The big question now will be..."how might the chips fall?" If your WPLJ do you pick up the wide array of variety hits now left by Jack? One would assume CBS-FM will work those musical elements into this new station. Do you take WPLJ more Modern Rockish and go after K-Rock? Do you throw in the towel and go "Top 40"? Maybe you rename yourself "WABC-FM" and take the oldies station on Head to Head. Or does Citadel do the right thing and roll out "Cat Country 95.5" just in time for the "Farm Aid" concert? It's bold, but I still say country makes the best sense for this station. Two wrongs have already been righted(K-Rock and CBS-FM), so let's see who has the courage to make the third right. Thoughts? Comments?
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Who Loses Out with the CBS-FM Return?
- Thread starter UncleBozzle
- Start date
If I were PLJ, I might have flipped to Oldies this weekend to beat CBS to the punch and take them on head-to head.
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My guess is that changes are coming to PLJ, just not sure what..doubt it will be country...best guess would be some form of Variety Hits, but hopefully better executed than JACK.
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My guess is that changes are coming to PLJ, just not sure what..doubt it will be country...best guess would be some form of Variety Hits, but hopefully better executed than JACK.
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fang39
Guest
PLJ won't be changing anytime soon. The parent company appears to be quite happy with their billing and isn't likely to rock the boat.
That's too bad..Hope They are happy with their 1.9/2.0. PLJ has become incredibly boring and stale over the past couple years. Seems for a bit, they tried to mix in some more variety, but that lasted months and them back to the same 250 predictible Rob Thomas, Matchbox Twenty, John Mayer and KT Tunstall songs
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oh and dont forget the 200 80's songs from Saturday night. Good God!
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oh and dont forget the 200 80's songs from Saturday night. Good God!
CTNYRADIO said:
If I recall correctly, Citadel now owns PLJ along with a bunch of former ABC radio properties as well as ABC Radio Networks - I'm sure they have too much internal housekeeping to take care before they can even start screwing with newly acquired station's formats.
CTNYRADIO said:
WPLJ is the 19th highest billing station in the US. Don't look for major changes, although some tweaking is always in order at any station.
Why would WPLJ do a knee-jerk reaction to CBS-FM's return to oldies (or classic hits or whatever they're gona' call it?). Actually 101.1 might be less of a competitor now than it was as "Jack." PLJ seems to be doing very well. As pointed out above, continuous tweaking is always in order but why blow up womething that's obviously working.
CTNYRADIO said:
As is often mentioned here, 12+ does not matter... that is why Arbitron gives the data away. What is important is its efficiency in delivering the core demo it sells, not 12+. For example, in 25-49 women, they are int he top 10.
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daveallen99
Guest
I think the success of Fresh has changed the AC landscape. WPLJ is no longer the second ranking of two ACs, they're now the third of three.
I think that makes a big difference when it comes to sales - it's easier to sell if you're two deep as opposed to three deep in a format. I think they've gotta be looking at their options.
I think that makes a big difference when it comes to sales - it's easier to sell if you're two deep as opposed to three deep in a format. I think they've gotta be looking at their options.
I seriously doubt Citadel is going to rock the boat in the short term. If/when Jack gets "jacked," they might even see a small uptick in their numbers. That said, even if they are the third AC-ish game in town, as long as their overall numbers in the much-coveted soccer mom demo remain strong, they are going to continue to bill well, despite the meaningless 12+ numbers likely remaining low. Henry is right: PLJ hits the targets ad agencies want. Like it or not (I'm not saying I like it), that's how the business is run and as long as PLJ pulls strong numbers in that demo, it's going to bill strong. As long as it bills strong, I don't see Citadel pulling a "Jack" and pulling the plug.
Two things that I do NOT see happening:
- Taking on the new WCBS-FM head to head with oldies. Dear god. We know why CBS is bringing back the format, but I don't see it as a format that can really go more than one-deep in NYC. And why would PLJ give up the soccer moms for less lucrative demos, even if it is facing more competition for those soccer moms from the likes of Fresh?
- Country. No way. Not going to happen. Sure, country might (*might*) be able to pull a 1.9 or 2.0 overall in the 12+ numbers, which is where WYNY ended in 1996. And that's probably being generous, considering that 11 years later, the demos in the NYC metro area are less favorable towards the format than they were then. But let's say they get a 2.0 for comparison's sake. They're around that with PLJ, which is a far more advertiser and demo-friendly format in this town than country. So why would they make the switch? It wouldn't make any sense. This country debate is really getting tiring. At least oldies had strong numbers before the plug was pulled in 2005. Country had mediocre numbers 10 years ago.
