RQQ...DIEING A SLOW DEATH IT SEEMS...

[deltas69]

WRQQ-FM Cumulus Rock 2.0 2.1 1.8 1.7 1.4 0.7 a slow steady decline for the last few books..in fact an hispanic station pulled bigger numbers in the last book..where do they go from here ? i hear they are trying to get out of the B&T contract...that has to be costing a $$$$$$$$ every month...sure makes the old C&C show look pretty good from where they're sitting now..what would you guys do / what flip would you make ?

 

[jetfli]

Re: RQQ...DYING A SLOW DEATH IT SEEMS...

what would you guys do / what flip would you make ?

1. Trade WRQQ and WNFN to another big player in town for a couple of stations in another city. Or lease. Or sell.

2. Oldies with TKO's Classic Top 40. Or Scott Shannon's True Oldies.

Beyond that, almost anything else: Simulcast 92Q. R&B oldies. Black Gospel. John Tesh. Radio Disney. Lease to WAMB or WNSR. Start a hipper conservative talk station, with Dennis Miller, et al. Move WNFN to 97.1. Bring back the Rooster. Go Redneck Rock. Contemporary Bluegrass. All Duhks, all the time. Give it to the Hall of Fame. Give it to the Musicians Local. Carry a feed from the in-store sound system at McKay. Randomly select a different person each day to plug their iPod into the transmitter. Program Old Time Radio shows. Radio Game Shows. TV discussion channel -- I'll host the "Lost" and "24" shows, but someone else will have to do all those "CIS"es. All remotes, all the the time. Podcast radio. EBay Radio. Broadcast one of those "dating" phone lines those girls on those late night commercials stay at home (yeah, right) to call. Bat Poet Radio. Get Carl P. to read Shakespeare.

 

[Journeyman]

Re: RQQ...DYING A SLOW DEATH IT SEEMS...

what would you guys do / what flip would you make ?

1. Trade WRQQ and WNFN to another big player in town for a couple of stations in another city. Or lease. Or sell.

2. Oldies with TKO's Classic Top 40. Or Scott Shannon's True Oldies.

Beyond that, almost anything else: Simulcast 92Q. R&B oldies. Black Gospel. John Tesh. Radio Disney. Lease to WAMB or WNSR. Start a hipper conservative talk station, with Dennis Miller, et al. Move WNFN to 97.1. Bring back the Rooster. Go Redneck Rock. Contemporary Bluegrass. All Duhks, all the time. Give it to the Hall of Fame. Give it to the Musicians Local. Carry a feed from the in-store sound system at McKay. Randomly select a different person each day to plug their iPod into the transmitter. Program Old Time Radio shows. Radio Game Shows. TV discussion channel -- I'll host the "Lost" and "24" shows, but someone else will have to do all those "CIS"es. All remotes, all the the time. Podcast radio. EBay Radio. Broadcast one of those "dating" phone lines those girls on those late night commercials stay at home (yeah, right) to call. Bat Poet Radio. Get Carl P. to read Shakespeare.

Or just sell it to somebody who gives a damn.

 

[oldies5161]

Put oldies on it and as I've posted before........program ALL the oldies hits, not the same 200 over and over. ;D

 

[romer979fm]

program ALL the oldies hits

only works in theory: a wide oldies playlist sounds like a great idea, but it always tanks.
the majority of listeners (and we don't qualify) want to hear something familiar EVERY time

 

[ARDONAVINDA]

Recreate a nastolgic style of Vintage Top 40, use several familiar PAMS jingle package cuts, and or a few JAM for the 70's cuts and a few TM Century "Fusion" cuts for the late 70's early 80's cuts. Give it an upbeat forward momentum like current CHR. Maybe a recreation of 66 WNBC's show "The Time Machine" one of the best 77 WABC rip offs I've ever heard! Or a MusicRadio WLS style which is much the same as mentioned above. Get three jocks on board for the three dayparts. Run Tom Kent at night, a live weekender and some canned syndicated oldies specialty shows. Find a restored classic muscle car as the stations eye catcher on remote locations. As far as I know Nashville has never done a fun classic top 40 like that before. Shouldn't be such a problem. It would be nice to have a FUN sounding station on the air again.

