• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Sooo, Free Beer & Hot Wings on Rock 103?

Morning radio has definitely gone down the dumper. Bob and Tom are not good, but they are better than a lot of the other morning so-called talent these days. Ugh!
 
I'm listening right now in SE Arkansas via tropo scatter.

*Horrible show*. WTF did CC Memphis think when they "bought" this show for Rock 103? John Boy and Billy would be a better fit for WEGR, the FB&HW bit this morning about the rude Catholic priest and a dumb joke about Zamboni driver w/Down Syndrome is really going to pack the listeners in buddy.

FWIW, Bob And Tom went over in Little Rock like $10 do-nuts. It was put on a heritage CC classic rocker on the downhill slide, that was later flipped to Classic Country.
 
FB&HW come from Grand Rapids, Michigan. That's not even a decent mid-sized market. I suppose there wasn't a decent morning show from Little Rock, Knoxville, Chattanooga, or Jackson, MS, that could have been put on Rock 103. Are John Boy & Billy as good as it gets for morning radio these days? I dislike them less than Bob and Tom and Rick and Bubba. That would be a good discussion. Who's got the worst syndicated morning show? It's sort of the radio version of "What was the worst TV show ever?" Galactica 1980, Supertrain, Brady Bunch Variety Hour, Manimal, etc.
 
snazzyjazzy said:
FB&HW come from Grand Rapids, Michigan. That's not even a decent mid-sized market. I suppose there wasn't a decent morning show from Little Rock, Knoxville, Chattanooga, or Jackson, MS, that could have been put on Rock 103.

Not to put too fine a point on this...

But Grand Rapids is bigger than all the markets you mentioned. It's far bigger than Jackson.

DE
 
"Not to put too fine a point on this...

But Grand Rapids is bigger than all the markets you mentioned. It's far bigger than Jackson."



GR is #67 in market size. It's a little bigger than I thought. I threw in markets in this general part of the country (Little Rock, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Jackson, MS) that weren't major markets but weren't out in the hinterlands either. I didn't know that Jackson, MS, was as small as it was. It more belongs in a group with Huntsville, AL. I know there are those that don't consider Memphis or even Nashville to be major markets.

You would think if you were piping in a program from another part of the country that it would come from a bigger market than Grand Rapids, like Indianapolis or Columbus, Ohio, which are bigger markets than Memphis. Conversely, I wouldn't be piping in a program from Memphis into Grand Rapids. FB&HW aren't absolutely horrible, but it seems that Clear Channel could've gotten a better morning show to put in the Memphis market. I suppose local talent was too expensive. Cheap Channel's primary goal is to make money. This is a capitalistic society.
 
Here and on another thread people are wondering about the future of the 102.7 frequency. I've got a novel idea: Let's hire a DJ and play rock music like it was done on FM100 in the late 60's / early 70's and on Rock 103 in the early/mid 80's and later when resurrected as The Eagle. Sprinkle in some new music by artists like The Avett Brothers, Nicole Atkins, etc. FM100 wasn't bashful about playing Carole King and Joni Mitchell tracks, even Sly and the Family Stone; Rock 103 would play Linda Ronstadt, etc and was great about playing local bands. There was true variety yet not sappy like Top 40. I don't mean to sound racial, but does the Memphis market have enough white male listeners to make a true album rock station work again?
 
I think we call agree that the previous morning show was not getting it done, from ratings to revenue, so CC did what it does in all it's other markets; cut their losses and brought in a lesser priced talent, like Free Beer & Hot Wings.

The bean counters at CC have a business metric that values every morning show in terms of revenue compared to their ratings.

The math did not add up.

If we can forget the emotion for a moment and look at the cost versus the return, this station should have changed formats years ago.

Really this is a moot point, since the change has been made.

Pandora, I-Pod, Sirius/XM, I-Pad, smartphones are great alternatives.
 
The problem I see with this, and that I don't believe I've seen pointed out, is this show is obviously geared toward the 18-34 audience. Last I knew, 103 wasn't targeting the 18-34 audience. Their home station WGRD in GR is Alternative Rock that leans on Active Rock a bit. And they kill in that market. I believe most of their affiliates are of the Active or Alternative variety as well.
 
AlbumOldies said:
Here and on another thread people are wondering about the future of the 102.7 frequency. I've got a novel idea: Let's hire a DJ and play rock music like it was done on FM100 in the late 60's / early 70's and on Rock 103 in the early/mid 80's and later when resurrected as The Eagle. Sprinkle in some new music by artists like The Avett Brothers, Nicole Atkins, etc. FM100 wasn't bashful about playing Carole King and Joni Mitchell tracks, even Sly and the Family Stone; Rock 103 would play Linda Ronstadt, etc and was great about playing local bands. There was true variety yet not sappy like Top 40. I don't mean to sound racial, but does the Memphis market have enough white male listeners to make a true album rock station work again?

No, I don't think there are enough white males in the market to make a true album rock station work again. The Max has done a great job mixing in current stuff with the classic rock. The Max has been outperforming Rock 103 in the last several books. As others have written, I wouldn't be surprised to see 102.7 become WREC-FM. I imagine a move like that would save Cheap Channel money. It's all about the Benjamins.
 
It would be great for Memphis to have a true commercial Indie Rock station, but like the classic rockers, the demographics aren't there--at least for what CC wants to do with the big 102.7 signal. Plus I'm even aware that WXMX/Drake And Zeke own the Classic Rock audience in metro Memphis.

This is just my HO on WEGR and its future. Rock 103 will give this bird-fed Free Beer And Hot Wings show a few months until it decides what to do long term. The smart money is that WEGR add the WREC format to its primary analog signal (WREC-AM) will continue. Over here, KARN-AM went to a simulcast of its FM signal in 2003 and flipped the AM signal to all sports (mostly bird-fed fare: FOX Sports, Jim Rome + a local afternoon show) in 2009. There might be a closet operation of CR on the WEGR IBOC-2 stream following the change to appease those few having IBOC receivers. Either a generic outsourced CR format, or a "Rock 103 Classic" tailored to Memphis audiences.
 
A show from Grand Rapids Michigan. Now that's a recipe for sucess in Memphis. Sad to see a great radio market like Memphis flushed down the radio toilet.
 
I'll call the show mediocre, which is better than bad. I've heard worse. I would have thought that maybe Rock 103 or Clear Channel could have found a southern-based show to put in that slot. I don't mean Rick and Bubba.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom