothing out of the ordinary. However as I mentioned before, due to the times they needed to tweek the format a little bit.
jimbo700 said:
And while the "Pig" was constantly airing slams about Q105's music, commercial load and DJ's that talked way too much, Q105 continued business as usual. Meanwhile the "Pig" had attitude and was playing dance and hip hop (if that's what you called it in 1989), Q105 did not.
The PIG had a play list full of hits that were mixed to a dance beat. They also played songs that were relevant to the dance scene at that time. This is something Q105 did not have to compete against, as you said they were not playing that kind of music anyway. Although they shared some songs in common, the whole atmosphere of the station was different and the beats of some of the current hits were even different.
jimbo700 said:
It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this was going to be a mercy killing.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it was a mercy killing because Q105 aided in making it one.
jimbo700 said:
I was in Tampa 1 month after the flip and I recorded countless hours of the "Pig", just to archive their liners, and only then did Q105 start to make changes. But this battle was over before WFLZ even changed formats. There was nothing Shannon, Edens or anyone could have done.
They could have remembered who they were and not played into the hands of people waging a useless radio war. People didn't nor would they EVER see Q105 as a dance station. Michael's and company thought they were going to grab ALL of the Q's audience if they competed directly with the Q and won a huge battle of the ratings with them. That didn't happen, only a few teeny boppers switched to the PIG but it was good for publicity on the PIG's part none-the-less. Meanwhile the Q's audience was disappointed that they had lost their favorite radio station to this format, and they went elsewhere, but not to the PIG. There was plenty Q105 could have done.
jimbo700 said:
I have always loved Q105 (still do, and Mason Dixon is a friend),
Mason became unnerved at the PIG. They rattled him.
jimbo700 said:
but the handwriting was on the wall when when the next book came out, and the Power Pig had knocked off Q105. In 71 days, although in my mind it only took a couple of weeks. It is all perception and by the time they flipped the format, WRBQ was already perceived as losers.
Just my ever-so-humble 2¢ worth. Sorry for another lengthy post.....
Jim
You have to know what was going on within the station to fully understand why Q105 couldn't regain it's confidence enough to swing back in the game. People weren't working together at the station, they were working against each other and were more worried about themselves and their own agenda's instead of pulling together as a station should. A lot of inner struggles aided in the Q's demise back then. That build up of inner struggles was taking its toll, the Power Pig being the last straw.
The overreaction and demise came when Edens hired Gary Wall, The PD from KKLQ in San Diego to program Q105 against the PIG. He set the detonator. Q105 had already lost what teen listeners they had to the PIG and when Wall turned the format into a mirror image of the PIG, they threw away all of the adults as well. That's when the mighty empire fell.
As far as this being a Tampa topic on the Indiana board, I mentioned the Indianapolis Q ZOO being a spin-off of the Q Morning ZOO in Tampa. I see SOME relavancy in discussing Tampa here. After all, Bob and Tom may never have gotten together and grew into the show they have today if it wasn't for Clevelend Wheeler and Terrence McKeever.
