Mix 99.9. Should I care?

[davideduardo]

Baldwin county is lumped in with Mobile and does not have the numbers to justify substanial ratings. Total population of the Southern part of Baldwin County 50k (non metro) Mobile population 200k.

What? The population of Mobile County is 415,00 (ACS 2015) and Baldwin County is 199,500 (same source). The total metro is 615,000.

 

[Groove1670]

David is correct. (sorry cut and paste error). The county is huge, and towns are spread out. Mobile is still the main focus when it comes to ratings. Many live on the Eastern shore but commute to Mobile.

Baldwin County billboards cater to the large tourist market.

Translators are useless in Baldwin County CC tried the translator 100.3 on a 1800 foot tower to cover The Eastern Shore and Mobile. It looked good on paper but with ducting, reception was poor. So it was moved to Mobile on a 400 foot tower. For the most part, that killed coverage in Baldwin County.

Mobile is still the focus when it comes to ratings and revenue. Very few local Baldwin County businesses advertise on radio or TV.

With the exception of two stations in the South part of Baldwin County and don't cover the Eastern Shore or Mobile. (I built one of those). All of them identify with Mobile and have moved their studios and offices there. The lone station on the Eastern Shore is WABF and has carved a niche in the community.

 

[tomservo]

So, on the one hand we keep hearing about how translators can't work because they don't reach the entire market but on the other hand everyone is playing to Mobile and ignoring the Eastern Shore and south Baldwin County, which is pretty much sewed up by Sunny 105.7 (a great local station with the worst audio processing in all of Alabama). WHEP is a non player IMHO, beyond a few specific shows.

If Mobile is what matters, a translator should be adequate, assuming you can find it on your own since no one advertises. And why is it logical that Baldwin County would have stations serving a small part of the area but not logical for doing the same on the other side of the bay? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[Groove1670]

Have you not listened to the existing translators? Noisy, spotty, scratchy and I'm not talking the seven dwarfs. WHEP is a good example of using a translator effectively, but their primary market is Foley. The religious broadcasters (who have the majority on the air - here) can geo-target for listener donations and spread the word). Donors will also support the projects. I know a few businesses that will not advertise on secular radio, but will support the radio ministry. One business in Foley donated a lot of money for a religious broadcasters studio.

Mobile is too spread out. towers were placed on the interstate (for Mobile and Pensacola signals). Tower space in Mobile is not adaquate to get a good signa l.

I predict what is left will go to the AM broadcasters, religious, or to another market with the upcoming AM window. You won't see anymore move ins.

 

[tomservo]

Have you not listened to the existing translators?

I have not had a chance to gauge the signal of 100.3 The Beat's service area, but I've found that Goforth's Mobile translator covers a lot more territory than I would have thought. And the Eastern Shore one is even better; I hear it almost like a local in Foley, which is on the fringes of its directional signal. But it's pretty solid all the way down the shore to Fairhope. But the fact I hear Mobile on the first adjacent this far away says they're doing something right. The Goforth run translator on 106.9 at WABF's tower is pathetic but I don't even know why it's on the air. I was hoping it would go to them to relay 1220 at some point just for Fairhope but it doesn't appear that will ever happen.

The only other translator in Mobile is the 95.7 one paired with the Wilkins station on 960, if I remember correctly. I have not heard it since they rebuilt the Prichard tower but it was definitely a poor performer as far as a city-wide signal would go (but fine for their target audience, I guess.)

 

[Groove1670]

I drive thru Mobile once a week. 100.3 is noisy on the bridge. Okay in downtown, and goes downhill by exit 19 (Creola). If ducting is kicking up. It is bad. Hattiesburg tears it up. 95.7 is fair, the rest of the remaining signals are poor in the city.

 

[Poledo]

This thread got me thinking in a side direction, Mix 99.9 is your "at work" station. I generally frown on people listening to the radio at work, but they can usually get away with A/C or Country (sometimes I'll let Classic Rock fly). Back in the day I would always change the channel to Oldies (Cool 107.3 or Wave 106.5).
100.3 The Beat isn't appropriate for at work listening. Besides Mix and Soft Rock, what stations are considered safe for office or job site listening? I realize some stores can get away with CHR or Rock, but I'm specifically interested in office and job site music that wouldn't offend conservative old folks that are customers.
I'm thinking Jet 100.7 would be the closest option. ???

