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Play 98.7 -- Can it really compete?

M

marklarsen

First, I haven't had a chance to really monitor the music mix & rotation very closely, but...

I cannot see how CBS plans to compete against the big guns, with that signal and a largely non-unique format. Besides the picket fencing, the processing is awful. WiLD pulled it off, because they hit the air with a more pure approach to their core than 93.3 and superserved it -- and they got out of the studio and PROMOTED themselves. And the grungy processing, necessary for an inferior signal, wasn't as much a factor with hip hop which sounds distorted anyway compared to "adult hits." Age old psycho-acoustic research shows adult females hate grungy audio. (Maybe the processing just sounds bad, because of the signal)

I'm amazed CBS didn't wait for more improved market conditions and take 98.7 sports or talk. That stick is fine for spoken word, if it's transmitted in mono sum, to stop the "picket fencing" on the signal fringe. Grungy processing, like composite clipping, doesn't matter in spoken word, as you're competing with AM's.

I'd be curious to know how the rest of the board receives the signal around the metro, compared to SoccerMom 100.7.

-Mark Larsen
http://www.markinthemorning.com
 
Mark,

I have said all along that a talk format is the best alternative for the 98.7 signal. I'm very happy to see that a well known and well liked market professional as yourself sees it that way too.
 
Even a simple move of the antenna from Seminole to Gandy Blvd would provide better coverage in Tampa and Brandon.
 
The coverage is poor in Temple Terrace and worse in Brandon. WMMO comes in better at times. I personally don't see it competing with Mix or Magic.
 
Signal is great here in Town 'n Country. I like the music. If they get a fun morning show and stay away from things like delilah or tesh in the evenings I can see myself listening to this station a lot.
 
TampaDan said:
Signal is great here in Town 'n Country. I like the music. If they get a fun morning show and stay away from things like delilah or tesh in the evenings I can see myself listening to this station a lot.
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I agree. If CBS does those things it could work. If they remain a juke box with contrived liners, it would be just like "BOB PLAYS WHATEVER HE WANTS" or something like that.
 
Will it set the world on fire? No.

Will it carve itself a slice of it's target demo and give CBS a little more $$? Possibly.

Will listeners in that demo leave Magic, Mix, The Point, and 'FLZ in droves? Perhaps not. But gathering a few listeners from the older end of 'FLZ's demo and the younger end of Mix's/Magic's/The Point's may be enough to make it pay off...and there may be more of them than the former "Smooth" had.
 
You gotta remember that 98.7 is only a rimshot signal at best. It was never designed to serve the entire metro, and it cannot be upgraded. It is boxed in on all sides, 98.5 KTK was downgraded in order for 98.7 to move from Cortez Road in Bradenton to Seminole. Plus, if they upgraded, there would be a ownership cap problem with overlapping contours and a conflict with 102.5. Right now, 102.5's and 98.7's contours almost but dont overlap. Regarding talk on FM, I'm surprised that Clear Channel hasnt done that yet with WFLA. They have poor coverage to the north and northwest and would really benefit from an FM that has good coverage that way. 97.9 has its stick up that way and would be a prime candidate to simulcast WFLA. WSB in Atlanta has just flipped one of Cox's FMs over to a WSB simulcast. AM talk stations are getting FM's in many major markets now. It's only a matter of time for it to happen here.
 
sbe1 said:
Plus, if they upgraded, there would be a ownership cap problem with overlapping contours and a conflict with 102.5. Right now, 102.5's and 98.7's contours almost but dont overlap.
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Wrong owner. 98.7 is CBS. The overlap issue with 102.5,owned by Cox, is with 97X.

sbe1 said:
Regarding talk on FM, I'm surprised that Clear Channel hasnt done that yet with WFLA. They have poor coverage to the north and northwest and would really benefit from an FM that has good coverage that way. 97.9 has its stick up that way and would be a prime candidate to simulcast WFLA. WSB in Atlanta has just flipped one of Cox's FMs over to a WSB simulcast. AM talk stations are getting FM's in many major markets now. It's only a matter of time for it to happen here.
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It won't be 98 Rock, they are kicking butt in PPM. and the Cox Atlanta flip was to a real rimshot 40 miles outside the metro.
 
