In the 12+ race WWKB passed you with a 1.0 AM740 passed you with a 2.0. Bring back the standards locally with personalities. After all old ears are better than talking to the wall.
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Note to WECK
- Thread starter Mike Sheridan
- Start date
Ratings are not as important than making money for this particular station. You CAN make money without ratings. However, if the ratings AND revenue suck, i think the answer is obvious.
superset weekend said:
Yes that is a very good point and I would agree.
I once worked at a station that had both good ratings and a really good sales staff. One of the salesman told me he didn't use the ratings, rather he concentrated on promoting the CLIENT'S BUSINESS effectively.
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AndrewLawson
Guest
Playing oldies doesn't seem to have helped WJJL very much.
We are not talking about playing OLDIES. The talk was Adult Standards. Big difference. WJJL and WECK are two different animals. WECK had atleast a 5 share for many years, with the same signal it has now. WJJL never has, and does not have the same signal. Also, JJL has limited itself to always being viewed as just a local FALLS station.
I would agree that the HOMETOWN RADIO moniker is not very important in big markets, or even medium markets. But it IS important in smaller markets. In the major markets, i would not draw attention to hometown, but it would already be assumed by the type of programming i would have.
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AndrewLawson
Guest
Doesn't the Standards format feature music from 1945 to around 1965? Seems AM-740 does a very good job with it by the 12+ ratings. What would WECK have to gain by appealing to listeners who are well over 65. Oldies stations plays music from around 1960 to 1980 and their listeners are mostly 50 and older. There doesn't seem to be much difference. WECK seems to have chosen a course and stayed with it even though it gets clobbered by WBEN.
It makes a ton of sense to program WECK to over 65 yrs. Those listeners love AM radio, and they always will. Plus, they have money, and they will give radio atleast another 10 years...it is really simple
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AndrewLawson
Guest
It seems like many people here think Standards would be an *automatic* for WECK, but that's not necessarily true and wouldn't Oldies be better? If the thinking is "Standards would give the station another ten years," doesn't it make sense that Oldies might give the station anther 15 or 20 years? Why program to people who are 65 to 70 when you can program to people who are 50 to 55?Steven21 said:
Am I the only one who thinks that music on AM just ain't gonna bring dollars through the door?
WECK is never going to challenge WBEN, but they're continuing to evolve into a more interesting radio station. The addition of Bill O'Laughlin adds a known name - and likely some dollars - to the station. They're getting some play from Channel 2 in return for running the audio of their noon and 10PM newscasts. Brad Riter in PM drive has them leaning less on syndication during the daytime, and more on local programming. They're starting to add some financial programming, plugging another little hole in the market. UB sports will continue to help them out in the long run, and will Yankee baseball once the season heats up.
Overall, they're still a work in progress, but there is progress to my ears. I'm not sold on Fox Sports for the weekend. Perhaps a standards or standards/oldies hybrid might work as a programming block on the weekend. At least it might give them a reading on the desire for such programming.
WECK is never going to challenge WBEN, but they're continuing to evolve into a more interesting radio station. The addition of Bill O'Laughlin adds a known name - and likely some dollars - to the station. They're getting some play from Channel 2 in return for running the audio of their noon and 10PM newscasts. Brad Riter in PM drive has them leaning less on syndication during the daytime, and more on local programming. They're starting to add some financial programming, plugging another little hole in the market. UB sports will continue to help them out in the long run, and will Yankee baseball once the season heats up.
Overall, they're still a work in progress, but there is progress to my ears. I'm not sold on Fox Sports for the weekend. Perhaps a standards or standards/oldies hybrid might work as a programming block on the weekend. At least it might give them a reading on the desire for such programming.
i don't think you are going to see any kind of gain, or buzz, ratings or revenue. Oldies has been done to death, Adult Standards has not. Then of course you have to promote the station. You need REAL community involvement, not just channel 2 tie-ins.
SirRoxalot said:
Maybe it's foolish of me to think that music can make it on AM radio but I will deal with the shortcomings in Fidelity if the format is appealing. That's is from one who led the charge to FM back in 1966 when FM was a curiosity to many and hardly a cash cow.
The Standards format need not stop at 1970, or 1990 for that matter, it continues to this day in a few sporadic examples. The most popular are Barbara Streisand, Michael Buble, Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon and others. Standards unlike oldies does not need to remain shackled to the past. There is some room for a few new tunes.
