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Nabco Expires, Saga Jumps The Gun

N

Nu_Roo_2

Ok, Nabco hasn't literally expired, but it's well on its way.  A few observations looking at the Winter Ph I 12+:

99.7 is just stuck at 2.7.  It ain't going anywhere.  Any bets on the next magic-elixir version of Rock Hal will convince Mnich and Jividen (and himself) to buy into?  And when?  With a 12+ like that, even the demos can't be too healthy. 

Meanwhile, Nabco is hopelessly stuck in the downward spiral overall.  TDA is preforming no better than the super-cheap Ted approach did.  It fell 1.7 -> 1.2 from last period.  Their man cow sure ain't going to stop the decay.  And MNI is stuck at 1.1.  I'm embarrassed for Nabco.  Having their prized-signal 99.7 squeezed between a Christian Voice and an a frosty Brew must make them squirm even more.

Meanwhile, did Saga emasculate Big Hits too soon?  The latest trend has their AQH up 33%.  But now the re-located station sounds like canned crap with no signal.

WVKO's tumble from 1.0 to .5 with just one month of Catholic added (and one month of lib talk removed) makes it look like the station really HAS died just as the thread of the same name finally died.  I.e., essentially no listeners for the new format. Of course, it's early in the Catholic format.

Don't know how much Sportstalk is in this book for 97.1 (too lazy to go back and check at the moment), but so far 97.1 is down from 3.8 to 3.4 since the fall quarterly.

The big CC stations -- the ones they do a great job maintaining -- are chugging along.  (A bit of a dip for COL-FM, but still very healthy).  Sunny & LZT are "maintaining."  Although 93.3 will no doubt start losing its Christmas glow soon, as in the past.

But back to the lead topic...I'm really interested in hearing any projections re whether, when and to-what sorry-state 99.7 will switch.
 
"Power 99.7 Today's Hottest Music" .... true Mainstream CHR... but we won't see that happen. I would love to see a station compete against WNCI


Ofcourse my deep inside gut, I vote for Christian CHR "Positive 99.7"...lol ;) Maybe if I can win the next lotto I can pry it out of their hands.
 
Roo, I'd say it's way too early on all fronts. Let's see what the next two rounds of ratings numbers indicate.

Needless to say, however, there is a group of disenfranchised listeners who would love to see the new lineup of Mancow, Savage and Ingraham go into the downward spiral you predict for WTDA.
 
I've given up on Columbus radio in general. Boring, predictable and canned. There is no creativity left and every song played is over researched and over played. Even 107.9 is more watered down than 97.1, and I didn't think that was possible. HD radio was supposed to make it interesting again, but all the HD2 channels are just regurgitated versions of their HD1 counterpart. The only advantage there is they are commercial free, for now that is.
 
I've had many favorite stations leave me in a deep dark depression when they've flipped formats, from WXGT 92x to WXST STAR 107.9, just to name a few. I've been thinking if
I dare say I really like a station, that some how it will cause it to flip formats just to spite me.

As for HD stations, I recently did a survey of my neighbors and people I work with. I asked them if they had an HD radio, or had plans (or desire) to get an HD radio. Out of the 15 or so people I asked, they all answered that they did not have an HD radio, and had no plans or even the slightest interest in HD radio. Surprisingly almost all of them did express an interest in getting Internet Radio for their car.

Hopefully NABCO is not expiring, I think it is too early to tell. However, it would be nice if I could hear WMNI inside the building I work. AM doesn't penetrate very well, so if they'd stream on the Internet, that would work. I don't care for political/sport talk radio. Maybe if TDA would be a 24x7 Local/National News station, they could capture my interest. I don't have an interest in the Blitz...uh, I mean the Rock. Just can't put up with non-stop rock (same with Country). I personally like a mix or variety in music. I'd like to see NABCO whup some CC butt.
 