sbe1 said:
You gotta remember that 98.7 is only a rimshot signal at best. It was never designed to serve the entire metro, and it cannot be upgraded. It is boxed in on all sides, 98.5 KTK was downgraded in order for 98.7 to move from Cortez Road in Bradenton to Seminole. Plus, if they upgraded, there would be a ownership cap problem with overlapping contours and a conflict with 102.5. Right now, 102.5's and 98.7's contours almost but dont overlap. Regarding talk on FM, I'm surprised that Clear Channel hasnt done that yet with WFLA. They have poor coverage to the north and northwest and would really benefit from an FM that has good coverage that way. 97.9 has its stick up that way and would be a prime candidate to simulcast WFLA. WSB in Atlanta has just flipped one of Cox's FMs over to a WSB simulcast. AM talk stations are getting FM's in many major markets now. It's only a matter of time for it to happen here.
Click to expand...

As Parttimer notes, wrong Company - but then again, overlap has NOTHING to do with licenses in 2010. One would *think* a SBE member would know current FCC Rules (and owners.....and probably some idea of ratings in the market).

The WSUN (97.1) and WHPT (102.5) combo counting as 1 signal with no overlap is grandfathered in now and would never be permitted under current FCC ownership rules.
 
WXTB does simulcast WFLA on its HD-2, being 2mi from their stick I am all too aware of their potent signal!
 
Is it the "grungy" processing or the material they play which is processed and pressed against the window. Probably a combination of both. Even with "clean" processing they probably would sound "grungy". Maybe they raided Jeff Laurence's garage and made off with a volumax and audiomax....or at least a Space Expander. My opinion is the audio fits the product.
 
sbe1 said:
It is boxed in on all sides, 98.5 KTK was downgraded in order for 98.7 to move from Cortez Road in Bradenton to Seminole.
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At that time, WYUU 92.5 C2 and WISP 98.7 A were owned by Entercom and co-owned with WKTK 98.5 C. As you had pointed out, Entercom downgraded WKTK from a full C to a C1 with a tower move 7-miles West of 98.5s former 1,350 feet tower site. This made two things possible: 1) WISP was able to move its tower to its current location; and, 2) WISP was also able to upgrade from a class A to a C2 with 50kw. However, 98.7 cannot upgrade any higher than a C2 due to a few factors including second adjacent WMMO 98.9 C2 Orlando and WKTK 98.5 C1 Crystal River. Entercom later traded WISP and WYUU with CBS for CBS' Boston cluster. So, to say the least, 98.7, under the current FCC FM spacing rules, is locked in as is.
 
Here's a wild idea, no pun intended. Since Wild 98.7 was already successful where it was, why didn't they just leave it where it was and debut "Play 94.1" on a frequency where it may actually have had a chance?
 
Because they already knew they had a winning product, and the bigger signal would make it even better.

I think everyone's trying to make too much of this one. They know what they have, this will be low-overhead, do well in PPM, and keep Cox from changing the Point of 97X to CHR. It's probably there to protect Wild, as much as anything else.

You have to remember, there's a hierarchy in managing these multi-station clusters, not every station is trying to be #1. Clear Channel calls it ''protecting the mothership."
 
My daughter who is 34 and not a radio geek like me found "Play" on her own and seems to like it. She compares it to Magic . I doubt if she would even notice that Magic has jocks and Play does not. For her it is background music cause the babies are always hollaring.
 
jmtillery said:
I have said all along that a talk format is the best alternative for the 98.7 signal. I'm very happy to see that a well known and well liked market professional as yourself sees it that way too.
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In Philadelphia, the 97.5 FM signal - a move-in from Burlington, NJ - was smooth jazz and then AC (incidentally, with a format similar to Play) before becoming a simulcast of the sister AM sports station.

Considering the previous formats on 98.7, perhaps sports talk, if not another form of talk, is the only logical next step should Play, um, play itself out.
 
MsMusicRadio said:
The coverage is poor in Temple Terrace and worse in Brandon. WMMO comes in better at times. I personally don't see it competing with Mix or Magic.
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It sounds as though you are on the east side of a building restricting your reception.

WMMO is still much further away than the Seminole stick.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
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