Trends: Praise Ben!

[lance]

One of the most interesting trends we've had here in awhile. Some quick thoughts.

All the rock stations were up. WMMR more than the rest. Y100 audience fracturing everywhere.

Power, Wired, Beat, and Q were all pretty much stagnant.

WDAS and WJJZ are getting whipped by Radio-One's new 1-2 punch of WRNB and WPPZ. The attack on WDAS-FM was to be expected, but if I'd be concerned if I were at WJJZ.

R-I looks brilliant for what it's done with WRNB and WPPZ. However, WPHI is just there. Between Power, Wired, and even Q102 a bit, the audience may not be there for all 4 stations to thrive.

And then there's Ben. All three Greater Media FM's had a nice rise in this trend. So much for cannibalizing each other. Ben could very well be a solid 3 to 4 share player in this town by the Fall.

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[superj]

> One of the most interesting trends we've had here in awhile.
> Some quick thoughts.
>
> All the rock stations were up. WMMR more than the rest. Y100
> audience fracturing everywhere.
>
> Power, Wired, Beat, and Q were all pretty much stagnant.
>
> WDAS and WJJZ are getting whipped by Radio-One's new 1-2
> punch of WRNB and WPPZ. The attack on WDAS-FM was to be
> expected, but if I'd be concerned if I were at WJJZ.
>
> R-I looks brilliant for what it's done with WRNB and WPPZ.
> However, WPHI is just there. Between Power, Wired, and even
> Q102 a bit, the audience may not be there for all 4 stations
> to thrive.
>
> And then there's Ben. All three Greater Media FM's had a
> nice rise in this trend. So much for cannibalizing each
> other. Ben could very well be a solid 3 to 4 share player in
> this town by the Fall.
>

I wonder what Radio One will do with WPHI? They can't seem to jumpstart the station. Maybe time to think about selling it?

 

[radiophile]

> All the rock stations were up. WMMR more than the rest. Y100
> audience fracturing everywhere.
>
> Power, Wired, Beat, and Q were all pretty much stagnant.
>
> WDAS and WJJZ are getting whipped by Radio-One's new 1-2
> punch of WRNB and WPPZ. The attack on WDAS-FM was to be
> expected, but if I'd be concerned if I were at WJJZ.
>
> R-I looks brilliant for what it's done with WRNB and WPPZ.
> However, WPHI is just there. Between Power, Wired, and even
> Q102 a bit, the audience may not be there for all 4 stations
> to thrive.
>
> And then there's Ben. All three Greater Media FM's had a
> nice rise in this trend. So much for cannibalizing each
> other. Ben could very well be a solid 3 to 4 share player in
> this town by the Fall.

And by staying stable in ratings and having others drop, OGL has its highest ranking in the market in a long, long time.

WWDB-AM shows up! Two Air America shows per day seems to be hurting WHAT somewhat. Maybe the mix of two types of talk programming doesn't work. Perhaps if some other station would pick up a 24/7 progressive talk format, HAT could return to its former cohesive programming.

This also appears to be the worst collective showing for Clear Channel in Philly in some time. Besides the above mentioned drop at JJZ, SNI and Q aren't setting the world on fire with their 12+ either.

Then again, none of this takes into account the important 25-54 demo. OGL may be up there 12+, but is most of that audience 55+? Sunny's 12+ doesn't look that great, but maybe the 25-54 is much better.

 

[lance]

> I wonder what Radio One will do with WPHI? They can't seem
> to jumpstart the station. Maybe time to think about selling
> it?

They're not going to sell. Nor are they likely to flip The Beat. With the combination of WRNB, WPPZ, and WPHI Radio-One has a cluster of stations that reaches African-Americans of all demos.

If it was up to me personally I'd tweak The Beat into a 90s gold based direction. Let Power and Wired have the majority of the currents. Play the biggest hip-hop songs of the past 15-20 years.

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[elevator_opratr]

Re: How should Q and 'JJZ respond?

A better question I have is: how should Q and 'JJZ respond, if at all? Out of all the stations, the two that have been on a slow and steady decline most noticably it seems are WIOQ and WJJZ.

WIOQ I guess is most taking the hit from Wired and maybe WRNB.

WJJZ I predict is suffering the most from the birth of WRNB.

Should either station respond drastically, do a minor tweak, or do nothing?

I don't know much about WIOQ, but it's been obvious over the years that WJJZ has added more and more vocals and become much more urban, motown, and adult contemporary sounding.

Are these trends proving that trying to copy what 5 other stations are doing isn't working for WJJZ and maybe they should resort back to a stricter contemporary jazz, or perhaps incorporate 'chill' music, much like WQCD is doing in New York?

Then again, WQCD isn't lighting the world on fire as of late, either.

 

[Slinky]

Re: How should Q and 'JJZ respond?

