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Observation

D

djdan

In NY on sales calls and the big story is WCBS. The station
just pulled its biggest month in a decade as an OLDIES station. The
station may finish top 5 25-54 in New York City and Infinity blew it
up! Usually it is my side of the building, Sales, demanding stations
be fixed so we can make more money. This JACK thing is NOT sales
driven. Some great radio stations are going away, like WCBS, KISN, KCBS
and more. Now JACK is in free fall in Denver, Atlanta, Dallas and in
any market that has had the format over a year. What is the thinking
from the programming point of view? The sales crew at WCBS was stunned
by the move and the odds of WCBS ever reaching the number they just pulled
as an OLDIES station is very slim. Why do programmers choose these quick-fix
formats? I might understand it as a last ditch effort for a poor signal, but
not on legendary stations that still rate and SELL. The public and agency
reaction to JACK in NY, Chicago, SF and Seattle has not been positive. All
four markets need a country station or a second country in the case of
Seattle. Is there something wrong will being a tried and true format like
Country or Oldies? I know for a fact they are easier to sell that the
trendy formats like JACK, 80's, MEGA, Classic Alternative, Jammin and so
on. Just an observation, this time it ain't sales causin the problems!
 
Re:Country is Coming Soon!!!

I agree 100%. JACK in Denver is a disaster of huge
proportion in ratings and sales. Dallas looked good
but has fallen off the map in the last three months,
especially in key demographics.

Seattle does need a new Country station and will have
one very soon. Full market signal, full promotion and
a quality staff. That is all I can say. The wait is
about over and not even iknowitall knows this one!
Enough said, for now.
 
> Just an observation, this time it ain't sales causin the problems!

Hey, Dan ...

Interesting feedback -- especially that sales people had no clue that the heritage station in NY was flipping. Wish I could offer some consolation that makes sense...but I read into your observation that there may have been an effort where people had whiteboards and mapped this out. These days...I don't think that happens. Someone gets a hair up the hoo-hah to start making changes and jumping on bandwagons; and often many other people in the food chain agree and go along for the ride without doing any analysis about what happens next, what is being given up, whether it's a good move for a different station (in NYC case maybe a "flanker" would have been more appropriate??)...I just don't see a lot of real "thinking" going on in the biz these days -- just a heck of a lot of nervous people scared to death of losing that pastry ride they call their job!!

Will be interesting to watch Infinity/NYC (blew up heritage oldies to put in Jack) vs. Infinity/LA (kept heritage oldies and blew up classic rockish to put in Jack) and see what shakes out. One thing they had in common ... Infinity does good job with formatics on their oldies stations (esp KRTH, WCBS, KFRC); but their rotation is so tight it's hard to listen to it in foreground for more than about 2-3 days. Rogers (Canada) does a much better job with executing Jack -- foreground jocks, all the elements the Infinity oldies stations have --- PLUS the depth of a wide music library; and I think that's what makes the format work (and have longer legs) where the US implementations are running with just a little attitude, lots of music, and not much personality or listener interaction. Again...people here following the "herd" mentality and copying each other rather than making more of an effort to copy the markets where the format is proving more successful.

I'm still kind of amazed at the polar opposites that exist in the business. On one hand, you have changes (new TV shows, new formats, new morning shows, etc.) that get one ratings period to Make it or Break It ... and they're off --- vs. "let's slap something on all over the country and see if it sticks" at the other end of the programming spectrum. Remember when TV exec's used to "trust" certain shows and would give selected ones some time to find the right audience; or when stations used to carefully consider their formatic fate before making changes -- not just blasting something through the entire chain like a computer virus!!!? First ya get the trendy format, and immediately right behind is a "format" VP appointed to the chain to ride the gravy train!!

Interesting observations..thanks for sharing them.
 
Good post, thanks.

The 'official' Infinity decisions to go to Jack are not being made at station level. It does not surprise be that they are weeding out the Oldies stations, just by pure demos.

That said, more and more evidence is emerging (including some things mentioned in your post) that heads are probably going to roll over this in about 18 months or so.

More to LittleBoyBlue's post about Canada -- I know that Infinity brought some people from north of the border to a Jack think-tank meeting in LA about a month ago, to try and tap into their knowledge and what to expect.

Back to New York -- I could very easily hear CBS-FM coming back. It might not be tomorrow, but sometime within the next couple of years.



> In NY on sales calls and the big story is WCBS. The station
>
> just pulled its biggest month in a decade as an OLDIES
> station. The
> station may finish top 5 25-54 in New York City and Infinity
> blew it
> up! Usually it is my side of the building, Sales, demanding
> stations
> be fixed so we can make more money. This JACK thing is NOT
> sales
> driven. Some great radio stations are going away, like WCBS,
> KISN, KCBS
> and more. Now JACK is in free fall in Denver, Atlanta,
> Dallas and in
> any market that has had the format over a year. What is the
> thinking
> from the programming point of view? The sales crew at WCBS
> was stunned
> by the move and the odds of WCBS ever reaching the number
> they just pulled
> as an OLDIES station is very slim. Why do programmers choose
> these quick-fix
> formats? I might understand it as a last ditch effort for a
> poor signal, but
> not on legendary stations that still rate and SELL. The
> public and agency
> reaction to JACK in NY, Chicago, SF and Seattle has not been
> positive. All
> four markets need a country station or a second country in
> the case of
> Seattle. Is there something wrong will being a tried and
> true format like
> Country or Oldies? I know for a fact they are easier to
> sell that the
> trendy formats like JACK, 80's, MEGA, Classic Alternative,
> Jammin and so
> on. Just an observation, this time it ain't sales causin
> the problems!
>
 
> I could very easily hear CBS-FM coming back.

JACK already reminds me of radio's version of "New Coke".

WCBS returning to Oldies would certainly complete the analogy...
 
Re:Country is Coming Soon!!!

> Seattle does need a new Country station and will have
> one very soon. Full market signal, full promotion and
> a quality staff. That is all I can say. The wait is
> about over and not even iknowitall knows this one!
> Enough said, for now.
>
What's wrong with the KMPS staff? What's wrong with KMPS?
 
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