The 950/104.5 Solution

[musicrrrr]

Let's face it folks, 50's and 60's Rock And Roll ain't gonna make it. We've agreed mostly that if WPEN had advertised, had better audio, and dumped the weekend jive it may have had a chance in the ratings. But even so, advertisers weren't buying it 24/7. That seems to be the consensus.

But that having been said, I think one possibility would be to convert 104.5 to Active Rock, and put the current 104.5 playlist on WPEN.

With the demise of Y100 and YSP, there is no doubt that there is a legitimate audience for a second Rocker in this town. The demographics are certainly there, and advertising would support another Rock station in Philly.

With WPEN, ok, Elvis is too old to support 24/7. But I think 950 would have a chance with Manilow, Carly Simon, The Carpenters, Streisand, Tom Jones, James Taylor, Jim Croce kink of stuff. 104.5 currently places on emphasis on the 70's soft rock and while it has an audience, it is the bottom of the FM ratings in this town because of the more contemporary formats of the other stations.

I think it would work. There is an audience for the above mentioned artists, and the demographics aren't too old for sponsors to support (yet.)

Agreed, there is the "Music on AM sucks" argument, and while there is credibility to it, remember that it was only a year and a half ago that WPEN's shares were in the 3's with music. Maybe Tony Bennett, Perry Como, and Sinatra are too old to support, but the above artists are certainly not.

950 is doomed to fail with national sports coverage, we've already seen it drop even lower than Oldies 950 in this latest book, and 104.5 could potentially double it's ratings by switching to Active Rock.

Any thoughts?

 

[KlassikKountry]

I agree, read my previous posts, a legit Active Rocker would explode in this market. Whether it would be 104.5 or some other failing urban formatted station. It must be music intense, full time and dig deep into the format, no stupid bits or clowing around, title, artist, upcoming events, time, traffic and temp and please no sports jargon. Now with PEN, I would still flip them to Standards, with or without personality, that was their best showing and the audiance is loyal and does spend, even if its on Metamucal.

 

[pacmac]

> I agree, read my previous posts, a legit Active Rocker would
> explode in this market. Whether it would be 104.5 or some
> other failing urban formatted station. It must be music
> intense, full time and dig deep into the format, no stupid
> bits or clowing around, title, artist, upcoming events,
> time, traffic and temp and please no sports jargon. Now
> with PEN, I would still flip them to Standards, with or
> without personality, that was their best showing and the
> audiance is loyal and does spend, even if its on Metamucal.
>

I agree, thier is a market for PEN to return to standards, Thier ratings were decent and sports and oldies will never come close. PEN's delivery was lame, the music playlist needed some editing. A good morning DJ and then a switch to a satellite feed( MOY, WW1,Stardust) I think could work. WCMC 1230AM in Wildwood, NJ is enjoying a very nice Arbitron rating, out doing many of thier AM and FM competition. I knew PEN was going to fail when they flipped to oldies just as all sports will. Time to return to what WPEN is originally known for, nothing else will probably work.

 

[Jim_Hicks]

We seem to be forgetting here that WPEN was a success while it was an AM stereo station. They turned off the stereo generator, went HD and lost half of their audience. With HD, no music format will work. Listen to WABC Saturday nights, or KB every night. The signal is great and the audio is better than most AM stations. WABC even returns to the transmitter reverb for the oldies show (and they get over 30,000 posts to the show's web site each Saturday). While KB is mostly "real oldies", WABC is late 60's, early 70's. That is the music from when they had 25% of the audience in NYC during PM drive. And the new show is working big time.

The idea of 70's + music on WPEN is a good one. But if they remain in HD, music cannot work.

> Let's face it folks, 50's and 60's Rock And Roll ain't gonna
> make it. We've agreed mostly that if WPEN had advertised,
> had better audio, and dumped the weekend jive it may have
> had a chance in the ratings. But even so, advertisers
> weren't buying it 24/7. That seems to be the consensus.
>
> But that having been said, I think one possibility would be
> to convert 104.5 to Active Rock, and put the current 104.5
> playlist on WPEN.
>
> With the demise of Y100 and YSP, there is no doubt that
> there is a legitimate audience for a second Rocker in this
> town. The demographics are certainly there, and advertising
> would support another Rock station in Philly.
>
> With WPEN, ok, Elvis is too old to support 24/7. But I
> think 950 would have a chance with Manilow, Carly Simon, The
> Carpenters, Streisand, Tom Jones, James Taylor, Jim Croce
> kink of stuff. 104.5 currently places on emphasis on the
> 70's soft rock and while it has an audience, it is the
> bottom of the FM ratings in this town because of the more
> contemporary formats of the other stations.
>
> I think it would work. There is an audience for the above
> mentioned artists, and the demographics aren't too old for
> sponsors to support (yet.)
>
> Agreed, there is the "Music on AM sucks" argument, and while
> there is credibility to it, remember that it was only a year
> and a half ago that WPEN's shares were in the 3's with
> music. Maybe Tony Bennett, Perry Como, and Sinatra are too
> old to support, but the above artists are certainly not.
>
> 950 is doomed to fail with national sports coverage, we've
> already seen it drop even lower than Oldies 950 in this
> latest book, and 104.5 could potentially double it's ratings
> by switching to Active Rock.
>
> Any thoughts?
>

 

[Obtuse]

> I agree, read my previous posts, a legit Active Rocker would
> explode in this market. Whether it would be 104.5 or some
> other failing urban formatted station. It must be music
> intense, full time and dig deep into the format, no stupid
> bits or clowing around, title, artist, upcoming events,
> time, traffic and temp and please no sports jargon. Now
> with PEN, I would still flip them to Standards, with or
> without personality, that was their best showing and the
> audiance is loyal and does spend, even if its on Metamucal.
>
IMHO Active Rock (in the strictest sense) may cause too much overlap with established rocker WMMR to be successful. I'd go New Rock/Alt.-leaning and avoid the Hair Band/Mullet Rock rut some Active Rockers fall into. Don't be afraid of artists like The Gorillaz, The Bravery, or The Killers (some Active/New Rock stations seem to have only three artists: Limp Bizkit, bands that sound like Limp Bizkit, and Metallica). Recurrents should be alternative (Pearl Jam yes.....Def Leppard no). Try to appeal to the alienated Y100 folks. Play what WMMR isn't or won't, the less overlap the better. Dig deep, do specialty programming on weekends (local music, classic alternative, metal or whatever). Be Philly's destination for new/emerging artists. Keep presentation intelligent, music driven and by all means local.