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What if Audacy brought back WYSP on 96.5?

Bib 98, the station people still call Oldies 98 (funny they can't do s Swifty and shake it off) has gone much more rocker male s on sounding, though they recently backed off that a bit, so your wysp would step on that. 965 should do rhythmic adult chr like star 94 and WFLC has, true it moves a nudge more towards B101, but that's ok as B can take it, they are stronger more established than Biggies 98. Plenty of hot ac, ac, and rock slanted classic hits work well as combos, and with the rhythmic it's farther away. 965 could play pop, dance pop, and white mommy approved mass appeal hip pop from 95 to today with just the best currents, 4 or 5 top ones say 60x a week.
 
Given they just replaced WNYL with a simulcast of WINS, and they replaced KAMP with a simulcast of KNX, I would say if they were going to blow up 96.5, the most likely replacement would be a simulcast of KYW on an FM signal that is better than what it has now.
That would still leave them with 103.9, unless they disposed of it after such a move.

A 96.5 WYSP, or some kind of Rock format on 96.5, is a difficult proposition, but I don't think impossible either. WMMR and WMGK are so entrenched that it would be difficult to compete with them unless they had strong personalities (hire Jaxon? Still would need a full ensemble) and the right music mix (I would assume more gold-based) to compete with them. I wouldn't worry about WYSP stepping on WOGL's toes though. I think presentation-wise, WOGL would not sound similar to a hypothetical 'YSP revival despite some playlist overlap.
 
The YSP brand is damaged goods. They should not at all resurrect it.

However, in the event WTDY isn't carrying its own weight, I think a rock format of some kind may be worthy of consideration. Would complement 94.1 nicely from a sales vantage point (although 94.1 already fares exceedingly well in that realm).
 
The YSP brand is damaged goods. They should not at all resurrect it.
I mostly agree, hence why I said "some kind of rock", but I suspect that if they were to do such a thing, they'd use that branding.

I think a rock format of some kind may be worthy of consideration. Would complement 94.1 nicely from a sales vantage point (although 94.1 already fares exceedingly well in that realm).
That's partly why I said that it's not an unreasonable idea. It would tie in nicely with WIP, and to an extent with WOGL. Rock performs well in Philly, and they could chip away Beasley's monopoly on the format if executed right.
 
Why not AAA for 96.5?
It probably is wise to consider formats that appeal to older listeners, since younger listeners are surely leaving terrestrial behind at a faster clip. But in Philadelphia, I wonder where an audience for AAA would come from. Would an AAA station be competing primarily with BEN-FM, while also having to contend with the fact that older listeners are already very committed to the likes of WMMR, WMGK, WOGL, WDAS, and WBEB? Sounds like it might be a very uphill climb. Thoughts?
 
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It probably is wise to consider formats that appeal to older listeners, since younger listeners are surely leaving terrestrial behind at a faster clip.
Ad agencies still have to be convinced that older listeners make sense targeting, for the reasons the radio pros have cited for years.
 
But in Philadelphia, I wonder where an audience for AAA would come from.
The audience is already satisfied with WXPN, streaming, etc., so I don't foresee a commercial AAA format gaining traction in Philly.

It would be an uphill climb for Audacy to flip the station either way. There's no real format holes in Philly, so the only option would be to compete with some other station. WTDY right now has one direct competitor in Q102 while flanking WBEB. If they were to flip to rock, they would have to contend with directly competing with one, two, or even three of Beasley's rock triple-threat. While they could make inroads and possibly gain from having something to compliment WIP and to some extent WOGL, the revenue/demos from WTDY are likely good enough for Audacy to not make a change now.

I have no doubts that if/when the day comes where WTDY is lagging behind revenue-wise, they will flip it.
 
Ad agencies still have to be convinced that older listeners make sense targeting, for the reasons the radio pros have cited for years.

They target older listeners on stations like WPHT or KYW. Not music stations. Audacy already has that demo covered.

AAA is primarily a non-commercial format, as it is in Philadelphia with WXPN.
 
I have no doubts that if/when the day comes where WTDY is lagging behind revenue-wise, they will flip it.
Again, though, to what? Advertisers are only putting money into a limited number of formats, and as you say, WTDY would have a hard time impacting multiple rivals in rock.
 
Again, though, to what? Advertisers are only putting money into a limited number of formats, and as you say, WTDY would have a hard time impacting multiple rivals in rock.
Admittedly, there are not many options that would be suitable, and Audacy would be stuck with an also-ran format either way, the question is if they could make inroads against their direct competitor(s). Then again, I said "if/when", and that may never be an issue.

While I find it unlikely, they could give KYW a bigger stick, as BigA suggested. What they'd do with 103.9, I'm not sure.
 
While I find it unlikely, they could give KYW a bigger stick, as BigA suggested. What they'd do with 103.9, I'm not sure.

Beasley then should buy 103.9 shut it down, thus having a clear path to move 93.3 to the farm with all the other big boys. Don't know why they didn't purchase it awile ago when it was on the block.
 
Beasley then should buy 103.9 shut it down, thus having a clear path to move 93.3 to the farm with all the other big boys. Don't know why they didn't purchase it awile ago when it was on the block.
No. Just no. In the current economic crisis radio faces, Beasley (or any other company) is not going to spend millions just to turn off a competitor's transmitter.
WMMR broadcasts at a higher power from a lower height, making its contour comparable to the Roxborough site. I don't see the point in moving it from an engineering standpoint, but I welcome being corrected.
 
I'm happy to see any discussion going on here, but we can probably encapsulate this whole thing by rehashing points that all of us have brought up many times.
  • There are simply no viable formats to put on any of the existing stations. Hell, iHeart thought outside the box and gave Soft AC a shot and couldn't even make a go of that!
  • Even if there were another format to try, why take the risk? Audacy is making money with the current format on WTDY as part of their market cluster.
  • There is really no room in Philly for the WYSP format anymore. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the performing pretty poorly at their time of death?)
  • The decision to finally put KYW on FM, but to do it on an inferior signal instead on WTDY is done and over with, and Audacy must have had a reason for it. They made a big hubbub about it, going as far as to basically re-brand the whole shebang as "NewsRadio 103.9 FM," so scrapping that entire thing and re-branding again as "NewsRadio 96.5 FM" ain't happening anytime soon.
  • There is however that new wrinkle: Beasley (or any company in the market, really) buying WPHI (or any station in the market, really) just to turn it off is... well, it's really just not a thing.
 
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