L
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Guest
I don't think The Spirit will be any serious threat to supplant KXOJ, and I don't think it's meant to be. I do think, however, that Spirit can hurt KXOJ.
While it is certainly possible for a large company with considerable programming expertise to come into a market and blow a "mom and pop" operation out of the water, I don't think that's the case here (think Clear Channel and their attempt) . First, KXOJ is pretty well programmed and has a long track record of success in the market; they've earned the loyalty of what is probably the most loyal of all audiences, and they've developed strong relationships in the non-secular advertising community. More importantly, they're people who share the faith, something that will make a difference to those non-secular advertisers.
In order for a new station to successfully attack KXOJ, they need to identify a number of areas of dissatisfaction with KXOJ among the potential Christian radio audience and direct their programming at those key benefit areas. It takes research to do that, especially with a niche format. Cox hasn't done that. They do a single research study every year or two, with questions covering every station in their cluster. There's not solid, actionable information in those studies for their mass appeal formats, much less this one.
The only thing they could do to really give them an edge over KXOJ would be to invest in callout research to put on a better product; namely the music. It's just not feasable, though. With the public's hatred of telemarketers, it's gotten almost impossible to do actionable callout on mainstream formats. Trying to do so with KXOJ's audience would be a nightmare. Undoable. There goes the only edge.
Here's a more likely scenario. Across the country, Cox invests in the programming of stations with full market signals and tends to use stations with less-than-full market signals as spoilers. That's what they did with Rock 102.3. It's goal was to shave some of the young end off of KMOD and to give Lex & Terry a station (remember, Cox self-syndicated them). The station never did anything ratings-wise, but it did give L&T a home. I don't think it's a coincidence that Rock 102.3 is going away so soon after L&T went to Clear Channel.
While KXOJ shares audience with Mix 96 and K-95, it's an even bigger competitor in the most important arena; revenue! With it's solid upper-demo performance and reasonable pricing, KXOJ has long been a thorn in the side of Cox's local sales efforts. While Country and AC often get buys beyond their numbers that, say, Rock, CHR and Urban stations don't get because Country and AC are wholesome, family-friendly and safe, what's more wholesome, family-friendly and safe than a bunch of Christians raising their hands in the air to Michael W. Smith songs?
Remember, KXOJ's ratings come from a relatively small cume and HUGE TSL, making them incredibly vulnerable to a new station coming along and creating a little curiosity among the faithful. Even a station people don't like nearly as much as they do KXOJ can really sock them in the gut by cutting those long listening spans KXOJ enjoys.
If you have any doubt that this is the plan, just go re-read the press release. Cox, a company with absolutely zero-experience with Christian radio puts on a Christian station in Tulsa. Realizing their lack of expertise, do they go out and find an experienced Christian programmer to take the helm in this pitched battle? No, they keep Chris Kelly on. You have to admire their loyalty to Chris, but there's a clear message in that decision; they're here to spoil, not to win.
While it is certainly possible for a large company with considerable programming expertise to come into a market and blow a "mom and pop" operation out of the water, I don't think that's the case here (think Clear Channel and their attempt) . First, KXOJ is pretty well programmed and has a long track record of success in the market; they've earned the loyalty of what is probably the most loyal of all audiences, and they've developed strong relationships in the non-secular advertising community. More importantly, they're people who share the faith, something that will make a difference to those non-secular advertisers.
In order for a new station to successfully attack KXOJ, they need to identify a number of areas of dissatisfaction with KXOJ among the potential Christian radio audience and direct their programming at those key benefit areas. It takes research to do that, especially with a niche format. Cox hasn't done that. They do a single research study every year or two, with questions covering every station in their cluster. There's not solid, actionable information in those studies for their mass appeal formats, much less this one.
The only thing they could do to really give them an edge over KXOJ would be to invest in callout research to put on a better product; namely the music. It's just not feasable, though. With the public's hatred of telemarketers, it's gotten almost impossible to do actionable callout on mainstream formats. Trying to do so with KXOJ's audience would be a nightmare. Undoable. There goes the only edge.
Here's a more likely scenario. Across the country, Cox invests in the programming of stations with full market signals and tends to use stations with less-than-full market signals as spoilers. That's what they did with Rock 102.3. It's goal was to shave some of the young end off of KMOD and to give Lex & Terry a station (remember, Cox self-syndicated them). The station never did anything ratings-wise, but it did give L&T a home. I don't think it's a coincidence that Rock 102.3 is going away so soon after L&T went to Clear Channel.
While KXOJ shares audience with Mix 96 and K-95, it's an even bigger competitor in the most important arena; revenue! With it's solid upper-demo performance and reasonable pricing, KXOJ has long been a thorn in the side of Cox's local sales efforts. While Country and AC often get buys beyond their numbers that, say, Rock, CHR and Urban stations don't get because Country and AC are wholesome, family-friendly and safe, what's more wholesome, family-friendly and safe than a bunch of Christians raising their hands in the air to Michael W. Smith songs?
Remember, KXOJ's ratings come from a relatively small cume and HUGE TSL, making them incredibly vulnerable to a new station coming along and creating a little curiosity among the faithful. Even a station people don't like nearly as much as they do KXOJ can really sock them in the gut by cutting those long listening spans KXOJ enjoys.
If you have any doubt that this is the plan, just go re-read the press release. Cox, a company with absolutely zero-experience with Christian radio puts on a Christian station in Tulsa. Realizing their lack of expertise, do they go out and find an experienced Christian programmer to take the helm in this pitched battle? No, they keep Chris Kelly on. You have to admire their loyalty to Chris, but there's a clear message in that decision; they're here to spoil, not to win.
