Savannah: RIP Mix 102.1

[charlestondxman]

1130 is still running ESPN Radio at the moment. I was listening to it in downtown Charleston, and it was fading in and out, but it was listenable.

1130 going to Sporting News would be good, but not if the only local show is SportsTalk with Kornblut.

 

[Witchlover]

I was wondering why WZAT hasn't bought any ad space in the SMN sports section, and why there has been no coverage of the flip in the other media. This change needs to be promoted. I must confess that I have not seen a TV sports report in more than a week, so if one of them had anything on the flip, I missed it.

BTW, the paper is advertising on the station, so why not the other way around?

 

[mediawatch22]

I was wondering why WZAT hasn't bought any ad space in the SMN sports section, and why there has been no coverage of the flip in the other media. This change needs to be promoted. I must confess that I have not seen a TV sports report in more than a week, so if one of them had anything on the flip, I missed it.

BTW, the paper is advertising on the station, so why not the other way around?

Cumulus actually spending $$ to advertise?? HA! If they don't do anything in the next 30 days or so they probably will not be doing anything, anytime, anywhere. This is the time when every station is marketing for the Fall book.

Did they ever promote Z-102?? If they did it certainly didn't make a big impression!

 

[jharmon]

No----Cumulus didnt market Z102 but neither did CC promote KISS. However KISS killed them over and over, book after book for years. Then about 18 months ago Cumulus decides to reinvent the station with the Mix brand, designed to fit a wedge between KISS and River. But they never marketed it either but neither did CC promote either station under attack. Bottom line: Cumulus product was never as good either young or slightly older. Cumulus got beat at the product game, not at the marketing game. Both CC stations sound consistent and focused. Cumulus was all over the place with both versions of Z102....this station is doomed now for a long long time

 

[Radio-X]

I was wondering why WZAT hasn't bought any ad space in the SMN sports section, and why there has been no coverage of the flip in the other media. This change needs to be promoted. I must confess that I have not seen a TV sports report in more than a week, so if one of them had anything on the flip, I missed it.

BTW, the paper is advertising on the station, so why not the other way around?

Cumulus actually spending $$ to advertise?? HA! If they don't do anything in the next 30 days or so they probably will not be doing anything, anytime, anywhere. This is the time when every station is marketing for the Fall book.

Did they ever promote Z-102?? If they did it certainly didn't make a big impression!

Yeah. Cumulus has been lacking that desire to get out and get their brands known. I know they have I-95 and E-93 which in actuality doesn't really need tons of promotion...those stations are ingrained in most of Savannah. What about WBMQ? ESPN 102-1? These stations have HUUUUGE earning potential on a shoestring budget. That's what modern-day radio is about, isn't it? ;D

Where's the street team/promotions? Oh yeah, most have gotten the boot in the past five years! TV advertising? Only seen a mass-produced Kid Kraddick commercial on WAEV and Q-105.3's. Oh yeah, and 98.7's HORRIBLY produced album cover commercial. I, for one, and most people under 40 don't even look at a print newspaper anymore...I mean, its a start, but not the best use of advertising $$

I must ask, when will the bell toll for ESPN 1130? It's a unusual situation having two competing stations basically simulcasting one another 20+ hrs/day, and with the crappy signal (which has improved now that they use their daytime signal 24/7), and WJLG as Cumulus' flanker...I just can't imagine the station will be around this time next year! Who's gonna advertise? I've heard more local commercials on 102.1 in the past week than I've heard on 1130 all month!

Timeless Classics...WLOW 1130. Or maybe bring back the beach music! Unless they can get lucky and not get permission from WOKV and WTKS-AM, it's NOT going to make a decent Beaufort County talker. Besides that, there ain't much else to put on there!
Or, they can sell the land, make a killing...sell the license for $1 to USC - Beaufort or SCAD (both are clamoring for a "real" radio station) and the college can just run a single-tower operation at about 250w full-time. Adventure gets money in pocket, a big tax write off, and a school gets a student radio station! If SCAD gets it, no need to keep the Hilton Head COL, license it to Pooler where its now a "first service" radio station!

(Or they could LMA it to me and I'll get that station the best ratings its seen in 15-20 years!!! )

Radio-X

Radio-X

 

[charlestondxman]

Those two stations could make a huge amount of money. WLOW 1130 would make great sense. They should have at least a couple local hours every day, and not have it be all national.

 

[mediawatch22]

I was wondering why WZAT hasn't bought any ad space in the SMN sports section, and why there has been no coverage of the flip in the other media. This change needs to be promoted. I must confess that I have not seen a TV sports report in more than a week, so if one of them had anything on the flip, I missed it.

BTW, the paper is advertising on the station, so why not the other way around?

