WJYE'ed to death

[amfmgirl]

Is it just my imagination, or does that stupid WJYE commercial come on every five minutes? I feel like I'm almost related to that woman already...she's certainly been in my home enough!

From all the commercial exposure I thought the the station had gone through a major overhaul, so I tuned them in....and then quickly tuned them back off. Nothing has changed there! Still Joe Chili in the morning, and silly jingles. It even seems like they've "lifted" features from other morning shows instead of coming up with original ideas.

Am I missing something?????? What's the big change????

 

[SirRoxalot]

OverJoyed

What's the change? Well, let's see...

CJ got bumped from the morning show, and Joe Chili went solo.

CJ then got bumped out the door, and Alexis Williams came over from 'BLK.

Mike McQueen also got the gate, and Bob Galli moved to PM drive.

The music seems like it's gotten older, perhaps attracting some of the listeners given up by WHTT.

Otherwise, SS,DD

 

[Mike Sheridan]

As long as Gary Berkowitz remains the consultant expect boring radio. I worked for a station he consulted and all the wanted us to do was read the liners. Talk about sucking the fun out of radio.

 

[x13thfloorrand]

King of Boring

Yep, I do recall Berkowitz strolling the halls, normally during the "format a week" days w WBUF 929.
And I thought Radkowski was the king of Wallpaper!
(reading those liners so much, closing w/the calls!!)

Make no mistake, Berkowitz can deliver pretty solid ratings, but not when there are essentially three players in the market.

amfm is indeed dropping some science on 'modeling' other morning shows gimics.
mix 104: 104 minutes to kick off the work day
JYE: 60 Minutes commercial free

mix 104 : Brain Buzz
JYE: Impossible Question

Hmmm.....

What about those "national" contests... where you play for 15-20 Thousand dollars, but with other stations nationwide?

 

[1234-1]

The national contests are probably gone with CBS radio. I don't think Regent has that kind of money.

Speaking of money, they should have booted Berkowitz and saved a local job. I never thought he did much other than as previously stated "sucked the fun out of radio."

 

[Radknowski]

I've seen those WJYE TV commercials everywhere: In local news at 5, 6, 10 and 11; on American Idol and even on awards shows. Regent must be dropping a bundle on TV because as far as I know, WUTV-Fox doesn't do trade in top rated shows like American Idol. The woman on the WJYE TV commercials looks about 20 years younger and 50 pounds lighter than any WJYE listener I've seen in the last few years. Importing the successful elements from their upstart competition and having the jocks drone through the liners only demonstrate that WJYE has zero creativity and imagination. Wait. Isn't that the time-tested formula for succesful AC stations in America?

Never mind.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

Ah, the "Joy" of FM 96... ;D

 

[Radio_bored-Op]

Does this forum, believe:

that commercial, was made say in Hollywood/LA,
and the talent just read "W-J-Y-E" at (what was it?) 96.1 ?
or, do you think, that is some one "local"/regional ?

just curious, that is why i ask.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

Does this forum, believe:

that commercial, was made say in Hollywood/LA,
and the talent just read "W-J-Y-E" at (what was it?) 96.1 ?
or, do you think, that is some one "local"/regional ?

just curious, that is why i ask.

That is an excellent question.
We are in a time day and age of cookie cutter formats.
Why not cookie cutter tv ads?

 

[yugoidar]

Syndicated or "cookie cutter" ads have been around for years in the radio business. In fact, a former Buffalo boy, Bob Benderson, has made a living producing and selling them from his California headquarters for years. You can see some of his work at www.cmifilms.com. (Bob is also part of the Benderson family that owns Delta-Sonic carwashes and plenty of Erie Country real estate).

 

[Mike Sheridan]

In Charlotte CBS's K-104.7 is another Berkowitz wonder. He does any song ads and even does the music logs.

In afternoon drive the jock can't even open the mic between the end of the song and the beginning of the traffic report leading into spots. A quick weather at :25 or promo liner over a jingle bed at :55 coming out of the spotset, a talkover the music intro at :37 and backsell over a jingle bed at :11 that's the extent of the jock involvement.

