Speaking of that name, another Delilah. I wonder if there's going to be future plans for her show to return locally possibly to 94.1?
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KMPS is now 94.1 The Sound
- Thread starter iamarussianpirate
- Start date
See post #102 in this thread.
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Ironic how radio is regularly labeled old, boring, bland, unimaginative and needing new ideas yet the "answer" is always to look to the past.
For the same reason you are not reading this on a Blackberry, Palm Pilot, TRS-80 or Commodore 64. Delilah, Robin and Maynard, KUBE 93, KMPS are all part of the past.
For the same reason you are not reading this on a Blackberry, Palm Pilot, TRS-80 or Commodore 64. Delilah, Robin and Maynard, KUBE 93, KMPS are all part of the past.
But I like Robin & Maynard. 
Seattle radio is in turmoil right now. And how does this increase listenership? It doesn't. It just creates confusion. Perhaps this is the goal of the major operators. Get everyone so confused that the chips will fall where they may. What a shit-storm. Seriously, this seems like a desperate effort to stay alive. Unfortunately, it probably will evolve into less radio listenership. Not the intended desire, but resultant.
Sometimes to freshen things up, you need to take some chances and potentially make a mess first. Just look at businesses other than radio which haven't evolved by assuming some risk, only have gotten too far behind the curve to recover: Former giant retailers Sears and KMart come to mind. Granted radio isn't a retailer, but it is a business.
Then you have Walmart, KellyA. They have taken the middle ground and are doing better than Sears and Kmart. They managed to adapt the traditional retail model to the new retail model and although the jury is still out on how well it will work, it's working so far...
As far as local radio goes, blowing up KMPS looks stupid but it isn't the first time a popular station with heritage was blown up. In fact, KMPS comes from KOL, which was a popular station that was blown up. Time will tell how things turn out for the new stations and shake-ups. But I don't think these massive radio companies are shaking things up with the intention of losing audience, or losing money. They are trying a few new things with the intention of trying to keep radio alive.
Radio is, after all, their business.
As far as local radio goes, blowing up KMPS looks stupid but it isn't the first time a popular station with heritage was blown up. In fact, KMPS comes from KOL, which was a popular station that was blown up. Time will tell how things turn out for the new stations and shake-ups. But I don't think these massive radio companies are shaking things up with the intention of losing audience, or losing money. They are trying a few new things with the intention of trying to keep radio alive.
Radio is, after all, their business.
Sure, but not all business do things for the same reason. So far, I've seen no real business reason here. Just basic revenge.
That's my takeaway from this, too.
Unless they have some kind of research saying there's a trove of women they weren't reaching before, will this combination outbill what they had if they kept both country?
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Being number one isn't always the goal of every radio station, but neither is being number 15 (just ask Rock 98.9). Welcome to 21st century radio group ownership.
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Changes you do not like ≠"turmoil."
Note that I said "outbill."
At the end of the day, it's all about revenue.
I worked for a GM who had the attitude that "we call can't be number one" and said to just get into the top 10 so we're on the buy.
Our stations were in the bottom tier every time. The ratings memos trying to put a spin on being number 22 were hilarious.
New GM comes in, says I want to win. Gives us the research and people to win. We're all in the top 5 now. Attitude is everything.
Entercom handed Hubbard a gift. Instead of Wolf listeners punching out to KMPS when they go to spots, they'll punch over to 98.9. Because that's basically how cluster strategy works. You know that people punch around, so you want to keep them in the family.
Exactly. The stupid part is they killed the station that was billing the highest. My understanding is that KMPS was out-billing Wolf even when they were losing to them in the ratings. So they lost heritage and revenue, and they won't replace that revenue with soft rock.
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Probably because you're not in the market and don't understand the dynamics.
How do you know that part?
What is there to see that only someone inside the market would know? Although I don't work in the industry let alone for Entercom, I too can't think of the reason why Entercom would blow up a brand that has been in place for nearly 40 years and is doing better than the one they have now.
Fine...educate me. Tell me all the dynamics.
Because from my vantage point, this was not a decision made for profit.
I mean if they had well known talent at the Wolf, if Fitz was still hot and doing mornings, I would understand.
Because the format has been done before, and isn't typically a big money maker. That's why it's not being done as much any more.
Setting aside the question of whether Entercom should have even flipped one of their two country stations or not, I had also been wondering why Entercom chose to keep KKWF over KMPS.
I decided to dig into the ratings, and for simplicity sake I’m looking at A25-54 AQH rating, M-F 6a-7p. Nielsen lets you go back 46 books so this is looking at each monthly from June 2014 – December 2017.
Of those 46 books, KMPS had a higher rating than KKWF 17 times. KKWF won 20 times, and they tied 9 times.
All of KMPS’ wins came after November ’15, however the majority of those weren’t blowouts. Only 5 of the 17 KMPS victories were by more than a tenth of a point. Looking back over the past 24 books, KMPS and KKWF were within a tenth of a point 20 of 24 times.
