Note to WECK

[nitro99]

As for the weekends, why not try what they're doing in New Jersey with 101.5?

They are an FM-Talker Monday thru Friday, but on the weekends "the music comes out to play". They're playing mostly 68-85 top ten stuff, with around-the-clock traffic and weather. The jocks sound like seasoned veterans, and I'm certain they're not pulling down big bucks. They do it for the love of radio (or their egos). Great sound, compression, jingles, everything is tight. You'd swear that they were a full-time music station.

The question is, are there enough ex-air talent in the Buffalo area who would do weekends for minimal money?

 

[Coldfinger]

The question is, are there enough ex-air talent in the Buffalo area who would do weekends for minimal money?

First reaction: Heh. You're kidding, right? * Second thought: At what point does a seasoned jock consider $12 an hour not enough compensation for what he or she might want to do in that four or five hour period. Unless the PD hires the jocks and trusts them to do what they want to do within the context of the format, playing weekend warrior radio doesn't seem worth it.

 

[SirRoxalot]

$12 and hour? That would be a raise for most weekenders.

 

[Steven21]

$12 and hour? That would be a raise for most weekenders.

Has radio become such a failed business model that most of the professinals who run it cannot even expect to be able to support themselves or their family anymore? Talk about time winding down on an industry.

Pathetic.

 

[SirRoxalot]

NOBODY is "supporting themselves or their family" as a weekender at a radio station. On the other hand, the percentage of people supporting themselves or their family as a sole provider on a full-time radio salary has got to be far outweighed by the number of people whose spouse/partner/significant other outearns them.

 

[Savage]

Here's a second to Ed Trefzger's comment about NBC Monitor. (Jeez. Never thought I'd find myself typing THAT suggestion. "Welcome To Geezerdom." Back when we used to board-op Monitor on WENY 1969-70 - age 19 - we used to open the mike and make comments/noises during what we called "Monotone." What we really wanted to do was flip Bubble Puppy on one of the CB-100s and crank up those 250 watts of rock-n-roll.)

But seriously - it was a magazine format which, with appropriate updates, could really work well on full-service radio today.

Ditto the old ABC Talkradio weekend format which featured topic-specific hours on law, gardening, home repair, cars, pets, health, travel, careers and finances. Only Bob Brinker remains of the old ABC shows. Each hour had its own host with a co-host (Jerry Carroll, the famous "Crazy Eddie" character of TV ad fame in NYC) who tied the whole weekend programming gig together. It made for very interesting and informative programming.

 

[warsaw35]

That generation I have learned is not as apt to spend thier money because of the lessons learned durring the great depression. My grandmother listens to AM740, and would listen to WECK if it switched back, but she would not spend money on it's advertisers.

 

[Savage]

Nobody has EVER supported a family as a weekender at a radio station - not even in what I guess most of us geezers would consider "back in the day." When I started at CKLW, I got the entry-level position, which was "weekend & fill." Under the AFTRA contract that was a five-day week, generally including overnights and maybe some evenings on Saturdays and Sundays. Usually within 6 months you morphed into a "fulltime" gig which only paid about $3000 more per year than "weekend/fill."

Often, because "weekend/fill" would get pressed into no-notice fill-in shifts, you'd make massive overtime because of short turnaround or seventh-day pay - double-time plus half-time for all the intervening hours BETWEEN shifts. If the station was short staffed the "weekend/fill" guy often made more than the overnight fulltimer. At times of sickness or absence your Saturday/Sunday work often paid a multiple of what you earned the rest of the week.

Of course, this was long ago, at a unionized station, with massive numbers in a huge market. And strictly speaking it doesn't even encompass "weekend work in radio" as that term is commonly understood.

 

[Element9]

There was a time not all that long ago when some damn good "weekend warriors" could be heard on every radio station in Buffalo. These days, with voicetracking and satellite specialty shows, there are but a handful of local ladies and gentlemen who do a station proud by practicing their well-honed craft on the weekend, mostly for the love of the business. For the most part, Saturday midday seems to be live at most every radio station, as well it should given that it's one of the highest cumed dayparts of the entire week.

As to WECK. John Beard's return to WNY to anchor Channel 2's morning drive show might make a good simulcast on WECK. It wouldn't be as timely as Tom Donahue and Loraine O'Donnell, but it might work as Channel 2 seems hell bent on beefing up its morning drive programming in an attempt to de-throne market-leading Channel 4. Unfortunately, camera friendly Jody Johnston may look like the young niece sitting next to the once dashing, now avuncular John Beard. BTW, I'm guessing Kevin O'Connell and Ed Kilgore won't be getting a Christmas card from Pete Gallivan, eh?

 

[Bob1370]

Simulcasting a TV show on radio rarely works--the two media are different enough that what works in one place doesn't always work the same way on the other side of the radio/TV divide. WECK should stay the course.

Having said that, I think John Beard will do very well back in Western NY. He's clearly not doing it for the money (he's probably set aside more than enough of the cash he made in LA to assure a comfy retirement whenever he does decide to hang it up), but for the lifestyle he's come to like. IIRC he's originally from small town North Carolina, so Western NY is a better fit than SoCal anyway...

 

[Kal]

Interesting discussion and suggestions.

