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Jan 2020 Ratings

Star is not even top 5 in key female demos.

What in the world is Jerry McKenna doing / waiting for? My guess: Rick Caffey standing squarely in the way of any decisions.
 
HerbTarlek said:
Star is not even top 5 in key female demos.
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If you have different or more up to date numbers please share, but Roddy Freeman a media buyer with access to the real money demo’s had (that is the key word) Star at #1 25-34 females.* If they loose that and not gain somewhere else I will guarantee there will be changes. I can only guess they still have a “sellable audience”. Entercom has a fair amount of debt to service I do not think they will wait around with any station that is not billing properly.

*https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?722483-Grinch-Ratings/page2
 
RoddyFreeman said:
I agree with you that Hispanic would be the best use of the 105.7 signal, but Radio One has no need for that signal. 107.5 already simulcasts with 97.5 on the south side.
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Here's a question:

There are two Hispanic groups in Atlanta, Mexican/Central American and Caribbean. In many respects, their tastes are significantly different.

I've never done analysis of the market, so I don't know if the two groups are in different geographic areas or not. That would determine the effectiveness of marginal signals.

There is a common ground among many under-35 listeners in a reggaeton based rhythmic CHR, but significant groups of Mexican first generation immigrants are more into regional Mexican, while the Caribbean origin listeners (who are mostly Puerto Ricans in ATL) are pretty much divided between reggaeton, traditional Spanish language AC and English language contemporary formats.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Here's a question:

There are two Hispanic groups in Atlanta, Mexican/Central American and Caribbean. In many respects, their tastes are significantly different.

I've never done analysis of the market, so I don't know if the two groups are in different geographic areas or not. That would determine the effectiveness of marginal signals.

There is a common ground among many under-35 listeners in a reggaeton based rhythmic CHR, but significant groups of Mexican first generation immigrants are more into regional Mexican, while the Caribbean origin listeners (who are mostly Puerto Ricans in ATL) are pretty much divided between reggaeton, traditional Spanish language AC and English language contemporary formats.
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I'm not sure about the geography, but Gwinnett, where the 105.7 signal booms in, is heavily Latino and growing exponentially. Little La Raza (102.3) covers Gwinnett well and makes a ton of money. iHeart programs a Latino CHR format on their station.

iHeart, however, does not program to Latinos on 105.7, but instead uses their 105.3 signal on the other side of the market. 105.3 bills pretty well because they're the only game in Atlanta as far as Hispanic programming.

If iHeart moved the 105.3 format to 105.7, they would need to figure out what to do with 105.3. That signal's strength is in the southern part of the market, but there's no room for another Urban station.
 
We are a full year removed from Star being a contender in any segment of their female demos. A lot has changed since then.

Outside of the Christmas book, they have been barely reaching 5th with women 35-44.

Sad.
 
HerbTarlek said:
We are a full year removed from Star being a contender in any segment of their female demos. A lot has changed since then.

Outside of the Christmas book, they have been barely reaching 5th with women 35-44.

Sad.
Click to expand...



If Star is that bad in the female demos, I am really surprised (like you are) that there hasn’t been changes. Sister station 92.9 The Game hasn’t hesitated axing on air talent and sales managers for poor performance under both CBS and Entercom ownership while it has been the #1 (6+) sports station for quite soon time.
 
secondchoice said:
If Star is that bad in the female demos, I am really surprised (like you are) that there hasn’t been changes. Sister station 92.9 The Game hasn’t hesitated axing on air talent and sales managers for poor performance under both CBS and Entercom ownership while it has been the #1 (6+) sports station for quite soon time.
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As I recall, CBS flipped 92.9 Dave FM to sportstalk and Cumulus flipped 106.7 Atlanta's Greatest Hits to all-news at about the same time, both with powerful incumbent competitors (680 The Fan/790 The Zone and WSB, respectively). There was a lot of discussion about how spoken word would work on FM vs. a traditional music format. 92.9 took a while to do well but now gets a 4+ share. WSBB 95.5 has taken over most of the WSB listenership, itself a juggernaut. 106.7 never really got any traction, whether all-news or news-talk.

I guess my question is: Has it been the format, the product, or the management? Or more than one?
 
jabba17 said:
As I recall, CBS flipped 92.9 Dave FM to sportstalk and Cumulus flipped 106.7 Atlanta's Greatest Hits to all-news at about the same time, both with powerful incumbent competitors (680 The Fan/790 The Zone and WSB, respectively). There was a lot of discussion about how spoken word would work on FM vs. a traditional music format. 92.9 took a while to do well but now gets a 4+ share. WSBB 95.5 has taken over most of the WSB listenership, itself a juggernaut. 106.7 never really got any traction, whether all-news or news-talk.

I guess my question is: Has it been the format, the product, or the management? Or more than one?
Click to expand...

I always thought the all news format sounded great. Cumulus didn't really give it a chance.
 
ThePowerCow said:
I always thought the all news format sounded great. Cumulus didn't really give it a chance.
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No kidding. Flipped on May 29, 2012 and launched talk November 4, 2013.

"All News" & "NewsRadio" peaked at 2.1, but mostly hovered at 1.8. "Talk 106.7" ended around 0.8.
 
jabba17 said:
106.7 never really got any traction, whether all-news or news-talk.

