Terre Haute

[nuffsaid]

Seems all the replies are similar, Crossroads has tried to be too many things to too few people for far to long! That is a shame for the market could certainly use some competitioin and damn if Midwest is any kind of leader. Think they win by default and the mere fact they actually "cover" the market. Does anybody rememer when Bubba The Love Sponge was an intern at WPFR? Now those were the days!!!!

 

[LibertyNT]

With WAXI Gone (Or is it really?)
Where does Terre Haute go for Oldies?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Would the Valley be a choice for displaced Oldies listeners?

 

[radio lover]

With WAXI Gone (Or is it really?)
Where does Terre Haute go for Oldies?

wqty in Linton is fair but is hard to receive in many offices and homes in Terre Haute but is ok in the car.

Would the Valley be a choice for displaced Oldies listeners?

Not really. Although you may hear some songs from the 60's, there's more classic rock,(similar to wwvr & waxi). Be nice if someone would take the chance to put 60's & 70's on and give it a whirl to see what happens.

 

[just browsing]

Didn't WAXI already do a 60s-70s oldies format? I thought they did, but I might be wrong. Oldies always seem to be hit or miss anymore, at least in my opinion. Where is the actual hole in the TH market? I know there is plenty of bleed over from other areas but the main 3 groups of stations on 3rd Street and Ohio Street look something like this now...

HI 99 is Country
River is Classic Rock
WAXI is Classic Rock
WSDM is ESPN
WBOW is AC/Hot AC (depending what song I heard last time I was close enough to listen. seemed a bit all over the place to me)
Mix FM is CHR
Valley is Variety
WIBQ is News

Could maybe a more rhythmic chr or one that leans a bit rhythmic work there? How about a modern or active rock station?

 

[just browsing]

I hit post before I meant to. I was going to ask if anyone was up for a bit of "what if"... from time to time we all throw our 2 cents in as to what people should do with their stations so I had this idea. What if you just bought Cross Roads or Midwest? What would you do with those stations... personalities, formats whatever you want, top make them the top dogs in the market?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

If I bought Crossroads:

ESPN would go back to 1300/1130 simulcast. Any local programs would be brokered.
WSDM would pick up an alternative rock format.
WAXI would go back to oldies and drop the sports.

I'd hire Jay Micheals away from Mix-FM for a AM drive slot on WBOW-FM. Pick up someone off the beach for PM drive/PD. Current PM drive host Bernie goes to morning sidekick. Use Dial-Global talent 11a-3p, 11p-6a, and weekends. Delilah would stay in evenings.

Party Marty, Doc Long, and Jules may be left without a seat when the music stops.

 

[nuffsaid]

From what I hear there is very little chance of any of these suggestions being followed through on with the talent that Crossroads has at the helm! There does not seem to be any real broadcast professionals available to guide the station (s) in any direction other than down. This is the biggest mistake that I see being made at CR, there is nobody in charge that has a clue what to do or how to do it! Sad Sad Sad!

 

[radio lover]

Didn't WAXI already do a 60s-70s oldies format? I thought they did, but I might be wrong. Oldies always seem to be hit or miss anymore, at least in my opinion.
Yes they did, early on after wsdm switched frequencies and flipped to the crock, waxi went oldies. It was programed in house by someone who didn't really know oldies. Morning and afternoon drive was done by local well respected dj's who had more experience and knowledge than anyone in the buliding, me included, after a period of time the seasoned pros were let go, then dial global was signed on. At first it sounded good but then they (dial global) started leaning more toward the 70's and early 80's with lots of disco and little 60's. There was talk that waxi may be re-structured and go with Scott Shannons's True Oldies, but that never happened.

 

[nuffsaid]

There are solutions to the CR nightmare in Terre Haute but do not feel the "managment" will wake up and smell the roses or see the light! Sad to see stations with potential fold and fall into such a state. Who owns these stations anyway, can they not see the hand writing on the wall?

 

[RO77]

If I bought Crossroads:

ESPN would go back to 1300/1130 simulcast. Any local programs would be brokered.
WSDM would pick up an alternative rock format.
WAXI would go back to oldies and drop the sports.

I'd hire Jay Micheals away from Mix-FM for a AM drive slot on WBOW-FM. Pick up someone off the beach for PM drive/PD. Current PM drive host Bernie goes to morning sidekick. Use Dial-Global talent 11a-3p, 11p-6a, and weekends. Delilah would stay in evenings.

Party Marty, Doc Long, and Jules may be left without a seat when the music stops.

Of all the people at Crossroads you would keep on air it would be Bernie, the worst one of all? Julie is probably the best local female jock in the market, and it is not even close.

As far as getting talent from other stations, Emmis and Midwest are real broadcasting companies and have talent signed to non competes, so that isn't happening either. I'm not even going to speculate as to what they should do, because with their current management it won't get done right.

I still believe Midwest can make changes to the 98.5 and 95.9 signals to change the dynamics of the market. You cannot tell me either one of those two stations are turning any profit. They probably just eat up what Mix makes. You could move talk to 95.9 and try rock on 98.5. Would be the biggest rock signal in the market, but hard telling how well it would do with advertisers.


