Station "Suicides"

[frankberry]

I have moved a few posts to this thread:

http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?691472-What-to-do-to-gain-more-site-participation

 

[golden eagles97]

You can put WCBS-FM in the "station suicide" category when they flipped to Jack in 2005. The flip was met with fierce blowback and later went back to their previous oldies/classic hits format.

 

[davideduardo]

You can put WCBS-FM in the "station suicide" category when they flipped to Jack in 2005. The flip was met with fierce blowback and later went back to their previous oldies/classic hits format.

That is not true. CBS-FM got higher 25-54 numbers as Jack than it had been getting as an oldies station, so the change was a valid one.

However, since at the same time CBS was seeing what was going on with the PPM trials in Philadelphia with their WOGL. They say that some tweaking of the oldies format into what is now called "classic hits" would be a valid PPM format. So, before anyone took the format first, they switched CBS-Fm to the new "classic hits" concept.

 

[ChocoMingo]

Looks like Seattle is "radio suicidal"...kind of? Rhyme intended Looks like iHeartMedia DOES make stations commit "suicide".

(KUBE-FM's story) They kicked the legendary KUBE out of it's original frequency 93.3 to make way for Power 93.3 instead and moved to the weak 104.9 in Tacoma. KUBE was a heritage station to the Pacific NW, and now it has weakened in 104.9 FM, only serving Tacoma and south of Seattle. I hope iHeart has a CP to move to where the rest of Seattle's radio stations are, and at least all the KUBE staff are still working in KUBE.

(KBKS-FM's story) 106.1 KISS FM was a half-suicide, but a good one, because it brought back the original Hot AC-leaning KISS FM. It was leaning towards that direction, but now, KISS FM is Hot AC full-time. Their slogan is now, "More Music, More Variety." Bender and Molly is still in the station, but Kat Fisher left to KUBE-FM (soon to be KPWK).

(KYNW-FM's story) Mix 102.9's change wasn't a suicide as it had a 1 in the ratings book in Seattle. Therefore, the switch to Alt 102.9 (Alternative Music), was a good one, and was the only one that was announced. This gives Entercom's 107.7 The End direct competition and Andy Harms from LA's KYSR will do afternoons, just like he did with that station and at The End. The rest of the switches were by surprise, and I wonder how Seattle will react to the switch. Probably not that much, because most of them are listening to 95.7, 106.9 or 92.5 FM, or a lot if they are fans of the stations that were affected.

(Power 93.3's story) The new Power 93.3 acquired KISS-FM's old Top 40 format and Carla Marie and Anthony left Elvis Duran based from NYC to move to become Seattle's new morning show on Power 93.3 and is airing the "obvious and usual" 10,000 songs in a row. What I said about Kat Fisher leaving Bender and Molly, well she left them as she was promoted to be Power 93.3's midday DJ.

Regarding Eric Powers, Karen Wild, and Eric Tyler, well they left completely.

Also, iHeart's top station in the cluster, KJR-FM (95.7 The Jet/Classic Hits), 950 KJR/Sports and FOX Sports Radio 850 KHHO/Sports were the only 3 stations unaffected by the switch (KJR-FM rebranded 1 & 1/2 years ago).

 

[mimo]

93.3 had just gone full circle. They were a CHR in the 80's and a damn good one. Too bad they couldn't keep the KUBE calls, as they used them during the CHR days.

 

[Craziaskowboi]

WAMO in Pittsburgh. To my knowledge, their ratings were pretty good, but Sheridan Broadcasting sold the station, and the format was flipped. WAMO has since been "reborn," but it's a goofy AM/FM simulcast, and the FM signal broadcasts from W261AX, a low-power transmitter that doesn't even cover all of Allegheny County. Urban Contemporary has become a major void in Pittsburgh radio, at least in terms of signal power.

