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RUMOR MILL IN SAVANNAH

J

jharmon

Guest
Tongues are wagging about a possible format flip in Savannah.
Seems WZAT 102.1, one of the Clueless properties is planning a switch away from Hot AC to All Sports on Labor Day weekend.

Let's see, they tried CHR and got spanked by CC, then Hot AC, now All Sports?

Anybody got any good gossip?
 
No idea if this is true, but maybe a FOCUSED Hot AC would have been more successful...the music was all over the road. However, I don't know how their in-demo performances have been.
 
All Sports? I don't know about that. Sports would be a great fit on 103.1, and you could simulcast that on 1130. But Cumulus, with that 102.1 frequency, and a huge signal, may not waste sports on there. They could move Georgia football and Sandgnats games over from 630, so that may be a reason. If I ran the station, I would get some local talk shows on there.

Charleston has two shows during the afternoon, and Columbia (home of USC) has shows on three stations spread from 6am to 7pm. Even Asheville has a show. Savannah is a big enough market to have at least one local show. You're wedged between two NFL teams, have UGA, Georgia Southern, and SC teams to talk about, plus the Braves and high school sports.
 
If you're talking about generic/political talk shows, and not sports only talk, Asheville has two local talk shows. Both 570 WWNC, and 880 WPEK, one conservative, one liberal, have local, afternoon shows.
 
They could just do like they did their stations in Louisville Kentucky, pull the plug. Spent millions moving into the market then after three years they shut them down. They really are Cluess.
 
charlestondxman said:
All Sports? I don't know about that. Sports would be a great fit on 103.1, and you could simulcast that on 1130. But Cumulus, with that 102.1 frequency, and a huge signal, may not waste sports on there. They could move Georgia football and Sandgnats games over from 630, so that may be a reason. If I ran the station, I would get some local talk shows on there.
Click to expand...

I've been wondering why Savannah doesn't have an FM talker of some sort. Is the market really large enough to sustain an all local sports talk station?

The offerings on 1290 and 630 both are pretty dreadful, IMO, especially on the weekend. More local programming would be refreshing. Does management have the backbone to do local talk? One little man backed 630 down not so long ago. What host will sign on to a station if he is not assured management will back him up when some local person of self-importance gets his nose out of joint?

I hope someone tries it ... I mean really tries it. If the rumor is true, it will be interesting to hear what develops.
 
I could see 102.1 make the flip. You gotta figure Cumulus was itching to put that "Ticket" format on FM. 1130 is a non-player after dark, and I can imagine sports on FM would be a winner.

Hot AC has been tried and failed before. It'd just be nice to hear something other than rather boring music!

Radio-X
 
Would be nice if the whole market would shake up programming. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if on a given day - Labor Day would be good - people fipped on their radios and heard something different. We could put the Trauma Center and the Suicide Hotline on notice, just in case. Just in case.
 
radiodxrichmond said:
I could see 102.1 make the flip. You gotta figure Cumulus was itching to put that "Ticket" format on FM. 1130 is a non-player after dark, and I can imagine sports on FM would be a winner.

Hot AC has been tried and failed before. It'd just be nice to hear something other than rather boring music!

Radio-X
Click to expand...

Why not Making a WBMQ-FM? That signal is a decent coverage station that would saturate costal radio staions, Keep a good afternoon and morning news announcer, abd you practically double the raitings

BTW, any history of 102.1? I know its been WZAT for years and it was the hard rock station in town.. Then AC of various sets.

Radio-X
 
radiodxrichmond said:
BTW, any history of 102.1? I know its been WZAT for years and it was the hard rock station in town.. Then AC of various sets.

Radio-X
Click to expand...

WZAT-FM started out as a Top 40 station and remained that way until 1992 or '93, I believe, when they flipped to Alternative; during this time, the station was also simulcast on 1400AM. I thoroughly enjoyed their playlist back then, and the imaging was terrifically entertaining and very creative, IMHO. I was a big fan of the station and even attempted to do my 9th grade high school community service hours by interning an evening shift with Tripp West. The school ultimately said that didn't count but I had fun nonetheless.

I digress.

Then in 1997, Cumulus bought the station from Phoenix Media Partners (IIRC), and flipped WZAT to CHR as "Z102 - Savannah's Hit Music Station". The outcry was quite vociferous; Creative Loafing (now known locally as Connect Savannah) did a front page article on the format flip, and interviewed DJs from the Alternative-formatted WZAT. One of them didn't even know about the flip..."I got out of my car and Metallica was playing. When I left the mall and got back in my car an hour later, Puff Daddy was being played."