While the standards audience is older the format does have some younger fans. I have always been one of them and my kids, with no real prodding from me like it too. Where does it say that you must confine yourself to only the music of your generation? Once out of high school peer pressure hardly seems to matter.
Fox Sports or ESPN is a bit like leaving your station on auto pilot. I understand the need for filling the time with something that doesn't break the budget and maybe brings in a little money. If you're going to be a hometown station isn't there something local that could be done? How about a Buffalo Drama group performing a radio play or something? The Buffalo Symphony maybe? WECK should scream Western New York 24/7, cut the tether of the satellite dish except maybe for some national news.
I know it's easy for us to sit on the sidelines and throw out these words of wisdom. We don't have to be concerned with paying the bills. Still I think there needs to be a transfusion of energy, can do spirit, and drive to do something truly unique on the radio. It's my hope that if it were even marginally successful that the format would be much copied around the country. This might lead us out of the radio doldrums.
superset weekend said:
Oldies has been done, but as to its "death," perhaps exaggerated, as Mark Twain once commented. It depends on your definition of Oldies. If Oldies encompasses hit music from the years 1955-1963, including doo-wop, then it may be on life support. Then again, music from 1955-1963 comprises a significant segment of the Standards format. If your definition of Oldies includes hit music from the years 1964-1984, that's more of a Classic Hits format.
Music on AM is a precarious programming proposition and SirRoxalot makes a valid observation. WECK could very well succeed with Oldies, especially with Tom Donahue and former Oldies 104 programming director Tom Schuh formulating an Oldies-Classic Hits approach. So for the sake of argument, let’s say the format would draw a 2.5 share 12+ on WECK. The next question is, how long would the success of Good Times & Great Oldies on WECK endure before a Buffalo FM operator (even the brain dead and financially bankrupt) would look at WECK's ratings and consider doing or re-entering the format.
Posters here have wondered why WHTT walked away from the Greatest Hits format it was doing about three years ago. Some speculate that WHTT infringed upon 97 Rock and management hit the panic button. Others say that Citadel, already dominant in Men 25-54 wanted to stake a claim in Women 25-54 to take on WJYE and Star.
Curiously, when you consider the impact of Standards, Oldies, Classic Hits, and Classic Rock, an argument can be made that Classic Rock is the new Music of Your Life format. A few days ago I heard the classic rock anthem, "Whole Lotta Love" from Led Zeppelin's second LP, which was released in late 1969, topping the charts early 1970. That song is forty years old. If you were 18 when the song and LP were released, you’re 58. If you were 25 then, you’re now 65. If that isn't a page out of the Music of Your Life format, what is?
97 Rock is one of the dominant stations in its format in the United States. If 97 Rock is successful doing what it's doing, why wouldn't another Buffalo (FM) station do as well playing pop hits from the 60s, 70s and 80s? It's said that Classic Rock is a format that's "artist based" while Classic Hits is a format that's "song based." Either way, when the format is executed properly, it usually results in significant ratings and revenue.
Whether the Classic Hits format can be applied to AM and WECK in particular is debatable, but that’s what we do here, isn’t it. It may be that WECK is trying to force a square peg into a round hole by choosing to take on a formidable foe like WBEN, but in the long run it's probably the right thing to do. One thing’s for sure, WECK has a good PD, some very sound air talent and its 12+ number has been improving.
SirRoxalot said:
I'm not sold on it either. WECK is always going to play second fiddle to the local talk WGR does on the weekend and then to ESPN.
That's the other problem with putting together a talk and/or sports lineup. Putting together a cohesive weekend lineup together.
Which is why news and sports talk stations feature the Colon Blow Hour and specialty shows like Ask The Dermatologist or the Hip Handicapper on Saturday and Sunday. Most people who listen to news and sports talk during the week want to lighten up on the weekend and switch to FM to hear music. Who can blame them.ThePickleReport said:
ThePickleReport said:
It's too bad that there isn't a service like NBC's Monitor these days. Even though I was still pretty young when it ended, I remember that being on almost all the time on the weekends when my dad had the radio on. I'd think that variety talk programming like that could still work today, especially as a weekend antidote to politics.
Ed Trefzger said:
Ament to that! Much of it could be pre-produced segments. The only problem is it would take effort. Stations just want to slap something on the air that takes minimal effort.
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