Hubbard's KPNT The Point in St Louis is a great example. Rockin' playlist, great attitude and a 6.6 share good for 4th place in the market.
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Missing Format in New York City Radio
- Thread starter xmradiopro
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Hubbard's KPNT The Point in St Louis is a great example. Rockin' playlist, great attitude and a 6.6 share good for 4th place in the market.
Yes I'm sure every station researches intensively, especially in market #1. So why do some stations succeed and others don't? I'm sure WPLJ must have researched their music as much as everyone else but their music sucked and their numbers proved it. Just because you're doing research doesn't automatically mean you're doing it right.
Research is a tool. If you give me a set of carpentry tools, I will manage to make kindling. In the hands of an artisan, we might have a beautiful cabinet or dresser. Same goes for research. The implementation is very subjective and there are so many other factors, with the issue of whether people really need such a format and are willing to change habits to find it.
I worked on around 1000 big auditorium music tests, and I'd say that about a third were wasted because the PD did not implement well. Another third did not take full advantage of the data other than learning which songs were stiffs, and then a third used them strategically.
Elton John
Neil Diamond
Paul Simon
Air Supply
Boz Scaggs
Styx Cheryl Crow ................. List goes on of artists they could play on that type of soft rock station I agree suprised PLJ didn’t try that kind of format flip I think it would have been top ten in NYC market consistently.
Advertisers that "buy by the numbers" very seldom advertise to those over 55. Those buyers are agencies, and they follow the instructions of their clients who understand through research that changing brand preferences or trying new products gets harder and harder to achieve the older the consumer gets. At some point, it costs more to make the sale than the profit on the sale.
In radio, other than local direct accounts in smaller markets, there is nearly no money spent to reach those over 55.
But WPLJ did not have the strength of a cluster. Even if they had gotten a good audience, they would have had sales issues.
Except, consumers over 55 generally have a greater amount of disposable income.
It’s not necessarily about the amount of disposable income. It’s more about the number of ad impressions it takes to get a person to part with the income. Again, these are not made up concepts. This has been heavily researched. The goal is to satisfy advertisers, who are the customers of commercial radio. Listeners in the desired demographic are the product.
These are exactly the artists I listen to on my Google Music account. I just create my own stations and there are no commercials. Such a great alternative to terrestrial radio. Why let corporations dictate what you listen to.
When you’re under 55 and broke, you don’t buy advertisers’ products https://www.adweek.com/brand-market...umers-might-not-be-such-a-hot-idea-after-all/
For some reason, posters here either don't want to find and buy an HD radio, or consider a format's presence on an HD channel an insult and keep banging the drum for full-signal carriage. I don't get it. I have a little HD portable and am listening to WDRC-FM's HD2 right now. It's playing the Diamonds' "Little Darlin'," having just played Peter and Godon's "Lady Godiva," Jack Nitzsche's "The Lonely Surfer" and Joe Tex's "Skinny Legs and All." Would I like to hear such music on a full-power FM? Sure, but I know it's not going to happen. There's also a "Breeze" on HD here. Again, I don't care that it's not on a main signal. The main thing is that it exists and I can listen to it if I want to hear that kind of music.
Have you ever heard of credit cards? That's how younger "broke" demos spend money they don't really have.
Are you over 55? Do you rush out and try every new chain restaurant that comes to your area and advertises on radio? Do you binge-buy the newest soft-drink flavor if you hear an ad for it? I sure don't, and I used to when I was young, gullible and stupid (the advertiser's dream target). Now, do you buy generic/store brand groceries? I sure do, more and more every trip to the supermarket, it seems. In fact, I'm spending more of my food dollars at Aldi, which carries practically nothing but store brands. I'm living, breathing proof that the advertisers are right. They are wasting their money trying to sell much of anything to me.
There's a time in life where most people have their "stuff". When you're young and broke, you're still buying furniture and setting up a household.
There you go! Plenty of advertising for home furnishings on radio, most of it with no chance of getting Grandpa to crack open the piggy bank for a new living room. So if you're an advertiser, you fish where the fish are biting, and on radio, you don't do that by using stations that are playing Anne Murray. ESPECIALLY in racially and ethnically diverse New York City, where Grandpa likely wasn't even listening to Anne Murray back in the day!
The #2 station in St. Louis is a Christian AC. Do you think that format would be #2 in NYC?
Compare the demos of the two cities:
NYC: 12+ Population: 16,285,500 (Black: 2,746,700) (Hispanic: 3,997,700)
St. Louis: 12+ Population: 2,341,600 (Black: 434,000) (Hispanic: 67,500)
Looking at their playlists, KPNT plays more currents. That mix has traditionally not worked in NYC. If you want more currents, that format is available on college stations in the market.
Radio stations playing these artists also play Sinatra. Even WPLJ played Sinatra on their last day!
Surely a noncommercial station could be created to play that kind of music in a place like NYC!
I just don't see any stations flipping in NYC any time soon, for the exact reasons BigA said; nobody is gonna flip.
I do think it would be nice for Entercom to move CBS Sports Radio off WCBS-HD3 and make way for a stream of Entercom's Vinyl Tap or Smokin' Oldies... or even their own version of KLUV's Classic Trax.
I do think it would be nice for Entercom to move CBS Sports Radio off WCBS-HD3 and make way for a stream of Entercom's Vinyl Tap or Smokin' Oldies... or even their own version of KLUV's Classic Trax.
That's not true.
Advertisers... meaning the clients of ad agencies... know who their best prospects are.
Smaller accounts that use agencies, like local car dealerships, know who buys. They know by observation that the consumer that can be persuaded by advertising will finance (extra money in most states), while the older buyer comes in due to past experience, brand loyalty, quality of the service department, etc.
Big accounts such as consumer goods and services (think P&G) have loads of research based on analysis of advertising and purchasing including significant data mining. They know that the cost of changing brand preferences is very high among older lifetime-habit consumers.
The only exceptions are products that have primary or exclusive usage and appeal among older consumers. Beyond the obvious examples of medications and health products that respond to the effects of aging we have categories like cruise and vacation travel, comfort items like the dreaded MyPillow, investment services, purveyors of gold, reverse mortgages, legal firms specializing in cases against defective drugs, etc.
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Streaming sports talk on the HD3 probably saves Entercom money on royalties. Since there's no way to monetize a deep-oldies format on an HD subchannel, chances that CBS Sports Network will be replaced are next to nil.
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