Arbitorn said:
How can you dive when you're already on the bottom of the pool?! The ratings that will go down are the 65+. Who cares? They have no 25-54's to lose!
How is it panic to hire a seasoned, credible anchor for mornings after giving Williams the chance to fulfill a dream? Spike left before Kevin got there, the girls were replaced before their contract expired because they didn't want to talk about anything more controversial than "What's your favorite color," and some of the mechanics have been cleaned up between the elements. Hardly a firesale.
If that sounds like panic mode to you, your radio experience has been seriously limited.
You sound happy that the station is going to tank (which it can't because it's already down there) so I figure you either have an ax to grind with them or you're so stuck in the past that you can't get past the fact that no measurable audience wants to hear what they were doing. Replacing what they were doing with something that sounds just like it, whether that's what they've always done or not, is not going to grow an audience in the money demo.
What they are trying MAY work - it may not. But we KNOW what they WERE doing didn't. Healthy AM's dominate in many markets. They don't sound like the old WGN.
I think if you want to find the bottom of the pool, you need to look at WCPT's ratings. This is what worries me about
WGN, and the way they are doing things. I said I have know WGN has to change things around, I never denied that.
I feel it important to point out that I'm in my mid 30's, and not a loyal GN listener. I do tune in from time to time though.
Once again I will say that I know that WGN HAS to make changes. I also think radio station's, and advertising agencies
and the people who sell advertising, need to start looking at things differently as well. In the coming years, the US
population is going to continue to age. People are living longer and birthrate's are shrinking, due to people not having
as many children as they used too. We as an industry NEED to drop this "you are too old to advertise too, so drop dead
already and go away, you don't deserve even one out of hundred's of station's to listen too". I know I will be attacked for
that statement and told I know nothing about advertising, so be it. Just look at radio today, I have trouble finding anyone
under 30 that listens to radio at all, and I'm not talking about WGN, I'm talking FM! If they do it is for the most part to hear
sports scores or breaking news, when they don't feel like looking it up on their phone.
I work at a small market AM that plays and EZ listening format(I know it's not a major market station, I've already
been reminded enough times!) Our average listener is around 55, and I have no problem selling the station. My "older"
audience has a lot more disposable income than the listeners on our sister FM. The AM makes more money than the FM,
even though it's only 1kw days, and .006kw nights. The listeners actually LISTEN to the commercials as well, not just flip
the station at the beginning of the break.
I know we were discussing WGN here, but, my point is valid, and the people in radio and advertising that want to stick
to the party line, that older people are worthless, should really start looking at reality, either find a way to make money
from older audiences or turn off the lights lock the door, because if we keep doing radio the way it's been done the past
ten or fifteen years, we are going to have NOBODY to advertise too.
