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vadar
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The end of an era, sad indeed. Got my start in radio at this legend. Long live Rock 104.
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Rock 104 Flipping?
- Thread starter DJ Mo
- Start date
Except all of you are overlooking the obvious regarding the recent announcement to flip WRUF-FM from Active Rock to Country. Think about it and let's see who comes up with the correct answer first. JMT -Signing Off.
Hmmm, not sure what you are thinking. My first guess was that it was a stunt but I got a message that Harry Guscott's last day is Friday...after 39 years in the building. So....I'll wait until someone smarter than me posts the answer to the magic question.
Hmmm, not sure what you are thinking. My first guess was that it was a stunt but I got a message that Harry Guscott's last day is Friday...after 39 years in the building. So....I'll wait until someone smarter than me posts the answer to the magic question.
RickSchmidt said:
Gee, I remeber when Harry was a young guy. I alwasy liked Harry, but I guess nearly 40 years devoted to WRUF and dealing with guys like Bob Leach are enough for anyone. For the record, Harry did a fairly nice job at playing CHR on AM 850 before they gave him the reigns at WRUF-FM. Harry's a survivor.
jmtillery said:Except all of you are overlooking the obvious regarding the recent announcement to flip WRUF-FM from Active Rock to Country. Think about it and let's see who comes up with the correct answer first. JMT -Signing Off.
Okay, Mark, I'll bite. What are we overlooking?
That Rock 104 will continue to broadcast as a pure-play streaming station? That's nice, but stream listening has been stalled at 17 percent (cume rating--percentage of population) for the last two years--versus 93 percent for terrestrial. Sure, it may be higher among the youngest demos, but most advertisers are not going to stick around--and the ones that do won't pay "radio rates" to be on it. Kiss 95 percent of Rock 104's billing goodbye.
Or that Country offers more opportunities for future employment for UF students? Yeah, that's probably true--there are a lot more Country radio stations nowadays than rockers. But if that's the driving issue, it's one that could be addressed by doing Country on the pure-play stream... or even on the AM.
From the outside this just looks like an ill-considered move. But I'll concede that none of us outside the College of Journalism & Communications can fathom all the considerations.
What's your take?
It is my understanding that the new station will not have students as part of the fulltime air staff, which defeats the purpose of having the station in the first place. Down the road, rock104.com will be used as the jock learning tool. The reason that so many of us found jobs in the industry was because of the credibility that rock 104 offered as a "real" commercial station. I learned Selector, I did various airshifts, remotes, and production. When employers saw WRUF FM on your resume, they knew that it was not just some run of the mill college program. Rock 104 managed to be competitive with limited to no marketing funds, the baggage of running baseball & volleyball, and a revolving door of air talent...I think that speaks volumes to the heritage and the training that it provided. Not many stations could have survived for as many years with the challenges it had. Whether you hated the format and overall programming philosophy, I think you have to appreciate what was accomplished by Harry and the station.
I too would like to know what we're overlooking.
Rock 104's own sales people have emailed clients saying "Hey! We're goin country! So strap on your cowboy hat and continue to buy from us! K-Who?"
Rock 104's own sales people have emailed clients saying "Hey! We're goin country! So strap on your cowboy hat and continue to buy from us! K-Who?"
Kmagrill said:
I, too, remember Harry Guscott from his earlier WRUF-AM Top 40 days. I first met Harry in 1978 when I asked for a job. I was advised the Dean of Broadcasting had recently changed the hiring policy to hire only broadcast majors to fill any on-air positions. Little did I know that 4-years later beautiful music Stereo 104 would become Rock 104 under Harry's direction. It was May 1982 when the big change took place. WRUF-FM signed off the air Sunday night at Midnight for the final time with beautiful music; signing back on the air four hours later at 4AM as Rock 104. The first song played on The New Rock 104 was Steely Dan's "FM"; very appropriate for a new FM rock station.
amfmxm said:jmtillery said:Except all of you are overlooking the obvious regarding the recent announcement to flip WRUF-FM from Active Rock to Country. Think about it and let's see who comes up with the correct answer first. JMT -Signing Off.
Okay, Mark, I'll bite. What are we overlooking?
That Rock 104 will continue to broadcast as a pure-play streaming station? That's nice, but stream listening has been stalled at 17 percent (cume rating--percentage of population) for the last two years--versus 93 percent for terrestrial. Sure, it may be higher among the youngest demos, but most advertisers are not going to stick around--and the ones that do won't pay "radio rates" to be on it. Kiss 95 percent of Rock 104's billing goodbye.
Or that Country offers more opportunities for future employment for UF students? Yeah, that's probably true--there are a lot more Country radio stations nowadays than rockers. But if that's the driving issue, it's one that could be addressed by doing Country on the pure-play stream... or even on the AM.
From the outside this just looks like an ill-considered move. But I'll concede that none of us outside the College of Journalism & Communications can fathom all the considerations.
What's your take?
You're not quite on target, yet. However, you do bring up a few very viable ideas well worth consideration.
You're not quite on target, yet. However, you do bring up a few very viable ideas well worth consideration.
[/quote]
Two guesses:
1)that they think they can pick up where WYGC left off (not realizing in the long years since then, listeners have probably adjusted habits towards WOGK that will not change now, and that there was a reason WYGC left the format in the first place).
2)The "moral crusaders" again higher up at the University level not wanting a station with what they perceive to be 'dirty lyrics'.
[/quote]
Two guesses:
1)that they think they can pick up where WYGC left off (not realizing in the long years since then, listeners have probably adjusted habits towards WOGK that will not change now, and that there was a reason WYGC left the format in the first place).
2)The "moral crusaders" again higher up at the University level not wanting a station with what they perceive to be 'dirty lyrics'.
BIG APE said:
Quite a lot changed after you left. I took some of the last classes when the radio studios and the J-school were still in the stadium in 1980. Shortly afterwards they built Weimer Hall and I assisted (in a very minor way) in installing the original studios. Most of what had been in the old studios was scrapped, but the stuff they installed in the new studios was kind of marginal. In 1990, we won a bid to rebuild the newsroom and WRUF-FM. We installed a lightly-used McCurdey console and as much new equipment as their budget would allow. They used that console until a few years ago, I'm told. We were installing the newsroom when we heard the police scanners going crazy. It was the first day of the Danny Rolling student murders, but that's another story....
V
vadar
Guest
Harry Guscott, a great man, teacher and industry leader. Best of luck to you Harry and thanks for allowing me to "cut my teeth" in radio and believing in so many. You truly made a HUGE impact for many of us. One of many that are forever grateful. Thank you.
Okay sportsfans, I've been asked to give my opinion on this whole WRUF-FM "Flipping to Country" discussion, so here's the scoop as I believe what is really happening.
Within the next few days, if not sooner, don't be surprise to hear an annoucement from UF that UF has "suddenly changed its mind" about flipping Rock 104 to country due to "public outcry" from the community to save the heritage station. I made a similar post to this effect yesterday on the Rock 104 Facebook Fan page, and within an hour my comment was censored, deleted, goneded, for lack of a better term. The fact that my Facebook comment was deleted leads me to believe I may actually be on to something the nice folks over there in UF land does not want to be made public just yet. In other words, this, I believe, is a radio hoax being used as a marketing tool to garner a buzz in the community. Afterall, it has all of us talking about it!
WSM-AM Nashville did the exact same thing many years ago when it was announced the heritage classic country station was flipping to sports. At the final hour it was "decided" to leave WSM "as is" due to public outcry from classic country fans. This, I believe, is what UF may be doing with WRUF-FM, and you can bet everyone else is also talking about it which is exactly what UF wants us to do. Now do you see the obvious simplistic value in this whole scenario?
If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong, but I don't believe I'm too far off the mark (pun intended). Mark Tillery a/k/a jmtillery signing off.