 

[NeedsMoreCowbell]

While I agree with everything that's been said about Berkowitz, he hasn't been consulting JYE since the Regent sale. A friend said it's Mike McVay out of Cleveland, but I'm not really sure about that.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Thanks for the info. I have never met Berkowitz so I really shouldn't beat up on him. He might even be a nice guy for all I know. I just don't like his style of bland, lifeless radio.

There once was a station in Buffalo that will go un-named because we talk about it so much. That station was unpredictable and fun. You never knew what they were going to do next!

The mantra was entertain! Now it's sell! I heard a remote on the air the other day (the remote was prerecorded at the station)....instead of selling the fun that was going on it was more come down and buy. Jocks no longer invite people to come down and meet them. I guess the majority of listeners don't care about meeting the people behind the mic anymore. There isn't much joy in meeting liner card readers.

 

[Element9]

Couple of random thoughts after reading the posts on this thread.

} AC relies on playing the hits for greater TSL and "at work" (or as some might say, "not at work") listening. Personality doesn't drive the format, even in morning drive. Rob Lucas is probably the best AC personality in the market. The guy keeps it light, tight and bright. In essence, he's doing a PM drive show in morning drive. Not a bad concept.

} Listeners don't go to remotes. What's there to see and participate in? Some guy or woman whose name half the listeners don't know, sitting at a card table with a prize wheel along with two or three disinterested interns or promotion scrubs? We've previously discussed remotes in threads on this board, and the consensus was, in some many words, "remotes blow."

} Berkowitz and McKay have strong track records in AC: "Liners are us" + 325 well-tested songs + plus a TV campaign with massive GRP's = pretty good ratings.

} The WJYE television commercials are produced by one of those big television production mills like Filmhouse that specializes in producing effective TV commercials. Sad thing is, the WJYE TV commercial is more exciting than its format. Talk about over-promise, under-deliver!

} Should be interesting to see what the ratings look like once the Christmas residue burn off of Star and WJYE.

} Listened to The Lake for the first time in about ten days. No offense to those who dig that station, but it's like Sominex. Somebody mentioned that The Lake had better ratings in the Fall book, who knows if there's any correlation to half the staff getting wacked.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Canned Pineapple

I'm sure that former Lake staffers who listen to their former boss in the morning are less than impressed. Hank Dole makes the annoying voice guy sound exciting.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

You won't find me there

You won't find me at "The Lake" not my music.

"9" I agree with your post about remotes and remember the earlier comments. Yes remotes blow but they wouldn't have to if talent could go out there, cut up some, and have a little fun.

I'm really trying to think of something good to say about radio. Okay I got it, I still like checking out transmitter sites. Guess I'm still a radio geek.

 

[cee]

I haven't listened to The Lake lately, but the station imaging(so often criticized on this board) is quite sleep inducing...boring and imho: contrived, psuedo-hip(or something like that). I first started listening to The Lake a few years back and was stunned - and very impressed - with some of the deep cuts they were playing. The quite lengthy Bob Dylan classic, Desolation Row - I hadn't heard it on the radio since I was in college -- and played it on my own little campus station show. Ditto for Questions/Buffalo Springfield(Steve Stills). I also liked the eclectic nature - mixing in modern rock and the only rock station where Hendrix and Santana aren't the only non-caucasian artists.

That leads me into AC. There is no question the Berkowitz approach works and makes radio corporations a lot of money with their well researched playlist and generic liners. This brings up a deeper, philosophical question. Maybe I'll come off as a bit of music snob here, but..how can people listen to this crap? I go into stores in Rochester and hear WRRM and I find it truly annoying. McMusic. Superficial, vacuous lyrics and show off-ey female singers. Yecch. And some geneic oldies thrown in for good measure. Most modern country is just as bad - it's country style AC. Give me Buck Owens any day. Then again, how could USA Today become such a successful publication? I find American Idol repugnant - what a bunch of horrible singers - everybody hamming it up and trying to show off their great voice range. Yet, people can't stop talking about it. I believe we are culturally as well as politically divided in America.

Despite it's popularity, AC and Modern Country is garbage.