Let's all play "Group Owner"

[GreatCalloftheNE]

Now that they're selling the company, Clear Channel has to divest themselves of one of their Hartford FM's to comply with FCC rules.

So let's say you are a group owner and you buy that FM...let's make it WPHH (104) and you also convince Buckley and Marlin to sell WDRC-FM and WCCC-FM to you. Just for laughs let's say you also buy WDRC-AM and WCCC-AM as part of the deal

You now own 3 Hartford FM's and two AM's and you're competing with CBS (WRCH, WZMX, WTIC) and Clear Channel (WWYZ, WKSS, WHCN) and their AM's. Assume CBS and CC stand pat and don't flip any formats. What would would you do with your stations? Stand pat? Flip one or more?

Tell us what you would do and why.

 

[Whale]

Keep WCCC and WDRC. Make WCCC play a better mix including more alternative songs and some more eclectic classic rock, and get rid of much of the new crap rock they play. Also tell the afternoon show to TRY and be funny once in a while.

104.1 would go CHR and hunt down Kiss and TIC.

 

[KML0224]

Sadly, I think 104.1 would go Spanish before CHR.

 

[cabradio]

What about untapped niches...everybody wants to program their "favorite" format (everybody is a PD and can do it better than the one doing it, right?), but there are people that don't have "anything" to listen to and only listen to radio by default...they choose the "least of all the evils". The reason people buy Ipods and XM/Sirius is because their preference for entertainment is not found on the radio dial...we don't need 3 CHRs battling it out; two is one too many. It leaves thousands of people without "something" to listen to. This is really an opportunity for the armchair quarterbacks to show their stuff.

 

[MarcB]

Charlie,

You already know what kind of station I'd program. Make it a community oriented station. Serve the COL. Report on local stories. Local Sports. Etc. Etc. Etc.

 

[Whale]

OK fine 104.1 goes dance 24/7!

 

[kms575]

Keep WCCC and WDRC. Make WCCC play a better mix including more alternative songs and some more eclectic classic rock, and get rid of much of the new crap rock they play. Also tell the afternoon show to TRY and be funny once in a while.

104.1 would go CHR and hunt down Kiss and TIC.

Amen to that!!

 

[MorningLight]

Charlie has the right idea! UNSERVED niche audiences! Are there ANY Classical stations up that way? How about Beautiful Music? NOBODY is doing that... but I'll betcha there's still an audience for it! Something to make you say, "Hmmmmmmm..."

CT doesn't have a full-power Contemporary CHRISTIAN MUSIC station anywhere! We have WIHS, which plays more teaching than music, and WFIF (where I work) that is mostly talk and teaching. There is an LPFM Christian Rocker in Ledyard. That's it.

I just had another thought... last time I checked, I was able to get FIFTY FM stations with LISTENABLE signals. Of those 50, TWENTY FOUR were all playing Top 40! Just by spinning the dial (or punching "scan") I can hear the SAME SONG several times in a row. I've done it a few times, just as a lark. It's not hard to do at all, with THAT MANY stations all playing essentially the same playlists. Uhhhh, Huston? We have a problem!

 

[MarcB]

There's classical. 24/7 on WCCC AM 1290 490 watts day/11 watts night. And that is simulcast on 106.9 FM HD2.

 

[MorningLight]

That's a pretty puny signal!


How many people do you know with HD radios? Talk about a debacle... a number of well-regarded Industry Professionals are not very optimistic about HD's future. I agree with them. It is doomed to failure due to a number of significant issues, some of which include:

1) Virtually non-existant receiver penetration.
2) Expensive, fragile, poor-performing radios.
3) No portables.
4) Stations that leave "dead air" on their HD channels for days, or a "stuck CD".
5) The AM HD system is an abomination. Period.

That's the nutshell version.