> WIOQ I guess is most taking the hit from Wired

Two Q102 competitors (Y100, Mix) bit the dust in the past 4 months and Q hasn't been able to capitalize. They're so locked into the rhythmic war with Wired, afraid that if they add a few more Hot AC or Alternative tracks, Wired will blow them away.

With no place on the commercial dial for current hits from Dave Matthews and Coldplay, you have to wonder where the 25-34 females are going... Ben-FM and B101 right now I guess. Is Q102 missing an opportunity by being so rhythmic? Or do Philadelphia females just hate Hot AC? I'd like to see Q be a bit more Hot AC, but it's hard to justify leaning towards a format that has failed in the market since 1994.

There's definitely going to be a shakeout in the rhythmic war soon enough. Power and The Beat seem to be in it for the long haul, so it's down to whether Q or Wired blinks first. 102.1 could be part of Clear Channel's Spanish initiative, or 96.5 might decide there's more money to be made filling the Alternative hole.

> Then again, WQCD isn't lighting the world on fire as of
> late, either.

If New York isn't hip enough to embrace Chill, there's no way it's coming to Philly.

 

[Slinky]

> And then there's Ben. All three Greater Media FM's had a
> nice rise in this trend. So much for cannibalizing each
> other. Ben could very well be a solid 3 to 4 share player in
> this town by the Fall.

Notice Ben-FM didn't take shares away from anybody. All of the stations competing with Ben were flat or went up. That tells me we'll see a bit of a correction when the book comes out, with one of Sunny, B, MGK, or Ben falling. MMR should hold up OK because Philly's version of Ben is quite soft compared to the Jack and Bob formats across the country.

I'm surprised that musically, the Y100 audience prefers MMR to YSP. Perhaps all their efforts to get the Y100 DJ's and welcome the Y100 listeners paid off even though YSP's music is a better fit with the Y100 audience. Amazing that this trend mostly doesn't include Preston and Steve either.

If P&S can hold the older MMR audience while still appealing to the ex-Y100 listeners, we'll have a new #1 rock station in town come 2006.

 

[Jim_Hicks]

Re: How should Q and 'JJZ respond?

If WJJZ responds at all, it should be toward "Chill". But there should be a definite cut-back in the R&B vocals. I hardly know the station anymore. If I want R&B, I'll listen to WDAS-FM. If I want Contemporary Jazz, I want to be able to listen to WJJZ.

> A better question I have is: how should Q and 'JJZ respond,
> if at all? Out of all the stations, the two that have been
> on a slow and steady decline most noticably it seems are
> WIOQ and WJJZ.
>
> WIOQ I guess is most taking the hit from Wired and maybe
> WRNB.
>
> WJJZ I predict is suffering the most from the birth of WRNB.
>
>
> Should either station respond drastically, do a minor tweak,
> or do nothing?
>
> I don't know much about WIOQ, but it's been obvious over the
> years that WJJZ has added more and more vocals and become
> much more urban, motown, and adult contemporary sounding.
>
> Are these trends proving that trying to copy what 5 other
> stations are doing isn't working for WJJZ and maybe they
> should resort back to a stricter contemporary jazz, or
> perhaps incorporate 'chill' music, much like WQCD is doing
> in New York?
>
> Then again, WQCD isn't lighting the world on fire as of
> late, either.
>

 

[eGillCVI]

> Ben could very well be a solid 3 to 4 share player in
> this town by the Fall.

Or they "Oh wow" factor (that almost every new station experiences) will be over and BEN will be just as successful as everything else GM has every tried on the frequency.

Sorry if that sounds negative but it is Greater Media. And this is Philadelphia.

 

[eGillCVI]

Hot AC: Obviously a failure here

> Or do Philadelphia females just hate Hot AC?

I can't believe it's taken this long for this sentence to pop up anywhere on this message board.

Yes, clearly the target audience in this market will not respond to the sanitized Hot AC that everyone keeps trying to play. Every time someone tries it, they fail.

I miss Star 104.5.

 

[HomerJay]

Re: Hot AC: Obviously a failure here

> > Or do Philadelphia females just hate Hot AC?
>
> I can't believe it's taken this long for this sentence to
> pop up anywhere on this message board.
>
> Yes, clearly the target audience in this market will not
> respond to the sanitized Hot AC that everyone keeps trying
> to play. Every time someone tries it, they fail.
>
> I miss Star 104.5.
>
Which of the multiple personalities that lived at that address?

I miss the original Star--but once they went to "The new sound of Philadelphia" it was all downhill. They rebounded a bit by the end when no one cared anymore, except for that Nancy Glass in the morning thing.

 

[eGillCVI]

Re: Hot AC: Obviously a failure here

> but once they went to "The new
> sound of Philadelphia" it was all downhill.

Well, naturally.