Mix 97.1 becomes The Fan 97.1

[V.Riley]

They could take WBNS-AM and make it News Radio, kind of like CNN on the Radio. Sure they'd be running up against 610 WTVN, but I think WTVN is running short on staff and WBNS could have the Dispatch Reporters convert over from the declining newspaper business. Just a thought.

 

[gr8oldies]

Or just a straight simulcast of ONN's cable signal.

 

[SportsRadioDoc]

I was checkin' out NCI on the way home to see what they were doin' and they were all over takin' away 97.1's listeners. The PD even cracked the mic and welcomed new folks that may have been listening for the first time. Even had the jock mention the Grammy giveaway. I'm sure they massaged the playlist and imaging a bit between 4 and 7. Mos def in the 5p hour. Well done actually.

As far as 1460, from a programming standpoint, why not use ESPN 24/7 unless they've got a programming conflict with CBJ, OSU or the Tribe? Then put the local stuff in the afternoon on 97.1. This move also gives them latitude to offer another local show from 10 to noon on 97.1 should they choose. Thinking about cume, TSL, consistency and listener expectations, I'm not sure that a change to anything else would perform better. Plus this would appease the suits at ESPN in Bristol. I'm just sayin'.

 

[50c5]

They could take WBNS-AM and make it News Radio, kind of like CNN on the Radio. Sure they'd be running up against 610 WTVN, but I think WTVN is running short on staff and WBNS could have the Dispatch Reporters convert over from the declining newspaper business. Just a thought.

WTVN might as well be a daytimer considering the news department apparently rolls up the sidewalk after the 6 o'clock. I'm certainly no liberal, but Fox News Radio is nothing more than over-sensationalized drama At least CKLW 20-20 news was entertaining. Says a lot about our city too. The capital of Ohio isn't big enough to have local radio news at night.

To those at RadiOhio contemplating what to do with the 1460 signal...news...with class, like maybe CBS or ABC. Simulcast 10TV audio for the 6 PM since we won't be able to hear channel 6 on the FM band post analog sunset.

 

[gabigley1]

All of the on-air and sales staff is gone according to these articles:

http://dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2009/01/26/Radio_changes.html?sid=101

And here:

http://www.theotherpaper.com/articles/2009/01/26/front/doc497e2b359da63419123758.txt

Which begs the questions... Later

 

[Chuck Douglas]

Says a lot about our city too. The capital of Ohio isn't big enough to have local radio news at night.

...or more than one daily newspaper or a thriving downtown, or a fulltime city council with more than seven members, or a public television station that actually allows media students to produce, write or be featured in original programming, or a strong, well funded, vibrant opera/symphony/ballet or cabs you can hail in the street, or a really cool jazz club, or a significant nightlife....

We do have Keno now. Maybe that will ease our pain.

 

[SeanMGilbow]

I believe Hot AC will return to Columbus. Logical move would be Saga's Columbus Radio Group changing either one of its Smooth Jazz stations or Oldies WODB to Hot AC. This would give them possession of all AC formats (mainstream, smooth, hot) in the Columbus market.

As for the return of progressive talk...not entirely. However, the Wolfe family will find it hard to ignore the popularity and profitability of Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz. There's a ready made audience. And the two would obviously fit a news/talk/sports format. I also would not be surprised to see the resurfacing of The Matt and Ramona Show, which actually airs live from 3 to 7 p.m.

1460 could be the next new home for high school sports. I hope Dave Van Stone has Gary Richards on speed dial.

For now, it looks like I'm listening to Sunny at work when I'm not listening to my podcasts of Momma and Big Eddie.

 

[nmoore6676]

Says a lot about our city too.  The capital of Ohio isn't big enough to have local radio news at night.

...or more than one daily newspaper or a thriving downtown, or a fulltime city council with more than seven members, or a public television station that actually allows media students to produce, write or be featured in original programming, or a strong, well funded, vibrant opera/symphony/ballet or cabs you can hail in the street, or a really cool jazz club, or a significant nightlife....

We do have Keno now. Maybe that will ease our pain.

Do not wish for a full time city council, we have one in Los Angeles (15 members) and it just gives them more time to think up more crack brained ideas, also justifying, in their minds, salaries at the congressional level. I used to live in Columbus and I liked the city more than Hollyweird. I'll take my chances in downtown Columbus anytime over downtown LA; at least you have a downtown that isn't a homeless encampment. We only have a single newspaper (The Times) too as you can't really count the "Daily News" which is essentially a community paper for the San Fernando Valley.

