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Looks like The Frog went out with a bang...

T

Tennessee Cowboy

Guest
The winter book is out. WIVK did a 19.2, their best numbers in probably three years. All the rumbling about changes helped them apparently. The axe didn't fall on father/son until the end. This is 'before'. In three months we'll have 'after'.

Cumulus: 27.8
South Central: 23.6
Journal: 15.0
 
Congratulations to father for going out strong. Congratulations to son for landing at a place that appreciates him. From their Facebook posts, it appears that they'll both be happier.
 
You never know, maybe so or maybe not. Many in the younger end of the audience have grown up with the Internet, iPods, etc., and really pretty much just want radio to be a jukebox.(hence, the explosive success of Pandora, which was just this week named the most listened to "radio station", if u want to consider it that, in LA.) And these people are no longer just teens/20's. This applies to many in their 30s/40s. I know it really bothers many, and maybe it should, but I'm not sure the lower end of the 25-54 demo really cares about the "full service" elements of stations like WIVK any more. If they need weather warnings, live traffic conditions, breaking news, latest happenings in the area, or celebrity gossip; These are all available instantly on demand now from smartphones via apps & social media such as Facebook & Twitter, which most everyone uses now. Granted, the upper end of the demo are not as technologically savvy, or willing to be, but there is a big line around the 45 year old mark and under that indicates a real shift in the way that audience uses radio today.

As I say, I'm not saying this is a good thing, but I don't necessarily see WIVK's/Cumulus's move towards this trend as a death nail in WIVK and similar heritage stations. After all, they have to give the target demo what they demand. Otherwise, if they choose to age with their older audience out of the 25-54 demo, they become irrelevant to advertisers and lose profiteability.
 
It looks to me that in this book country shares grew and CHR shares fell which might explain WIVK's good book. CHR has gotten more rhythmic in the past year or so and it may be turning off some of Star's adult audience. Maybe some of them switched to The Frog.

I also have noticed that B-97.5 has gotten a bit more contemporary lately. Seems to be a good move since they will get some of Star's adults. Now we just need someone to fill the classic hits hole. It would be a great move for one of the smaller FMs like 106.1 and 105.3.
 
I get my fix from 105.7 the Hog out of Rockwood/Crossville. they have a decent signal in most of Knoxville and cover the middle valley very well. They only have two on air jocks and a couple of news people and it sounds like most of their air shows are "Live". And I also hop over to 95.7 Jack FM every now and then. When I'm up around Morristown I listen to WCRK 1150am, they lean more towards "oldies" than classic hits and I also tune in WLIK 1270 am for their brand of oldies from the 50's to the 80's.
 
I can't take 105.7 The Hog anymore. This so-called "classic hits" station spends way too much time playing non-classics that it just becomes frustrating. They need to either drop anything post '90s or stop calling it classic hits. Jack-FM is good but not a substitute for oldies/classic hits. Actually I think the best station is one that no one else on this board ever mentions, 91.1 WKCS. The variety is outstanding. Unfortunately the signal is disappointing and virtually non-existant once you get past West Hills.
 
WKCS has the best sounding air signal but has limited reception range. I listen to it when I am near the transmitter. I think that there may come a time soon when Star gets demoted to the old 93.1 frequency and 102.1 goes Oldies again or goes Country. The Rhythmic and hip hop tunes hurt CHR in this market due to the adult listenership, or the listen at the office 25-54 female coveted demographic. When the Rhythmic CHR/Hip Hop gets in heavy rotation in this market, B 97.5 and WIVK tend to have better numbers due to being more adult friendly.
 
My old high school radio station. They have upgraded since my time there, I think they are running 300 watts with the tower on top of the school. It would be nice if they could get their antenna on the ridge, maybe one of the big groups would donate them a space on one of their towers for the tax write off.
 
Kent T said:
WKCS has the best sounding air signal but has limited reception range. I listen to it when I am near the transmitter. I think that there may come a time soon when Star gets demoted to the old 93.1 frequency and 102.1 goes Oldies again or goes Country. The Rhythmic and hip hop tunes hurt CHR in this market due to the adult listenership, or the listen at the office 25-54 female coveted demographic. When the Rhythmic CHR/Hip Hop gets in heavy rotation in this market, B 97.5 and WIVK tend to have better numbers due to being more adult friendly.
Click to expand...

