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Micahel Waite 'demoted' to afternoons at WJBR?

D

DELifer

Guest
Mention made on air this afternoon that the long-time morning man is moving to afternoons next week. Web site already lists 'Morning Show with Dave Cruise & Jill.' The Cruise from Ben FM? Would make sense with the Beasley connection. Neither Waite nor Paul Lewis currently listed on the Web site. Why move your "franchise" out of morning drive? Hmmmm
 
Because he's rumored to be pondering retirement. My guess is that he wants to give it one last go...a swan song, if you will...before he hangs up the headphones for good.
 
Why blow up your #1 morning show during a book? That doesn't make sense, retirement or not. And what's wrong with Jill's voice? She sounds much older than her picture looks on the website and always seems to be out of breath reading the news.
 
wheatstone said:
Why blow up your #1 morning show during a book? That doesn't make sense, retirement or not. And what's wrong with Jill's voice? She sounds much older than her picture looks on the website and always seems to be out of breath reading the news.
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Why blow it up? Because they are trying to save money. That station was bought for a ridiculous amount of money and they can never recoup what they put into it. They're trying to stop the bleeding, so to speak.

And Jill sounds like that because she smokes 70 packs of cigarettes a day. She probably smokes in the shower and while sleeping.
 
Michael Waite has been at WJBR quite a long time. Even though his AM drive show is #1, is it possible that the age demo of that #1 audience is aging, thus the reason for the change. Go back 30 years ago, when WJBR-FM was Just Beautiful Radio, they were the #1 station in the market then, but if I remember correctly from what I read and heard, they couldn't sell to the national advertisers that format as the audience wasn't the one they wanted. That's when the Reynolds family ( the original owners sold WJBR and the format changed from Beautiful Music to AC). There probably former JBR folks here who remember better the exact story of why the Reynolds family sold their #1 rated station that played elevator music. So it is possibly as time has marched on, even though Waite still has the #1 AM drive show in Wilmington, he no longer is pulling in enough of that prized audience.
 
You can also just attribute it to the fact that, for all intents and purposes, personality radio is officially dead. Michael Waite could be considered the last of the Mohicans when it comes to the genre. Michael, regardless of age, still brings alot of radio energy to the table every morning. From what I remember of Dave Cruise, when he was in Philly, the only word that comes to mind is dull - his delivery and on-air presence. But it seems that dull is what the radio audience of 2010 and beyond is looking for...
 
I wasn't referring to Michael's age, but that of his listeners. Has his listener's aged? If so, that might be why the change.
 
MikefromDelaware said:
I wasn't referring to Michael's age, but that of his listeners. Has his listener's aged? If so, that might be why the change.
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WJBR has always nothing but dull. Remember the old AM drive guy Doug Weldon, very dull.

It's amazing they get the numbers they do. Of course in Wilmington, there isn't that much of a choice. If anyone wanted professional radio, they would turn in Philly.
 
Why blow it up? Because they are trying to save money.

Fine. But wait another month til the spring book ends and then make the change. This is really a bad move.
 
One thing to remember, both WSTW and WJBR have the strongest signals in the Wilmington metro area, so they penetrate steel office buildings better than any other stations in Philly or elsewhere. So some of that work day audience may indeed not really like either WJBR or WSTW, but its that or no radio. Many companies that have computer networks, have their computers filtered so you can't go on line to listen to radio online so you are stuck with what your radio can pick up. I've worked places where 93.7 and 99.5 were the only stations available. In center city Philly, probably the Wilmington stations are not so easy to pick up in many of those office buildings for the same reason.

You say WJBR is dull, but if that is the case, then Philly's B-101 is dull too as they both essentially play the same boring music, for my ear and apparently yours too, yet both are the top rated FM's in their respective markets. Women do seem to like both those stations.

Maybe B-101's signal in Philly is like WJBR's and WSTW's here in Wilmington, where almost any FM radio in Philly can get B101 and maybe some of the other Philly's FM's that have weaker signals don't fare as well.
 
If you are in an office situation where several people are listening to the same radio, B-101 and WJBR would be the "compromise" station. No one would really like them, but no one is offendedf either.
 
You may not like them, but not everyone shares your tastes. Plenty of people do like them.
 
jhguthlac said:
If you are in an office situation where several people are listening to the same radio, B-101 and WJBR would be the "compromise" station. No one would really like them, but no one is offendedf either.
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I can see your point. Whether you like them or not, they are safe for an office by default. Reminds me of years ago when 101 was Easy Listening. They used to make special radios for offices that could only be tuned to 101. Now that's a "compromise" station (or maybe a compromised radio). ;)
 
I don't think I'd call it compromised radio, there was a demand for elevator music (background music) back then. Both Wilmington FM's WSTW (then WDEL-FM) and WJBR, as well as Philly's WEAZ- 101, and WSSH 106.1 if I remember correctly, all played easy listening music. If a station could run a successful business playing Polkas, then that is not compromised radio, but good business radio. Compromised radio implies that it isn't great or cool radio, but that is in the "ear" of the beholder and expressed in the money of the advertisers. If both of those are happy, then it may not be artfully done radio (but it could be), for some it is compelling radio, and other at least I can tolerate it radio, in any case it is successful radio from a business sense. Uncompromised radio would be a station that is a hobby for someone, who has plenty of money and doesn't care about ratings or spots. Then they can play or air whatever type programming, for their ear, makes for compelling radio. Everyone else has to settle for what they hope will be a good business model.


In terms of WJBR and B-101 being good compromise stations, I'd agree, and possibly that is even part of their station's strategy. Be the station that most people can tolerate while at work, since it's supposed to be background music and not distract from the work the office person is doing.
 
Compromised Radio

Sorry about the compromised radio comment... it was intended to be tongue-in-cheek, referring to the radios made for one station with dials that couldn't be changed (or maybe they didn't even have dials)... nothing to do with the programming.

By the way, I think 98.9 was also one of those easy listening stations - WPBS (Philadelphia Bulletin Station?). Hard to imagine there was a time with 5 beautiful music stations at the same time.
 
You're right, I had forgotten about WPBS. Those one station only radio's WEAZ gave away for free to Philly businesses was a pretty smart marketing tool, given the fact most people back then didn't have FM radios.

Also, WFLN - AM 900, 930, 960 ( I don't remember which) ? / FM 95.7 were successful commercial Classical Music stations, and of course WRTI full time Jazz. I believe 90.9 (today's WHYY-FM was still WUHY and they also played Classical Music). Also Wilmington had WTUX-AM 1290 that also played beautiful music.

The Philly/Wilmington metro had quite a variety of non-pop & rock music stations to pick from.
 
jhguthlac said:
If you are in an office situation where several people are listening to the same radio, B-101 and WJBR would be the "compromise" station. No one would really like them, but no one is offendedf either.
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Back in 2006 I worked in an office in the northeast corner of Concord Pike (202) and Naamans Road (92) and the only station our cheap FM radio played was WJBR. Probably because we would walk out our front door and see JBR's stick. We tried tuning in WSTW but it came in weak.
 
"Back in 2006 I worked in an office in the northeast corner of Concord Pike (202) and Naamans Road (92) and the only station our cheap FM radio played was WJBR. Probably because we would walk out our front door and see JBR's stick. We tried tuning in WSTW but it came in weak."

It's weird that WSTW came in "weak". At that location of 202 & 92 WSTW's tower on Shipply Rd is closer than WJBR's on Ebright Rd.
 
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