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KBIG's big success

C

casual observer

Guest
Is it time to give it up for Andrew Jeffries and the job he's doing at KBIG? Over the last six months, the station has marched from a 4.0 to a 5.1 and is now has the second biggest cume in LA. Those are serious gains. I know some on this board gripe about Jeffries' management style but this guy is smart and doing something very right so far this year at My104.3. Conversely, could this growth be at the expense of his other station, KOST? They're down 0.8 over the same period. Don't have access to the 25-54s so perhaps David Eduardo can weigh in.
 
You bring up an interesting point. I have been one of his biggest critics. I'd also stopped my posts about him because while those I know inside 3400 Olive applauded my actions, no one else seemed to care. Of the people I know who work there, under his thumb so to speak, not one attributes the station's success to his "genius". The ones I know tell me that it's not Jeffries but rather the format and music that is hot at the moment and that any decent PD could succeed with it. I've also been told that the feeling is he has done things with KOST's music and the rules that staff must follow that have hurt KOST and helped his own station to ascend and pass KOST by. Man have felt that it was a conflict of interest and that he shouldn't have been allowed near KOST at all. To list everything that I've been made aware of would keep my here typing all night. I've yet to speak with anyone I know in the Burbank building who likes the guy and and fewer still who believe he's responsible for the ratings rise. One actually said that if not for the staff's knowledge of the format and their help he would have killed KOST altogether back in 2010. What he's done to some people there is nothing short of torture, but they're all so afraid for their jobs that you'll here very little of anything of his antics in public, but take it from me, if you can get someone to open up over there you'd be very surprised by what you hear.
 
From a listener's perspective, the station has never sounded better. I'd call it Adult CHR- but it plays a great mix of today's pop/rock and lite rhythmic fare and the occassional hip hop gold- its just the right mix for Los Angeles, in my opinion.

I think the biggest change has been steering away from all of the 80s that used to haunt the station. I'm surprised how often I'll be listening to the station without going to the next preset, only to realize I've been listening to KBIG for 5 or 6 songs in a row.
 
The music mix on KBIG sounds great, but there' s not much else that stands out as special. Some of the talent is good, but nobody has a very high personality profile.

Like most formats, Hot AC goes through stages when the product is very strong and interest is high, stimulated by shows like The Voice, Idol, etc. Ding! Like right now.

The guy may be a genius for all I know. But, it doesn't take a genius to ride a wave. And putting your thumb on the scale by keeping KOST sounding old and sad is a short-term move with long term consequences. Maybe they should take some hits off of KIIS to help KBIG, too.

The trick is to capitalize on the current trend at KBIG while keeping KOST healthy. After all, a heritage AC like KOST is in a better position to perform when the flow of great music wanes. When KBIG has to retrench to some gold, what are they going to do? Take all those songs off KOST? They may navigate that just fine, but some of the things they've done recently tell me that someone there doesn't understand the KOST brand very well.

Meanwhile over on Wilshire, every misstep is an opportunity for KTWV.
 
I think its fair to say that KBIG overlaps more with KIIS musically than with KOST. KBIG plays a fair amount of rhythmic and rock gold and recurrents that will never get touched by KOST (at least not in the near future) and is even quicker on new music than KIIS sometimes (KBIG was regularly spinning Gotye and Ellie Goulding before KIIS).

I don't think its fair to say that KBIG is cannibalizing KOST- when I think they're more likely to run into KIIS territory. However, it appears that the opposite is true, and KBIG and KIIS are just complementing each other.
 
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