So if Regent/Evansville is really bad off like everyone here says....

[Bianco500]

What do you all suggest they do?

The biggest problem may be for Regent that two of their stations lack a signal(both are class A) thus they probably can't really do anything beyond niches(which is why Rock and Hip Hop were choosen.) WKDQ and WJLT appear to be fine, but if mabye a Class A country station is nipping at the Rabbit's feet, then a simple tweaking may be what is needed, prehaps let go of the current airstaff and hire fresh new faces?

Also, Regent tried AC with 105.3 and bombed, and wasn't 106.1 AC 10 years ago? That bombed too if I remember(they ran Bob and Sheri)

But Bianco probably is clueless, mabye the Hoosiers have all the answers.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Regent's first acquisition in the area was WOMI/WBKR Owensboro. CEO Terry Jacobs and COO Bill Stakelin paid a visit for orientation. Stakelin made it clear they were, "serious about running a radio station". I thought, "Thank God!", after living through get rich quick schemes like Cromwell and Brill Media (WOMI/WBKR's prior owner) this could be a vast improvement. But a few sentences later Stakelin made it clear Programming decisions were no longer local, music adds would be made for you, that's when the warning light started to glow.

Regent entered this market believing they were the radio experts while their local employees and the competition were idiots. You mentioned "Lite 105.3", there's a great example of their "inside the box" thinking. When Regent acquired the Clear Channel properties it was decided to exile WYNG to slowly die on 94.9 since WKDQ was dominant in ratings and revenue. Personally, I hated seeing that happen. Johnny Randolph brought back WYNG, but at same time understand why it happened. The "no-brainer" was to put Kiss or GBF on 105.3. Instead they tried to take on WIKY with "Lite Rock and Less Talk". The idea was "Lite" would take away listener from WIKY and help WKDQ. Sounds great on paper but the reality was WIKY is more than music; there's a long evolving heritage and a strong news commitment. You won't beat WIKY by playing "Too Much Heaven" in heavy rotation and John Tesh at night aimlessly reading show prep. It's the first lesson of Consumer Behavior called "Top of Mind Awareness" and WIKY wins the battle and the war. Regent put "Lite 105.3" out of its misery when South Central handed them the Oldies format three years ago and they've lucked out every since.

Regent Communications is an incompetent company. The point is best emphasizes with the departure of Terry Jacobs. He left day to day operations when the brain trust decided blow the company's nest egg acquiring more stations (The Buffalo deal). This caused the the stock price per share to drop to the value of a Big Mac. A hedge fund, who had purchased many shares of Regent stock, realize the idiocy. They demanded a share holders meeting to reevaluate the board of directors and Regent did everything they could to fight them and preserve the "good ol' boy network" and lost.

So there you have it, a biased evaluation of Regent. Running a radio station is easy. But when arrogance is the rule it becomes a blind spot and anomalies like a 6kw FM nipping at the heels of a 100kw FM will happen.

 

[radiogeek40208]

Regent's first acquisition in the area was WOMI/WBKR Owensboro. CEO Terry Jacobs and COO Bill Stakelin paid a visit for orientation. Stakelin made it clear they were, "serious about running a radio station". I thought, "Thank God!", after living through get rich quick schemes like Cromwell and Brill Media (WOMI/WBKR's prior owner) this could be a vast improvement. But a few sentences later Stakelin made it clear Programming decisions were no longer local, music adds would be made for you, that's when the warning light started to glow.

Regent entered this market believing they were the radio experts while their local employees and the competition were idiots. You mentioned "Lite 105.3", there's a great example of their "inside the box" thinking. When Regent acquired the Clear Channel properties it was decided to exile WYNG to slowly die on 94.9 since WKDQ was dominant in ratings and revenue. Personally, I hated seeing that happen. Johnny Randolph brought back WYNG, but at same time understand why it happened. The "no-brainer" was to put Kiss or GBF on 105.3. Instead they tried to take on WIKY with "Lite Rock and Less Talk". The idea was "Lite" would take away listener from WIKY and help WKDQ. Sounds great on paper but the reality was WIKY is more than music; there's a long evolving heritage and a strong news commitment. You won't beat WIKY by playing "Too Much Heaven" in heavy rotation and John Tesh at night aimlessly reading show prep. It's the first lesson of Consumer Behavior called "Top of Mind Awareness" and WIKY wins the battle and the war. Regent put "Lite 105.3" out of its misery when South Central handed them the Oldies format three years ago and they've lucked out every since.