Within the next few days, if not sooner, don't be surprise to hear an annoucement from UF that UF has "suddenly changed its mind" about flipping Rock 104 to country due to "public outcry" from the community to save the heritage station. I made a similar post to this effect yesterday on the Rock 104 Facebook Fan page, and within an hour my comment was censored, deleted, goneded, for lack of a better term. The fact that my Facebook comment was deleted leads me to believe I may actually be on to something the nice folks over there in UF land does not want to be made public just yet. In other words, this, I believe, is a radio hoax being used as a marketing tool to garner a buzz in the community. Afterall, it has all of us talking about it!
WSM-AM Nashville did the exact same thing many years ago when it was announced the heritage classic country station was flipping to sports. At the final hour it was "decided" to leave WSM "as is" due to public outcry from classic country fans. This, I believe, is what UF may be doing with WRUF-FM, and you can bet everyone else is also talking about it which is exactly what UF wants us to do. Now do you see the obvious simplistic value in this whole scenario?
If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong, but I don't believe I'm too far off the mark (pun intended). Mark Tillery a/k/a jmtillery signing off.
jmtillery said:
Well, you might be right. Several folks have alluded to the notion that this could be a big 'ol radio hoax. I know an engineer that works for WUFT and he is on vacation out of town this week, but knew nothing of this announcement. It seems unlikely that they could keep a secret this big. Also, the timing of the switch is inexplicable. Why would you pull a format switch in the middle of a book? The right time for this is at the end of spring semester. Then you have all summer to get it right before everyone comes back to town in the fall. Plus it's a new crop of people every fall. Finaly, I listend to a spot block this afternoon around lunch. I tuned into the set already in progress, but I counted five spots, all agency buys. At a modest $35/ea, that's a $175 set and they're running two or three an hour. Based on 10 hour days, five days a week, that's $1.3M per year. That doesn't seem like they're in any distress.
Still, Harry G. retiring (if true) and the sales staff telling advertisers about the switch, suggests that it might really be true. Usually, in a hoax, the advertisers are not informed about a pending switch because it's bad for business.
KMagrill, all excellent points... However, we don't know exactly what the advertisers were actually told about the switch. It may very well be a part of the overall hoax, assuming it is one, for effectiveness, to create the illusion of reality. Again, WRUF-FM may actually make the switch to country, but from a business perspective it makes no common sense at all to make a format switch now, and certainly not to country. I don't know where their "research" came from, but I can safely say country is not the number one format in America, certainly not in Gainesville. News-Talk is still number one. The majority of the WOGK numbers comes from Marion County and not Alachua County. WRUF-FM does not have the signal to effectively compete with WOGK with the same format. And, if this alledged hoax is actually not a hoax at all, how can it be explained that my comment atesting to my theory was deleted from the Rock 104 Facebook Fan page within an hour of its posting? I admit I may be reading more into this than I should, but it looks suspicious to me.
jmtillery said:
Well, I think everyone agrees that the choice of formats and the timing seem very (read suspiciously) odd. They certainly would be giving up a large pile of cash to start over. If it is true, I wonder if an outside consultant "analyzed" the market and made recommendations which are now pending. I can see this move looking logical from an outsider's perspective. An outsider probably wouldn't realize that Alachua and Marion counties are very, very different and that the WRUF signal is too weak to be effective in Marion county where the Country format listeners are the most plentiful. If they really do this switch, I predict a 1.5 share (12+) in the first book (that may be generous and only if they promote it heavily) and a typical number of around 3.2 in subsequent books.
Let me add that this weekend is UF Homecoming, when they will pull off the said format flip to Country. This is a great time to either introduce a new format or introduce the replacement (or comeback?) of Lex & Terry.
Perhaps they'll make it interesting & rely on the outcome of the game. If the Gators lose, they'll flip to Country. If the Gators win, they'll keep Rock 104.
Whatever happens, everyone will still cheer "Go Gators!" after the Jaws theme.
Perhaps they'll make it interesting & rely on the outcome of the game. If the Gators lose, they'll flip to Country. If the Gators win, they'll keep Rock 104.
Whatever happens, everyone will still cheer "Go Gators!" after the Jaws theme.
This isn't a hoax... it's for real. Now, that's not to say Rock104 won't come back in a year or two. But for now, it's not a hoax.
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