 

[jharmon]

Put classic country on the frequency and use to flank with WSM-FM. Combo the numbers and maybe you've got something. since they gave up the JSA with WSM-AM, this might be helpful.

What do you think?

Then again it's Cumulus and since when did they ever had any original idea or stick with something very long. Looks like another GM change coming in the near future.

 

[NashRadio]

Chris is right

People WANT to hear the same songs over + over + over. They don't want to be challenged. IMO, the music on 97.1 is better (maybe significantly) than 105.9, but look at the ratings.

 

[deltas69]

People WANT to hear the same songs over + over + over. i don't buy this premis at all..no one wants to hear "pretty woman, the lion sleeps tonight, and keep on dancin..ad adnausim..the above post about "FUN" STATION' is closer to what has never been tried in the nashville market..i know about the audience testing etc..don't buy that either..go back and look at the top 100 songs every month during the 60's/70's..if they were good enough for airplay then..then why not now ? don't say..well people will not remember them..yes they will..but you have to play them so they can be heard..i have a lot of years as a jock, as well as a live muscian playing 60's/70's music..our playlist for a four hour gig had more songs than any of the oldies stations had..and they weren't the usual suspects either..people would ask us..why don't we ever hear that on the radio..or man i haven't heard that since i was in high school..so they do remember..but no one knows how to present it in nashville..and you can't vt it..got to have live jocks that know the stuff like coyote, allan dennis..dick kent..etc..but then i hear the demo for that age group is a no sale..so what does it matter anyway.... ???

 

[firepoint525]

If we could get a format like that here in Nashville, I wish we could have Tom Kent back! I have missed him ever since he's been gone! :'( Yeah, he talks too much, but he plays stuff that everyone is afraid to touch now!

Damn, radio is scared of its own shadow now! :-\ :

 

[oldies5161]

program ALL the oldies hits

only works in theory: a wide oldies playlist sounds like a great idea, but it always tanks.
the majority of listeners (and we don't qualify) want to hear something familiar EVERY time

What station in Nashville tanked over using a wide oldies playlist?

 

[ARDONAVINDA]

As far as I can remember and I moved to this area in 1992, I don't recall Oldies 96.3 ever really having a wide playlist, nor do I when Star flipped to recreate Oldies on 97.1. Hot rotation on Happy Together, Pretty Woman, Bad Moon Rising, Standing In The Shadows Of Love, and Respect heard everyday maybe not in the same time frame but everyday. I agree you have to play the familiars but the hot clock log can stand to play a lost 45 hit every hour, and not necessarily need to go all that deep, there are top 10 tunes that don't get played anymore. The Turtles are by no means "One Hit Wonders" but for the last 10 years you would never know it. Elenore, She's My Girl, You Showed Me, You Baby, She'd Rather Be With Me. I could go on for them and many other groups, that have just about been turned into "One Hit Wonders". Yes the music testing that these consultants do can be helpful to some degree, but what happens is if you have a programmer and or music director who doesn't know their oldies real well they only rely on what the consultant says, you have to think outside of the box to a certain degree. Again people do want to hear the familiar faves, but they need to be exposed to the lost hits as well. It can be done but it's tough when a major company like Cumulus has put much of it's faith in a consultant group, after all they are paying good money for them! Now the argument to that could be, well the company doesn't want to lose any money why should they take a chance on a programmer who calls all the shots and the music direction. Well because they have nothing to lose and possibly more to gain. But it's a big gamble and when was the last time a major radio company took a major gamble? Especially listening to one programmer verses a consultant group? It happened 20 and 30 years ago but that was before stock and share holders got involved in radio. Now it's all played safe but safe has become just that SAFE and boring.

 

[jetfli]

Both TKO's Classic Top 40 and Scott Shannon's True Oldies have wider play lists than most Oldies stations I've heard in recent years. Program one of those and sit back and let the thing play on autopilot. Would sound great from any GTO or Firebird left behind long after Pontiac's gone.

 

[deltas69]

i've never listened to TKO'S top 40..but have listened a lot to shannons feed..and i still hear nothing but the same old songs one after another..he says he has thousands and plays them all..but i ask..when. ??? .i've tuned in mornings, middays, afternoon and nights..and haven't heard anything that didn't sound like the oldies 96 playlist..each time i've listened was over an hour..so surely if there was something other than the same old song..i would have heard it..i've been told by others that it is a great format with a wide list..but i haven't caught it yet..maybe it happens after midnight..