 

[tomservo]

This thread got me thinking in a side direction, Mix 99.9 is your "at work" station. I generally frown on people listening to the radio at work, but they can usually get away with A/C or Country (sometimes I'll let Classic Rock fly). Back in the day I would always change the channel to Oldies (Cool 107.3 or Wave 106.5).
100.3 The Beat isn't appropriate for at work listening. Besides Mix and Soft Rock, what stations are considered safe for office or job site listening? I realize some stores can get away with CHR or Rock, but I'm specifically interested in office and job site music that wouldn't offend conservative old folks that are customers.
I'm thinking Jet 100.7 would be the closest option. ???

Depends on the job, I suppose. Mix 99.9, Soft Rock 94.1, pretty much any country station, probably NPR. Oldies, if we had any. Jet is probably OK as well, it's pretty innocuous. If it's some type of job where customer interaction does not take place then I imagine anything goes until someone complains. I'll never forget hearing blaring loud music coming out of the repair shop at Kirk Ford in Grenada, Mississippi many years ago… I could hear it through the walls in the waiting room. I finally asked the service desk guy, "what station are they listening to?" He thought I was complaining and apologized but I explained I was just curious because it was surprisingly heavy rock music and I didn't think anyone around there played that stuff. It was heavier than even TK 101 would be. He said they were listening to "98 Rock" out of Tupelo. That was the only time I'd ever heard anyone listening to that station in half a decade there!

At one job in the Birmingham area I worked in a, er, light industrial type setting and the bosses allowed everyone to bring a radio. It was all open so it was an aural mess on the second shift with all us young guys blaring our music. It was a true cacophony of sound and at the time the favored artists (on CD, never radio) seemed to be Eminem, AC/DC, Nine Inch Nails, techno dance music, stuff that generally wasn't heard on local radio. But others listened to Magic 96 or 95-7 Jamz. And there was me, with my minidisc player and hundreds of discs of oldies and blues and electronic music, lol. As if that isn't enough of a mess, we had Mexicans on our shift and they mostly listened to Cumbia and Bachata, which was pretty cool. But it wasn't unusual to walk 50 feet and hear 6 different radios playing six different things.

Day shift, with the older family oriented workers was completely different. They mostly listened to soft rock, oldies and country and via radio. Instead of Mexicans, they had the Central Americans and none of them ever listened to their own music. I think the old biddies on day shift wouldn't stand for that. The old folks on day shift almost exclusively listened to radio and the younger folks on night shift were almost exclusively CDs.

Everywhere else has not allowed any music or radio at all, but I've never worked retail.

Down here in tourist-ville, I still hear actual radios playing in stores and restaurants but it's become really, really rare. It'll either be Sunny or WXBM, occasionally The Rocket or Jet. And it does matter whether I'm on the beach or in Pensacola or Mobile, those are literally the only stations I hear being played in businesses. Never Mix or Soft Rock or even WRNE. The Summerdale Diner has, every time I've been there, been playing some contemporary country HD2 station out of New York City but I can't seem to find info on it anymore, so I dunno if it's gone or what. I haven't been there in ages to see if they switched to a new feed or what. Never did understand why they'd pipe in big city country music when we have so many decent local choices.

Far and away it seems Muzak/DMX and Sirius have taken over the role of background music provider from terrestrial radio.

 

[Radio_Alex_1990]

Both markets are really not set up for billboards, and the return would be minimal. Mobile or Pensacola are not large enough. Mix (and other CC stations) do static billboard on some of the TV newscasts.

Unless something earthshaking happens, it it unlikely that the usual players in the market will be bumped from their current ratings perch. So to spend extra money is a waste.

Programmers care about Facebook, operators don't. It doesn't impact the bottom line and it doesn't do anything for ratings.

The name change at mix was just to freshen the image. This would be a first makeover for mix in 20 years. It was time. The term lite is being jettisoned from most AC stations because it send the message of being sleepy. I would of done the same thing, but much earlier. and the logo was very dated.

We are getting ready to update our logo and imaging at our station. After three years it is time for us to do the same.

The "new" Mix 99.9 needs new jingles and vocals. They don't sound fresh and new as the they appear to be...