I think I recall at one time that there were talks between WBNS and WOSU about swapping their AM stations. As I recall this was because the nighttime signal coverage of 1460 was insufficient and sports fans were complaining so putting the sports on FM makes sense. Maybe at some point they could put an all news or news/talk format on the AM side. Makes sense since they own "The Distort" as well.

 

[1sttimecaller]

profitability, LMAO!!!!!!

Because obvisouly the profitability was so great at CC, they kept the format, and most recently it was so popular and the profitability was thru the roof, they lma'd..... oh nevermind.

You'll never get it.

 

[static_cling]

Says a lot about our city too. The capital of Ohio isn't big enough to have local radio news at night.

...or more than one daily newspaper or a thriving downtown, or a fulltime city council with more than seven members, or a public television station that actually allows media students to produce, write or be featured in original programming, or a strong, well funded, vibrant opera/symphony/ballet or cabs you can hail in the street, or a really cool jazz club, or a significant nightlife....

We do have Keno now. Maybe that will ease our pain.

Hate to say it, but the perceived lack of the aforementioned items is a trend that many media markets have been experiencing for some time. I can probably rattle off a number of towns bigger than Columbus whose residents could make the same complaints, but I don't think it would make any difference. Is that a good thing? No, but it's a reality. For example, a second daily paper would be great, but I don't forsee the Columbus Journal being resurrected anytime soon. That's according to the economy, competition and new media. Plain truth.

When I lived and worked in the Columbus area, I found the capital city to be a very vibrant community. Clean downtown streets, a nice arts district, a beautiful college campus and world-reknowned athletics program, etc. A lot of cities would probably love to have Columbus's situation. Then again, I grew up in a flatlining steel town that really *didn't* have much going for it in my youth, so what do I know? I guess the question should be with whom we're comparing our town? New York City, perhaps?

 

[SeanMGilbow]

profitability, LMAO!!!!!!

Because obvisouly the profitability was so great at CC, they kept the format, and most recently it was so popular and the profitability was thru the roof, they lma'd..... oh nevermind.

You'll never get it.

Uh...Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz, as well as Bill Press, are syndicated by Dial Global, which also syndicates Neal Boortz and Clark Howard (who were just yanked off WYTS with the move to Fox Sports this afternoon).

I didn't mention anything about Air America. Nor will I.

However, the counterprogramming of Stephanie Miller v. Glenn Beck, Ed Schultz v. Rush Limbaugh--heck, Matt and Ramona against John Corby will be hard to ignore.

By the way, I don't know where Matt and Ramona stand politically.

 

[alans613]

Bye, bye 97.1 on the car presets...and the home presets...time to throw some crap at their "Fan"!
Terrible day for all involved that lost their jobs. I pray for nothing but the best for all of them. :'(
I did tape the last half hour...and the launch. Here's all the songs from the end of Mix 97.1, starting at 3 PM(Not counting breaks):
Thriving Ivory "Angels on the Moon"
Maroon 5 "Wake Up Call"
Matchbox 20 "Bent"
OAR "Shattered"
Kelly Clarkson "Walk Away"
Kid Rock "All Summer Long"
Saving Abel "Addicted"
KT Tunstall "Black Horse & the Cherry Tree"
Dave Matthews Band "Crush"
P!NK "Sober"
Nelly Furtado "Say It Right"
Linkin Park "Leave Out All the Rest"(FINAL SONG)
Then a "mix"(ironic, huh?)of an Ohio State band song and Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" for three minutes until a mock press conference where a voice-over guy asks questions to a tape from an old Jim Tressel press conference. It sounded terribly amatuerish. Sorry, but it did. :
I can't see Columbus without a Hot AC for long...It just can't last for long. I do see WNCI picking up most of the disgruntled 97.1 listeners(Like myself)in the short-term. I just heard a five second liner that said simply "97.9". I'm betting they're reacting to the 97.1 flip. Also look for 'NCI trying to pick up those listeners with more music adjustments as well. I already flipped between 'NCI and 97.1 anyway. Too bad I now have no alternative to flip to when 'NCI plays a crappy tune or vice versa. Thanks RadiOhio, or RadiOTalk.
As a listener of 97.1 since their flip to Hot AC in July 2001(When they were "The New 97.1"), I truly liked this station and I am pretty upset over the flip. This is a sad day in Columbus radio. Just what we need, more yack yack yacking. So when is 93.3 going to be the new signal for WTVN? It looks like if that happens, Columbus will not only be the Capital of Ohio, but the Capital of FM Talk in Ohio.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Says a lot about our city too. The capital of Ohio isn't big enough to have local radio news at night.

