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WJIB and WXKS-AM were playing a similar format and people naturally found WJIB, so the listeners that were looking for good music they used to get on KISS AM had only one option - WJIB.
Eli, you know better than most, if KOX and XKS were going to make such a dramatic shift and expected it to work they needed to do some serious p.r. I assumed the format would have tremendous word-of-mouth buzz but it seems the word-of-mouth only started when the format went off the air.
There's the problem - some of us have been yapping about how great Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes were, but we were a "cult" because Clear Channel had no vision for Progressive Talk in this region - we've gone over this territory before - no promo, a poorly run station, it had no chance whatsoever in retrospect because you had
Al Franken as the centerpiece when, as Bob Bittner agreed, you needed a Bill Maher.
So there was no big "draw" to introduce people to Shultz & Randi & Stephanie; no buzz among the people who liked the format before it was yanked (imagine if the save_bostons_progressive_talk group was around WHILE the station was playing the format!), and KOX/XKS working against the format, knowing they would flip to Spanish when the stars were aligned (and didn't we all discuss that going to that format was a no brainer;
no competition or cannibalization at Clear Channel; no ruffling of Republican feathers, etc.).
So there you have it. Bob has a great niche and is happy playing what he is playing. He does a great job and he serves the community much more effectively than the conglomerates.
XKS and KOX were not good signals for the format; we need a WTKK as well as the tremendous resources WTKK put into making that station (and Jay Severin in particular) happen. Severin, Jeff Katz, John Depetro, all got tremendous resources put behind them. Raccoon radio hardly talks about the fact that RKO couldn't launch Depetro and Katz, forced them on the public with little or no result on a 50,000 watt station.
Schultz would eat that opportunity up. It's the difference between talent and homogenization. It is too bad that Severin got the effort because he's really not saying much. His not connecting with a larger audience nationally is quite telling.
Eli, you know better than most, if KOX and XKS were going to make such a dramatic shift and expected it to work they needed to do some serious p.r. I assumed the format would have tremendous word-of-mouth buzz but it seems the word-of-mouth only started when the format went off the air.
There's the problem - some of us have been yapping about how great Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes were, but we were a "cult" because Clear Channel had no vision for Progressive Talk in this region - we've gone over this territory before - no promo, a poorly run station, it had no chance whatsoever in retrospect because you had
Al Franken as the centerpiece when, as Bob Bittner agreed, you needed a Bill Maher.
So there was no big "draw" to introduce people to Shultz & Randi & Stephanie; no buzz among the people who liked the format before it was yanked (imagine if the save_bostons_progressive_talk group was around WHILE the station was playing the format!), and KOX/XKS working against the format, knowing they would flip to Spanish when the stars were aligned (and didn't we all discuss that going to that format was a no brainer;
no competition or cannibalization at Clear Channel; no ruffling of Republican feathers, etc.).
So there you have it. Bob has a great niche and is happy playing what he is playing. He does a great job and he serves the community much more effectively than the conglomerates.
XKS and KOX were not good signals for the format; we need a WTKK as well as the tremendous resources WTKK put into making that station (and Jay Severin in particular) happen. Severin, Jeff Katz, John Depetro, all got tremendous resources put behind them. Raccoon radio hardly talks about the fact that RKO couldn't launch Depetro and Katz, forced them on the public with little or no result on a 50,000 watt station.
Schultz would eat that opportunity up. It's the difference between talent and homogenization. It is too bad that Severin got the effort because he's really not saying much. His not connecting with a larger audience nationally is quite telling.
<<Yes, WJIB regularly gets a bit over a 1 share in the 12+ during non-winter months when it can stay on day power into the evening. The Prog. Talk stations never cracked a 1 share at all, even between the two combined. Also, if you isolate certain "senior citizen" age demos, WJIB goes into the top ten! Sorry to say, I doubt there was any rated demo in which WKOX/WXKS did that.>>
Does anyone have or remember KOX's ratings back in the 70s when their primary target was Metro West?