 

[Groove1670]

Far and away it seems Muzak/DMX and Sirius have taken over the role of background music provider from terrestrial radio.

Because of licensing, most of the packages you listed now have a service for business. A single radio is usually not a issue, but when you add multiple speakers you go into a whole new territory.

Warehouses and repair shops usually follow the Rock/classic rock pattern. Offices Top 40/AC. In the shops country/classic hits.

 

[Poledo]

Even though I advertise on WUWF and the Pensacola talk AMs, I don't allow any talk radio or NPR on the job for fear of offending a customer. Same with WABD, 93BLX and TK101.
I also don't allow any employees (especially hourly labor) to wear things like "Bama National Champs" hats for fear of luring an Auburn or FSU alum into a football debate.

 

[Radio_Alex_1990]

Another thing, a little off-related to the original topic is why are there the same djs on the same stations? Like Scot Chesnut, from KSJ is on Lite Mix and Matt from KISS FM is on KSJ and vice-versa? Why don't they get more dj's that fit with the format? If it is money related, I am surprised that KISS FM doesn't carry Ryan Seacrest during the midday slot. But that is just my opinion. Sure they are probably trying to fill in the "let's be local card" but they really aren't. You don't put dj's from other different stations on a different format station that is down the hall.

 

[Groove1670]

I worked at many stations where I pulled shifts on different formats (down the hall). This is nothing new. Part timers may be used on different frequencies if budget or schedule doesn't allow. One again, people who pick apart stations notice this (like us), while the average listener doesn't care.

If the personality is popular. It is in the best interest of the station(s) to utilize them.

 

[Poledo]

It's better than having a cheaper out of market DJ work the shift.

I've heard the midday DJ from Cumulus Fort Walton 99 Rock doing afternoon drive on Cumulus Tallahassee Gulf 104.

With computers and the interwebs they could just start outsourcing DJing jobs to India.

 

[Groove1670]

I've had talent on a station who was from the market but no longer lived there. Since the knew everything about the community, it worked well.

 

[tomservo]

It's definitely a cost-saving measure. I don't buy for a minute that any iHeart stations' talent is local to Mobile. They're probably all in Dallas, which is where I'm told most of the jocks for the entire US operate out of now. Local morning shows would be the lone exception, which must make for an oddly lonely studio in each city.

Listeners won't notice unless they split genres and the jock happens to use the same name on every station - which I HAVE heard before. You'd think they'd at least come up with a new name for each "persona" at each format.

 

[Groove1670]

Most of the KSJ staff is local. Two of the mix staff is local. 1 rocket. 1 NTM. 2 kiss FM, plus various part timers.

 

[Poledo]

But Cumulus is all local in Mobile Pensacola FWB, right?

 

[Groove1670]

Sort of. They tend to run more syndicated programming. BLX ABB and XBM probably have the most live shifts. DLT, and RRX one. Back at CC from what I can tell TK has none. In Pensacola Cat probably has the most live programming on FM.

On the argument of live programming. The top 5 are a mix of live, VT and syndication.

 

[tomservo]

Sort of. They tend to run more syndicated programming. BLX ABB and XBM probably have the most live shifts. DLT, and RRX one. Back at CC from what I can tell TK has none. In Pensacola Cat probably has the most live programming on FM.

On the argument of live programming. The top 5 are a mix of live, VT and syndication.

I guess that makes the most sense from a fiscal standpoint. Live where it matters most, cost cutting where it doesn't. But it is telling that Cat Country is still mostly live and they also seem to be the most connected to Pensacola as far as showing up at events and sponsoring things. At least in my observation. I do see some iHeart properties on big things, KSJ and TK's logos show up from time to time in conjunction with concerts and events, but I don't think I've ever seen a booth at a parade or a fair, for example. Whereas I have seen Cat Country and WHEP multiple times out and about. WHEP drags their gigantic antique replica radio around on a trailer, it's hard to miss.

I do have to wonder if a lower tier station like Jet or ZEW were live and local from sunup to sundown, would it actually make a difference in the ratings?

Do you know how live Sunny 105.7 is? They do a good job and if it's VT it's pretty seamless, but I tend to think of them as being one of the more "live and in-person" stations besides Cat Country, at least when Rick & Bubbles aren't on.