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WHY DOTHAN IS BLAH

F

Frog Man

Guest
THIS IS NOT a personal attack on any group, jock or managment. Just my opinion, and I'd like others to join and discuss.

Why Dothan Radio is BLAH:
1. More than 10 major players are trying to win the same age demo (25-54)
2. No group is going out on a limb with format to see if it works. Everyone is playing it safe
3. All the jocks, promotions, imaging, outside advertising will have NO effect unless the listeners are pasionate about the music

I've been here long enough to notice a few things:

1. Country is king
2. Urban is queen
3. CHR doesn't work, no matter how you package it

Examples:
1. WTVY/WDJR are on top of the heap with almost 30 shares of the market.
2. Count them: 4 urban stations and 1 gospel. All are doing well.
3. Z105, "The Zone", and KMX (the last book) all failed miserably. They played the same music, but packaged it different. It's not working! CHR today is a mix of: 75% URBAN, 20% ROCK, 5% AC. The line is so thin, it's not worth trying. Look around the rest of the country and you will see CHR is down.

How to fix:
1. Let WTVY/WDJR battle, it's good for everyone.
2. Get a freakin' rock station in here with some balls. Look at 97X's numbers, and they have a crap signal.
3. STOP VOICETRACKING!!!! There are 20 jocks in Dothan doing 65 airshifts.
4. Dothan also needs a true "Rock" format. Play the new and old stuff. My 103.9? That's Jack, not Rock. I'm not going to sit through 3 pop songs from 1978 hoping for some Pearl Jam.
5. This market is musically stuck in the 70's & 80's. Soon that music will be 30 & 40 years old!!! It's still played more in this market than music 5, 10, 20 years old.

BOTTOM LINE:
Everyone is after the 30 year old mommies and it sucks. They're not the only ones with money to spend. Dothan radio must re-invent itself. We're all doing what worked 10 years ago, listeners are smart, have 15 different ways to get their favorite music, and if we dont keep up we're goign to end up firing everyone on staff every book because "that will fix it!"........ The smoke and mirrors of the past, don't work anymore. :-\

-Frog Man
10 years in "the biz"
 
i tried something different with Z - and i was let go. i was nudging the music in a certain direction - it was basically a rhythmic CHR (almost urban). somebody wanted "more of what KMX" was at that time, on the inferior 16kw vs. 100kw signal. the other problem was "sales" telling me they couldn't sell a "black" station. WTF??? we weren't a "black" station. Z was a "music" station as far as i could tell. i wanted a new look, call letters that made sense to the image, a phone number that either had the calls or the freq in it, a new sound, a new logo...what i got was laid off. i knew the zone wouldn't work. i knew if i took the best urban music, rhythmic music (whatever you want to label it) and the hottest music that KMX wasn't playing as well as the hits that ZHT was playing, we would be competitive. when they fired the hottest morning show in dothan, it was only down hill from there. but hey, my name wasn't on the FCC license, i wasn't the GM, OM, or one of the good 'ol boys, so there wasn't much i could do, eh? but i did manage to do a nice bunch of fly-away promotions and get the wheels turning on a new vehicle....LOL

that's my vent/rant/$0.02 for now.

;D
 
I have to agree with frog on the need for a kick ass rock station! Love me some rock and not one that is too hard or too old, just good solid rock! But I also think that there is a place for MY 103.9 I love that format and you can't argue with it's growing numbers.

Question....if CHR doesn't work then who is MTV and VH1 targeting? Concidering there is BET and CMT. z105.3 was actually kicking ass until some knob fired "Frankie". Then the station all of a sudden wasn't "sell-able" ....so format changed to CHR...you can't say that The Zone didn't work it was only given 2 books and the staff was fired, quit, hired, fired again, and shared with the Rock station in that two book span. Who the hell knew what was going on there. Now again with KMX, format just flipped in April with an entire new staff and line up of music. The listeners were shocked and again it's only been one book. Who's to say that CHR doesn't work? What we don't need is another Country Station...With WDHR and WTVY that's enough, then add Weevil 101 and now the rumor of flipping Rock 102.5 to Classic Country...Good God!
 
The Zone would have worked if given the chance. That was one of the most focused, well imaged, best positioned stations
in the market. Unfortunately it didn't deliver results immediately so it got canned.

As for 20 jocks doing 65 air shifts, EXACTAMUNDO!

Owners want the same work load, same passion, same results they got when they had 5 full time air personalities with only
2 or 3 now. And the 3 full timers left are wearing so many other hats that they really can't get excited about their air shift,
doing appearances or any of the other great things that work so well in radio.

Corporate greed and ineptitude have ruined radio. It is a shell of what it once was and what it could be again.
 
The Zone sounded great, but when Karson left things went down hill in a hurry.
 
Just heard from a senior manager at Cumulus. The Radio People will no longer be in Dothan. "***" ing next month. How's that for post, chilun?
 
Stew,

We went through the rumor mill a few months ago with this same topic. TRP have no interest in selling unless someone ponies up for more than what the stations are worth.

Has Cumulus finally done this? We shall see.

BTW - Brett

I was referring to all that 105.3 was until Karson left...then Lugnut did mornings, then he left, then Katie, Kelly...etc. Until one day it was Da Beat!
 
I have confirmation that a statement to the effect "In 30 days there will
be some BIG changes in the Dothan radio market" was spoken by a member of management within Cumulus.
 
Hey Brett - we hired Karson pre-Zone for Z105.3 after the canning of Frankie. I was trying to do more but got shown the door.
 
Yeah, I was trying to run the timeline through my mind and I have realized I have no concept of time. I can barely remember yesterday.

Thats what 1 1/2 years of gambling for a living will do to you. My mind is mush.

Either way, The zone was headed for success I think. And there was some good Z days as well. So many people went through the door down there I can't keep track of it all.
 
what surprises me is the one constant in that building: hassenmacher/misty/gina

what's up with that? LOL
 
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