Besides...getting back to taking on WCBS-FM oldies for a moment...if PLJ wanted to duplicate a format and take it on head to head, why would they go after oldies when they could go after something far more lucrative like CHR? Z100 has been the only CHR game in town for ages and its numbers are as strong as ever. With Disney and their "safe" programming out of the way, if Citadel wanted to take on another station head-to-head, this would seem like a no-brainer to me. Not oldies, and not country. I'm sorry, but WABC is not coming back except during Rewound each Memorial Day.
As for who loses out with the CBS-FM return? For all the hatred directed at Jack, the station did play a wide selection of music and especially played a lot of 80's new wave/brit-pop type hits. PLJ used to air a lot of those too but has severely curtailed them. Perhaps PLJ will open up their playlist just a tad? They did that a couple of years ago, when they started playing a lot of more "obscure" stuff, even from the 70s. It didn't seem to hurt their numbers but they seem to have gone back to a very safe, tight playlist (which doesn't seem to have helped their numbers). However, I have a feeling they're going to continue to play it safe in the short-term, afraid of losing out any more listeners to stations like Fresh. The 80s stuff could always go on K-Rock (KROQ airs some classic alternative in LA), but I don't see it happening. They seem to think that rock listeners in NYC only want to hear 250 harder-edged yet remarkably "safe" rock tunes.
Two things that I do NOT see happening:
- Taking on the new WCBS-FM head to head with oldies. Dear god. We know why CBS is bringing back the format, but I don't see it as a format that can really go more than one-deep in NYC. And why would PLJ give up the soccer moms for less lucrative demos, even if it is facing more competition for those soccer moms from the likes of Fresh?
- Country. No way. Not going to happen. Sure, country might (*might*) be able to pull a 1.9 or 2.0 overall in the 12+ numbers, which is where WYNY ended in 1996. And that's probably being generous, considering that 11 years later, the demos in the NYC metro area are less favorable towards the format than they were then. But let's say they get a 2.0 for comparison's sake. They're around that with PLJ, which is a far more advertiser and demo-friendly format in this town than country. So why would they make the switch? It wouldn't make any sense. This country debate is really getting tiring. At least oldies had strong numbers before the plug was pulled in 2005. Country had mediocre numbers 10 years ago.
Besides...getting back to taking on WCBS-FM oldies for a moment...if PLJ wanted to duplicate a format and take it on head to head, why would they go after oldies when they could go after something far more lucrative like CHR? Z100 has been the only CHR game in town for ages and its numbers are as strong as ever. With Disney and their "safe" programming out of the way, if Citadel wanted to take on another station head-to-head, this would seem like a no-brainer to me. Not oldies, and not country. I'm sorry, but WABC is not coming back except during Rewound each Memorial Day.
As for who loses out with the CBS-FM return? For all the hatred directed at Jack, the station did play a wide selection of music and especially played a lot of 80's new wave/brit-pop type hits. PLJ used to air a lot of those too but has severely curtailed them. Perhaps PLJ will open up their playlist just a tad? They did that a couple of years ago, when they started playing a lot of more "obscure" stuff, even from the 70s. It didn't seem to hurt their numbers but they seem to have gone back to a very safe, tight playlist (which doesn't seem to have helped their numbers). However, I have a feeling they're going to continue to play it safe in the short-term, afraid of losing out any more listeners to stations like Fresh. The 80s stuff could always go on K-Rock (KROQ airs some classic alternative in LA), but I don't see it happening. They seem to think that rock listeners in NYC only want to hear 250 harder-edged yet remarkably "safe" rock tunes.
I could see WPLJ tweaking towards Variety Hits. They could pick up some of the former JACK listeners and it would seperate themselves from FRESH.
As for who loses out, maybe WLTW would lose around a share because they play a lot of gold. Some have speculated that CBS will try to squeeze WLTW with FRESH on one side and Classic Hits on the other.
As for who loses out, maybe WLTW would lose around a share because they play a lot of gold. Some have speculated that CBS will try to squeeze WLTW with FRESH on one side and Classic Hits on the other.
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