fyi: Dave doesn't play AC/DC and Dave isn't a Jack format at all. I also don't think Dave is a copy of anything else per se. While the Infinity Jacks are going jockless, Dave has personalities. And the music mix is not Jack. The mix is adult rock, an amalgam of triple A and classic rock but not quite either. It also isn't a replication of KFOG. And as you said, it takes two to four years to build a brand. Dave has only been around a year. It's a little early to bury it.
> > Why does it seem to be doing just that in a lot of other
> > markets, but not here in Atlanta?? I know it's not
> "topping"
> > the market in other places, but it does seem to be
> working.
>
> That assumes that it is only music people are tuning in for,
> but in fact it is much more. It is an identity, a
> lifestyle, a presentation and a feeling of inclusion. Most
> people want to belong to something, and most radio of the
> Dave/Jack/Bob variety spend all their time trying to appeal
> the 5% of people who are never going to be happy anyway.
> How many people have I-Pods? Is it even 5%? It might even
> be 10% of the population? That is hardly mass appeal. Sure
> it’s the flavor of the day in digital music, and can be a
> topic, but shouldn’t be the focus.
>
> Radio is a mass medium, therefore its challenge is to appeal
> to the masses, not narrowcast itself. It is not the secret
> handshake club. And the masses are not going to jump from
> Bob Marley to AC/DC and be happy about it. All the new
> listeners gained through playing Bob Marley would be pissed
> away with AC/DC and vice versa.
>
> Here is the other classic mistake radio has made post
> consolidation (and some pre): Let's copy what someone else
> is doing in another city without ever understanding the
> mission of the radio station and how it maintains market
> position. "It’s got to be the music. If we play the exact
> same songs as that other station in Phoenix we should expect
> the same results as in Phoenix.”
>
> Sorry, it just doesn't work that way. As an industry, we
> have proven this to ourselves. Yet we continue to repeat
> the same mistakes. Edge, Alice, Jammin’ Oldies, just to
> name a few, were all cookie cutter formats which had a short
> shelf life.
>
> One cannot take KFOG and move it Atlanta and expect it to
> work. We have to create an Atlanta-centric version of the
> station in order for it to work. And it takes a good 2-4
> years to build the brand. No publicly traded company in
> America is going to experiment for 2-4 years with a station
> they paid 50-100 million for - it is just not economically
> feasible.
>
> To rely solely on music to create a good radio station, you
> ignore 50-60% of the rest of the elements that create a good
> radio station. Sure music is part of it, but if you are
> solely relying on music to make your mark, you will loose.
>