Does anyone have or remember KOX's ratings back in the 70s when their primary target was Metro West?
martin1945 said:
I don't think that Metro-West was ever a separate rated market on it's own, so any ratings that WKOX may have gotten in the area would have been considered part of the Boston market, including most of the greater Boston market that the old, local WKOX did not serve.
At least in what was published to the public, it wouldn't have been possible to have seen how 1970's WKOX did in their target area of Metro-West only, and it probably wouldn't have shown up very much in the overall Boston book since it was only serving one suburban segment of the demo that could hear them (well) and was targeted to their community programming.
A
argytunes
Guest
Considering Bob Bitner's success at offering programming that "certified radio types" AS WELL AS CASUAL LISTENERS seem to want...I'm almost ready to volunteer to work an on-air shift for free!
I wonder how long a cannister of peanut butter, a jar of grape jelly and a giant loaf of white bread will last? I'm sure I can bring a thermos of 'bottled water' from the Charles or the Androscoggin River!
argytunes
I wonder how long a cannister of peanut butter, a jar of grape jelly and a giant loaf of white bread will last? I'm sure I can bring a thermos of 'bottled water' from the Charles or the Androscoggin River!
argytunes
WJIB is a lot of fun. Bob was kind enough to let me run my Richard Paul Evans interview (NY Times bestselling #1 author -The Christmas Box) on December 23 2000. http://www.richardpaulevans.com/ That got in the Boston Globe. It's not a bad idea to have some volunteer voices at the station - and it would be fun to hear more LTAR - maybe during the week. NY Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer (a #1 or #2 this time around) is on Visual Radio this week...that's a free plug (along with his BOOK OF FATE tome on NY Times list he's author of the Superman/Batman Justice League of America comicbook)
>>word-of-mouth buzz but it seems the word-of-mouth only started when the format went off the air.
I don't know about word of mouth but when it came to publicity resulting from newspaper/TV pieces:
while it's true that there may not have been many billboards or any TV ads, there were more than a few
articles in both the Globe and Herald about Air America coming to town; Steph Miller's appearance (it was
on Ch 4 and was archived on their website--btw interesting trying to do a search for "CBS4" and "Stephanie Miller"--you turn up a lot of results, but only because their webmaster is named...Stephanie Miller), etc.
Apparently nobody saw this article in the Globe:
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2004/10/01/air_america_finds_local_home/
Or, this one (a big article, front page of living section)
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/08/23/failure_is_an_option/
Or this Steph Miller interview from the Herald
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1392239/posts
>>Five minutes with ...Stephanie Miller By Dean Johnson
Syndicated talk show host Stephanie Miller will do tomorrow's and Friday's 9 a.m.-noon radio shows, heard locally on WXKS-AM (1430) and WKOX-AM (1200), from the WXKS-AM studios in Medford.
Or the many mentions in various papers, the Net, etc. Yeah, nobody knew about AAR Boston.
Actually the real problem may have been "nobody could hear it".
I don't know about word of mouth but when it came to publicity resulting from newspaper/TV pieces:
while it's true that there may not have been many billboards or any TV ads, there were more than a few
articles in both the Globe and Herald about Air America coming to town; Steph Miller's appearance (it was
on Ch 4 and was archived on their website--btw interesting trying to do a search for "CBS4" and "Stephanie Miller"--you turn up a lot of results, but only because their webmaster is named...Stephanie Miller), etc.
Apparently nobody saw this article in the Globe:
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2004/10/01/air_america_finds_local_home/
Or, this one (a big article, front page of living section)
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/08/23/failure_is_an_option/
Or this Steph Miller interview from the Herald
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1392239/posts
>>Five minutes with ...Stephanie Miller By Dean Johnson
Syndicated talk show host Stephanie Miller will do tomorrow's and Friday's 9 a.m.-noon radio shows, heard locally on WXKS-AM (1430) and WKOX-AM (1200), from the WXKS-AM studios in Medford.
Or the many mentions in various papers, the Net, etc. Yeah, nobody knew about AAR Boston.
Actually the real problem may have been "nobody could hear it".
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