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Telltale signs of an imminent format change?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
In most cases, the staff does not know of a format change until a day or two before it happens... often the same day.
Programming does not change, unless the station stunts to introduce a new format.
Tell-tale signs are things like elimination of any contests and promotions, and no scheduling of events into the future.
Back in the days of full live staffing, it was not uncommon for the "new" airstaff to be waiting in a hotel and ready to be called in when the "old" airstaff was fired and out of the building.
Back in the day, if a new format was going to come with new call letters, all area stations were notified 30 days ahead. Often the calls hinted at the format. Today, domain registrations hint at changes, but many are "dummy" registrations to confuse the competition.
G
Groove1670
Guest
Also with the technology of today you can run with no talent (during the switch or hiring process), and load up the playback system with new elements in a heartbeat. During a pending sale (unless it is a LMA) I've seen stations continue to promote and schedule events only to cancel when the sale is finally approved.
Radio is a business, and change usually happens without notice.
Radio is a business, and change usually happens without notice.
In some cases it's a change of General Manager of a cluster or a change in Program Director at a station.
Also promos of change of format is and a surprise is a factor.
One that I noticed (from a listener's perspective, which is really important!) is that they ran promos with listeners saying things like "we love you, don't ever change!" and then literally three days later, they did just that! (Actually, it was even sooner than that, in the case that I remembered here.)
Usually the most in-tune with a potential format change are the sales staff. After all, they frequently stay with the station/cluster when the programming team is blown out. They also are the ones who have to placate advertisers who may be less-than-interested in the new format...they have to go out there and find new clients that want to advertise on this new station.
I have found that unless its a complete secret from corporate or management, the sales team are usually given some advance warning of a format flip. But not always...
When I worked for a company that advertised on a station cluster, we were surprised when our advertisements that were on a hot AC station were still being played when the station switched to active rock. Nobody in sales bothered to let us know if they were even aware themselves. Granted, we were fairly small potatoes to them.
I have found that unless its a complete secret from corporate or management, the sales team are usually given some advance warning of a format flip. But not always...
When I worked for a company that advertised on a station cluster, we were surprised when our advertisements that were on a hot AC station were still being played when the station switched to active rock. Nobody in sales bothered to let us know if they were even aware themselves. Granted, we were fairly small potatoes to them.
WTIC-FM 96.5 of Hartford was hinting at a format change for maybe a week before it happened in June of 1994. From 1977 until this time, they were CHR/Top 40 "96 TIC-FM", the top 40 king for the entire state of Connecticut. They changed to HOT A/C and proclaimed "the rap is gone!". Their name was modified to "96.5-TIC", spoken as "Ninety-six-five...T-I-C". The first slogan was "Today's Top 40". The Chase family said it was done because of declining ratings. They eventually sold the station to what became Infinity, then CBS and now Entercom.
93.7 FM of Hartford was Spanish, with the call letters of WLVH-FM (Latin Voice of Hartford). I think it was called "Super 94". Anyways, that changed in 1990. It suddenly left. It was simulcasting NOAA Weather Radio for a few weeks. Then it became WZMX-FM and "The New Mix 93.7". The call letters are still there today. The station has been Urban/Hip-Hop "HOT 93.7" since March of 2001.
93.7 FM of Hartford was Spanish, with the call letters of WLVH-FM (Latin Voice of Hartford). I think it was called "Super 94". Anyways, that changed in 1990. It suddenly left. It was simulcasting NOAA Weather Radio for a few weeks. Then it became WZMX-FM and "The New Mix 93.7". The call letters are still there today. The station has been Urban/Hip-Hop "HOT 93.7" since March of 2001.