KKWF had won the war each month from June ‘14 – October ‘15 and they did so more convincingly, averaging over two tenths of a point better than KMPS.
Here’s what I think Entercom’s rational was:
1) KKWF had won the battle in a convincing manner for years until Nov ’15 when all of a sudden the rating was cut in half. This coincided with a 10% churn of KKWF panelists, which represented 20% of KKWF heavy listening. Entercom’s conclusion: It wasn’t us. The panel change screwed with our ratings.
2) Most compliant panelists are in the panel for 18-24 months. If you go 24 books from Nov ’15, you’re at Aug ’17 which coincides with the month KKWF stopped a 4 book slide and had their best rating of 2017. Entercom’s conclusion: It wasn’t us. The panel change screwed with our ratings again, but now those panelists are gone and things are looking up.
3) We (Entercom) know KKWF. It’s our baby. We have set partnerships, we know how to program it, we know how to sell it. We don’t know KMPS. Entercom’s conclusion: Advantage KKWF.
4) Even when we were losing to KMPS, it wasn’t by that much. Do we think that we can beat whoever ends up flipping to country (iHeart with a syndicated morning show or Hubbard who hasn’t programed a country station in this market)? Entercom’s conclusion: Yeah, we can beat either or both of those two. We’ve programmed country radio in this market for 10 years and for the majority of those years we beat the heritage country competitor. A new unknown country station in the market shouldn’t be hard to beat.
5) We have a brand new morning show on KKWF. We have a new PD on KKWF. Those are our people that we hired just recently. Entercom’s conclusion: We don’t know the KMPS staff. We know our guys. Advantage KKWF.
6) Billing wise, KKWF had been beating KMPS each month until just recently. Entercom’s conclusion: Ratings are getting better, we have the relationships with the direct country clients, we’ll be fine.
My conclusion: If Entercom was set on flipping one of their country stations, KMPS did in retrospect make the most sense. At the very least, it should be fun to watch a newly invigorated country battle.
I decided to dig into the ratings, and for simplicity sake I’m looking at A25-54 AQH rating, M-F 6a-7p. Nielsen lets you go back 46 books so this is looking at each monthly from June 2014 – December 2017.
Of those 46 books, KMPS had a higher rating than KKWF 17 times. KKWF won 20 times, and they tied 9 times.
All of KMPS’ wins came after November ’15, however the majority of those weren’t blowouts. Only 5 of the 17 KMPS victories were by more than a tenth of a point. Looking back over the past 24 books, KMPS and KKWF were within a tenth of a point 20 of 24 times.
KKWF had won the war each month from June ‘14 – October ‘15 and they did so more convincingly, averaging over two tenths of a point better than KMPS.
Here’s what I think Entercom’s rational was:
1) KKWF had won the battle in a convincing manner for years until Nov ’15 when all of a sudden the rating was cut in half. This coincided with a 10% churn of KKWF panelists, which represented 20% of KKWF heavy listening. Entercom’s conclusion: It wasn’t us. The panel change screwed with our ratings.
2) Most compliant panelists are in the panel for 18-24 months. If you go 24 books from Nov ’15, you’re at Aug ’17 which coincides with the month KKWF stopped a 4 book slide and had their best rating of 2017. Entercom’s conclusion: It wasn’t us. The panel change screwed with our ratings again, but now those panelists are gone and things are looking up.
3) We (Entercom) know KKWF. It’s our baby. We have set partnerships, we know how to program it, we know how to sell it. We don’t know KMPS. Entercom’s conclusion: Advantage KKWF.
4) Even when we were losing to KMPS, it wasn’t by that much. Do we think that we can beat whoever ends up flipping to country (iHeart with a syndicated morning show or Hubbard who hasn’t programed a country station in this market)? Entercom’s conclusion: Yeah, we can beat either or both of those two. We’ve programmed country radio in this market for 10 years and for the majority of those years we beat the heritage country competitor. A new unknown country station in the market shouldn’t be hard to beat.
5) We have a brand new morning show on KKWF. We have a new PD on KKWF. Those are our people that we hired just recently. Entercom’s conclusion: We don’t know the KMPS staff. We know our guys. Advantage KKWF.
6) Billing wise, KKWF had been beating KMPS each month until just recently. Entercom’s conclusion: Ratings are getting better, we have the relationships with the direct country clients, we’ll be fine.
My conclusion: If Entercom was set on flipping one of their country stations, KMPS did in retrospect make the most sense. At the very least, it should be fun to watch a newly invigorated country battle.
Well thought out analysis. However, it still reads like revenge to me. To the victor goes the spoils. We won, you lost, so go find new jobs.
Still...why leave an opening for the competition? Someone was definitely going to flip.
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No good operator (and Entercom is one) uses revenge as a reason to flip. One thing I left out was that the overall country audience has shrunk in the past 2 years (due to the music cycle, panelist lottery, or whatever). Where KMPS and KKWF combined were pulling a 1.1 two years ago, it's more like a .7 now. They think they can win a larger share than any competitor, or maybe they think the format is healthier with competition.
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