Sean Gilbow said:
Roo, I'd say it's way too early on all fronts.  Let's see what the next two rounds of ratings numbers indicate.
Click to expand...

Not so sure I agree, especially with regard to the Nabco stations.  99.7 has been on a consistent down-trend for awhile now. They keep trying new tweaks, and they don't pay off.  At some point you have to say, "this isn't working, format change needed," instead of just slapping in a new morning show and crossing your fingers.  WTDA has also had quite awhile to prove itself, and it is still getting nowhere after multiple tweaks.

Also, there is no way to use "time will tell" for the ODB situation.  Since they've already essentially blown up the old station, we'll never know if the big Phase I bump would have continued. BTW, I guess the way the survey dates-vs.-format change fell, about one week of the imporved "WODB" numbers could reflect Mix listening??
 
There is a void in Columbus radio between CD 101 and 106.7 and that is what NABCO should immediately attempt to fill. CD 101 while playing much of what I believe is some of the most adventuresome rock out there is, as the term "alternative" implies, never going to be mainstream, which is good, because that would kill it. CD 101 can thrive in its own vacuum. 106.7 is close to being what I thought the Blitz should have flipped to, which is to say a wider, more mainstream format. When I first arrived there 3 and 1/2 years ago that was my assessment and it remains thus. Unfortunately no one listens to the soldiers on the field. What could they know. 106.7 is too soft, NABCO, needs to jettison every song from the 70's and 80's, give the people that want Metallica and the like their measured dose, then have the courage to do two things...

1) When Eddie Vedder's "Big Hard Sun" was released, I yelled at everyone within earshot that we (the Blitz) should be playing that song. Sure, it was an Eddie Vedder solo song but let's be real, it was Pearl Jam. Now here you are with a station that relies heavily on Pearl Jam's back catalogue and you are NOT going to play the best Pearl Jam song in a decade? Why? It has exactly what every program director should be looking for when you are running a new rock format, a song that is both new, but more importantly, familiar. You don't have to break it, it's broke, it's there, it's fresh while being immediately recognizable. Alas my cries fell upon deaf ears and I turned it up every time I heard 106.7 play it. Reminds me of when I was doing mornings in Baltimore with WIYY the "heritage" rock station and Russ Mottla PD laughed at me when I implored him to add Bruce Springsteen's "Philidelphia" to the place list. You're the "heritage" rock station and you don't add the new Springteen? Who the f**k is more heritage than him? Well, the song went on to win an Oscar and Mottla went on to the unemployment line. Dump research! You don't need research to tell you that if Eddie Vedder puts out a great Pearl Jam song, and you are "New Rock" you play it!

2) Think outside of the box and outside of research enough to play within that same format a great "rock" song like Queens of the Stone Age's "Go With The Flow." Sure some may say it's alternative but that line is blurred in this modern age. The Foo Fighters could be viewed as alternative, and by the way, had the Foo Fighters released, "Go With The Flow", which they could have, it would have been played 80 times a day on the Blitz. Why didn't we play the new Cult? Why didn't we play Kings Of Leon? They are as legitimately rock as anything else the Blitz played and more so than The Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers that we played too much of. Bottom line, don't let listeners dictate the play list, don't let research dictate the play list, let the music dictate the play list. If I heard one more time how the Blitz listeners would go for such a song I was going to throw up. The Blitz listeners weren't going anywhere because that was the only station playing what they wanted to hear, thusly, expand the playlist and the narrow minds of many that listened to the Blitz and tell them, this is a great song, deal with it.

That is where NABCO needs to go. I'm not going to be the one that started this thread and say they are doomed. I have too many friends there I don't want to see in my situation, which is to say with nothing but time to mindlessly pontificate as I am here, but I do think there is a gap there that if another station fills, well yeah, there's nowhere to go but further down. And finally, and this is not a plea for me, but that station, a rock station, in that arena, is not going to make it without a local morning show. Even if it's two new guys from the block, put a voice with a face that is touching the people after they are off the air telling them this new station Rocks! Only "rock" Bob and Tom know are the kidney stones they have yet to pass.