I've been through a few of the "surprise" flips and only one which was announced a day or two in advance (KEWB from Top 40 to Talk in '66). KEWB announced the flip and on the last day of Top-40 did a sort of retrospective saying goodbye by the air staff and giving some solid business reasons why the change. The "surprise" flips didn't go over nearly so well. One thing most people hate is change and especially change they don't like. To suddenly surprise them is almost a guaranteed way to lose a listener. It seems very short sighted of a station to kick listeners in the butt by yanking a familiar service from them. Most people can understand a change if believable reasons are stated.
two cases of tall tell signs occurred in Dallas-Fort Worth Radio.
tall-tale sign #1:when a hot talk station starts hiring sport talk personalities that worked for a sports talk station in the area this happened with KLLI Live 105.3 in Dallas in 2008, they hired Ben and Skin, who previously worked for KTCK 1310 The Ticket before being hired and at the same time, the station started a transition from Hot Talk to Sports Talk where they started using the slogan "live talk and sports". they flipped to full sports talk at the end of 2008 as 105.3 The Fan and getting the famed KRLD call letters put on them, which is shared by AM sister station news talk 1080 AM KRLD.
tall-tale sign #2: ownership of station changes hands, most recent example would be the Entercom buyout of CBS Radio in November 2017 where in Dallas, KVIL flip from AC "Amp 103.7 to Alternative Rock/Pop (I say Rock/Pop as today's Alternative Rock has become Alt Pop with top 40 friendly acts taking the format over) Alt 103.7. this also happened with several other stations in many different markets flipping to something else due to ownership change between what was then CBS Corporation (now ViacomCBS) and Entercom.
tall-tale sign #1:when a hot talk station starts hiring sport talk personalities that worked for a sports talk station in the area this happened with KLLI Live 105.3 in Dallas in 2008, they hired Ben and Skin, who previously worked for KTCK 1310 The Ticket before being hired and at the same time, the station started a transition from Hot Talk to Sports Talk where they started using the slogan "live talk and sports". they flipped to full sports talk at the end of 2008 as 105.3 The Fan and getting the famed KRLD call letters put on them, which is shared by AM sister station news talk 1080 AM KRLD.
tall-tale sign #2: ownership of station changes hands, most recent example would be the Entercom buyout of CBS Radio in November 2017 where in Dallas, KVIL flip from AC "Amp 103.7 to Alternative Rock/Pop (I say Rock/Pop as today's Alternative Rock has become Alt Pop with top 40 friendly acts taking the format over) Alt 103.7. this also happened with several other stations in many different markets flipping to something else due to ownership change between what was then CBS Corporation (now ViacomCBS) and Entercom.
I remember back when format flips were a big deal there used to be promos by the stations 1 month prior to flip in able to get the new listeners in saying "Something new and fresh is coming to this Radio Market on this date" in the past.
landtuna a points out losing listeners with a format change. In almost all cases, you don't want the prior format listener because you haven't been successful trying to serve that segment of the market. I'm not sure saying anything helps much. When KPLX FM in Dallas/Forth Worth went from a more contemporary beautiful music format to country, it wasn't announced (but sales staff knew). My Dad had been a listener, so he just went to another beautiful music station on the dial and dropped his advertising. When WFAA FM became The Zoo 98 FM, KZEW, the flip was from beautiful music to album oriented rock. Funny thing, when the alarm clock radio went off the morning it happened, I was jumped on for changing the station.
Speaking of advance notice to the jocks, WFAA AM flipped from a AC/Top 40 to Talk. The jocks all got to have a 'last' show and it was handled in a really classy way. Some jocks had a few bloopers or some interesting recording of them at the station that they slipped in. They fielded calls from listeners as well. A couple of jocks did all requests and you could tell the music wheel had been tossed. At 11:57 or so the jock played every jock's goodbye perfectly timed to the new Legal ID and network news at Midnight.
I've been through only one format change that came with a new owner. The new owner had set up an office at the station. He was no longer talking to the on air people but was the sales staff. I put two and two together, got lucky and started a new job on a Monday before everyone but our overnight guy got the ax the following Thursday.
Speaking of advance notice to the jocks, WFAA AM flipped from a AC/Top 40 to Talk. The jocks all got to have a 'last' show and it was handled in a really classy way. Some jocks had a few bloopers or some interesting recording of them at the station that they slipped in. They fielded calls from listeners as well. A couple of jocks did all requests and you could tell the music wheel had been tossed. At 11:57 or so the jock played every jock's goodbye perfectly timed to the new Legal ID and network news at Midnight.