My way out of the box idea for Midwest:

- Adjust Mix-FM to more of a Hot A/C - Adult CHR sound. Target the 25-54 crowd with a few 90's songs sprinkled in, but leave Katy Perry, Maroon 5, and Taylor Swift as core artists. No more Usher, Pitbull, Chris Brown, etc. This format would fit their morning and midday on-air talent a lot more. Last station to try this approach was WZZQ in 2001. Their last book was tied for second in the market 12+. A station like this could get lots of play in offices around the area. It would be very friendly to local advertisers.

- Make 95.9 a rhythmic-leaning CHR "Hot 96". Not a 100 % Urban Hip-Hop station, but a CHR that would play more Lil Wayne and Chris Brown and no Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift. Even though the signal doesn't get out all that far from Terre Haute, I feel if executed properly the station could pull a solid 5-7 share in the market, and do especially strong in the teen and 18-34 year old crowd. The night guys from Mix could slide over to anchor a couple of the dayparts.

- Actually TRY the News/Talk on 98.5. Hire someone to do a daily local show. Have a real local news. Adjust some of the weekend programming. If it is still floundering, maybe a return to a country format would be good.

 

[nuffsaid]

Wow .. and if that doesn't work maybe we could go all polls .. don't try to thread the needle .. find something and do and do a good job of it .. number one get involved with the community .. number two trai
n some sellers .. number three .. reverse 1 and 2 ..

 

[just browsing]

I dont think I would keep any of the current talent. I'd definitely put the smaller signals on the bird for now and then recruit some up and coming talent from out of the area to come in and be on 102.7. Put all of the proverbial eggs into one basket with that frequency until you get the business side straight.
For that I'd find another small market GM who is successful and gets what it takes to win in that environment. Get that person in, even if you have to offer them a piece of the company to do it, find a solid seller in the market that wants to step up in and be your Sales Manager and then recruit and train all the AE's you can. Keep them coming and make sure they're hard workers who can close.
Oh and I'd make sure they can sell, or understand how to sell when you have no #s in the ratings.

 

[PaintPro]

Im with RO77 and Id keep Julie out of any of them. Itll be interesting to see what they do, if anything. Its a shame those stations are such minimal players in the ratings.

 

[nuffsaid]

We've had all kinds of post regarding TH and the various companies over the past few weeks. Does anybody have any knowledge of the 18-34 or the 25-54 numbers from the most recent Arbitron? Any idea how that has changed from the same time period last year? Just wondering!

 

[radio lover]

Just found out that Crossroads fired the two guys that did sports talk on 92.7 so I wonder what will happen with high school football coverage? And in two weeks they are bringing in someone to begin another sports talk show. Wish they fire up am 1130 and put espn back on it and at least try some music format that's not offered in this market on 92.7. (Oldies)

 

[nuffsaid]

Milo, this sounds like a jerk knee decision. This decision kind of goes along with all the others they seem to have made ove the years and most are without any clear cut thought being given to the results. When there is a change there is always a results .. good or bad! Seems to me that CR is just a huge failure and a major cluster (*$(^^%*&Y)! Sad to know that there are options available to Dan Lacy but it appears he is not willing to take any steps to try and correct the years of mistakes. Hope he gets what he is asking for the stations.

 

[radio lover]

Like myself, you sound like your aware of some of those misques at CR. When I had my Saturday night 70's show on 102.7 I was asked to see the manager and program director, I was thinking the worst but to my surprise they had the numbers from the latest book and it showed that my program was the highest rated for that time slot. I knew it wasn't me responcable, but the music was well recieved. Did they act upon that?? Sure they did, they cancelled my show 3 months later. I'm no programer but I thought that maybe the book was telling them something. Bryan Thomas was employed with CR at that time and he offered management numerous suggestions to help all the stations but it either fell on deaf ears or they fumbled and tried to tweek it more to there liking. What ever poop sticks to the wall mentality! I wonder how many chances Marty will be given with WAXI? The Crock was a diaster with all the repeats of the same songs over and over. I hope he's doing a better job at WAXI with the rotation. Some will say that I'm bitter, after 21 years of faithful part-time employement I'm not but it's the constant mistakes and bad decisions that were made that cost alot of people their jobs and the ones responcable kept theirs and that has me flustered.

 

[LibertyNT]

It seems like there might be an oldies station on 106.9 in Terre Haute.

But there's no 106.9 licensed for the area.

is 93.3 still doing oldies?

 

[radio lover]

Must be some FM skip, nothing like that here. WQTY 93.3 out of Linton uses ABC's Classic Hits (use to be Pure Gold) Not a bad selection of music. WCLS 97.7 out of Spencer/Elletsville also Classic Hits and they do well and have excellent local sports coverage but has a week signal in Clay Co. But I'd like to see someone go with the early 60's to mid 70's format like Scott Shannon's True Oldies on ABC. I dj'ed several class reunions from the classes of 61, 66, and 1971 and they all appoach me and say they don't get to hear the music they like on local radio.The Terre Haute market has a large 35-65 age group who have purchasing power and would support a station of this caliber. When you see the dismal ratings that ESPN 92.7 had in the 12+ numbers, why not try something different, but if you do, don't do it in house, go with the above mentioned, Scott Shannon's True Oldies. Give it a year and see how it goes. If they do I'll give up my XM radio subscription!