New Addition to Lima

[blvd_pbj]

Hey Hopp:

You know, it would be really interesting to see what were to happen if Maverick were to get it's hands on WIMA. I think if that that were to happen, they would drop 940 and move the sports to 1150, keeping their afternoon talk show. Sadly, it would be the only local show outside of the Saturday morning line-up, and the program director would think he was a genius for making it happen (amazing how a satellite can create self-proclaimed geniuses, isn't it?)

...but I digress...

However, I see something real interesting happening right now, and again, I'm not just saying this to say it...I'm saying it because it's the the truth. Radio in Lima right now is garbage...ALL OF IT! ...and something is going to have to give.
I really believe that whoever ends up with the stations on Market Street (whether it's a single group or individual owners for each station) will be the leaders in bringing radio relevance back to Lima. It's going to take some work, but I do believe that it's possible, and that it will happen.

My personal belief though (and I'm probably going to be chastised for saying this) is that I think in order for that change I described above to take place is that it's going to require management on both sides of the street (Market and Cable) to change COMPLETELY...and, instead of a company coming in and buying a cluster of four, five, or six stations, it's going to take a group of three or four people investing money into 1-2 stations and having the integrity, patience, plus the ethics (which is a rarity in the biz now-a-days) to re-build the station, or stations, from the ground up!

It's sad, but it's true...

 

[AugC]

Mr. J


i read your posts on here and while they sound great...there's no substance to them...exept gerneralities. And while I see where your coming from...this is not just a lima thing....it's nationwide!
if you were to build the lima stations from the ground up...what would you do to get them back to their functionable status....this goes for kentucky dood as well. give me something good to read...not just a bunch of diatribe on a chat board! i'd like to hear(or see) ideas on here and discuss.

thanks for time

bk

 

[FredRichards]

PBJ, you might might be right about the management issue. There is not a lot of thought given to what really goes on the air. As we discussed before, what is happening today in the market is the reason I finally broke down and purchased XM after many diatribes about not paying for radio.

The one thing I notice different from radio today, vs radio 10 or 20 years ago, is that there is very little team participation, planning, and execution. It's sort of "here's your liners, now, don't bother me" or every man for himself.

I also don't see that people are happy, (as we've seen on some rebuttals/denials to the debate). And while I'll agree that it tends to be all over the nation (which speaks of a bigger problem), Lima has somehow become the poster boy for how to destroy an industry. Can you name a market which has more problems?

The thing that I think killed radio locally was the consolidation. After it took hold, I don't think a lot of people really had their heart into the product. And management was so busy battling the bottom line that they didn't pay attention to the needs of the listener, nor doing due diligence to what was being transmitted. Joke about Les, but the old boy did ask for perfection and quality.

This is best demonstrated by dead air, or when Prophet fires off two spots at the same time, or joins two syndicated programs together at the same time. You had to wonder, who is watching the store.

When you had separate "local" owners, it was a Texas Cage Match fight. There was great radio rolling out of Bean town. The local competition does one thing.... it sharpens skills and makes everyone better, and more talented. This translates to a product that can be sold for more than a dollar a holler.

I don't know if I told you the story, but in 2002 the National Radio Club had a radio listener's convention in Lima over Labor Day. That was 6 years ago when it really started to fall apart.

A couple of guys in the club got the bright idea to set up a station(s) at the convention. An aircheck is in the link below. We were on the air Saturday night when a cab driver from the Lima B&W Cab came into the hospitality room and wanted to see "the station". He said it was the best thing on the dial in Lima that night. Give it a listen and see if you can recognize some voices familiar to you.

http://www.e-dxn.com/news/audio/ConRadio/WNRC2002-El_KaBong.mp3

El Kabong is really Clarke Ingram, a DJ from Pittsburgh, and member of the radio club. You'll hear Doc Morgan (WLIO's VO guy), Lonnie Perkins who does VO for a bunch of station, Fred whatshisname that does the Kewpee commercials, jingles from TM/Century, and ads for the sponsors for the convention. There are portions of the tape where it's a little sour, and it's due to the cassette I used to record it off the radio. Aircheck is scoped. You'll hear a lot of inside jokes that only radio people would appreciate.

