Radio Vagabond WOWs the Boomers

[pjc1961]

Doug Moe (not the basketball player + coach, silly!) interviews John Sebastian (not from the Lovin' Spoonful, silly!)
about his Wow Factor station(s) and career.

A Radio Vagabond Wows the Boomers by Doug Moe

www.troyresearch.net

Disclaimer: Troy Research consulted Sebastian at the station's startup in Sept. 2019.

 

[DrAkbar]

Excellent article that somehow overlooks the teething pains of The WOW Factor. If the station was a railroad, it'd be out of business due to all the musical train wrecks and derailments. But because KOAI is a rimshot, they have the luxury of being ignored by competitors and time to iron out all the bugs. The adjustments and tweaks worked as seen in the latest 6+ trend - an impressive 3.9 share! That ties KOOL and beats such heavies as KUPD, KTAR, KZZP, KMLE, and KMVP in the non demo race. A tip of the fez to Sebastian and KOAI for taking a chance - not too many operators do that anymore.

Disclaimer: Los Buckeye Boyz are about a quarter short of ordering off the Dollar Menu.

 

[johndavis]

Excellent article that somehow overlooks the teething pains of The WOW Factor. If the station was a railroad, it'd be out of business due to all the musical train wrecks and derailments. But because KOAI is a rimshot, they have the luxury of being ignored by competitors and time to iron out all the bugs. The adjustments and tweaks worked as seen in the latest 6+ trend - an impressive 3.9 share! That ties KOOL and beats such heavies as KUPD, KTAR, KZZP, KMLE, and KMVP in the non demo race. A tip of the fez to Sebastian and KOAI for taking a chance - not too many operators do that anymore.

Disclaimer: Los Buckeye Boyz are about a quarter short of ordering off the Dollar Menu.

Yeah, if you could make it through 15 minutes of WOW before punching out during the first year and a half, you should have gotten a Goettl flashlight or something.

It's a much better station today.

 

[TheBigA]

In the light of all this good ratings news, I notice that the morning team at KMLE have received a contract renewal, according to Country Aircheck:

Audacy KMLE/Phoenix morning hosts Gunner Jackson and Cheyenne Davis have inked a multi-year extension. “Call it a Christmas gift to the country music fans in The Valley or just a smart decision, but continuing to invest [in] and develop a show like Gunner & Cheyenne will generate only positive results,” says Brand Mgr. Drew Bland. The pair joined KMLE from Townsquare KDBL/Yakima, WA two years ago.

 

[KilowattKat]

The success of the WOW factor has yet to reach other markets. I thought that was John Sebastian's plan. This would work well in other sun belt cities on fringe FM's.

The Drive in Tucson seems to be the one market exception. And they are doing pretty well

Maybe Mr. Eduardo could share with us how WOW is doing in billing for this year.

 

[kwthom]

<...>
The Drive in Tucson seems to be the one market exception. And they are doing pretty well

That's another one where you've got a couple of old radio dudes (Bobby Rich and Jim Arnold) along with a real estate guy (Fletcher McCusker) that threw a few coins in the pot, bought a station and decided to go 'off script' with that station. I'm not 100% certain if there was any outside consulting (see 3rd paragraph here: Tucson Radio: 'The Drive' Officially Launches ) either in the beginning or now.


Another reincarnation of "MOR radio" for the 21st century? Yeah...kinda.

 

[KilowattKat]

After reading, seems like Bobby Rich is the one who selected all or most of the music for the Drive. Can't remember who was first with this "radio for boomers" idea WOW or Drive. The success has got to make others in the industry wake up to the fact that there lots of us who are over 50, that have $ to spend...AND haven't abandoned radio nearly as much as the younger demos.

 

[indieradioguy]

From the story: "but some listeners think the pre-WOW/rock-era slogan [kick ass rock and roll] is vulgar.”

Really, boomers? You turned into your parents way before anyone else did.

And (vis a vis WOW) I'm not quite sure anyone should be bragging about programming a crybaby anti-vaxxer like Clapton. He'll be radio poison like Morgan Waller before too long.

Why aren't more boomers patronizing the sponsors of 92.7? That's a *real* WOW station.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Really, boomers? You turned into your parents way before anyone else did.

And (vis a vis WOW) I'm not quite sure anyone should be bragging about programming a crybaby anti-vaxxer like Clapton. He'll be radio poison like Morgan Waller before too long.

Why aren't more boomers patronizing the sponsors of 92.7? That's a *real* WOW station.

I work for a 50KW "Variety hits" ma and pa owned FM thats been doing for 10 years what WOW's been doing for.. 2 years? It's a bit more focused then Wow's early efforts were.. but the overall goal is... an upbeat mainstream sound. You don't hear the same song for at least 24 hours, most much longer.. and you won't hear the same artist for at least a few hours, if not longer.

Yet, all the radio guys on facebook when i posted about it various times and our playlist said "thats disgusting, "what a train wreck" or "thats awful" or "id never listen".. but are drooling over Wow.

Our stations been locally owned since its inception, one guy, whos local.. thats it, his money, no investors and hes far far from rich.

 

[CTListener]

And (vis a vis WOW) I'm not quite sure anyone should be bragging about programming a crybaby anti-vaxxer like Clapton. He'll be radio poison like Morgan Waller before too long.

Van Morrison is also anti-vax (and why has the shorthand term for "vaccine" sprouted an extra, unnecessary "x"?) and still gets played at classic rock and many classic hits stations. Clapton is in no danger of being dropped from playlists, rest assured.

