• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WHAT A MISTAKE TO FLIP WQCD!

A

airpab

What's the number one station by far in NY? WLTW! An AC station!

WQCD could have dropped the "Smooth Jazz" moniker (which is too confining), added good AC music to the mix, repostioned itself as a competitor to LTW and done a 60/40 mix of cool AC and jazzy stuff. What an awesome format it could be....listeners would keep it on in the office, car, with the kids, etc?

Even if you took half of LTW's listeners, you'd still have a 3.1 share in the biggest market in the USA!

It seems no one has the balls to take it to LTW and they're lovin every minute of it!
 
Fresh and to a large extent CBS-FM are already taking on Lite FM, so I think it's kind of inaccurate to say that no one has the balls to take them on.

That said I do think you're on to something with that idea, but I think they would have also had to reposition the station....stop calling it smooth jazz and position it as a good alternative to Lite FM (and Fresh) instead. Inject some more personality into it too, unlike Fresh, which is quite bland.
 
Emmis could have kpet WQCD healthy and thriving if they wanted to put in the effort. Many ardio market managers would rather dump a station with a new format and starty all over again. I wouldn't be surprised if this new rock station fails which it most likely will. Emmis could do what CBS did with Jack Fm and return WQCD.

In the next year another radio company could beat Emmis to the punch and return Smooth Jazz to the nations number one radio market. The Smooth Jazz listener buys luxury cars and many other products that the rock listener wouldn't buy.
 
It's not just NYC

You might wish to check out the other stations that have flipped away from the format recently (DC, Houston, and Denver come to mind). It's not just WQCD...
 
pbf1...Just because the other stations are switching, doesn't make it the smart thing to do, especially in New York?

neo11...Fresh is actually kind of stale! You can't really say that they are a direct competitor to LTW?

Again, LTW is number one by far! What could Emmis be possibly thinking with a complete flip to a format that is already saturated in that city?

No one is directly going after LTW's 6.2 share...I don't get it??
 
Fresh may be stale, but they are still a competitor to Lite FM...they are going after the same demos, and Fresh is playing similar music. Now you may feel Lite FM's music is livelier and better, and that may very well be true, but they are *direct* competitors.
 
airpab said:
neo11...Fresh is actually kind of stale! You can't really say that they are a direct competitor to LTW?
Click to expand...

Fresh is doing fine in its core. In 25-54 it is conistently in the 3.1 to 3.3 range. As long as the ratings hold, it is "fresh" to its core.

Again, LTW is number one by far!
Click to expand...

Not really. In 25-54, there are two stations, WSKQ and WBLS, within about a half point of them.

No one is directly going after LTW's 6.2 share...I don't get it??
Click to expand...

Anyone attacking them directly has to think of getting a 1.5 to 2 share for a while against a "habit" station that is fully entrenched, as we have seen in the last year or two. Frontal attacks are expensive and take time. Most braodcasters today are looking for more instant results. If fragmented, WLTW will come down from niche and lateral attacks on segments of its audience it can not defend.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom