NOT DEAD

[pedrothemexican]

LETS TAKE A LOOK AT SYRACUSE AND FIGURE OUT WHY NOBODY POSTS ANYMORE.

ADULT CONTEMPORARY

IT IS ALL ABOUT Y94 IN THIS ARENA. LITE AND SUNNY CAN PLAY BUT NEITHER HAVE THE HERITAGE OR THE WATTAGE. EVEN IF THEY HAD THE WATTAGE, Y94 WOULD CREAM THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT REALLY DOING ANYTHING TO TURN THEIR LISTENERS OFF AND HURT THIER IMAGE. THEY ARE NOT HELPING THEIR IMAGE. THEY ARE NOT HURTING THEIR IMAGE. THE WEAK MUSIC CHOICES ON LITE AND THE INABILITY OF SUNNY TO STICK WITH A SINGLE VERSION OF ADULT CONTEMPORARY FOR LONGER THAN 1 ARBITRON PERIOD MEANS Y94 WILL ALWAYS BE QUEEN.

TOP 40

IT IS A GAME BETWEEN 93Q AND HOT. HOT SOUNDS TOO URBAN FOR MOST ADULTS AND 93Q IS NOT HIP AND COOL ENOUGH FOR THE YOUNGER KIDS. THEY ARE BOTH FILLING THEIR SLOT WELL. WITH OUT TED AND AMY THOUGH, 93Q WOULD FALL HARD. CITADELS BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THAT THEIR STATIONS HAVE NO IDENTITY OUTSIDE OF MORNING DRIVE. HOT JUST NEEDS TO KEEP DOING WHAT IT IS DOING BECAUSE NOBODY HAS THE GUTS TO TAKE ON THIS STATION. AND IF THEY DID, THEY WOULD LOSE. HOT IS THE BEST STATION IN SYRACUSE.

ROCK

KEEP IN MIND, ROCK ACROSS THE COUNTRY IS TAKING A HIT. IN SYRACUSE, IT IS BASICALLY MADE UP OF TK99, 95X, DOG AND KROCK. TK99 IS IN A GREAT POSITION BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN AND CAN DELIVER A NO NONSENSE APPROACH TO CLASSIC ROCK. EVERYONE ON TK99 SOUNDS LIKE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. 95X SOUNDS BAD IN COMPARISON TO EVERYONE ELSE BUT IN THE END IT HAS NO PERSONALITY AND SPENT THE LAST YEARS RELYING ONLY ON STERN TO GIVE IT AN IDENTITY. ANY HERITAGE THE STATION HAD IS GONE DUE TO THE PROGRAMMING MISMANAGEMENT OF THAT STATION. THE MUSIC ON THE DOG SOUNDS REALLY GOOD BUT THE IMAGING AND JOCKS ARE THE WORST IN THE NORTHEAST. THEY WOULD BE BETTER OFF FIRING EVERYBODY AND RUNNING JOCKLESS. A DECENT STICK AND THEY COULD BE DANGEROUS. KROCK IS ACTUALLY A GREAT RADIO STATION FOR WHAT IT DOES. THE REST OF THE STATIONS LIKE IT ACROSS THE COUNTRY HAVE BEEN FLIPPING BECAUSE THEY CAN NOT GIVE THE DIARY KEEPERS SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO WHILE GROWING THE YOUNG END. IN ROCK A WIN MEANS MAINTAINING THE STATUS QUO UNTIL ARBITRON WORKS OUT ITS PROBLEMS OR CLEAR CHANNEL FINDS A NEW RATINGS COMPANY THAT THE REST OF THE COUNTRY WILL HAVE TO FLIP TO.

COUNTRY

B104 HAS NO COMPETITION. AND THAT IS THAT. IT IS THE SINGLE WORST COUNTRY STATION IN THE COUNTRY BUT WITH NO COMPETITION AND THEIR JOBLESS LISTENERS SITTING AT HOME WAITING FOR ARBITRON TO CALL MEANS A CONTINUED NUMBER 1 SLOT. WSCP IS PATHETIC.

AM STATIONS

WSYR IS ANOTHER PRETTY GOOD RADIO STATION. IT HAS LEARNED TO DEVELOP A BALANCED TALENT LINEUP. THEY ARE NOT THE STATION THEY ONCE WERE BECAUSE THEY SOUND LIKE TELEVISION'S NEWS BITCH BUT THEY ARE NOT PRESENTING THE "ALL-NEO-CONSERVATIVE" OR BORDERLINE "NAZI" FEEL ANYMORE. I QUESTION THE RIETH BUT THE MORNING SHOW IS SOLID AND INFORMATIONAL. WSYR HAS THE BEST TRAFFIC REPORTS IN THE CITY. WTLA IS WHAT IT IS AND THE SPORTS STATION IS WHAT IT IS. EVERYBODY ELSE ON THE AM DIAL DOES NOT COUNT. WFBL. THEY JUST SUCK.

NOBODY FROM THE MARKET POSTS ANYMORE BECAUSE THEY EITHER DON NOT CARE OR ARE BREAKING THEIR NECKS TO KEEP THEIR STATIONS RELEVANT SINCE THE SYRACUSE RADIO WARS SEEM TO HAVE CALMED. THE ONLY WAR THAT IS WAGING IS BETWEEN THE DOG AND 95X AND THAT IS FOR THE NUMBER 11TH AND 12TH SLOT IN THE ARBITRON.

 

[DaCritic]

All right on the mark. It all gets back to a post I made some time ago about how everyone gets on here and beats their chests every quarter about how they gained a half-point or went up a ranking or two in some demo or other, but the simple fact is pretty much all of the high-ranking stations are where they have been ratings-wise for several years with very little change aside from the occasional fluke book. The one exception would be 95X which has really fallen hard, but aside from them, it's pretty much been B104, then WSYR, 93Q, and Hot, then Y, TK, and WSEN, then Lite, K-Rock, Power, Sunny et al. Everyone hits their niche pretty well and there's little change or fluctuation. THAT is why this market is boring. Everyone puts talkers on in the morning and hardly play any music. Everyone takes their commercial breaks at the same times. It's so vanilla it's not even funny.

 

[TheREALJM1]

.
> It's so vanilla it's not even funny.

You think Syracuse radio is boring, try listening to Rochester stations.
Nothing there at all and even more predictable. The only thing Rochester has that Syracuse doesn't is a left leaning AM, but their power is so small they have no impact. Maybe Wease on WCMF might be something different.
>

 

[doctorcomputer3]

Re: ALIVE!

Wease is Great! I wonder what the official spins were when he was beating Howard Sterns ass in the ratings. It can be done, just nothing the Syracuse preople can pull off. Too busy making the "been there, done that" excuses.<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected]</P>

 

[Evenste]

@Smokey Rivers ... I couldn't have said it better myself dude. i agree with about 98% of what you said here.

Though I take issue with WSCP sucking. they suck if you don't like real country, but if you like real country then B 104 is terrible and nobody who likes ACTUAL country music as opposed to Faith Hill popabilly garbage, listens to B 104.

As far as deejays go, yeah i geuss they suck. I hate that NASCAR crap they put on their to, but i'm just a lowly listener, so i can't change it.

And also, K-rock is full of 4 year olds posing as adults. I like K-rocks music, but i cringe when one of the adolescent talking heads opens their pre-k mouths. I dunno how the hell they keep an audience that doesn't still wear diapers or play with Tonka trucks. amazing to me that anyone listens for more than 3 minutes.

 

[DaveBullard]

Smokey:

I want to take polite issue with your claim that WSYR radio's newsroom is a copy of the TV newsroom. (Okay, you didn't call it a copy, but I'm just old enough that I don't use word you did use.)

Our newsroom is still fully staffed and we cover nearly everything we air. We do, on occasion, get some help from our partners on Bridge Street. You'll sometimes hear it in morning drive, when we don't have the luxury of a 5 am street reporter and there's some kind of spot news early on.

Do we borrow some audio from our friends from time to time? Yes. But far, far less than you think. Because we still have a fully-staffed newsroom, we simply wind up at a lot of the same big events as 9 (and 5 and 3 and N10Now and the Post). Radio focuses on the big events, because that's what we have time for. And we still have the pride to go and get stuff ourselves. You hear very little phone sound on WSYR -- we go get our own interviews in person. Maybe that's why you think it's all TV sound, because so many radio newsrooms don't seem to leave the newsroom anymore. You should see our gasoline bill....

In fact, you can watch Channel 9 and see that most of their enterprise stories do not wind up on our air. Likewise, with our enterprise news stories. Our needs overlap in some places, but they are generally very different.

And we remain a full-time newsroom.

Life is far from perfect -- we've taken our hits this year, too -- but we're the last 10-person radio newsroom in Upstate New York. We keep winning awards for our reporting at the state and regional level and our talent keeps getting sucked up by big markets (Sacramento and Minneapolis this year alone).

So I would have to disagree with you about WSYR not being what it used to be. I was in Syracuse in the 80's, at the big newsroom at underfunded WHEN (Park Broadcasting was the single cheapest outfit ever to own radio stations -- good old days, indeed!) when we'd bash heads daily with the big newsroom at WSYR. We also had to watch out for the small newsrooms at WFBL and WSEN. It would be tempting to call that the Golden Age of Syracuse Radio News or some such nonsense, but I've listened to some tapes recently and guess what? The good ol' days are never what you think they were. It's all about the same. And my bosses would likely say that WSYR News is in much better shape than it was a handful of years ago, when CC tried to hub all upstate news out of Rochester. I wasn't here then, but I gotta think that was awful.

And I agree with you about not having time to post because we're all too damn busy keeping up with everything

Long post; apologies for that. I don't post often, so I guess I had this saved up.

Enjoy the rest of the holidays, all!

-Dave Bullard/News Director, WSYR