 

[ChocoMingo]

KIFM (now KXSN) in San Diego just had a suicide flip. On April 28th, they changed formats despite being on the top of the ratings. A real "suicide" for one radio station as this one was on the TOP of the San Diego area ratings chart. Why for the flip, KXSN? It's #1 and it hasn't been sold to anybody (aside from the Lincoln/Entercom merger last year). Entercom didn't want to change anything from KIFM-FM, but why did they do it. This is a legit station "suicide", as it's clearly #1 in the market, and here is the link.

http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb063

 

[Kent]

Entercom flipped KIFM because it was a geezer station that wasn't generating enough ratings in the money demo.

David, BTW, indicated the ratings were decent in the 25-54 demo. It was 10th 25-54. Not stellar, but not bad.

 

[davideduardo]

Entercom flipped KIFM because it was a geezer station that wasn't generating enough ratings in the money demo.

David, BTW, indicated the ratings were decent in the 25-54 demo. It was 10th 25-54. Not stellar, but not bad.

The real issue was that other changes in the market left a big hole for true AC as opposed to the older leaning soft AC. Entercom was likely not as comfortable with the old leaning format as with going after the abandoned true AC position.

 

[davideduardo]

KIFM (now KXSN) in San Diego just had a suicide flip. On April 28th, they changed formats despite being on the top of the ratings. A real "suicide" for one radio station as this one was on the TOP of the San Diego area ratings chart. Why for the flip, KXSN? It's #1 and it hasn't been sold to anybody (aside from the Lincoln/Entercom merger last year). Entercom didn't want to change anything from KIFM-FM, but why did they do it. This is a legit station "suicide", as it's clearly #1 in the market, and here is the link.

Enercom did not "merge" with Lincoln Financial. It bought the Lincoln station group for $105 million.

KIFM was NOT #1 in 25-54. It was around 9th, with much of the audience in 45-54.

Entercom was obviously not comfortable with an old leaning format and moved into the recently vacated traditional AC format.

 

[Kelly A]

Looks like Seattle is "radio suicidal"...kind of? Rhyme intended Looks like iHeartMedia DOES make stations commit "suicide".

iHeart looks a trends and forecasting models for all their markets with an eye on the possibility of wholesale changes or adjustments before the bottom falls out of a legacy format. Once the bottom falls out, its much harder to salvage. I believe if you looked at their track record for revamping markets outside of just a local market listener perspective, you'll see they have been more successful with their moves, than not.

 

[ChocoMingo]

Enercom did not "merge" with Lincoln Financial. It bought the Lincoln station group for $105 million.

KIFM was NOT #1 in 25-54. It was around 9th, with much of the audience in 45-54.

Entercom was obviously not comfortable with an old leaning format and moved into the recently vacated traditional AC format.

I meant #1 overall 12+

 

[davideduardo]

I meant #1 overall 12+

But 12+ (or, actually 6+ in PPM) is not the number business decisions in radio are based on. In fact, many of us do not even look at 12+ or 6+ each week and each book.

 

[mimo]

Is there any use at all for the 12+ numbers?

 

[CTListener]

Is there any use at all for the 12+ numbers?

Apparently not for anyone on the business side of radio. They do get Nielsen a free mention in the mainstream press when the numbers are cited in stories, though, and stations do use them in advertising to sell the idea of their station being "Number One" to the unwashed masses.

 

[vchimpanzee]

If KIFM's 12-plus numbers can be mentioned, something similar happened to easy listening WJYR Myrtle Beach SC.

I never found the full 12-plus numbers from before this happened, but WJYR's morning host was number one in the market. Then NextMedia moved the AC format of 25,000-watt WMYB and those letters to 50,000-watt WJYR. They put the WJYR letters on the 1000-watt AM which had been sports talk and made that station Music of Your Life. America's Best Music was available on a stronger AM which couldn't be heard well at night in Myrtle Beach proper. Still, the local newspaper printed numerous letters from angry listeners. One letter made a positive comment about Unforgettable Favorites (called Lite 2000 at the time) on a lousy signal, but that was after another change.

WNMB had tried Hot AC and failed, and by the time they went back to AC, WMYB had their audience, who weren't coming back. So the choice was obvious. WNMB became WEZV with an ultra-traditional instrumental-based sound, added a simulcast partner to completely cover the market, and it was number one 12-plus, when both signals were added together, with WJYR's old morning host helping produce those numbers. WMYB went in the basement. The 1000-watt AM called WJYR went back to sports talk because absolutely no one was listening.