I guess my question is: Has it been the format, the product, or the management? Or more than one?
Click to expand...

It is the management.

Both Cumulus under Dickey and Citadel thought they could cut overhead and not have any decline in billings. Yes there was a downturn but if you are going down in the ratings too, and big debt it is a trifecta that will bankrupt just about anybody. Next time you are north of Atlanta, check 780 WBBM at night or listen on Radio.com much better product. If you could turn back the hands of time CBS should have done All News. I doubt they would have made any more money than sports, but they could have given WSB a challenge. At that time WSB had access to the AJC and Channel 2 news rooms by common ownership. 106.7 never stood a chance.

At least the current Cumulus management realizes they can't cut it in the large markets and are piecemeal selling out or swapping properties in the top markets.
 
secondchoice said:
Both Cumulus under Dickey and Citadel thought they could cut overhead and not have any decline in billings.
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They spent a ton of money on all news. They hired a lot of people from CNN Radio, which had just been shut down. They stuck with news in morning and afternoon drive for a long time. All news in other markets have been doing the exact same thing. KTAR in Phoenix just replaced its all news block in mid-morning with a local talk show. They run the syndicated Dave Ramsey show at noon. Then go back to all news for afternoon drive. They're owned by Bonneville. I doubt that CBS would have flipped any of its stations in Atlanta to all news. Certainly not their AM. Sports is far more profitable than news.
 
ThePowerCow said:
I always thought the all news format sounded great. Cumulus didn't really give it a chance.
Click to expand...

In more recent years (in other words, this century) there have been all news attempts or partial attempts in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston among others. None worked, despite good efforts; even the Radio One operation in Houston was well managed and given a lot of time.

There have been several theories as to why they have not worked.

Citing the decline in news shares (and loss of a station) in LA, some believe that in the warmer climate "growth markets" there is less interest. That is attributed to either a lot of non-locally born residents or to growing ethnic groups that don't traditionally use all news. Some just say the warmer climate atmosphere is less conducive to all news.

Others say that use of all-news is tradition-based, with the successful stations going back many decades. And in some opinions, it is said that before all-news stations arrived people had found new news sources online and no longer needed a radio option.
 
HerbTarlek said:
Star is not even top 5 in key female demos.

What in the world is Jerry McKenna doing / waiting for? My guess: Rick Caffey standing squarely in the way of any decisions.
Click to expand...

Exactly what are you wanting him to do? He just put the finishing touches on his music and formatics.

I still expect talent changes most notably in mornings. But when that will happen is anyone's guess. It's possible it's being held up by contracts, meaning they don't want to be paying for 2 morning shows. But that's just a guess.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Others say that use of all-news is tradition-based, with the successful stations going back many decades. And in some opinions, it is said that before all-news stations arrived people had found new news sources online and no longer needed a radio option.
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If there's a radio format that has the weakest advantage (if any) over a smartphone, it's all-news. Second would probably be the informational Saturday shows on home improvement, gardening, etc. Opinion (political talk or sports talk) and PXP probably are the most solid spoken-word format vs. being competed against by a smartphone.
 
TheBigA said:
They spent a ton of money on all news. They hired a lot of people from CNN Radio, which had just been shut down. They stuck with news in morning and afternoon drive for a long time. All news in other markets have been doing the exact same thing. KTAR in Phoenix just replaced its all news block in mid-morning with a local talk show. They run the syndicated Dave Ramsey show at noon. Then go back to all news for afternoon drive. They're owned by Bonneville. I doubt that CBS would have flipped any of its stations in Atlanta to all news. Certainly not their AM. Sports is far more profitable than news.
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106.7 was not going sports when Lew and company was running Cumulus. That would have severely harmed his family's 680 the Fan. All sports should make more than all news. All I am saying is that CBS had deep pockets and experience in the all news format. If anybody could have gone up against WSB they could have. Lew spent his money on folks from a failed network.
 
TheBigA said:
The only recent attempt CBS made at launching an all-news station was in DC on a weak signal, attempting to compete against WTOP and WAMU. It was a dismal failure. They ended up leasing the signal to Bloomberg:

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/95575/dc-all-news-battle-comes-to-end-as-cbs-sells-99-1-wnew/
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It is hard to be successful in a competitive market with a bad signal. 106.7 covers very lucrative zip codes. 104.7 using the same tower and antenna but at a lower power is a constant top 10 (6+). There are varying opinions whether all news should have gone on 100.5 (in mono) with an in town tower and rock 100 moved to 106.7 to go against 97.1. We will never know.

IMHO 106.7 is one of the better move in's (technically). I believe most of the successful all news have the same ownership as a local TV station with excellent local news gathering, some how WINS 1010 in NYC survived WCBS AM.
 
secondchoice said:
It is hard to be successful in a competitive market with a bad signal.
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There seems to be a difference of opinion about that signal. The point is Cumulus spent a lot of money to hire top notch experienced news professionals. The product was not the problem at 106.7. Its pretty obvious that every other radio company has accepted the experience and will not attempt another all news in Atlanta. The same can be said about Houston. I am doubtful we'll see the launch of a commercial all-news station in any market again. The industry appears content to leave the format to public radio, as it did many years before with classical.
 
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