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Oldies 107.9 FM

Scott Roddy has also done Country up in Fort Wayne, and when 93.9 was 80's he voice tracked. Just because Scott is a prime canidate of being an Oldies Man doesnt man he will be doing Oldies at 107.9. we still have 4+ weeks to find out where 107.9 goes in terms of format. Oldies is a dying format. If they do Oldies. 107.9 will be changing formats again in the early parts of the 10's decade. Other than WGRR, WCBS and KRTH. what oldies/Classic Hits stations are really putting out decent numbers these days. In Fact i think Fort Wayne might be one of the rare markets still to have both an Oldies Station and an Adult Standards station. Columbus Ohio is even a more rare combo with an Oldies, Standards and a Smooth Jazz stations. All 3 of which are dying formats
 
Well then i give it till bout 2012 if not sooner to change formats again. unless they go a 70's & 80's oldies route on 107.9 because they wont get any buys if they go the traditional route of 60's & 70's because they wont do well especially once PPM starts early next year.

and Past Oldies Stations in Indy
WKLR Summer of 87 till September of 1994
WQFE September 94 till 1998ish
WGGR September 94 till June of 97
WGLD June of 97 till March of 05
WIAU September 05 till November 07
WKLU December 07 till September 09

the last 2 stations to go oldies over this decade lasted a 4 years combined. the previous 2 city graders averaged 7 and a half years in the format. Ill give 107.9 3 years tops as an oldies station. but im going under that total
 
On the subject of Oldies being a dying format, as Chief Engineer for WKLR, I was in the room when the announcement to kill it came down because 'Oldies is a dying format'--exact words from management. That was in 1994...15 years ago. It may be a dying format, but what a slow death. When Indy has been without an Oldies station for 24 months, only then will I concur and lower the casket into the ground. This dead patient has been resuscitated too many times for me to be convinced otherwise.
 
I think if I ran a oldies station, would try to find some good local bands to imitate the original artist, sprinkle the local bands into the rotation on a oldies station, so it could try to push the numbers up on the local station playing oldies.
 
BobOnTheJob said:
On the subject of Oldies being a dying format, as Chief Engineer for WKLR, I was in the room when the announcement to kill it came down because 'Oldies is a dying format'--exact words from management. That was in 1994...15 years ago. It may be a dying format, but what a slow death. When Indy has been without an Oldies station for 24 months, only then will I concur and lower the casket into the ground. This dead patient has been resuscitated too many times for me to be convinced otherwise.
Click to expand...
The Only way 107.9 will be able to survive as an oldies station for more than 2 or more years is if its Patterned in the style of WCBS/WGRR mold. not the Stale moldie Oldies that we last saw at WGLD and prior to that at WQFE/WGGR and Prior to that at WKLR. those oldies are done and dead with. they have to be 70's & 80's based for them to survive in an oldies format. because if you go to the 50's & 60's Oldies. your marketing to that 55+ market your not gonna get ad Sales and then your doomed
 
Mike,
You're so hell bent on trying to convince everyone on this board your opinion is right about this format's demise you missed all the evidence you needed supportting this format's resurrection on 107.9FM [evidence you presented by the way]:

WGLD June of 97 till March of 05

That's an eight year run - one that was successful financially - during Jennifer Skjodt's leadership.

Your programming insights may very well be the best in this market - I'm not looking for an argument - I'm just sharing what the word is about the upcoming format relaunch of this signal.
 
mouseman im just saying unless they go with a more modern approach to the Oldies Format. They will wind up with lower ratings than they are getting with the Track. and probly worse ratingds than WKLR and WGLD ever was getting in their runs in the format. the Oldies that survived the late 80's early 90's on WKLR and on WGLD in the late 90's early 00's will not be able to pull the same on 107.9. they either need to go with the 70's & 80's oldies instead of what WKLU was playing in 60's and 70's Oldies. Hopefully Scott will program to a modern oldies audience to get ad sales or you can have a new format on 107.9 by 2012. i can see 107.9 joining 93.9 in the format wheel of death rotation if they dont do the oldies right.

WGLD was successful yes for 8 years but obviously the sales must of been dipping in the last year for them to dump the format for Jack in 2005.

And no im not trying to influence the minds of others on here. if you read other boards people are talking bout oldies on other boards and realize unless its done right. Dont do it because you will end up like I said with no ad sales. because Agencys along with Smooth Jazz and Standards considers Oldies as a no buy situation
 
Let's look at this from a couple other angles -

WIBC's audience has been strongest at 55+ for decades, and they drive a lot of revenue. Even the more to the FM dial hasn't dramatically changed the demo's of this station, try as they must. BUT, they still drive a lot of billing. [they struggle at times with agency business]