WMYB has done better at times (it went Hot AC in 2008 and this time that didn't seem to hurt) and WEZV fell off sometimes, but for the most part WEZV's success continued, with the format evolving into a more vocal-based sound. Lately we're not allowed to see WEZV's 12-plus numbers.

 

[JeeperOne]

KLZ 560 in Denver was country and routinely clobbered KYGO only to flip to Z-Rock after a single off book.

A move it has NEVER recovered from (Especially when you consider KAZY was still rockin' *ALONG WITH* KBPI at the time)

As for Z-Rock itself, it's been reduced to little more than a mere moniker which stations use for imaging purposes. I think the satellite fed service is dead

Cheers & 73

 

[ftballfan]

More station suicide:

WLDR in Traverse City was a successful hot AC station under local ownership. Local owner retired and sold it to a guy out of Texas for something like $2 million. The new owner proceeded to ruin what was a successful station by flipping it to country to go against the dominant #1 station, which did not go well. Recently, it flipped back to AC with a decent playlist, but there are very few commercials and it's running much less than its licensed power (licensed for 100kW and likely running less than 10kW). Traverse City was a rated market, but it might not be anymore (no ratings have been released there since 2013)

 

[davideduardo]

More station suicide:

WLDR in Traverse City was a successful hot AC station under local ownership. Local owner retired and sold it to a guy out of Texas for something like $2 million. The new owner proceeded to ruin what was a successful station by flipping it to country to go against the dominant #1 station, which did not go well. Recently, it flipped back to AC with a decent playlist, but there are very few commercials and it's running much less than its licensed power (licensed for 100kW and likely running less than 10kW). Traverse City was a rated market, but it might not be anymore (no ratings have been released there since 2013)

Traverse City is rated twice a year, Fall and Spring. The last book was Fall 2015. The Spring book is in the field now.

Henderson sounds like the typical fudgie owner who visited Traverse City in the summer and decided it would be nice to own stations there. That often happens in resort areas, from St. Croix, USVI to Honolulu. Most end badly.

I would not mind working at that Bayshore Drive office, though. Pretty view of the west bay and back over downtown.

WKHQ-FM Top 40/M MacDonald Garber 8.2 8.0 7.8 7.1
WLXT-FM AC MacDonald Garber 3.9 4.2 3.5 4.1
WMKC-FM Country Northern Star 3.5 3.8 3.5 3.0
WZTC-FM Adult Hits MacDonald Garber -- -- -- 3.0
WGFM-FM Active Rock Northern Star 2.0 1.9 1.2 1.9
WGFN-FM Classic Rock Northern Star 2.7 2.7 1.6 1.9
WJZJ-FM Active Rock Northern Star 2.7 3.4 2.3 1.9
WLXV-FM Hot AC MacDonald Garber 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.8
WMKT-AM Talk MacDonald Garber 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4
WOEZ-FM Classic Rock Northern Star 0.4 0.4 0.4

 

[Huff]

If KIFM's 12-plus numbers can be mentioned, something similar happened to easy listening WJYR Myrtle Beach SC.

I never found the full 12-plus numbers from before this happened, but WJYR's morning host was number one in the market. Then NextMedia moved the AC format of 25,000-watt WMYB and those letters to 50,000-watt WJYR. They put the WJYR letters on the 1000-watt AM which had been sports talk and made that station Music of Your Life. America's Best Music was available on a stronger AM which couldn't be heard well at night in Myrtle Beach proper. Still, the local newspaper printed numerous letters from angry listeners. One letter made a positive comment about Unforgettable Favorites (called Lite 2000 at the time) on a lousy signal, but that was after another change.

Arbitron didn't add the market until 1989. WJYR topped the market on several occasions while still on 92.1, peaking with a 14.0 in 1992.
WJYR Spring 1989 through Spring 1996: 11.8 - 11.6 - 7.6 - 14.0 - 9.2 - 9.6 - 8.4 - 8.7