Although this is not benchmark radio the thing that blew me away was how genuinely interested the staff at the hotel and the taxi driver were, and how they commented about they wished Lima radio was more entertaining. Keep in mind that we did this just for grins and giggles for a couple of nights. The AM got out about as far as St Ritas hospital from the Hampton, so 940 had better coverage. I don't think the 25 mW FM got out of the parking lot.

But it does point out to me several things. Folks were turning their dials looking for something different than what was on the dial locally and FOUND us. For people to seek us out indicated a genuine interest. And, if commercial radio didn't fill the void, where will the listener's go?

The bottom line is that what has happened can be turned around. Once you know you have a disease you can treat it. As long as there is denial the problem gets worse. I think presently local radio is in denial. So be it.

But when things turn around, I think it could get back to the glory days. It will take work, lots of work, but it's all possible. The same thing has happened in other markets, and they have turned around and survived. As the old saying goes, out of the ashes rises the Phoenix. When it does start to turn around, those who recognized the problems and worked to overcome them will be the next stars. Those who deny will ultimately be working at the corner of Lathem and Cable on the NW corner.

I think things will start to shake between now and spring 2009, so we'll see who the winners and wieners are. CC is unhappy, and Maverick corporate is not pleased.

Speaking of airchecks, PBJ, I found something interesting you might want to hear. I found these cassette tapes tonight....

WAJC-FM 104.9 Lima on April 27, 1998 (evening)
WZOQ-FM 92.1 Lima on April 28, 1998 (evening)
WAJC-FM 104.9 Lima on April 27, 1998 (handwritten note that the jock is Spark Simon doing morning drive)
WZOQ-FM 92 Lima on April 28, 1998 (morning drive)

If you want a copy, let me know. I might have some more, but I'll have to dig.

Here's a picture of Clarke Ingram: http://www.nrcdxas.org/convention/02nrccon/pix/NRC2002-34.jpg

Here's a picture of the members of the radio club at the convention that year:
http://www.nrcdxas.org/convention/02nrccon/pix/NRC2002-52.jpg
included are a lot of guys in radio from Cleveland, Youngstown, Toledo, Syracuse NY, etc. Good group of people.

 

[blvd_pbj]

Greetings From Wednesday Morning:

Aug C...I knew that I was going to get torn for saying what I said, that's why I prefaced it by saying "I'm probably going to be chastised for saying this".
I never said at any point that it was just a Lima thing, but I understand where you're coming from...

...which leads me to my reply to Fred's post...

It's good to see that Fred and I agree on the same subjects, just a little bit more detailed with what he had to say...and you know what, Les was a good thing for Lima. He made sure that the product he had was a good one, and one that his clients would buy not one, not twice, but continuously buy no matter what. I don't remember a whole lot of issues (though I'm sure there were a few) with bad sales when Les ran the ship. Then again, I could be wrong.

I do agree with the consolidation issue in the market, and I do agree that Lima has been used as the poster child. It seems like it always has, but that's the nature of the beast unfortunantly. The changes have happened in the bigger and medium markets too, but it seems like it always hits the hardest in the markets that truly need the avenue of radio...like Lima.
Does a market like Chicago have radio? ...sure! ...but do they "need" it? ...not really. It's just another outlet for them. They have newspapers (both commercial and independent), they have television (numerous stations), they have a ton of other outlets too like fliers and e-blasts, so radio is just another outlet for them. In a market "like" Lima, radio goes from being another outlet, to being a "need". They have over a mill-pop', and Lima has maybe 50,000 on a good day where about 50% of the "general" population have low-to-moderate incomes, and when that's translated to the overall business climate in the city, the odds are already against a local (or chain) business succeeding. So, therefore, when a group of 3-4 stations consolidates (for example), it not only hurts the businesses locally, but it also hurts the audience.

Just a thought. As I always do, I'll be looking forward to the replies...

 

[kentuckymedia]

I dont know anything first hand as I live outside of Clarksville Tenn. But I did hear that Maverick spends money on marketing (billboards, buzzboards, television). Clear Channel cant spend any money, and since Sandra has taken over as cluster manager at CC the stations have lost over 2 million dollars.

 

[kentuckymedia]

Thanks for the information Fred. I will tell you, Clarke is a legend! The audio was great..its fun to go back through that.

