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The "Legend" replacing Jim Day @ WHKO

Everybody over at Cox is thrilled to death. Only thing is, K99.1 positions itself to being a more family friendly radio station than TUE does. So, how different of a show will it be since he probably can't do a lot of the things that he would've at TUE?
 
I'm just wondering who Nick Roberts thinks Steve Kerrigan is a legend to. Certainly not the K99 audience, they've never heard of the guy before.
 
I can appreciate the "speculation", and some good points have been made here.However...here's a couple of additional things to consider:The makeup of today's country audience is a lot different than it was 20 years ago.Most of today's country listeners were rock fans in the 80's and 90's. Today's country audience may only have listened to artists such as George Jones and Barbara Mandrell on their parents radios. Steve is a well known quantity in Dayton. Most of the country audience no longer lives in a barn. They know who he is, may have listened to him on 'TUE and, from what I've heard and seen in Dayton (after all, I've only been on the air here for about 15 years of my career), he is very popular in town. Once he settles in, I think he can do very well.
 
I'm surprised anyone like Steve would want to come back to Dayton. I'll agree that Ft. Wayne isn't as big of market, but overall the city of Dayton is a dump. If Steve were as good as Jim Day, he would be in a desirable city like Nashville and not running back to a dying city like Dayton if this speculation is indeed true. Furthermore, K99 has got to be the more tired sounding Country station I have ever heard. Maybe Steve will give that station more of a upbeat sound? All in all Dayton radio and TV is about as big of a joke as the rest of the city.
 
I've always wondered if radio1 took Kiss Country from 101.7 and moved it to 92.9, what that would do to the K?
 
Probably little to nothing...country competitors have come and gone before. It would take a huge marketing budget, and top talent to even get close to putting a dent in the K..even then, it might take several years to even become a close second. Kind of like the TV wars..2 can get close but they never topple 7.
 
CBS is attempting to put the screws to Denver's KYGO, which is just as much of a heritage station as K99 is to Dayton and B105 is to Cincy. In Cincinnati 96.5 does OK but they have never topped B105 as far as I know. Same goes for Dayton, Clear Channel tried a few years back with Buckeye country, but eventually gave up. Country listeners are very loyal, and they get used to the mundane sound of K99 and put up with it. Listeners in Denver, however have been true to market leader KYGO for over 25 years, which IMO is one of the best sounding country stations in the country. CBS new "Willie" format may take a few KYGO listeners like 96.5 takes a few from B105, but in the long run, the heritage, city grade signal stations, dominate. I have listened to Denver stations on the net and the sound of Willie's on air production VS. KYGO is night and day. KYGO like K99 and B105 obviously isn't affraid of hiring good talent, and having good contest, events, and everthing else that makes a country station great. K99 just needs to be more upbeat and have some personality. I think announcers are more board op's then anything else.
 
I agree there have been times in the past few decades when Dayton radio sounded"stale", but it does appear to be beginning to turn around somewhat in the past couple of years. I used to drive through Dayton in the Mid-90's listening to stations and thinking of some of them, "What's happened to them? They're awful!" I've heard some improvement in the past few years.It is also true that there are different ways to have a successful country radio station. You can go the "personality" route and be successful. You can also be the "music" station and be very successful. It's the latter path that K-99.1 has followed over the past 20 years. Quite a few stations have taken their shots at them. K-99.1 is still on top. The station, at one point, was sounding a bit tired. If you've listened lately and paid attention, that has been addressed. As far as "the city of Dayton dying", that's got nothing to do with radio stations.It's shortsighted city fathers who insist on trying desperately to hold on to a manufacturing based economy, instead of making the climate more favorable for other types of businesses to relocate here. There's other problems as well that the city should be dealing with, but aren't, but this really isn't the place for that type of discussion. Dayton can be a fine place to live and a good radio market, too. Can it happen? We'll see... Oh yeah. Did you know Steve Kerrigan has children who live in this town? Why would a Dad not want to live where he can see his kids grow up? Decisions such as this aren't always made from the juvenile "I want to be the next Howard Stern in a big radio market" attitude. Some people are very happy living in medium andsmall sized towns.
 
The biggest problem taking down K99 is the station has set the bar for the market as far as country is concerned. The market is satisfied, so to speak, with the station, until that mindset changes a competitor really doesn't have a chance. I believe Cox still does a bit of research on a annual basis so they know right where the weaknesses are and make sure they're addressed. This is a great opportunity for a flanker station to take 1 to 3 shares away and cause them problems from a sales stand point. You don't have to beat the other guy to be effect. :)
 
I agree with gr8 on this one. Even in Richmond, Indiana, a city that has had a local country station for 13 years, I hear more businesses around town tuned into K 99.1 than the local Kicks 96, and Kicks is, by a long shot, not a bad station, either.Say all you want about K 99.1 being a tired country station stuck in the 90s, but people seem to love it that way.
 
Kicks is an excellent small Country station, and if they're having major competition from 50 miles away in the form of K99.1 obviously Cox is doing something right. I've been in that building, and I remember them posting Arbitron diary comments. What was amazing is the folks that spit those liners back at them verbatim "I like K99.1 FM because they play the best new country and my familiar favorites"(or something like that. That heritage is going to be next to impossible to dislodge.
 
Apollo7979 said:
Say all you want about K 99.1 being a tired country station stuck in the 90s, but people seem to love it that way.
Click to expand...
Even though other country stations have a stronger signal in Cincinnati, I much prefer listening to K-99.1 over B-105, the Star, or the Rebel. I like K-99.1's playlist better and the fact that they don't try to sound like a "rock" station. I hope they keep the format and music "as is".
 
What defines a "heritage" station?

What makes 99.1 as a country station, the heritage station? Is is it just the fact that they are the longest running country station in the market with sizeable share? I remember that day when they flipped from easy listening to country. Seem to remember that it happened during the lunch hour in late 1989 or early 1990. What was the country station at that time in Dayton? I can't remember, I only listened to 'TUE, WOFX, and WOXY at the time.
 
I remember when they switched also. I believe 99.1 have always had a strong following even when they were an easy listening station. I remember when they first signed on they played allot of older country at the time, and I will always remember how much it upset my grandparents that they switched 99.1 to Country, they liked the easy listening. While I think K99 still could be a little more upbeat and not so predictable, I think one thing that is in their favor is their killer signal. You can easily pick up K99 from Lima, Ohio, all the way to the outlet mall off I-75 about 35-40 miles into Kentucky. Some on DX boards have claimed to have picked up K99 much farther south every now and again. K99 broadcast from 1000 feet with 50kw, whereas B105 is only 14,500 watts ERP, at 768 feet above ground level, per radio-locator.com, which explains how K99 covers as much land as it does. Back to the topic at hand, when they announced that they were bringing back a "legend" until Steve Kerrigan was mentioned on this board (I never thought of him), my first thought was Dennis Jon Bailey. If appropriate, since I now live in Atlanta and only get back up to Ohio a few times a year, I never got the full story on the departure of DJB a couple years ago. He left K99 shortly after I moved to Georgia, and I missed the whole departure. Anyone have the "Cliffs Notes" version of what lead to his departure? I do know he was filling in on WGRR for awhile as well as working PT at I think channel 5. I know he now has a FT gig in Indiana. Again it's really none of my business, but at the same time I am curious.
 
At one time K99.1 had a clip of the format flip from WHIO-FM easy listening (they had morphed intosomewhat of a lite A/C direction) to Country..it was at 7pm as I recall. They were ratings leaders as WHIO-FM, but the writing for the BM format was on the wall. WONE (AM) was the country station at the time, I don't recall anyone doing Country on FM at the time.
 
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