Oh, it's Wallen, not Waller, and he's back in country radio's good graces after uttering no more n-words (at least not in range of a recording device) for nearly a year and recording a song that's as strong a piece of neo-traditional country as has hit radio this year.

 

[jayxs]

it's Wallen, not Waller, and he's back in country radio's good graces

He also has a song with Lil Durk (a rapper, as you can probably tell by the name) going for adds at Rhythmic and Mainstream.

 

[kwthom]

The success has got to make others in the industry wake up to the fact that there lots of us who are over 50, that have $ to spend...AND haven't abandoned radio nearly as much as the younger demos.

You drop a station like that into an area that's fairly heavy with 50+ (age, not quantity) listeners, it might work out.

It's still an anomaly; two stations, same state.

Somebody need to flip a station in central Florida should consider their version of this to see if it works.

 

[davideduardo]

After reading, seems like Bobby Rich is the one who selected all or most of the music for the Drive. Can't remember who was first with this "radio for boomers" idea WOW or Drive. The success has got to make others in the industry wake up to the fact that there lots of us who are over 50, that have $ to spend...AND haven't abandoned radio nearly as much as the younger demos.

If there is an awareness by local businesses that there is money to be spent by those over 55 and a station can forget about most agency buys, a 55+ format can work.

The issue is not "the industry" but advertisers themselves. Radio would love to program for those over 55. But ad agencies, driven by major accounts, do not want to spend money targeting seniors because the cost per sale for mass market products and services is very high.

And, in general, stations and their programmers don't select the music. Listeners or potential listeners do, and research is done to find out which songs they still want to hear and which they don't. A good PD, though, helps in making sure that all the possible songs are tested and then develops the systems and rotations to play them.

 

[TheBigA]

Why aren't more boomers patronizing the sponsors of 92.7? That's a *real* WOW station.

That's a great question. The whole motivation for the Wow Factor was to appeal to advertisers who want to reach those over-65 boomers. But how responsive are those boomers to the advertising they hear?

 

[KilowattKat]

If there is an awareness by local businesses that there is money to be spent by those over 55 and a station can forget about most agency buys, a 55+ format can work.

The issue is not "the industry" but advertisers themselves. Radio would love to program for those over 55. But ad agencies, driven by major accounts, do not want to spend money targeting seniors because the cost per sale for mass market products and services is very high.

And, in general, stations and their programmers don't select the music. Listeners or potential listeners do, and research is done to find out which songs they still want to hear and which they don't. A good PD, though, helps in making sure that all the possible songs are tested and then develops the systems and rotations to play them.

David, do you know how WOW ranked in billing for the year? The bottom line would be how profitable they are.

 

[KeithE4]

And (vis a vis WOW) I'm not quite sure anyone should be bragging about programming a crybaby anti-vaxxer like Clapton. He'll be radio poison like Morgan Waller before too long.

Clapton has had his controversial moments throughout his career, and he's never been banned from radio, at least in the US.

Why aren't more boomers patronizing the sponsors of 92.7? That's a *real* WOW station.

Mostly because most of us old fogies live in outlying areas of the Valley (east Mesa/AJ, the Sun Cities, etc), where 92.7 doesn't come in very well if at all. Reception is much better on 93.3-HD2, but most don't have HD radios. Beyond that, there's Ancient Modulation 1440, but only during the day.

Now get off my lawn!

 

[EricStein]

After reading, seems like Bobby Rich is the one who selected all or most of the music for the Drive. Can't remember who was first with this "radio for boomers" idea WOW or Drive. The success has got to make others in the industry wake up to the fact that there lots of us who are over 50, that have $ to spend...AND haven't abandoned radio nearly as much as the younger demos.

I thought the MeTV Franken-FM in Chicago was the first true "music radio for Boomers" concept. They even hired a syndicator to sell it to other markets, but wasn't too successful with that. The Drive and WOW came about a month or two apart from each other.

Why aren't more boomers patronizing the sponsors of 92.7? That's a *real* WOW station.

The "oh wow" '70s songs that 1440/92.7 play like "The Night Chicago Died" are pretty polarizing. Many don't have good memories of a lot of '70s songs.

 

[TheBigA]

I thought the MeTV Franken-FM in Chicago was the first true "music radio for Boomers" concept. They even hired a syndicator to sell it to other markets, but wasn't too successful with that.

It mainly exists to promote the MeTV TV station that Weigel owns there.

 

[davideduardo]

I thought the MeTV Franken-FM in Chicago was the first true "music radio for Boomers" concept. They even hired a syndicator to sell it to other markets, but wasn't too successful with that. The Drive and WOW came about a month or two apart from each other.

There are differences in mix and presentation. The Phoenix station is more "eclectic" while MeTV FM is just a traditional oldies station, often playing songs that show that they don't spend much on researching what is still playable and enjoyed today.

The "oh wow" '70s songs that 1440/92.7 play like "The Night Chicago Died" are pretty polarizing. Many don't have good memories of a lot of '70s songs.

The only way of knowing that a song is "polarizing" is through research. The question is whether that station even spends to do that or are they just playing off a Whitburn book?

 

[davideduardo]

David, do you know how WOW ranked in billing for the year? The bottom line would be how profitable they are.

There is no accurate data there. I'm not even sure if they report to Miller-Kaplan.