I have to go now. The Sopranos are coming on A&E

mo rocka
esquire

PS: I apologize for any misspellings. Whose got the time? Oh me.
 
Nu_Roo_2 said:
Ok, Nabco hasn't literally expired, but it's well on its way. A few observations looking at the Winter Ph I 12+:

WVKO's tumble from 1.0 to .5 with just one month of Catholic added (and one month of lib talk removed) makes it look like the station really HAS died just as the thread of the same name finally died. I.e., essentially no listeners for the new format. Of course, it's early in the Catholic format.
Click to expand...

What is the latest on the possible return Progressive Talk radio to Columbus? Hope I'm NOT ridiculed for asking. :(
It looks like it's not going to happen any time soon.

Also, noticed Progressive Talk radio has also died in Phoenix, Arizona. Saw this on a radio-info thread here:
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,121805.0.html
 
If I were at NABCO, and God knows, I tried to be, I would blow up 99.7 and bring back "The Blitz." Make a big deal about. Be contrite. Be like Coke was when "New Coke" was a failure. And then hire someone who really IS the lifestyle and let them be the music director. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't. What have they got to lose?
 
Al Timiter said:
If I were at NABCO, and God knows, I tried to be, I would blow up 99.7 and bring back "The Blitz." Make a big deal about. Be contrite. Be like Coke was when "New Coke" was a failure. And then hire someone who really IS the lifestyle and let them be the music director. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't. What have they got to lose?
Click to expand...

While it's not what I would personally like to see, that kind of revival has clearly worked in the past (on TV, too). Look at CBS-FM in New York. I've seen the "born again" version of whatever do better than the original many times. Guess sometimes you latch onto an "absence makes the heart grow fonder" phenomenon.

BTW, I noticed that Modern AC Radio 94 Cincinnati's website solicited various kinds of feedback re future direction under the new ownership, and one of the names suggested was...The Blitz.
 
Nu_Roo_2 said:
WVKO's tumble from 1.0 to .5 with just one month of Catholic added (and one month of lib talk removed) makes it look like the station really HAS died just as the thread of the same name finally died. I.e., essentially no listeners for the new format. Of course, it's early in the Catholic format.
Click to expand...

Now you done did it. If someone doesn't bump that thread, I will.
 
gabigley1 said:
Nu_Roo_2 said:
Ok, Nabco hasn't literally expired, but it's well on its way. A few observations looking at the Winter Ph I 12+:

WVKO's tumble from 1.0 to .5 with just one month of Catholic added (and one month of lib talk removed) makes it look like the station really HAS died just as the thread of the same name finally died. I.e., essentially no listeners for the new format. Of course, it's early in the Catholic format.
Click to expand...

What is the latest on the possible return Progressive Talk radio to Columbus? Hope I'm NOT ridiculed for asking. :(
It looks like it's not going to happen any time soon.

Also, noticed Progressive Talk radio has also died in Phoenix, Arizona. Saw this on a radio-info thread here:
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,121805.0.html
Click to expand...

You won't be ridiculed. Just be prepared for del_griffith to bump you instead. :p

With all the radio format changes during Phase I, it is too early to predict what will happen next.

The four most likely scenarios for progressive talk to return on at least a part-time basis will be:

1. WTDA's drop in Phase I evolves into a serious nosedive, and Hal Fish realizes he has a ready-made audience regardless of how crappy the signal may be.
2. WBNS decides to do something with 1460 other than simply simulcast 97.1.
3. St. Gabriel Radio can't raise the money it needs to keep WVKO operating, much less purchase the station from Bernard Media.
4. Bernard Media tires of operating 103.1, especially with 1550 remaining a Spanish-language format.

If the format returns, Air America won't--with the possible exception of rebroadcasting Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show at 5 a.m.

