Party's Over For 102.5?

[jetfli]

what are they changing?

C'mon, that's easy... they got a taste of the attention and $$$$ they received from carrying Preds games, and now they want a bigger chunk of it. It's not worth it to hang on to a music format that's barely eeking out survival when there's more to be made with sports.

 

[jetfli]

Well, any credibility you had been building with that post was just completely flushed down the toilet with the Jim Rome praise.

Speaking of Rome, with Jeremy Benefield on board, I can just see him resuming those "2 o'clock hours" like he and later McFarland did for the Zone after Rome's show (I'm forgetting if you overlapped those days or not). Maybe they'll save SOME secrets for Aug. 29.

 

[oldvnewschool]

Well, any credibility you had been building with that post was just completely flushed down the toilet with the Jim Rome praise.

Speaking of Rome, with Jeremy Benefield on board, I can just see him resuming those "2 o'clock hours" like he and later McFarland did for the Zone after Rome's show (I'm forgetting if you overlapped those days or not). Maybe they'll save SOME secrets for Aug. 29.

Hopefully Rome will be on the new station.

Even though I got criticized for it, the fact is I still would rather listen to him than 99.9% of all the other sports talk in Nashville. 8)

But I will sample the other programs as well.

I was checking WNSR's website and I see they have Yahoo Sports Radio (Formerly Sporting News Radio) on the weekends; which means they may get FOX SPORTS RADIO; Maybe even NASCAR may come into the picture as well.

Either way, it's good for Nashville to have 2 FM Sports Talk Stations ;D

 

[the golden boy]

^^

Two FM sports stations are rare. Dallas is the only other market I know right off that has two FM sports stations. If there is another one, I'll stand corrected.

 

[techguy1975]

what are they changing?

C'mon, that's easy... they got a taste of the attention and $$$$ they received from carrying Preds games, and now they want a bigger chunk of it. It's not worth it to hang on to a music format that's barely eeking out survival when there's more to be made with sports.

That isn't a fair comment.. They did not advertise the Hot AC format AT ALL. They gave it only 2 or 3 months, hardly enough time to call the format a failure. As I said before, Hot AC was not the intended format, it was merely filling time while they developed their true format, which is Sports.

 

[jetfli]

That isn't a fair comment.. They did not advertise the Hot AC format AT ALL. They gave it only 2 or 3 months, hardly enough time to call the format a failure. As I said before, Hot AC was not the intended format, it was merely filling time while they developed their true format, which is Sports.

My comment was about hanging on to "a music format" as opposed to introducing "a spots format". I was not addressing the Party format du jour, just generically speaking of any of the music formats they had tried over the past several years. I am a radio guy, not just a music radio guy, and I tend to focus more on the umbrella genres than on the more defined points of individual music formats. Didn't mean to confuse.

 

[jharmon]

Three sports stations now in Nashville? Good luck to all of them.
Four country stations in Nashville? Can they all survive?
Who do you think is in format jeopardy?

 

[firepoint525]

Either way, it's good for Nashville to have 2 FM Sports Talk Stations ;D

It is? We had two FM sports talkers, and one of them (the one on 106.7) evidently failed, so what will be different this time? There was the story in the news the other day that Nashville is over-franchised for a market of its size, with two major sports franchises, the tight'uns and the preds. The same could also be said that we are over-sports-talked, with now three sports talk stations on the air in Nashville.

Add in the poor economy, and we are not supporting everything that we already have. For the first time since I have been here, the tight'uns did not sell out all their game day tickets on the first day.

 

[Rocky2539]

OK, the reason for the change is that the Party's ratings are low, thus their revenues are low. It's easy to project that a sports format with the Preds pbp moved over from 102.9 can pull in more dollars. Especially if they can move over an established afternoon show. Even though 102.5 is a typical Cromwell cheapie move-in, the signal is good west of Nashville, particularly in the Clarksville/Ft Campbell area where the sports appetite is large.

And, if he were to desire to do so, George would be free to move upon the Cumulus closing. After their previous nastiness, he had an out written into his Zone contract if Cumulus were to buy the station. With pay.

I can say no more.

 

[DToTheJ]

"...the Party's ratings are low..."

Even lower than the old "106.7 The Fan?" ???

 

[Rocky2539]

All ratings are not equal. There is more advertising money available for sports than almost any other single programming element, meaning that there is more money available for stations with lower numbers. For a teen/young adult music format to pull similar dollars, it will need much bigger numbers.

All that assumes a well-run sales effort. Which I'm not sure you could say for the Fan. Or the Party. Or the Game either, for that matter.

 

[firepoint525]

Maybe they'll save SOME secrets for Aug. 29.