I agree that a true CHR Mainstream can sometimes be too Rhythmic in a market trying to play both sides of the fence. Either your straight up POP serving the true 18-34 and 25-54 mainstream audience or your Rhythmic serving the true Rhythmic Crossover 18-34 and 25-54 audience. Star 102.1 and Hot 104.5 is straddling the fence trying to please two seperate core listeners at the same time. I can't listen past 3 songs on either station without having to flip!! Music flow is awful on both stations!!! That is one reason why Star and Hot's numbers have dropped!!!
 
There isn't a lot of difference between Carrie Underwood and Katy Perry. It wouldn't be difficult for a Star listener to also listen to The Frog.
 
The overlooked story of the book is B97.5's exceptional 12+ share number.

5-6 years ago, a 19 share would've been a bad sign for WIVK. If memory serves me correct (drawing from the past few years) the Frog topped out at a 25 point something around '07

Who would've thunk that The B would be near a 12 share in 2012.
 
It would be nice to see them grow a little in a climate like this. But I don't see that much more demand for Maroon 5 around here.
 
Also remember they are the Only AC game in town WIVK has been getting more competition from other signals the B is the Only place to go for AC.
 
In the Knoxville ratings battle, Star is 3rd place. It is too young leaning, too hip hoppish and Rhythmic to appeal to the 25-54 money demographic. B 97.5 caters more to that money demographic since it is more gold based and plays less of the youth and harder edged CHR material. The Listen At Work demographic is crucial to Knoxville ratings success.
 
Kent T said:
In the Knoxville ratings battle, Star is 3rd place. It is too young leaning, too hip hoppish and Rhythmic to appeal to the 25-54 money demographic. B 97.5 caters more to that money demographic since it is more gold based and plays less of the youth and harder edged CHR material. The Listen At Work demographic is crucial to Knoxville ratings success.
Click to expand...

Listen at work has to include a fair amount of non-offensive programming to pass the company owner/manager test. If you can hear it in a Pilot or Weigels, it's probably passed the boss test. Country and AC fit. To some degree so does classic rock. Find a store with rhythmic or Rush and you'll find that some customers will avoid it.
 
I think the notion that CHR can't work because of workplace listening is incorrect. Maybe this could be argued in the past, but CHR is a huge, dominant format across the country at the moment. (#1 in many markets & several markets supporting 2 or 3 CHR's). Also, today's adults are keeping up with trends much more than in the past, and CHR is showing huge gains in older 30-40 something demos. So much so, that it's basically taken the place of Hot AC, and also forced a much more current/uptempo approach at many mainstream AC's.

I think the idea of current pop music turning off adults & customers is really not much of an issue anymore (unless we're focusing on the 55+ crowd, and owners doing that are missing out on the money demos anyway). And as far as locally, yeah East TN can be irritatingly conservative & behind the curve, but still, I hear Star 102.1 & even Hot 104.5 being played in businesses (gas stations/restaurants/stores, etc) all the time. Sure, AC will get more business/work play, but saying CHR cannot garner a sizable chunk nowadays is just no longer true.

Going back 15-20 years ago & seeing a 40 year old woman singing along to LL Cool J or Vanilla Ice might be rare or odd, but today, seeing a 40 year old female belting out Katy Perry, LMFAO, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, etc. in the car is an everyday occurrence.
 
I Totaly agree with what BRH said. CHR is a strong format in every market even small markets. I don't care to much for the Mark, Frank, and Kim's morning show, but look at their age. They are not your average 20 year old morning show crew!! They also relate to the 25-54 year old soccer moms. In the past, they have knocked B.975 down to third in the market and Star up to 2nd. Knoxville is a college town and a lot of national buys can be heard on Star and Hot!!! Don't rule out CHR not being a money making demo in the market!!
 
Journal took the hardest hit in this last book. It takes Star and Hot together to equal the B.
 
Tennessee Cowboy said:
Journal took the hardest hit in this last book. It takes Star and Hot together to equal the B.
Click to expand...

12+ numbers do not matter. The trend for national advertisers is 18-34 now.
 
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