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"Morning Fix" out at Q101.1

The concept was so good on paper, but the implementation was SOOO bad. Everything sounded so rehearsed. Most of the humor of The Daily Show and SNL is the live moments not scripted - that's what what was missing. And they attempted to make it work with too many people. Should have started with 3 or 4, then gradually added more personalities as the show caught on.


Coulda-Shoulda. I guess if they really could do it all over again they should have just stuck with JVO, whose ratings were great. One person playing music. Hmmm....what a great concept.
 
So I guess this proves that wrinkly Bob Barker wasn't the perfect spokesperson for an Alternative Rock morning show after all! Jeez, they've ruined the Q101 brand and deserve to be shut down and relaunched as a alt country station just to cut the stench of their own actions.

Any guesses on how long until they trade the "brand manager for Emmis' Chicago stations" position for a real Program Director that understand music and the record business? Should we start a Dead Pool again for the remaining managerment?

I'm sorry for the talented team that bought into the hype that they would have the time and support to make something new happen.
Ask Eric & Cathy, it takes years to build a new morning audience in Chicago. Perhaps they should take this opportunity to become writers...

Please note: Current Arbitron rank is 21st 12+. Emmis stock is just $4.26, a new low.
How much further can they fall?
 
First off the Morning Fix didn't do fake news they tried to put a comedic spin on it. I am not saying it always worked but it was a breath of fresh air. Say what you want about the show they tried to do something different and it just did not work. All in all it was way better than listiening to Mancow try and turn his show into Sean Hannity's for four hours a day. I would have been more dissapointed in Q101 if they put on a syndicated show like O & A. Instead they attempted to bring a radio show to the city of Chicago that was about the city of Chicago.
 
When I first heard the show I thought it was terrible. A great idea, but it turned out almost as bad as FOX News' "Daily Show" clone from earlier this year.

Still, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, since something like this is almost impossible to pull off before management loses patience and pulls the plug. Recently, I located podcasts of some show segments on iTunes, and while none of the stuff was earth-shattering, I managed to chuckle a little bit. They had really grown from a year ago. Lots of misfired jokes, but the timing and patter were good. The show was not great, but certainly not bad, considering how ambitious this whole project was.

I give Q101 credit for at least trying to do something creative with their morning show, and like a previous poster said, it was certainly better and more original than hearing whether Mancow was going to rip off Howard Stern or Sean Hannity on a particular morning.

With a little more patience, this show could have had some potential someday. But that's not the way things work in radio. I also feel they could have used podcasting more effectively, in order to attract new listeners.

I wrote a blog entry about it here:

http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2007/11/can-radio-daily-show-work.html
 
Hmmm....the morning show is going to spin a ton of music and they've slashed the staff all the way down to a jock & a news reader.

Lots of Active Rock-friendly material can now be found in rotation, and overall Q101 is sounding a lot more like its sister station in St. Louis.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on here. They're going to try to get all the 18 - 34 males back in time for PPM.

Might Mancow reappear in Morning Drive?
 
MarkW said:
Hmmm....the morning show is going to spin a ton of music and they've slashed the staff all the way down to a jock & a news reader.

Lots of Active Rock-friendly material can now be found in rotation, and overall Q101 is sounding a lot more like its sister station in St. Louis.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on here. They're going to try to get all the 18 - 34 males back in time for PPM.

Might Mancow reappear in Morning Drive?
Click to expand...

Yeah, like they're going to put back on a guy who's taking them to court right now.

And doesn't that go against the whole idea of a music-intensive morning show?
 
And doesn't that go against the whole idea of a music-intensive morning show?
[/quote]

Doesn't having a "brand manager for Emmis' Chicago stations" calling the shots instead of a PD also go against the whole idea of a music-intensive show? Does she know anything about the music? artists? the current young male lifestyle?

Emmis is bleeding gobs of green in LA while floundering in Chicago and NYC. Their stock is the lowest since Jeff owned a baseball team and the longterm stockholders are screaming for him to sell properties to pay down debt and increase their value. Emmis will either go private or sell big. It's all about the money and the cheaper they can run Chicago the better. Expect more cuts.

The legendary Q101 is dead. The suits finally won, then lost the black magic that made them money.

Thanks Rick Cummings.... your work is done.
Please move on.
 
If they hurry they might be able to get Disney to let them put Radio Dis on 101.1 FM. It would be bette (and have a bigger audience) than the horrible station they have on the air now. Give it up...the format is DEAD!
 
Maybe it is just time to blow up Q-101 altogether. The ratings for the station have been low for years and it seems like no matter what Emmis does, they (the ratings) don't change.
What about an Urban AC (HOT) format (skewed for a younger demo)? That is a major format hole missing in Chicago and many other Urban markets. There are those who are in their late twenties to late thirties who feel like some of the Top 40, Rhythmic or Urban stations are TOO young and the Adult or Urban Adult Contemporary stations are too granny or soccer mom sounding. What about those who enjoy SOME of the newer music artists such as: Alicia Keys, Musiq Soulchild, or Kanye West combined with some of the "throwback" artists such as: Shai, Jodeci, Blackstreet, Jade, SWV, Doug E. Fresh, Salt N Pepa, MC Lyte, etc.
I think that would be excellent.
 