As CHR, WZAT did well for a few years. That is, until Clear Channel decided to flip WAEV from Hot AC as "Mix 97.3" to their national CHR brand as "97.3 KISS FM" in December of 2001. Thus began WZAT's rapid decline. They tried everything - new morning shows, new jocks, the whole nine yards. In 2002, they positioned themselves aurally as a CHR/Hot AC hybrid. When that didn't work, they went back to CHR only to try the hybrid experiment once again a year or so later; they went right back to CHR soon after.

Then on or around St. Patrick's Day 2008, WZAT flipped yet again to its current incarnation, as a Hot AC station using the moniker "Mix 102-1 - The BEST Mix of Music". And looking at the station's most recent Arbitron ratings (and c'mon everyone, let's get an Arb thread for Savannah started; they released the latest ratings on July 30th), it seems like their ratings have remained stationary in their new guise as a Hot AC station.

So yeah, sports will probably do well on that frequency. Of course, I've long championed for WZAT to return to Alternative and take on WFXH (which is just unlistenable...yuck) but that's a crazy fever dream I've had for close to a decade now. In any event, I'd like to see a WZAT format change that makes sense and wakes up the market. And I totally agree with Witchlover - a major radio shakeup, format-wise, in Savannah would be a much-needed breath of fresh air to the boring sameness that has permeated market #158 for far too long.
But I think we'll have better luck watching the skies for winged porcine creatures.
 
FilmCritic3K said:
. . . a major radio shakeup, format-wise, in Savannah would be a much-needed breath of fresh air to the boring sameness that has permeated market #158 for far too long.
But I think we'll have better luck watching the skies for winged porcine creatures.
Click to expand...

There goes one now! Maybe they ought to diaper those things?

The issue is, I believe, that no one wants to be the first guy to eat the raw oyster.

That is, none of the Savannah market's stations wants to risk trying anything new: They seem to prefer the sure thing to the big reward which may come from taking a big risk. The market languishes and audience tallies (ad revenues) slowly shrink. Everyone knows something needs to change; all are waiting for someone else to take the plunge, for they themselves will not dare.
 
I think this rumor has some clout to it...

Look at the Cumulus SAV corporate website. Looks like every single property (including Last Bastion Trust-owned 103.9 and the Ticket) has a media kit in PDF form...except...you guessed it, Mix 102-1!

Just like that old rap song...things that make ya go 'hmmm...

Radio-X
 
It would seem that the source of the rumor may be from among those who would need advance word of the coming change; e. g., ad agencies, media buyers, station sales staff - and perhaps local sports team personnel. We civilians will just have to wait and see what develops.
 
As this thread started....so will it end. take it to the bank....ZAT is flipping to Sports Talk Labor Day weekend in synch with Dawgs first game.....RIP Z102.........Mix 102.....and whatever else....
 
That would suck for Mix, but it will be good for sports fans in the area. I can hear 1130 all day here just S of Charleston, but 900 is unlistenable due to the sports station in Charleston at 910. 102.1 is listenable with my good radio about 75% of the time, and would be a big boost of signal for that station. It would also bring a good sports signal to thousands that don't have one now.

I hope they would keep the Bulldogs on 630, because that's the only way we can hear them here, all the way to Myrtle Beach and Wilmington during the daytime.

Those Sand Gnats broadcasts are lame. A couple weeks ago, they didn't even send a broadcaster here for a series against the Riverdogs. Instead, they simulcasted the Riverdog broadcaster, Danny Reed. Remember, the Sand Gnats are in the playoffs, and they could put the games on FM to promote them.
 
What is it with Savannah radio? The turn over in management like a huge circus wheel. Some of the stations have good programming and some have some pretty poor programming. The Cumulus, Clear Channel, and Triad people are all fighting an endless and stupid battle and none of them are winning. Triad purchased some successful radio stations and have found ways to deep six most of them. This does not let the big C's off the hook either as both Cumulus and Clear Channel are just moving listeners from one station to another. The bottom line is there is only so much money in the market and none of the groups in the market is really winning.
 
Maybe some turnover, but it is my understanding that the CC MM has been there 3 plus years. Now if that person was not making budget or bringing the required cash flow to the bank, I seriously doubt that CC would let them hang around around.

That explains why Clueless has had so many managers in the house.

And Triad? Who knows.
 
A 100k full class C signal in Savannah going sports? Keep dreaming.

G
 
upstate29651, I share your scepticism, but this rumor did not invent itself. Whether it is a done deal or a trial balloon, there has to be some little something behind it.

I have been hoping that CC would change one of their FM stations to a talk format - mainly because I can't get 1290 after sunset: the signal fades after 5:30 pm during the cold months. I can be selfish that way.

All joking aside, I am at the point where I would welcome change for its own sake. Watching CC and Cumulus slug it out reminds me a lot of the trench warfare of WWI: No one gains anything, really; at the end of the day, not much has changed, except that the landscape is a little more desolate than the day before. Radio in Savannah is dreadful.
 
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