Should WPEN "The Fanatic" 97.5 go back to The HawK?

[atrainradio]

After seeing the poor job they did on the ratings (a mere 2.3 I believe) I got a feeling they might be considering changing it up. WIP has a huge audience in Philly and that will never change. The station is as much a tradition in Philly as cheese steaks are. The fanatic cannot stand a chance against WIP. With that being said, I don't see why WPEN change it up and go to either an adult album alternative (like WRNR in Baltimore, a favorite of mine when I go to Baltimore, I love their format a lot because of the massive selection of music they have) or a classic rock branded like the hawk. Hell, relay WCHR 105.7 for the hell of it. But that'll never happen.

 

[Gregg.]

When you see how well WMGK does as a straight-ahead Classic Rock station, and how well WOGL does as a Classic Hits/Oldies station, you wonder if there's room between the two of them for a station like The Hawk in Allentown, 99.9 WODE, that leans on the pop-side of Classic Rock, Eagles, Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Beatles... but not much Zeppelin or AC/DC on one side and no Motown or Madonna on the other. WMGK was #3, WOGL #4.

WPEN's ratings aren't great, #19, the lowest rated full power commercial FM station in Philadelphia. On the other hand, it's a spoken word format only interested in adult men. So if its male numbers are decent, and everyone listening hears all the commercials, not using the station for background music, maybe things aren't so bad. A Sports station can run more spots per hour than a music station.

But it also takes a bigger investment in staffing. Every hour requires at least one host. Most dayparts have two hosts. And call screeners, producers, people to do the sports updates and cover the major Philadelphia teams. That takes more money than just a few DJs. So the real question is... What are WPEN's profits?

 

[davideduardo]

After seeing the poor job they did on the ratings (a mere 2.3 I believe) I got a feeling they might be considering changing it up. WIP has a huge audience in Philly and that will never change. The station is as much a tradition in Philly as cheese steaks are. The fanatic cannot stand a chance against WIP.

Based on the average for Fall, 2014 WPEN is #5 in 18-34 men, 18-49 men, 35-49 men, 35-44 men as well as in 35-64 men. While it bills less than WIP, it has been increasing its revenue consistently and the format

I don't see why WPEN change it up and go to either an adult album alternative (like WRNR in Baltimore)

WRNR in Baltimore is the lowest billing FM in the market, with revenues 1/20th of those of leading stations like WPOC, WWIN and WLIF. In fact, WPEN bills monthly about what WRNR bills in a year.

 

[Questionable]

And there ya go.

The 6+ numbers can be indicative of trends for a lot of stations but some formats that cater to very specific niches are tricky. With Sports stations, you can glean virtually nothing of use from the publicly available numbers because no company in the world is selling based on any of those figures.

 

[Bill_W]

I'm sure Greater Media which owns WPEN and WMGK would put a second classic rock station on the air to compete with the one they already own in Philly. That's why the Hawk from Trenton went away when GM bought the station after it "moved" to the Philly area. Plus, GM has 2 of the 4 Philly teams play by play.