Then they would have to fire their entire sales department too! Just listen! All they've got is beer, strip bars and car lots. It would take years to recover from a format change. I'm betting that they hold out for the PPM ratings, hoping that it will give rock a kick in the pants like it did in Philly and Houston.

What do you expect from a station run without a PD?
Mike Stern was the fifth PD fired in six years when he was let go and replaced by a Brand Manager in April.
So now they have more bad music, bad marketing (Bob Barker?), bad management and stockholders demanding that they sell properties.
Anybody want to work for Emmis?
 
It just dawned on me that Mike Stern got fired from the PD chair of their (long defunct) sister station in Denver sometime around 2000 or 2001.

If he couldn't handle a much smaller market such as Denver, why on earth did they ever hire him for Q101?!!! ::)

They keep making one bad programming move right after another. Tisa LaSorte? WHAT A JOKE! Nothing like hiring the ex-PD of two stations embraced by geriatrics (Chicago's WGN and Phoenix's KTAR) to guide a station that (now) targets Men 18 - 34 (previously Persons 18 -34).

I'm suuuuuure she's in touch with what Q101's demo wants to hear on the air and see online.

I do like the fact that Q101 has tightened up and toughened up its playlist; taking on an Active Rock-friendly approach makes the most sense. With that said, the station has done so much collateral damage to itself over the past several years that it's anyone's guess as to whether or not the male audience they've alienated will come back in the numbers the station enjoyed 5, 6, or 7 years ago.

Let's look at what surrounds the station's music right now:

--A couple leftovers from their previous failed morning show. I have a feeling Q101 isn't even going to "try" in mornings for a while. Why? Emmis overall is hurting in a financial sense, and I bet Q101's margins SUCKED through 9/30/07. They had a morning show staffed with a half dozen people that earned ZERO ratings. They dumped a morning show (Mancow) that probably still billed pretty well and was coming off a #1 book in Men 25-54 in spring 2006.

I wouldn't like for any substantial programming changes in mornings until Spring 2008 at the earliest.

--Somewhat plain imaging. The station's imaging needs more bells & whistles. It does little to grab the listener's attention.

--A positioning statement that doesn't say anything. "Chicago's Alternative" really does not connote the musical changes the station has made recently. A return to "Chicago's New Rock" or a change to "Chicago's Rock Alternative" would be much more effective. The station also needs to do a better job of highlighting its musical changes.

--A night show that is completely out of place. The Manno brothers seem like very nice guys, but they do NOT fit a "rock" image. They might be better off at some sort of talk station somewhere.

--For a company that sure likes to hype the integration of the radio station with its web site, I find it rather interesting that Emmis/Chicago can't even find enough cash to offer live streaming 24/7.

In a nutshell, all of the aforementioned issues are symptoms of a single, overreaching problem -- POOR BRANDING!
 
Now that WCKG has died in order to create another female friendly AC, I'm hoping someone will come in and rock the house against Emmis and win.

Hey Jimmy DeCastro! Are you ready to have some fun again?
 
Q101 is just fine. Their numbers for the M18-34 demo they crave are on the rise. Rumor has it they just got rid of a guy who had no idea what he was doing and bringing in a real PD. Calm down children. Calm down.
 
Q101 is just fine. Their numbers for the M18-34 demo they crave are on the rise. Rumor has it they just got rid of a guy who had no idea what he was doing and bringing in a real PD. Calm down children. Calm down.
Click to expand...

Since the demise of The Zone, no other station in Chicagoland directly targets that demo. With Q101's recent music adjustments, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that their numbers in that demo should be on the rise.

They should be in the Top 3 in Men 18 - 34 (top 2 among English language stations). Where do they rank right now?

As far as "bringing in a real PD" is concerned, the station doesn't even have a PD per se. Instead, Q101 has a "brand manager" whose specialty is News/Talk radio -- not Modern Rock.

The station did have an MD (Spike) who recently left to take a job at WYSP in Philly.

Who is the most responsible for the station's schizo "Everything Alternative" direction of the past couple years? My guess would be Jacobs Media.

Several stations went this route at almost the same time, and the results seem to be largely similar. Not only did it fail miserably in Chicago, it also failed miserably in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Sacramento, and Seattle (which was more of a classic alternative). Cleveland's K-Rock positions itself as "Everything Alternative," however, its playlist is much more cohesive than these other stations I just mentioned.
 
You hit the nail on the head blaming Jacobs. Q has gone through several PD's in the past decade...Gamble, Richards, Stern...but always had Jacobs as their consulting firm.
 
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