New WDSD Morning Show

[Porky Hooton]

Looks like Big D and Bubba are no longer on WDSD in AM drive. Sky Phillips was on with his "Morning Crew" today and Paul Lewis was holding down the fort this afternoon. If I am not mistaken, Paul was most recently at WJBR as APD/Production/Afternoon Host. He was at JBR for close to 15 years. Dana MacDonald, Rob Acampora, and Mike Sommers are still available, but it may be that Delmarva holds on to Dana and gives him something in Maryland. Do good, be well and happy.

 

[radioguruusa]

Wow are WDSD so desperate to crack the Wilmington market they think bringing back a guy who did mornings last at the station 12 years ago will work? Stupid move if you liked Big D and Bubba or not they do have a great show with good A-List country guests etc. What's the new morning show going to offer? I'm sure Sky is a nice guy but only real hardcore WDSD fans may remember him, but for today's WDSD fan he will sound like an old man trying to appeal to a younger listener. If your in your early 30's would you remember him? I doubt it people are very fickle with there listening habits. At least the Big D and bubba show sounded kinda younger and fun. That isn't what i heard this morning i only heard a small piece but what i heard was very old school, WDSD will continue to fail to get the numbers it should get with such a huge signal because it appears to be run badly with too much Voice tracking and Syndication. Good luck Sky but i would have stayed on afternoons, Because Delaware radio today to what it was like when you were last on the air is totally different, I'm sure you did great in your day but from what i can remember the competition back then wasn't that great North,Central or south, but now, WXCY, WJBR, Eagle 97.7, Cool 101.3 all have really strong sounding morning shows which have been around for some time now. Interesting turn of events but i very much doubt any other local station are worried about it.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

I don't have access to any real Arbitron numbers, but the assumption would be, if WDSD dropped Big D and Bubba, it was due to their morning show NOT drawing in the numbers from the Wilmington metro area CC Delaware wanted. Why would you say WDSD is so desperate to break back into the Wilmington market? In Delaware, that IS the market. Dover is not even rated, and Salisbury MD is far smaller by half (#75 vs #150). Just as rim shot stations try to be Philly stations. The larger the market the more audience, available advertisers, etc. I've felt that WDSD made a big mistake years ago when it was moved from 94.7 to 92.9.

I'll have to tune in to Sky Phillips and hear what he sounds like on WDSD. Just because a jock is "older" doesn't mean they can't have a successful AM drive show. As much as many here complain about stations not doing live and local during drive time, WDSD should be congratulated for spending the money and giving it a go again. I hope they are successful. Big D and Bubba were OK, but it's still not like a live local show that can have a local flavor to it. Nashville or Hollywood folks can't imitate that. So I wish Sky well and hope he's successful.

It will be interesting to see if WXCY makes any changes. Of course Delmarva might wait to see if WDSD actually is able to cut into their large audience in a significant way. WDSD has everything to gain, while WXCY has everything to lose. Time will tell.

 

[DX]

Absent hiring a new program director for WILM, it would appear Clear Channel Delaware has made a strategic decision to steer what meager resources ($) are available to WDSD over WILM.

Time will tell the wisdom of this switch, if that's what it is.

But when Clear Channel Delaware originally flipped WDSD to the lower-powered frequency, and tried to see if a Delaware-originated rock format might succeed -- drawing listeners away from WMMR, WYSP, and WMGK -- one wonders if that too was motivated by the quest for the Wilmington metro.

Apart from any egos involved, top brass at Clear Channel Delaware might have concluded then that country is a tough sell in the Wilmington metro, that certain advertisers just have a prejudice against country listeners, tend to typecast them as lower in the socioeconomic spectrum, with more modest discretionary incomes.

Anyway, with WILM but a skeleton of its former self, the remaining blood appears to be flowing to WDSD.

One problem for CC Delaware: Country listeners, just like many news/talk listeners, are incredibly loyal. Once they have a favorite, trusted station... very difficult to dislodge.

This is similar to local TV news ratings wars, where the # 1 station often remains # 1 for years, if not decades.

 

[Porky Hooton]

I am pretty sure that all four of the country stations in the Wilmington metro (WXCY,WDSD,WXTU,WPOC) had up books in the Spring 2010 ratings. WXCY is a very well run radio station. Under the direction of President, Pete Booker, Vice-President/Sales, Cynthia Morgan, and Station Manager/Sales Manager , Bob Bloom, along with their team of sales, on-air, and in-house support staff, "get er done". And they do it with about 15 full time people. The sales team has been in place and well trained for years, and they have one of the best sales commission structures in the industry. And they are a multi million dollar billing facility, licensed to the small resort town of Havre de Grace, MD. It is a reporting station to music trade publications, and as a result , has great access to country music acts. It is also is one of the few stations in the nation that shows up in five (5) rating metros (Wilmington, Baltimore, Philly, Lancaster, York, and sometimes even Harrisburg). Their Loyal Listener Club is second to none. No "I'll take the 10th caller" to win a pair of windshield Wiper Blades. Great prizes and one of the best combinations of internet and radio in tandom that you will find. Ratings help with national buys, and WXCY always wins, so that helps. But, with that being said, it is still all about being local. WXCY owns Elkton and Cecil County, just as WDSD owns Dover and Kent County. I would guess that both stations have about the same number of listeners in New Castle County. Recently, Chris Walus , who led WXCY's sister stations in Wilmington to the best billing that the market had ever seen, arrived at Clear Channel to do his " sales magic" there. So we'll see. But I still go on record as saying, WDSD should have never switched back to 94.7 on August, 29, 2007. They should have done something unique in the market, and come up with a format that would have taken audience from Philly. Sadly, the old CC management crew made a mistake. Do good, be well and happy.