Cumulus actually spending $$ to advertise?? HA! If they don't do anything in the next 30 days or so they probably will not be doing anything, anytime, anywhere. This is the time when every station is marketing for the Fall book.

Did they ever promote Z-102?? If they did it certainly didn't make a big impression!

Yeah. Cumulus has been lacking that desire to get out and get their brands known. I know they have I-95 and E-93 which in actuality doesn't really need tons of promotion...those stations are ingrained in most of Savannah. What about WBMQ? ESPN 102-1? These stations have HUUUUGE earning potential on a shoestring budget. That's what modern-day radio is about, isn't it? ;D

Where's the street team/promotions? Oh yeah, most have gotten the boot in the past five years! TV advertising? Only seen a mass-produced Kid Kraddick commercial on WAEV and Q-105.3's. Oh yeah, and 98.7's HORRIBLY produced album cover commercial. I, for one, and most people under 40 don't even look at a print newspaper anymore...I mean, its a start, but not the best use of advertising $$

I must ask, when will the bell toll for ESPN 1130? It's a unusual situation having two competing stations basically simulcasting one another 20+ hrs/day, and with the crappy signal (which has improved now that they use their daytime signal 24/7), and WJLG as Cumulus' flanker...I just can't imagine the station will be around this time next year! Who's gonna advertise? I've heard more local commercials on 102.1 in the past week than I've heard on 1130 all month!

Timeless Classics...WLOW 1130. Or maybe bring back the beach music! Unless they can get lucky and not get permission from WOKV and WTKS-AM, it's NOT going to make a decent Beaufort County talker. Besides that, there ain't much else to put on there!
Or, they can sell the land, make a killing...sell the license for $1 to USC - Beaufort or SCAD (both are clamoring for a "real" radio station) and the college can just run a single-tower operation at about 250w full-time. Adventure gets money in pocket, a big tax write off, and a school gets a student radio station! If SCAD gets it, no need to keep the Hilton Head COL, license it to Pooler where its now a "first service" radio station!

(Or they could LMA it to me and I'll get that station the best ratings its seen in 15-20 years!!! )

Radio-X

Radio-X

You're absolutely right about a lot of the points you made. Clear Channel stations are programmed better than Cumulus and far better than Adventure. Isn't it rather amazing that the job of a radio sales person is to hit the street and try to convince potential advertisers that if they want to succeed, if they want to make REAL money, they MUST advertise! Yet, most radio groups don't practice what they preach! Clear Channel stations have a history of consistency. Listeners know what they're going to get when they turn on their stations. Cumulus makes strange programming decisions and takes far too much time to fix technical problems such as the dropouts in the signal on I-95 and Z-102 just recently, which made both stations very difficult for listeners to stay with. Adventure does some marketing but some of the on-air products don't deliver and are mediocre at best, as clearly shown in the spring book.

IMHO the three best radio stations in the market are KIX (because they are musically on target, consistent, entertaining and serve their audience), KISS (because they effectively target their audience with both the on-air product and social networking, and give their demo what they want), and E-93 (because they are very much into their radio community and are more involved with their audience outside of the radio station). It goes beyond just the music. It's the interaction in the field and on the internet.

In this newer world of terrestrial radio it comes down to this; if you don't know what you're doing, if your station can't effectively grab an audience and fill a void and if you can't create a buzz in the marketplace......step aside and let the big dogs eat!

 

[Witchlover]

... I, for one, and most people under 40 don't even look at a print newspaper anymore...I mean, its a start, but not the best use of advertising $$

Granted. However, there is a group of people who will read the sports pages religiously every Saturday and Sunday this fall: Parents and grandparents of the kids who suit up and play high-school and college ball. As remarkable as all of the newer e-communication media and devices are, one cannot hang a web page on the fridge or glue it into a scrapbook. So they turn to the newspapers.

The idea is to get the word out to sports fans who may not be able to watch their favorites on TV, and may not think to tune around the FM band to find the games and sports news they want. My thought was to spread the news of the flip to people who are interested in sports already, and are interested enough to actually go old school and read the papers.

Is the flip being advertised on the other Cumulus stations? "... and for the latest sports news, tune into our sister station Z102." If this is being done, I haven't heard it yet. If it isn't being done, I wonder, why not?

 

[southeastga]

I've heard it being advertised on I-95 and I believe on Kix also...

 

[Witchlover]

I've heard it being advertised on I-95 and I believe on Kix also...

Well, I guess I haven't been listening at the right time, then. I assume they would be cross-advertising their stations; I just had not heard it being done.

 

[upstate29651]

Interestingly enough, the UGA games are still airing on I-95 instead of 102. Odd.....

G

 

[Witchlover]

I thought about that, too. I'm thinking the contract with ISP was signed before the decision to flip was taken, and that advertising contracts were already signed for the games to run on I-95. The promos say Georgia sports will be on Z-102, so perhaps Georgia basketball and other sports programming will find a home there. It may not be possible to air the football games on WZAT this season. I expect them to be aired there next year.