...or more than one daily newspaper or a thriving downtown, or a fulltime city council with more than seven members, or a public television station that actually allows media students to produce, write or be featured in original programming, or a strong, well funded, vibrant opera/symphony/ballet or cabs you can hail in the street, or a really cool jazz club, or a significant nightlife....

We do have Keno now. Maybe that will ease our pain.

And therein lies the REAL reason behind what Snat observed, that Radio-Info's front page referred to the Blue Jackets' as a minor-league team. It has nothing to do with the NHL or the Blue Jackets' performance. It has to do with Columbus, OHIO's largely-deserved minor-league image. And for the most part local radio does its best to stay in line with a minor league image.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Hate to say it, but the perceived lack of the aforementioned items is a trend that many media markets have been experiencing for some time. I can probably rattle off a number of towns bigger than Columbus whose residents could make the same complaints, but I don't think it would make any difference.

Please do rattle off some of those larger-city names. I can't think of a single one that has more of a minor-league image (more accurately, "non-image") than Columbus. That's not equivalent to saying that Columbus is "worse" than all the better known cities. IIt's wonderful in many ways and has made great strides. But except for people who have visited or lived here, it is as anonymous as a city this size can get. Columbus is as deficient in the image department as it is in the in the radio department. I'm tired of hearing telephone CSR's say, "let's see, you're in Columbia, Ohio, right?"

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

The A/C landscape in Columbus is bound to shift. 
I doubt CC would take WLZT hotter and get in WNCI's face. 

If hotter means going a lot more current like 97.1 was, then yes that would really be stepping on 97.1's toes.  But if it instead means becoming 80's-centric and distinctly uptempo (e.g. dumping Lionel Richie ballads), they could get *hugely* hotter while maintaining minimal music overlap with NCI.  There might be some demo overlap, but the whole could be synergistic instead of cannibalistic.  Now more than ever it is crazy for LZT to stay on the soft side of Sunny.  Or even the Brew could change in more of a gold-based Hot AC direction.  Would make so much sense.  But this is Columbus, so I'm not holding my breath waiting for shift in the AC landscape..that would be too logical.

 

[cadkins6739]

Do you actualy think this is anything about radio? I think it's all money and cost savings. You can bet if anything is done with HD2 it will not be live radio and remember, those HD radios aren't flying off retailers shelves right now. It's all about money, wifi radio and cell phone radio are the thing of the future and broadcasters have been re-aranging deck chairs for a long time. If you look at larger markets, Columbus has been very slow in getting FM talk radio. A large number of the NFL flagships are now FM!

 

[willcail]

WLZT-2 HDFM already airs WTVN AM. The final rating for WVKO AM was 1.0. It beats conservative talk 1230. When 1230AM airs progressive talk the highest rating was 1.5.

When Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz was airing in Columbus Ohio it beats Savage and Laura in the ratings. It would make sense to carry the only two successful progressive talkers. They do have a following in Columbus. WBNS AM could air Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz as counter programming to Glenn and Rush.

WBNS AM can be all news the rest of the time.

 

[CBusDave]

Sean Sean Sean, I guarantee the Wolfes will not carry libtalk. The Dispatch's last endorsement for a Democratic presidential candidate was 1916. I don't care how profitable it is, they won't do it. Period.

The more I thought about it the more sense it made to me for them to make it ONN Radio as someone suggested. Dispatch Radio doesn't make sense (to me) when they have already spent a lot of time and money building up the ONN brand. Why not extend that to radio? They have the staff in place already. Seems like a good move to me.

 

[del_griffith]

Just a possible guess. Dispatch radio may be correct, but maybe not the English version.

The Dispatch currently owns and published Fronteras ( http://www.fronterascolumbus.com/ )

Could a synergy be developed with the paper and 1460. The signal reaches the significantly populated Hispanic areas of town day and night.

No insider insight, but just a possibility for propping up an ailing AM signal.

 

[lovejamminoldies]

One day off of Radio-Info and I miss this! I am greatly disappointed and sad about this flip. 1460 was doing fine on AM! And MIX had even beat Sunny in some books! Why the flip!? WNCI is all we have. Now I can't go back and forth to MIX (which I liked better :'( )

When will we get a new CHR? Or Hot AC? Although, I don't think anyone could program MIX like it was programmed. They had pretty much dropped the 80's which I was highly in favor for.

UGH.