 

[kirkiefan]

I AGREE! Lima Radio (with the posssibe exceptionof Wild 93.9 and all the Christian stations there) is bad!

WLJM-Moving the WZOQ call sign there is pointless. Vince Koza's Saturday morning program is the only reason to listen. Under Forever's ownership 940 JAMZ outdid 92 ZOO and Froggy 93 and that ticked off the management there and decided to downsize it to sattellite programming until itr was sold and became ESPN Radio 940. My heart goes out to the former JAMZ crew after being snubbed (or more appropriately ...DISCRIMINATED) by both uper eschelons of Forever and Maverick..

WBUK (as The Big Buck)Playing radio mix and match and clone-ing around per usal by the Clear Cutthroats. Oldies is no longer an option GIVE ME A BREAK I'M NOT WILFRED BRIMLEY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! ........SHEESH!

WIMT- Dumping most of its local air crew including Spark,Gordy,Renee and the others in the name of cloning up with TTF's FM

Froggy 93- Catchy..yet cheezy. Pluck yer magic twanger Froggy!
Hi ya Hopperfield hiya hiya.

WIMA- a joke. Sorry dittoheads I ain't bitin.

 

[pbf1]

WLJM-Moving the WZOQ call sign there is pointless.

On the contrary, it stops someone else from picking them up.

 

[FredRichards]

If I were to get a station for myself, Clarke is one guy I would try to get on my staff. His talents are really underutilized at 770/620. And the best part is not only is he good on the air, he's just a great guy to know.

I'm glad you liked his aircheck. That was fun to do. We've been kicking around doing something like that again at this year's convention, but I don't know if we'll pull it off. It's a lot of work to schlep equipment around for something like that. But there is still time to make a decision.

Maverick does promote pretty good. I guess I would like to see them get back to the roots that made them different after they took control from Forever. There are times when I tune past them and they seem like they are flailing with no common goal in mind.

Hopefully, someone will get the CC stations and do something positive with them.

The one that might be the stinker in this is the AM, which could involve some heavy investment in the transmission side. Nothing that can't be fixed, but CC really tied the hands of the local techs to fix some of the problem.

Oh well. Maybe Congress/FCC will finally move on getting rid of the third adjacent ruling and we can put a station at PBJ's house.

 

[blvd_pbj]

KIRKIEFAN - I haven't heard from you in a while. Thanks for the shout-out regarding JAMZ. It means a lot!
Though our opinions of WILD/WLWD differ drastically in regards to sound, I appreciate the
compliments of the past work WLJM did. At some point, I would like to dig up some old
old airchecks and imaging that is clogging my closet from the days when we were still locally jocked
and locally programmed. It was good stuff, and stuff to this day that I am still extremely proud of...
no matter how dated it may sound as time goes on. Back then, it was current (hahaha)


FRED RICHARDS - You are more than welcome AT ANY TIME to come and start up a radio station in my
apartment (and with our combined musical and production libraries, I don't think we would
have much of a problem doing that). You might have a fight on your hands with the future
wife though, but as long as you play some teen pop every once and again,
you should be fine! (hahahaha)

 

[dave johnson]

Fred....Thank you for posting the airchecks. I didn't get to Lima until May of 2000. It was great to hear radio being fun here.

Kirkie....hiya back at ya....but I haven't been Hopperfield since December of 2007...that's why I'm using my real name here.....but I do agree with you on Froggy. I'm glad Liz and Dave are not using "frog" names. The imaging could be fun without the cheesiness..then again, you couldn't get that past Shane Media.....PBJ can back me up on that one....

Kentucky....Maverick does spend a ton of money on getting the word out on their stations....billboards, newspapers, event sponsorships, etc, etc. They also spend a ton of money on research and development. They even paid for a Coleman Research study of the market. It seems to work for them in Eau Claire, Wiscosin and Santa Rosa, California.

And, finally...PBJ.....you did the right thing by getting involved in tv and other ventures. And I'm sure you would excel in imaging another station.....I think you did good when the Dutchess threw into the lion's den with 940 JAMZ....

Thank you all, again, for sharing your knowledge. Even after twenty years, I'm still a student of the radio business.

 

[AugC]

peanut butter and jelly has got to be a digruntled employee