NPR stations are growing old as well - here's a quote from a story recently reported on this site at Taylor on Radio: "George Bailey (a T-R-I reader) says listening for public radio 'has long been dominated by highly-educated baby boomers,' and that Garrison Keillor’s observation about seeing more gray heads in the Prairie Home Companion live audience is right-on. That carries some implications...“Life stage NPR News graph covers the years 1997-2009 and shows the median age of the audience getting older, from 46 to 52. The percentage of those employed is getting smaller. (“For NPR News station listeners, retirement is top of mind.”)” Now, that said, do you really think NPR will dramatically alter it's programming to 'get younger.' Non-comm radio or not, the broadcaster still needs the revenue to survive, and NPR stations, while they go at it a different way, still drive revenue pretty well too. [no agency business at all to speak of]

I really believe programming cannot fix bad sales - but good sales can drive revenue with just about any programming, as long as it's of decent quality, presented with decent technology infastructure [signal is engineered to be as good as possible], is unique, and builds a brand with a loyal base [not necessarily the largest base]. Oh, and I said revenue, not agency business. Here I would simply point again to the argument I've made on this board before - good sales and revenue doesn't necessarily mean good agency business. WBRI-AM is very profitable, with power ratios far exceeding anyone else in the market, airing programming most folks cannot listen to. The same thing could be said about the Hispanic stations, the sports stations [to a degree, though they depend too much on agency business from cluster packaging] Radio Disney, etc.

If an Oldies station sales staff knows what they're doing, and isn't dependent on agency busness, they will be successfull. If this station drives revenues 50% - 50% agency vs. direct, and gets say $1.5mil in agency business, and another $1.5mil on their own [which are VERY reasonable goals], that's a $3mil property - I'm certain Entercom would be thrilled to see that kind of billing right now.
 
well im sure in this time and age i dont see Entercom going out to get a sales staff to try and sale Oldies. infact didnt Entercom just fire a Sales guy or 2 recently prior to the change of 107.9. and im sure the sales staff they got has to do sales for all 3 stations in the formats they had prior to the switch of 107.9 the Track. so unless Entercom is gonna put time and Effort with a seperate Sales staff for 107.9. We shall See. and NPR stations cant have ad's as they are non com's. Im Sure WIBC and WXNT sale differently in a talk format than Music Formats sale
 
Think if they could find some good local bands that can intimidate the original artists well, a oldies station could sprinkle this into the rotation to help attract a younger audience after they heard this band play some good hits over the weekend at a bar and the younger audience knows they support a radio station that plays oldies.
 
NPR can't sell ads but they sure can sell sponsorships. They are loaded with them.

A local cover band is fine for live appearances but not for on-air.
 
NPR is favorites with people who dont like commercial radio so they will get there sponsorhip buys. I still say if they go for 50's & 60's or 60's & 70's Oldies 107.9 wont make 3 or more years. they could get by if they go with 70's and 80's oldies. and I dont see Entercom going out to get a seperate sales staff in this economy to sale an oldies station by its self. i believe most companys these days has one sales staff for the whole cluster.
 
MikeStandardsFromIndiana said:
NPR is favorites with people who dont like commercial radio so they will get there sponsorhip buys. I still say if they go for 50's & 60's or 60's & 70's Oldies 107.9 wont make 3 or more years. they could get by if they go with 70's and 80's oldies. and I dont see Entercom going out to get a seperate sales staff in this economy to sale an oldies station by its self. i believe most companys these days has one sales staff for the whole cluster.
Click to expand...

Yeah, like 60s and 70s oldies have been such a disaster for WLS-FM in Chicago.... ::)

Mike, people like you have been counting out oldies (or 'classic hits' as it's now called) for years and you've been wrong for just as many years. It still pulls in decent sized audiences when properly executed and those audiences tend to be loyal and from a higher than average income range. That's why we've seen so many oldies formats reincarnated after having been declared dead in this market or that. And, there's not that much correlation between the ratings of such stations and the relative age of the music. It depends on the market and - again - how it's done. Older oldies can do just as well or better than those 70s - 80s formats (which often sound disjointed to me). That's where good, solid market research is important. And, no matter what the range of the music is, don't narrow the playlist to songs that will burn to a crisp within 6 months.

Now, here's an alternate idea that I have yet to see here: find someone who's outgrown acne to sell the damn format!
 
WLS-FM has been in the format for about five years if memory serves. Their ratings have only improved with time.

If Roddy has been hired for an APD job, who will serve as PD? One of the jocks from WGLD?

And please, please, please, don't get 70s-style jingles. They were great in their day, but they seem out of place in 2009.
 
But isnt Scott Shannon who also runs the True Oldies Channel consulting or Programing WLS-FM in Chicago. there are only so few Truly Programed Oldies stations out there right now and those are few and far between aka WLS chicago, WCBS New York, WGRR Cincinnati, KRTH Los Angeles, and WOGL Philadelphia and WOMC Detroit
 
Magic 102.7 in Miami sounds like a True Oldies station but that's in Florida but 1 of the best stations in Florida playing oldies, Q105 in Tampa in the ratings had the best cume of any CBS station there but Q 105 don't sound like a total oldies station since they may play some 80's. I would think New Orleans might be another area that you may hear a oldies station but I could be wrong.
 
i told you guys it would be some form of Oldies.. Either true oldies,, 90s oldies and rhythmic ac are all forms of oldies, so if any of these formats ends up on 107.9 I win.
 
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