Here's my take:
*Ramar flips to FM Sports
Getting TT sports is a win for Ramar, because it brings attention to the stations, helps them sell more advertising, or at least it should. So I see it as more of a "price of adveritsing." It is also good becuase it brings radio and tv broadcasts under the same house. The problem is, GAP had more stations in the cluster. GAP has 6, but RAMAR only has only has 4, with only 1 AM station, whereas GAP had 2. Only Magic and Stars have a solid city grade signals, and only Magic makes it outside the city. 104.3 is a rim shot. I would have blown up 950 and made it all sports, or made 104.3 and 950 a simulcast, but this was tried already (remember when the old 97.3 from Plainview was Fox Talk?). The trend seems to be for sports on FM, and people seem to like hearing their football games in hi-fi, especially since you can put the radio near a TV and not get interference. Then again, DTV causes a delay, so it is not really feasible any more. At least it keeps sports from interfering with many of the GAP stations programming in the market but deflates 1340's marketability.
*Bob and Tom added to NIGHTS on CR101
Don't understand the point of this one. There was no reason for it, unless they plan to eventually drop John Boy and Billy and replace them with Bob and Tom. Otherwise, a music oriented syndicated show would have been a better move for the evening shift.
*Z102 to KISS-FM
This was initially a good move, but I have since been disappointed. You can't just put lipstick on a pig and call it a lady. Just slapping the KIIS FM logo on the station van and replacing a few elements and calling it a day is not going to do anything to bring 102.5 back into the win column. When you make a change like that, you need to promote the he|| out of it. Has anyone seen a single KISS FM billboard? How about a TV spot?
The problem is this:
When you lose listeners, you have to do some real work to win them back. I don't think anybody at that station (and my apologies if this is not true), has put in any overtime.
What needs to be done to bring 102.5 back is this:
1. Re-arrange the Jingles. There MUST be a top of the hour I.D. One-Two Punch, with the a DJ intro. You have to kick off the hour, by emphasizing the station, and energize the hour with a bullet song. And stop playing the same song at the top of the hour every two hours. We don't need to hear the same repeats of "KZII FM Lubbock" followed Lady Ga Ga, Flo-rida and The Black Eyed Peas all day long. No, the DJ has to do some work.
2. GET RID OF THAT GUY FROM AMARILLO. 102.5 has been Kiss for 7 weeks now, and he's still saying that the website is 1025, KISSFM.com" Has anyone made even a slight attempt at correcting him? C'mon, if you are PD of station YOU HAVE GOT to pay attention to what is on your station! Why not, the listeners pay attention, so should you. If I were the PD, that voice track would have bee GONE, HISTORY, after the first week or two.
3. ELEMENTS ELEMENTS ELEMENTS. This is CHR! There needs to be an element BETWEEN EVERY SONG, not every few songs, but EVERY SONG! I learned that lesson my first week in radio in 1997.
4. This goes with number 3. If you are going to call yourself KISS FM you need to have the elements right! You need jingles jingles jingles, and even a very small percentage of reverb. If you can't do that, than you need to find a different Image.
*KFMX returns to live mornings
Another one I don't understand. With Z102, everyone said "get a real morning show, not two local guys nobody cares about." But then on FMX it's "We need local, not some out of town canned show." Then, the same people say "FMX and KZII cross over (which I disagree with). So this is all controdictory, so I would like it if someone could explain it. Sounds like double talk to me.
*KQBR (The Bear) starts flirting with Americana
Regardless of what is claimed, KQBR is NOT the dominant KLLL, and having 105.3 in the same market do a similar format probably doesn't help. But I don't know enough about country to know. I DO think that 99.5 would have been better off going back to a Top40 derivative like Hot AC, AC or Urban. In my view, 99.5 is the only other way for GAP to have a successful CHR.
*Stars makes a play against Mix with 80's weekend.
Not much of a play. Stars is playing way too many different 80s songs in the same rotation, none of them fit. Plus, they left all their syndicated shows in place, so all weekend, it was all 80s until Delilah came on and then suddenly it was back to playing Sheryl Crow for 4 hours. That is disorganized. But then again, Stars, like KISS is another example of management only doing part of the job, and not paying attention to what is actually on the air.
*KLLL & MIX staying under the radar
Good. If it ain't broke, don't fix. I maintain that the Mix and KLLL are the best managed stations in Lubbock. I think Mix would also make a great CHR if they wanted. I don't think Mix needed to put on a syndicated night show, but that is just my opinion on the subject.
And let me add this:
I am surprised at this point that nobody has attempted to take on KZII in the Mainstream CHR format. 102.5 is the most vulnerable station right now, and whoever challenges them has much to gain. If I was PD of a competing Mainstream CHR, i could have that station number 1 in just one book!
