Well, this is a new one…

[tomservo]

I've never heard of a commercial station asking for donations before, but it appears WBFZ in Selma is doing just that. There's even a PayPal link on their main page.

You'd think rap music would sell itself these days.

 

[passtheword]

I've never heard of a commercial station asking for donations before, but it appears WBFZ in Selma is doing just that. There's even a PayPal link on their main page.

You'd think rap music would sell itself these days.

The idea of a commercial station asking for donations isn't new or totally unheard of. I can recall vacationing at Gulf Shores one year during the mid 80's and hearing Mobile's WLPR doing a "share-a-thon" of sorts...asking listeners for donations in order to keep the station's beautiful music format on the air. The tactic didn't fare too well. A year or so later, WLPR dropped the format and became soft AC WAVH "The Wave".

 

[ChrisWright]

AM 810 in Jacksonville Alabama (now WCKA) did this back around 1990. It didn't work for them either.

 

[R.D.P.]

Now for their presentation:

WBFZ caters to:

Hip-Hop
R&B
Blues
Soul
Old School
Jazz
Traditional Gospel
Christian Hip-Hop and
Talk

They do all these styles on one radio station and at various times during the week.

Amazing isn't it.

R.D.P. <><

 

[whit979]

For a commercial station, that's very unprofessional. It puts the burden of weaknesses in management and sales staff onto the listeners.

 

[Poledo]

What other choice do they have? The station is in poor little old Selma, AL. It has poor, if any, coverage of Montgomery and the only other "significant" towns that the station covers are Thomasville and Demopolis. Heck, I've never even been to Demopolis! That's bad. Did I mention that Selma has a reputation of being a low-income city? The MLK march back in the '60s did not help secure a bright future for Selma (and MLK didn't help out Albany, GA either.) I'm going to wind up in a grave before I find out what the FBI had in their MLK files.
Selma is over-radioed as is and the fine folks in Selma can pick up plenty of stations from other small towns plus Montgomery and (on a good day) Birmingham. I can't see a format hole in Selma that would do any better and no one wants to see this station go under or sell off to a religious broadcaster (the Christians already own the Non-comm band in Selma as it stands.) If you live in the coverage area of WBFZ and enjoy the music they pump out you need to pony up to the bank. Don't write a big check or pay for any long term advertizing packages in advance, they are apparently already on "shaky ground."
There's probably no way to save WBFZ but if you care about the station now would be a good time to encourage your friends active in radio buys to send a few bucks that way... but be weary of paying much money up front, your commercials might wind up on a Classic Rock or Country station next month if you take the "big discount package deal" bait.

 

[R.D.P.]

Re: Well, this is a new one…

Four out of many is all.

89.1 Montgomery
89.5 Selma
91.1 Selma/Uniontown
91.9 Dixon's Mills/Linden

The rest of them are owned by colleges and universities from T-Town, Birmingham, Troy and Montgomery. 

And yes they cater to NPR/Jazz type of programming.

R.D.P. <><

P.S. I believe that if we had a Christian Rock/Pop type of station here, it would be a potential goldmine.  Been trying for years to get something established.  As of this post, I'm still working on it.

 

[tomservo]

They're not asking for ad buys, poledo, just cold hard (PayPal) cash.

This is going to come off way more bigoted than I mean it, but if you can't sell popular black music to black people in the blackest part of Alabama, you are doing something wrong.

 

[Poledo]

Yeah, I realize they are asking for cash... but I'm not even going to give cash to a NPR station unless I get some airtime in return, "this afternoon's programing is being brought to you by the fine folks over at Poledo's business. Check them out for all your nonsense needs." The best WBFZ should hope for is a few new advertisers taking pity on their cry for help. No one is dumb enough to give them cash. They can ask, but unless someone has some hacked Paypal accounts in inventory in the Black Belt, they aren't going to collect more than $20 from their listener base. That's not the way the world works.

Well, it might work if the station in need was WSBZ in San Destin or KPIG in the San Francisco suburbs... but even those listeners wouldn't put up with it for more than a month or so.

 

[Nate Wesley]

They're not asking for ad buys, poledo, just cold hard (PayPal) cash.

This is going to come off way more bigoted than I mean it, but if you can't sell popular black music to black people in the blackest part of Alabama, you are doing something wrong.

I'm black and I'm offended! I kid. I totally get what you're trying to say.

I think WBFZ shares many of the same problems Roscoe Miller's outfit does--they're trying to do too much format-wise. During the broadcast day, there are times they go with contemporary urban music, then there are times they go gospel, then southern soul blues, and then political talk. And not everybody likes them all. There's an argument that they're trying to be 'full-service', but that type old approach is usually much more predictable than the way 105.3 and 95.7/102.7/96.7 operate.

WBFZ needs to be much tighter in its format, presentation, scheduling, and even its roster of personalities and shows. I know most listeners in this area aren't flush with cash, but WDXX/Dixie 100 is making it with country music and a smaller footprint. If WBFZ is lacking ad buys, that only confirms the need for a total shakeup in how its run.

 

[R.D.P.]

Re: Well, this is a new one…

WDXX has been doing very well since 1989. I don't see them leaving anytime soon.

WBFZ needs to get focused and stop trying to be all over the map.  This station has always been that way, since signing on in 2001. 

R.D.P. <><