Where did you get that date? Don't see that here:

http://www.radio-info.com/news/nashvilles-hot-ac-party-to-flip-to-all-sports-the-game

or here:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/2...ts-talk-radio-is-comingto-Nashville-this-fall

At any rate, those "kids" on the Party's Facebook page complaining about the Party programming to "old" people will really have something to complain about now! Having "Electric Avenue" and "Safety Dance" mixed in with your Katy Perry might actually be preferable to all sports, all the time. The top 40 station in the town where I grew up used to play a lot of '50s and '60s music, especially on weekends, but it never bothered me.

 

[firepoint525]

what are they changing?
102.5 The Game has a 100,000 watt signal which is the maximum broadcast strength for an FM Radio Station. This signal strength is equal to all full wattage FM stations in Nashville and will be further strengthened just before the switch.
will they put it back on 102.1?

I say keep 102.1 as "The Light," or whatever it is (isn't that their highest rated "station," anyway?), and simulcast 102.9 and 102.5. That would put an end to all the complaints about weak signals.

 

[firepoint525]

if anything the predators game will move to the 102.5 signal so it won't be that big of a loss for the Buzz since they are co owned with one another.

Didn't Citadel keep the tight'uns on 'KDF even after transitioning 104.5 to "the Zone"?

 

[Rocky2539]

OK, this seems like programming 101, but the real value of sports pbp for a radio station in programming terms is as a cume magnet IF you can spread that listening out to other dayparts. If you are a music station, you have to work hard to try to convert the pbp audience to regular listeners when many of them may not particularly care for your music format. Often, focusing on personalities is a more productive route than focusing on the music to get them to stick around. Even with that, there was a real limit on the amount of Titans listening that KDF could convert to listening in other dayparts.

But sports pbp on a sports station is a much more productive programming element in terms of converting pbp listeners to regular listeners. You aren't fighting the music barrier and (duh) a listener who tunes in for pbp probably has more affinity for other sports programming than for a type of music they don't particularly care for. So it's easier to have a higher conversion rate.

Eventually, they figured out that it made more sense for the Titans to be on 104.5. It will make more sense from a programming standpoint for the Preds to be on a sports station rather than a music station, especially one with a format that isn't exactly setting the market on fire.

 

[ShadowB]

I remember being told many many times that the titans would never come off KDF.Each year we would bring it up and each time we would be shut down.For years KDF was tops and The Zone was a 2nd thought. But after years of trying it looks like things have switched.

 

[firepoint525]

OK, this seems like programming 101, but the real value of sports pbp for a radio station in programming terms is as a cume magnet IF you can spread that listening out to other dayparts. If you are a music station, you have to work hard to try to convert the pbp audience to regular listeners when many of them may not particularly care for your music format. Often, focusing on personalities is a more productive route than focusing on the music to get them to stick around. Even with that, there was a real limit on the amount of Titans listening that KDF could convert to listening in other dayparts.
But sports pbp on a sports station is a much more productive programming element in terms of converting pbp listeners to regular listeners. You aren't fighting the music barrier and (duh) a listener who tunes in for pbp probably has more affinity for other sports programming than for a type of music they don't particularly care for. So it's easier to have a higher conversion rate.

Great! That's also an argument for keeping sports programming OFF of music stations, which I'm all for!

Eventually, they figured out that it made more sense for the Titans to be on 104.5. It will make more sense from a programming standpoint for the Preds to be on a sports station rather than a music station, especially one with a format that isn't exactly setting the market on fire.

Don't know when the tight ones returned to 104.5, because I obviously gave them up when they went sports, and country? Well, I never listened to KDF, either.

And again, you are assumming that 102.5 was actually committed to hot AC. (Unless you are referring to the Buzz.) They clearly were not, which makes that point (for what, the third time in just this thread alone?) irrelevant. 102.5's "weak" signal in Nashville has been well-reported. Let's get hot AC on a decent signal here in Nashville, then let's see how well it does.

I always assumed that sports-related programming was off-loaded onto other (usually co-owned) stations because of programming conflicts on the regular (sports) station.

 

[Rocky2539]

I make no assumptions about commitment. I can hear a station and recognize that it is not very well programmed and I can read the numbers that reflect the result of that programming. Just the facts.

 

[techguy1975]

I've noticed last night that the processing on 102.5 has changed already. Seems to have alot more bass and low end, and almost no high end at all

 

[firepoint525]

I make no assumptions about commitment. I can hear a station and recognize that it is not very well programmed and I can read the numbers that reflect the result of that programming. Just the facts.

And those same poor programming issues will still be there when they go into sports. After all, it's a Cromwell station! Unless they make a buttload of money on sports and put that cash into better programming for the station(s). Yeah, right! :

At any rate, I won't be listening once they flip. Still not convinced that Nashville can support two sports stations on FM.