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WDSD airing Big D and Bubba from Premiere Radio

M

MikefromDelaware

I tuned in for a short time this morning to WDSD's new morning drive time show "Big D & Bubba". It's from CC's Premiere radio network and is airing on about 40 FM country stations across the US. You have to listen closely to pick up when they go local vs the network feed (they seem to be trying to make it sound like a local show as they have Donna Cavander and Phil Felicianjelo (sp) on the show locally. During the time I listened Donna introduced the next song they were going into. The presentation, came across more like that WDSD was only cutting away to the network when Big D & Bubba were going to be talking, do their schtick. I was at work and was only listening with one ear (so to speak) and may not have caught all the details correctly. I don't remember Big D or Bubba commenting on the music at all. They actually seemed to be voice tracked and inserted into the local show between music and spots. WDSD still had their traffic, weather and local news updates. I'm sure someone from CC Delaware can offer the correct details as to how that show is put together, but that's how it came across to my ear this morning.

As Premiere Radio network is owned by CC and WDSD is a CC country station, it isn't too surprising that CC would pick up Big D & Bubba (sort of like WILM and WDOV airing Limbaugh another Premiere show) so that the national spots pick up another one or two stations in their lineup affecting how much the national spots cost the advertiser to air making CC more money. Plus CC saves some cash by not having to hire another local DJ for morning drive ( sure as local DJ's we don't like to see a spot for a local DJ vanish) but network radio isn't exactly a new concept and is used today even for drive time (NPR's Morning Edition, Imus in the Morning, NPR's All Things Considered, Sean Hannity's show, ABC's Oldies format, etc, etc) and if it's more cost effective, especially in these days, it's no surprise that WDSD went to a show that their parent corporation already owned.

Now whether or not this show will beat out WXCY (for Wilmington market) or Cat Country (for Kent/Sussex Counties) remains to be seen.
 
I made it a point to listen to Big D and Bubba this morning. Their main schtick seems to be calling people on the phone at random (not having folks call in) and asking them questions like: What color is Napolian's white horse? or What kind of a tree does maple syrup come from? It is amazing how slow some folks are, but one gag of it was plenty as no one got either question correct (does this reflect the intelligence level of their audience and would you want the sponsors to know this?).

The problem I hear with the show is that there seems to be a lack of spontianity that you might get with a live and local host who's listening to the same music as you, dealing with the same weather, traffic, etc. The show has an antiseptic quality to it. Big D and Bubba had a preacher offer a prayer for the Friday night high school football games (they apparently do this each Friday using a different preacher from different religious faiths), what was interesting is that apparently the song used just before this at 7am was the song "I Like this Bar", which Donna Cavander said as a bit early for this, but here goes (is the rotation that locked in that she couldn't have skipped that song prior to airing a preacher? (that is the one weird thing with country formats as they bounce between God, womanizing, and getting drunk, but this really seemed a poor choice of programming by someone. Also, it seemed that they weren't playing the usual country songs that I hear during the day on WDSD. They played a lot of slow songs that weren't that interesting to hear. I finally did switch over to WXCY after a hour and a half of Big D and Bubba to hear what they were doing and their music was far more upbeat as fitting a morning wake you up show with less mindless chatter.

It may be that CC did not do WDSD a favor by "getting" them to carry this show, and this may be a real blessing for WXCY. I guess time will tell.
 
WDSD is of no concern to anyone in the Wilmington market. They're over. Done. Big D and Bubba is just another nail in the coffin.
 
I just looked at the 12+ numbers for Wilmington and based on that, I guess I'd have to agree with you as WXCY - Delmarva Broadcasting (Havre de Grace MD) is the top country station and WXTU (Philly) is down quite a bit on the list, but is the #2 country station leaving WDSD even lower than that at third place.

At least in the New Castle area, WDSD's signal is far stronger, especially at work, than either WXCY or WXTU. In fact I can't get WXTU at work (except for rare days go figure), but can get with static WXCY leaving WDSD with the clearer signal. In the car however, all three come in quite well. So apparently, even with a stronger signal into the Wilmington area WDSD hasn't been able to unseat WXCY as the top country station unless the Fall 12+ numbers show a change that didn't show in the Spring numbers.

I'd have to agree with you, after listening to Big D and Bubba this morning for 90 minutes, WXCY doesn't have anything to worry about.
 
MikefromDelaware said:
]
... Plus CC saves some cash by not having to hire another local DJ for morning drive
Click to expand...

Stop right there. There's your reason. CC doesn't want another warm body in their studio right now
that costs more than $8 an hour.

A shame, really. I really dig their music selection (and I'm just a casual country fan), but under CC,
this station, along with the rest, are going absolutely nowhere but down.
 
QzarDE said:
MikefromDelaware said:
]
... Plus CC saves some cash by not having to hire another local DJ for morning drive
Click to expand...

Stop right there. There's your reason. CC doesn't want another warm body in their studio right now
that costs more than $8 an hour.
Click to expand...

How much more than $8 an hour? I was a DJ on KAZM Sedona, AZ and when I started (July 1996) I made $6 an hour. Sometime between then and Feb 1996 I got a 50¢ raise so it was $6.50 for me. :-\
 
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