Regent Communications is an incompetent company. The point is best emphasizes with the departure of Terry Jacobs. He left day to day operations when the brain trust decided blow the company's nest egg acquiring more stations (The Buffalo deal). This caused the the stock price per share to drop to the value of a Big Mac. A hedge fund, who had purchased many shares of Regent stock, realize the idiocy. They demanded a share holders meeting to reevaluate the board of directors and Regent did everything they could to fight them and preserve the "good ol' boy network" and lost.

So there you have it, a biased evaluation of Regent. Running a radio station is easy. But when arrogance is the rule it becomes a blind spot and anomalies like a 6kw FM nipping at the heels of a 100kw FM will happen.

If someone really tried hard enough with a younger A/C, almost Hot A/C.. it might do something.. won't be #1, or ever "over take" WIKY or WSTO.. but could take some younger numbers away from WIKY and older #'s away from WSTO... but it would really have to be done right! Lots of money, promotions and a decent airstaff... basically that's not going to happen as long as Regent is the only other player in Evansville besides South Central...

 

[Pager]

You guys are right about all of the above. When Bob & Tom's contract with GBF came up for renewal a couple of years ago, South Central made an offer ($120K per) that would've had B&T replace the god-awful John Boy & Billy on WABX. Regent was forced to match the offer or lose their only reason for living.

They've also done a lot of people wrong, like Dan Egierski. Have you heard what they replaced him with?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I think Egerski is doing OK without Regent. Heck, he practically has higher ratings on a Class A then he did at 94.9.


None of the country stations in Evansville really do it for me. At WKDQ, the on-air talent seems fake -- either they have a lot of voice guys working there, or the mic processor is getting a workout.
WBKR is probably my favorite, but they don't get a preset in the car.
And the Wolf ... can't say I've listened for more than a few songs lately. I used to really like them in the early 2000s. Not sure what changed.

I listen to WSM is P1 when the weather's good.

 

[Pager]

Seems most everyone that leaves winds up doing better. You're right about KDQ, its a monster pukefest. How long before Big Bill and Yates have deuling heart attacks on the air? But, there are plenty of tuneout factors on all the Regent stix. Their current ratings may prompt some changes, but would they be better? History says, probably not. At some point though they have to finally dump Sanders, hire a decent consultant like a Buddy Scott who knows and cares about the market, and let the chips fly. Otherwise, we can expect another crop of skanks to grace the next GBF billboards.

 

[radiorob2.0]

"If someone really tried hard enough with a younger A/C, almost Hot A/C.. it might do something.. won't be #1, or ever "over take" WIKY or WSTO.. but could take some younger numbers away from WIKY and older #'s away from WSTO... but it would really have to be done right! Lots of money, promotions and a decent airstaff... basically that's not going to happen as long as Regent is the only other player in Evansville besides South Central..."

Actually there was a plan to do just that. Since it's been a little over ten years I guess it is okay to reveal there was a course to sail 96STO officially into a Hot AC port and directly take on WIKY. Yes, 96STO was always a dayparted CHR, but this was taking it to the next level. The audience testing had been done and the pieces were in place, then the morons that ran Brill Media decided to blow up the most important part of the plan, the morning show.

I've written about this before, so do a search for "Ben and Jim" "96STO" and read the details. But for those who don't have time, here was the Brill Media plan:

Step 1. Hire two guys to talk for four and a half hours like Bob and Tom and eventually syndicate the show.
Step 2. ? ? ? ? ? ?
Step 3. Profit.

Yes, Trey Parker and Matt Stone stole the business plan and used it for a "South Park" episode. But it worked for them. However, when Brill Media executed the plan the result were a disaster.

But back to the point. WIKY, as strong as it is, had one weakness back then; a passive presentation. Outside of morning drive the jocks were not allowed to deviate from the script. 96STO's jocks were allowed to deviate from the script in a conversational manner but in the fewest words possible. So 96STO would have been a ying to WIKY's yang. 96STO was already a thorn in the side of WIKY as a dayparted CHR, the format adjustment would've made that thorn into a dagger. It was the perfect attack against the fortress called "Xanadu" high atop Mt. Engelbrecht. The best part is 96STO had heritage and name recognition as impressive as WIKY, all they were doing was adjusting the music to the demo that grew up with 96STO. The bonus was the signal advantage that delivered strong TSA numbers north and south of the Ohio River.

But it never happened since Brill Media destroyed the place. Gutless management used the power of the paycheck to intimidate employees where there was no other choice than get the hell out. The final nails in the coffin was Brill Management using 96STO's commercial inventory as a credit card, hence the thirty minutes of commercials an hour.

96STO suffered a long painful death and became "Hot 96" now located, ironically, high atop Mt Engelbrecht. I'm not a big fan of rap and hip-hop but that is CHR today and "Hot" overall it's a good sounding radio station. It receives "Radiorob's seal of approval" and a preset on my car radios next to WIKY.