The content IS there, whether we individually like it or not.
(Everything everywhere on every station could be 'better' or more 'uptown' or more 'major market' ...
It seems there are a lot of us former and wanna-be Program Directors here on the board! LOL)

As to ratings, if you have invented a better mouse trap and nobody knows it ... you're sunk!
BUT if you can sell it to those who do know about it and have the money to buy it ... then you're doing OK!

The bottom line is the bottom line. Always.

WECK could be a lot of things but WE don't get to decide!
(I'll bet Dick and Tom would say "Thank heavens!' for that!)

Kal

 

[Element9]

I'll offer a Sunday morning mea culpa for suggesting (albeit a while ago) that WECK should do Standards or Oldies. With WHTT reverting to an alloy of Classic Hits that appeals primarily to 45-64 year olds, a Standards format would likely have left WECK with nothing more than 65+ ratings, arguably a damn near impossible sale these days. Makes you wonder how many listeners WJJL has in any given quarter hour.

 

[DeltaDon]

With WHTT reverting to an alloy of Classic Hits that appeals primarily to 45-64 year olds, a Standards format would likely have left WECK with nothing more than 65+ ratings, arguably a damn near impossible sale these days.

WHTT would likely say their target is actually younger.... 40-54, 45-54, something like that. It leaves room for a softer oldies aiming 50+ or 55+. It would get a lot of 65+ because where else on terrestrial radio can they go? But it would also get an active, mostly affluent 50-64 or 55-64 that CAN be sold. Not easily, but it can be done. Hire sales people who relate to the demo, who are part of the demo, for the same reasons you hire announcers who are part of the demo.

If you're not choking on debt service or worried about shareholders and corporate mandates, you could make a nice living from selling that. You wouldn't need a killer promotion budget like the other formats, so that's another way the overhead would be kept low.

There's an audience out there that grew up with radio and still likes it. But radio ignores those listeners in favor of young people who don't care about or use radio. How dumb is that??

 

[Element9]

As to WECK doing Standards and the competition it faces from WHTT.

WHTT appears to be featuring hits from the 70s quite heavily, with a surprisingly generous rotation of hits from the 60s, and a smattering of hits from the 80s. If you consider (and accept) that a person reaches "the age of music awareness" around 12, WHTT appears to be centered on 45-54.

WHTT will likely attract some 40-44 year olds with the '80s and regain the 55-60 year olds with a generous portion of hits from 1965-69.

As an example, take a song that was a hit in 1972 and apply it to a person who was 12 years old at the time; that person is now 49 years old. The Classic Hits format is targeted to persons born between 1955 and 1969. The occasional hits from the 80s appeal to younger end of the demo, born 1970 and later. The hits from the 60s appeal to those born 1949-54.

Five years from now, however, there'll be a problem. The station will be top-heavy and will have to incorporate more 80s and 90s. There's the rub. Mix wasn't a half bad format as much as it was a half-assed format. The name never succeeded in Buffalo on WBUF years ago and it didn't succeed on WHTT because listeners couldn't figure out what Mix means. WHTT went off the rails when it added too many "girlie" songs and got "middled" by WJYE on the older end, and Star which owns the "girlie song" Hot AC franchise and the younger end of the female demo.

Both Entercom and Regent offer "A Wall of Women" when it comes to advertising demos. Citadel has the Men and a fair number of lady-rockers, but nowhere near the number of Women that Entercom and Regent can deliver.

It wouldn't surprise me if Classic Hits on WHTT steals some Men from 97 Rock's back pockets, but at least those Men will stay under the same roof and Citadel will be able to package them.

WECK as a Standards station would have to concentrate on music from 1952 to 1969, (listeners born 1940 to 1957) with a smattering of acceptable pop hits from the 70s. With each year and the diversity of song styles, it's tougher to do the Standards format. Fans of Margaret Whiting and the Mills Brothers, let alone Charlie Rich just aren't around.

AM 740 does a fine job with Standards, but its rotations are all over the place. Enjoyable in some ways, but inconsistent in others.

I'll be listening to UB Bulls football today on WECK. If anything, I'd beef up the local high school sports talk and football-basketball games on WECK and give it a stronger toe-hold on local sports talk.

 

[SirRoxalot]

I'll be listening to UB Bulls football today on WECK. If anything, I'd beef up the local high school sports talk and football-basketball games on WECK and give it a stronger toe-hold on local sports talk.

Isn't it interesting that WGR did just that? Think it's a response to all the noise that UB football is making in the area, and the fact that WECK's got it? UB football/basketball may help add a little beef to WECK.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

A very thoughtful post from "9". I think you could lop off the Mills Brothers and go past 1969 up to about 1990 if you went for some Soft A/C that isn't heard most FM A/C stations.

 

[DeltaDon]

I wish some station would play music for people over 45. AM740's new owners have been monkeying around with their format.... a talk show in the middle of the day? We don't have enough of those?.... and their ratings are down as a result both here and in Toronto. They do a bunch of little specialty features as well that are hit and miss. Why don't they just roll with it instead of all the stop and start? And where's the music variety they used to have?

A lot of "kids" have left Buffalo for elsewhere to find work or warmer winters. But there is a tremendous older population still here.... and I don't mean just seniors.... with no music station to listen to. WHTT sure isn't filling the void. My 2 cents.