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Spring Ratings for Gainesville-Ocala

J

Jeff2

The spring Eastlan ratings are posted at All Access. No big changes. WSKY is only 1.0 behind K-Country which is #1 again. With the election coming up, could WSKY knock K-Country out of first?
 
How did that hot rockin flamethrower Kiss 1053 do? Still miss Rock 104.
 
Is UF doing cartwheels over its 4.2 share?

Shoot, Gator Country is damn-near back up to the level where Rock 104 was when they decided to kill it.

Is this "success," or what?
 
Ask an Account Executive how they like selling WRUF-FM these days versus when Rock 104 rocked North Central Florida for almost 30 years?
 
Well, they hired Kinnon Thomas, former owner of Mirror Image Studios and former GSM at WQYK for 10 years, in a sales position. They also picked up Tom Machnik (Gainesville radio sales since WGGG was top 40) from the WMOP deal. That's a pretty formidable combination. I'd imagine that WRUF will be okay, even if the ratings stay flat.
 
Make the big decisions correctly and all the little decisions fall into place.

Screw up the big decisions and you can make all the little decisions correctly and it won't make a damn bit of difference.

UF screwed up the big decision--format--a couple of years ago and the poor folks working there have been scrambling ever since to make it work--to no avail.

Yes, hiring strong sales people is important, and they may bring in some additonal bucks just on the strength of their ability and/or relationships.

Selling is easy when the format is right for the market, relative to the competition, the culture and the era. A shitty sales staff can make a lot of money selling a hot station.

And a great sales staff can beat their heads against the wall trying to sell a format that is working against them.
 
1250WTAE said:
So what would be everyone's decision of formats, say in Ocala? What's the hole to fill?
Click to expand...

Various Rock formats such as Active and Alternative.

A station that plays 80's and 90's gold or alternative that doesn't put you to sleep or play Delilah. An AC that plays mostly 80's and 90's and leans on Acoustic and some lighter Alternative would be nice. However the demographics in Ocala probably will not support this. Maybe throw in some pop and dance as well.

A Soft AC like WDUV or Easy in Miami.

Adult Hits
 
I think WMFQ 92.9 fills that niche. KTK also covers it too. Bring on a 100k CHR or Active Rocker to the area.

The Buzz 100.5 is no Rock 104.
 
Adult Alternative is an obvious format hole in Gainesville but I guess some stations would rather settle for a one share and/or they don't understand the format.
 
Alternative might be a tough sell. The question remains, if you were getting a stand alone FM, what format would you do out of the box?
 
What about Classic Alternative, You can mix 80's Alternative with 90's music that fits well on Adult Alternative and Hot AC stations. I know I'm dreaming but may work in Gainesville. Even add some lesser played 70's tracks my certain Punk Rock artists, David Bowie and deep cuts not heard on classic rockers. Maybe add some Alternative or AAA from today to keep things fresh. Artists such as R.E.M and the B-52's do hall from only 350 miles away in Georgia. R.E.M was influenced by The Byrds and Patty Symth while the 52's were from oldies music.

Its interesting WKTK can get away with having Shock me all Night Long in regular rotation, but won't be caught playing "Take on me" by A-Ha, "Pretty in Pink" by the Furs or "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order. Besides that one AC-DC song is so hard edged compared to most of the stations playlist which includes songs by Diana Ross. The songs above would fit the station better than that.
 
Formats like alternative have been tried in this market without sucess. Older listeners may recall the 4 year 97X experiment from 1994 to 1998 that failed to make ratings or money. Before that, there was WGVL for 10 years from the early '70s until 1981 when it became WYKS. WGVL is also fondly remembered, but it struggled financially for its whole life. In the end, the station was really a dump and someone with a different vision bought it and changed the format, meeting with instant sucess.

Basically, these types of formats can work in large markets where capturing a 2 share is adequate for survival, but even in a market like Gainesville with its youthful skew, not enough kids tear away from mainstream formats to really make a significant improvement over the numbers in any other market. So, the bottom line is that you can do alternative formats here only if you have a survival strategy that does not include great ratings.
 
There is one format in particular that will fill an immediate market void that no one has mentioned. Let's see if anyone knows which one it is.
 
Sometimes its not the obvious hole. What format could take shares from K County, and Thunder? Or maybe another format that could compete against Q and WKTK?

And I'm talking about Ocala and others seem to be talking about Gainesville. I understand their considered the same market. But not every station can be 100,000 watts.
 
Think outside the box. It does not necessarily have to compete directly against any of the existing market formats to fill a currently ignored market void and generate impressive results.
 
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