I've been through only one format change that came with a new owner. The new owner had set up an office at the station. He was no longer talking to the on air people but was the sales staff. I put two and two together, got lucky and started a new job on a Monday before everyone but our overnight guy got the ax the following Thursday.
I did a surprise flip some years back from Beautiful Music to Salsa. We turned the station off for a few hours, and came back with the new format.
Within an hour, I knew we'd have to call all the staff in to answer the phones... horrible insults and all lines constantly ringing.
We had wanted to blow off the old listeners. We had been the #1 FM in the market, back when just a 4 share would do that.
Our first book with the new format got us a 22.5. We billed more in our fist month of the new format than we had ever done with the old one.
We did not care about retaining the old listeners, but did feel we owed them the courtesy of answering the phone and telling them that the old format had little future growth potential. Beyond that, we did not care where they went.
If you're a listener, you usually have no way of knowing of an impending format change. You'll only know if they want you to know.
As others have said, programming staff is usually not told anything. At best, they hear right before the change. I worked for a cluster that changed a few stations' formats, and staff was usually not told until after the changes. They do this to keep anybody from announcing it over the air. That's also why they usually don't give anyone any advance notice of being fired. About 15 years ago, I worked for a station that was the LP-1 for the market's EAS. Management was paranoid that someone would try to go out of the station in a blaze of glory by abusing the EAS. Although the station didn't change formats, a bunch of us got fired. We were told we were gone, lined up at the door, and handed our final paychecks on our way out.
Sales staff occasionally knows about changes in advance. The cluster I worked for that did multiple changes did both in the middle of the year, when most advertisements were already under contract. Advertisers weren't informed until after the changes either.
As others have said, programming staff is usually not told anything. At best, they hear right before the change. I worked for a cluster that changed a few stations' formats, and staff was usually not told until after the changes. They do this to keep anybody from announcing it over the air. That's also why they usually don't give anyone any advance notice of being fired. About 15 years ago, I worked for a station that was the LP-1 for the market's EAS. Management was paranoid that someone would try to go out of the station in a blaze of glory by abusing the EAS. Although the station didn't change formats, a bunch of us got fired. We were told we were gone, lined up at the door, and handed our final paychecks on our way out.
Sales staff occasionally knows about changes in advance. The cluster I worked for that did multiple changes did both in the middle of the year, when most advertisements were already under contract. Advertisers weren't informed until after the changes either.
Seems like a bad decision to me. Why kick a loyal listener in the teeth as you switch formats? Granted, most will probably search for another station but some might stay and see what's up - especially if you have heritage calls. It shouldn't cost much to explain to the listener what you're doing and perhaps even why. People tend to treat you better if you're up front with them.
We had no hope of keeping even one of the listeners from the previous format. Sort of like going from Soft AC to Urban Hip Hop.
The calls were changed. The name was changed. The logo, the imaging, everything was changed.
More recently, I did a change from AC to classic rock in Buenos Aires, a market about the size of New York City, but with far more stations. The previous format, called "FM News" although they had no newscasts, had very low listenership... less than a 2 share... and no revenue to speak of.
As we prepped the new format, at about 11 in the morning we decided we were ready and the programming team went to the studio with all the CDs; the imaging was transferred to the studio workstation. We let some George Michael song end and came on with Charlie Garcia and the new name of Mega 98.3 and a "pure Argentine rock" format of only Argentine rock artists. We called the ad agency, and had the TV campaign started that evening, and within a few days the outdoor was all up.
The full story at https://www.davidgleason.com/1999-Argentina-Mega.htm
We did not care what the previous listeners did. There were not enough of them and there were better alternatives playing American AC in the market anyway. Good riddance. And we became the most listened to station in the Western Hemisphere within a month.
Most stations change because the is not enough audience, the name and / or calls lost any heritage value and they want to put failure behind them. There is no value in trying to build a new station on a dead format with a decayed image, and it is a negative to new listeners to be explaining how you failed in the past.
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I give you credit for answering the phones, especially since that sort of flip would probably bring the racists out of the woodwork. Of course, today, the listeners also take to Facebook and Twitter to vent outrage at format changes. I've seen some stations shut down their Facebook pages for a while, while others let the fans of the old format vent away until most of them realize they can do nothing to bring it back. And then, there is SiriusXM, which deletes most or all negative comments, often permanently banning those who posted them, and, I suspect, uses in-house "sock puppets" to heap praise on the new format using fake Facebook accounts.
How do your stations deal with social-media blowback?
I was looking for more information about listener reaction when WEZV Myrtle Beach SC changed from soft AC (like the old WDUV before WFEZ) to soft AC (like the Breeze stations) and found it on their Facebook page. I should have saved the posts somehow because most of them were very negative and it was interesting to read them. But when I went back to see exactly what the people who were upset said, anything negative was gone.
How do your stations deal with social-media blowback?
I rarely see stations interacting with angry folks on Facebook regarding a format change. The ones that do usually explain the financial reasoning for it. Unless they have a very strong social media presence (or, a large quantity of elderly folks who listen, oddly enough), I rarely see more than a handful of angry replies on FB. Some of this may be because the station is being (overly) proactive and deleting negative comments...it may also be a representation of the lack of appeal of the old format.
There is also the commonly used option of shutting down the station's social media accounts to prevent just such a thing. You can always make a new one under the new format later.
Gone are the days of things like 'listener's guilds' who goaded stations such as WNCN in NYC to reverse course and flip back to a previous format. Most blowback is via social media it seems and is far less of an issue in people's day-to-day lives than it was 30-40 years ago. Your favorite country station flipped to classic rock? Change the station to a competitor, or buy SXM/Pandora/TuneIn, and continue listening.
I rarely see stations interacting with angry folks on Facebook regarding a format change. The ones that do usually explain the financial reasoning for it. Unless they have a very strong social media presence (or, a large quantity of elderly folks who listen, oddly enough), I rarely see more than a handful of angry replies on FB. Some of this may be because the station is being (overly) proactive and deleting negative comments...it may also be a representation of the lack of appeal of the old format.
There is also the commonly used option of shutting down the station's social media accounts to prevent just such a thing. You can always make a new one under the new format later.
Gone are the days of things like 'listener's guilds' who goaded stations such as WNCN in NYC to reverse course and flip back to a previous format. Most blowback is via social media it seems and is far less of an issue in people's day-to-day lives than it was 30-40 years ago. Your favorite country station flipped to classic rock? Change the station to a competitor, or buy SXM/Pandora/TuneIn, and continue listening.
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There is no upside in engaging with angry people. You can quote me.
What we saw in Cleveland last month:
WNWV flipped from Smooth Jazz to a country simulcast of WQMX, to Jeny (Modern AC). Prior to the flips, the previous Smooth Jazz holiday format had morphed into a very generic playlist, ala an AC. David Sanborn was replaced by Band Aid. David Benoit was replaced by Brenda Lee. Boney James was replaced by Dean Martin. I figured they would go soft AC after the holidays. At the same time, the entire airstaff was let go.
Nope, they flipped temporarily to WQMX-94.9. Then went to Jeny, which is a Modern AC format designed for generation Y.
WNWV flipped from Smooth Jazz to a country simulcast of WQMX, to Jeny (Modern AC). Prior to the flips, the previous Smooth Jazz holiday format had morphed into a very generic playlist, ala an AC. David Sanborn was replaced by Band Aid. David Benoit was replaced by Brenda Lee. Boney James was replaced by Dean Martin. I figured they would go soft AC after the holidays. At the same time, the entire airstaff was let go.
Nope, they flipped temporarily to WQMX-94.9. Then went to Jeny, which is a Modern AC format designed for generation Y.
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