 

[jharmon]

hope nobody thinks this "huge" FM stick is actually gonna get some ratings do you? Do you really think plugging it on a Country station or a Rock station is gonna make ANY difference at all?....enought to cause people to listen.....sufficiently to make this a smart move for Cumulus? This format at its best will do what it does in other small markets where there is no Pro fan base, mixed college alums, etc.....somewhere in the range of 1.5-2.0 and ALL (85% minimum) of it will be male. Cumulus isnt somehow gonna get smart overnight and suddenly start successfully "selling" the concept rather than the ratings; they couldve done that already with their Ticket station. This is absolutely the dumbest move and the biggest waste of a major signal I've seen in a long time. The guys at CC now have 2 uncontested FMs aimed at both young and older non urban women: River and KISS. Amazing

 

[Witchlover]

Well ... let's just say that the fact that someone in the market is trying something different for a change is at least cause for hope.

 

[deals3rd]

hope nobody thinks this "huge" FM stick is actually gonna get some ratings do you? Do you really think plugging it on a Country station or a Rock station is gonna make ANY difference at all?....enought to cause people to listen.....sufficiently to make this a smart move for Cumulus? This format at its best will do what it does in other small markets where there is no Pro fan base, mixed college alums, etc.....somewhere in the range of 1.5-2.0 and ALL (85% minimum) of it will be male. Cumulus isnt somehow gonna get smart overnight and suddenly start successfully "selling" the concept rather than the ratings; they couldve done that already with their Ticket station. This is absolutely the dumbest move and the biggest waste of a major signal I've seen in a long time. The guys at CC now have 2 uncontested FMs aimed at both young and older non urban women: River and KISS. Amazing

I couldn't agree more! This is a textbook case of stupidity. And, it is the result of a corporate environment where the leadership doesn't have a clue!

 

[Witchlover]

How many of the Corporate leadership are actually broadcasters rather than managers and accountants? Do the people calling the shots at corporate HQ actually know anything about the business of the company they are running? If this is a stupid question ... so be it. If I were a stockholder in the company, this is the first question I would ask at the next shareholders' meeting.

 

[Radio-X]

How many of the Corporate leadership are actually broadcasters rather than managers and accountants? Do the people calling the shots at corporate HQ actually know anything about the business of the company they are running? If this is a stupid question ... so be it. If I were a stockholder in the company, this is the first question I would ask at the next shareholders' meeting.

I would definitely call into question the shotcaller(s) at Cumulus. Why was WZAT failing that bad? Being a hot AC station, why did a rimshot with a lot less of a signal get pretty close to beating you in some of the ratings? What could have been done better to prevent an out-an-out flip?

However you slice it, Cumulus has made a decent decision here. I know it's not the best choice of signals given the fact its a full C station, but this could be lucrative. None of the other Cumulus FM's are really ripe for a format flip, 102.1 has been for about three years...and given the signal, we are talking about potentially knocking out sports formats in Hilton Head, Brunswick, and Statesboro all of which are on AM. Yes, these places are not in Cumulus' sales categories but it looks good when you've knocked out competition 40 miles away!

I predict a solid 2 share for this station in Savannah, low 2's for Hilton Head, and maybe a good 1.5-1 or so in Brunswick. These aren't epic numbers, but they don't have to be when the bar is set shockingly low after the last music format failed. And given the fact that sports on FM does OK in Jacksonville, Florence, Myrtle Beach, and Columbia, I think Savannah is the next logical choice.

Radio-X

 

[mediawatch22]

hope nobody thinks this "huge" FM stick is actually gonna get some ratings do you? Do you really think plugging it on a Country station or a Rock station is gonna make ANY difference at all?....enought to cause people to listen.....sufficiently to make this a smart move for Cumulus? This format at its best will do what it does in other small markets where there is no Pro fan base, mixed college alums, etc.....somewhere in the range of 1.5-2.0 and ALL (85% minimum) of it will be male. Cumulus isnt somehow gonna get smart overnight and suddenly start successfully "selling" the concept rather than the ratings; they couldve done that already with their Ticket station. This is absolutely the dumbest move and the biggest waste of a major signal I've seen in a long time. The guys at CC now have 2 uncontested FMs aimed at both young and older non urban women: River and KISS. Amazing

Clearly, this is one of the best, most accurate posts in a long time! Excellent analogy!

 

[htowler]

Cumulus is at least cross promoting it hard. I-95 E-93 And magic all have frequent promos about ESPN 102.1

 

[upstate29651]

It would have made more sense to at least moved Magic to 102.1, giving them the bigger stick & placing that much more pressure on Love & Beat. But yeah, I'm not in the business.

G