107.5’s Smooth Jazz demise reinforced my long held personal belief that corporate culture over rules common sense. Radio One is an excellent urban radio company. The old 107.5 really did not fit into the demographics that other Radio One stations have in Atlanta. I personally liked and listened to the station at least 5 or 6 hours a week so I am not totally unbiased. One thing that shortened my listening time was when they played that (expletive) jingle in between every song. As a reformed former local sales weasel, (I still have an occasional relapse) look for at least one of two things to happen based on WCLK’s 0 .6 or 0.7 ratings with a marginal signal.
#1. A poor performing FM (CBS are you listening! Use 92.9 and complement V103) goes Smooth Jazz, Talk or Sports. Talk (will require a good local news department WGST proves this) or Sports in Atlanta will be costly to start up because it will require a lot air staff. CBS has enough air-talent chain wide to put it off Smooth Jazz. The only expense would be moving them to Atlanta. Also saves some separation expenses. Move the DAVE FM people to other CBS operations. CBS owes Atlanta for letting 92.9 get down graded to a C1. How does a station with Atlanta for its’ City of License change towers get a coverage cut when just about everybody else keep most of their coverage. I use to think CBS was smart enough to figure this out or had enough legal staff to make this too costly for some body to do a move in that will not have a decent signal north of Woodstock. They should have tried to stay on top of The Weston.
#2. An AM goes Smooth Jazz. Music can be played on AM. WSM in Nashville (I know it is country and they have 50KW) competes successfully with several FM’s. If I remember correctly, 107.5 was a top 15 or 20 station and somebody (1550 or the new Sandy Springs Station comes to mind) sooner or latter should give it a shot.