Dial Global, with its acquisition of the Thom Hartmann program as of this week, is now the undisputed leader in the format with 12 hours of progressive talk programming. Dial Global also knows radio. There is also the possibility of Frangela (Stephanie Miller's substitute) going to national syndication (again, I'm thinking Dial Global) if they are picked up by Green 960 in San Francisco and airing at night on the east coast.

Which could result in a station airing Dial Global's Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, Frangela and Fox News Radio's Alan Colmes, with someone like WOR's Joey Reynolds on overnight. No Air America other than Maddow's MSNBC rebroadcast.

After Dial Global saw Neal Boortz and Clark Howard kicked off Columbus radio after just a few weeks, any chance someone at its headquarters isn't monitoring what happens here in an attempt to stage a comeback?
 
Kind of off the subject but really not. If the banks had paid as much attention to whom they made loans as radio does to which songs to play or what hosts to put on we would not be in the economic mess that we now are. How about sending the programmers over to run the banks?
 
If 99.7 wants to succeed, they need to dump Rock and any form of Rock, plain and simple. The format isn't working for them anymore. Why they've stuck with it this long i'll never know.
If I was the owner of 99.7, i'd put on an AMP-style format to compete with WNCI. 'NCI needs some good competition in the CHR field...they haven't had any since 105.7/107.1 were owned by Robb Case. Oh, yeah, and there would have to be a new PD, so Hal Fish would get his long overdue walking papers.
Another option could be Adult Hits, but it could NOT be programmed the way TED was. I would copy Fly 92.9 in Dayton. TED played too much light rock crap like Bette Midler...That's something Fly has never done. Once again, Hal Fish wouldn't be anywhere near this station either.
 
I know I hardly listen to 99.7 anymore. The Blitz on it's worst day was better than this train wreck they have on there now. Like someone else stated, bring back the Blitz or just completely blow the damn thing up and take on WNCI. Nothing would please me more than to see WNCI destroyed by some REAL competition.
 
dawg4life said:
I know I hardly listen to 99.7 anymore. The Blitz on it's worst day was better than this train wreck they have on there now.
Click to expand...

Everyone I've talked to about 99.7 stopped listening completely, after the change. And this includes plenty of people in their so-called demographic. It's way too narrow of a focus.
 
I pretty much stopped listening when they got rid of Grego. It was not perfect, but it was better than any other morning radio I have ever heard in Columbus, at least locally. I tuned in occasionally to hear Mo, but I could not stand that constant cackling from Blazer. It seemed to go downhill after they got rid of Shannon. Then they started playing a bunch of music, got rid of Thick Rick, and then Grego was gone. To this day, I just don't get it. But hey, at least you have a place to listen to Slaughter now...GAG! :-\
 
Wow. The specific criticisms and advice may vary, but I don't think I've ever seen such a unanimous and unequivocal thumbs-down for a local station as I see here for 99.7.
 
Nu_Roo_2 said:
Wow. The specific criticisms and advice may vary, but I don't think I've ever seen such a unanimous and unequivocal thumbs-down for a local station as I see here for 99.7.
Click to expand...

I know right? But hey, what do we know?
 
Don't want to post under the thread, "Is WVKO-AM in trouble" because some people want to see that thread rest in peace. Also, I don't want to start
a separate thread for this...

This is a press release about a former WVKO-AM radio man, Lawerence Nallie, a Financial adviser who pleaded guilty to financial fraud. Click here to read:

https://www.comapps.ohio.gov/admn/admn_apps/admn/pressroom/Display.aspx?ID=1543

This article said he had a show on the OLD "Progressive Talk" WVKO-AM:

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/03/02/daily44.html

But that is not true, as far as I recall. He did not have an LMA with Cowtown Commutations. Sean do you agree with me??

Here is the Columbus Dispatch article:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...-07-09_C10_J8D53US.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101
 
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