 

[jetfli]

i've never listened to TKO'S top 40..but have listened a lot to shannons feed..and i still hear nothing but the same old songs one after another.

OK, I'll admit, when I listen to True Oldies, I stream the Chicago feed, and that fact along means that's why I'm thinking there's a wider playlist. Dick Biondi hosts nights, and he's definitely got a wider playlist than the network feed. Check it out at http://www.947trueoldies.com/

As for TKO's Classic Top 40, hear demos here: http://www.tkoradionetwork.com/ct40.html , but you'll definitely hear "same old songs" in the demos. If you ever get down to or near Chattanooga, you can hear it broadcast on 97.3 or 99.3.

 

[DToTheJ]

WRQQ-FM... Cumulus... Rock... 2.0... 2.1... 1.8... 1.7... 1.4... 0.7
a slow steady decline for the last few books..in fact an hispanic station pulled bigger numbers in the last book...

I don't think that word is pronounced with the "h" silent...

 

[surfdude]

Big Oldies playlist = big 55+ audience

Tighter, familiar playlist = much better listenership in the 35-54 demos

Advertisers don't BUY ads on stations with 55+ only listeners

If YOU owned the station, which approach would you take?

This is not my opinion, but what I have experienced, in Arbitron, programming
Oldies in three Top 50 markets over the last 20 years.

Bigger playlist worked 20 years ago when Oldies listeners were well under 55 years old.
We played 3000 titles at one point. Now, there are only about 600 Top 40 type songs that can deliver
any under 55 listeners from 1964-1978.

 

[NashRadio]

Delta, I'm sure you know a LOT more about radio

than I do, and I'm not saying anyone on this board, including myself prefer to hear thesameoldsongstimeaftertimeaftertime... All I have to go by are ratings. Look at WNRQ against RQQ; 92.9 against Lightning.

 

[deltas69]

the bad part about posting on boards is you can't tell if a reply is "tongue in cheek" or "seething sarcasm"....the things i know about radio are well out of date compared to current formats..but then i don't listen to current formats..if i remember rqq and wnrq are different arent they? ..rqq sounds like whatever you call todays rock music and wnrq is "classic "we play ac/dc every hour no matter what" rock....i've never listened to lightning..haven't listened to 92 in months..BUT what i do know is what people my age (58) want to hear..I know how it should be presented, i know what needs to be played in morning drive,mid days, afternoon drive, nights and overnights..i understand how people(my age) think at different times of the day, and year..i've been either in radio/music/entertaining since i was 18..i understand you have to grab that dollar in order to make a station profitible,,so you go after the programming that holds the "biggest audience for the longest period of time in order to charge confiscatory rates" (rush limbaugh quote)..i understand what demo has the biggest play dough to spend..as for ratings..and what they're worth..look at 97.1 now and when the played the GAWD awful same 300 song format..even with bah bah bahbra ann every hour..they still had much larger numbers..my meager point is..done right..the "oldies genre" would have double the numbers..if not the money..and THAT is where the problem lies..selling the 55+ demo..i say it can be done..but not with the 25 year old sales kid sitting in a cubical...gotta get mature(read old) sales pros that know the format and how to sell it...got to have old guys like me that were there then and know it..got to get out on the street with a remote van, cruise the apartment complexes with the pool patrol and hand out freebies, pick a spot every weekend and have a block party..JUST MAKE THE DAMN THING FUN..the people will listen..not just 55+..but a lot younger as well.....now that i've ranted like a former member here..i'll retire and await the onslaught of "it won't work today" comments..i think we all ought to meet and have a big pizza/beer fest and just throw out (or up)..everyones ideas so we might grasp each others point of view better..i'll go get that first beer now.. ;D

 

[roadrunner]

A more upbeat "Jack FM" (like 107-9 The Track in Indy) might work.
This sure as heck isn't working...they need to do something drastic SOON.
I wish someone would change their format (don't care who) just to
have something different. I'm so bored with Nashville radio. It really
does stink for the most part!