J
Jul
Guest
should WLS-FM go chr/pop, again?
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Who knows? Six months ago, I'd have put WLS-FM as among those "least likely to flip" .....Uh, check that, forgot for a moment that Lew Dickey is running the place.
As you may know, Julius, there's considerable speculation that Cumulus wants to find a Chicago outlet for its "nash" format. Problem with that idea is that....unlike much of the Midwest....there's a big question of whether Chicago can support two full signal country outlets. It hasn't done that to date and CBS seems to have a pretty loyal following on U.S. 99.
So as to what the future is for WLS-FM, your guess is as good as mine. But it does seem to me that there's audience flushing going on right now.
As you may know, Julius, there's considerable speculation that Cumulus wants to find a Chicago outlet for its "nash" format. Problem with that idea is that....unlike much of the Midwest....there's a big question of whether Chicago can support two full signal country outlets. It hasn't done that to date and CBS seems to have a pretty loyal following on U.S. 99.
So as to what the future is for WLS-FM, your guess is as good as mine. But it does seem to me that there's audience flushing going on right now.
B
Biondi4Mayor
Guest
Julius May said:
What kind of CHR/pop were you thinking? There's lots of overlap in this area, yet at the same time, stations are proving to be "different" enough. Heck, there's that whole thread trying to count the AC type stations around here.
How about 60s & 70s oldies with classic WLS jingles?.......oh wait!
Real job, or EOE dump?
C
cspotrun
Guest
probably an EOE dump, its all too common. they have someone filling in PM drive, have no idea who it is, they never give their name, mostly reading liner cards- like a Rookie. they will probably ,move someone from across the hall or across town to hire for a new format.
if you see landecker and biondi go, put your money on a format flip. one more thing.. i don't think wls-fm has been properly PD' as a Classic Hits or Oldies Station for a major market like Chicago. the only reason to listen was landecker, winston and biondi at night, other than that, it has never really lived up to the call letters WLS, and even more so now,and that is a shame.
if you see landecker and biondi go, put your money on a format flip. one more thing.. i don't think wls-fm has been properly PD' as a Classic Hits or Oldies Station for a major market like Chicago. the only reason to listen was landecker, winston and biondi at night, other than that, it has never really lived up to the call letters WLS, and even more so now,and that is a shame.
Please let Dick Biondi have his own show at night and his own rules he is another of the last screaming upbeat personalities. Soon they will all be gone. Hire Terry Motormouth Young bring reverb back and let him scream. We're running out of time! What better station WLS. AM or FM.
JohnnyOhJohnny said:
Dick Biondi's All Request Friday night show was the best radio in Chicago. Since they neutered the DJs
And moved Biondi to a terrible time I stopped listening to WLS-FM and apparently so did many others.
Two words:
Jan Jeffries.
Need I say more?
TDO
Jan Jeffries.
Need I say more?
TDO
Diamondtwo said:
You are right on. Jeffries ruined what was a very good station.
radioman148 said:
While the format modification has not seen the increases we'd assume Cumulus wanted, the key point here is that the 25-54 performance with the "old" format was deteriorating so badly that they had to do something.
In retrospect, and with a nearly-direct format competitor fragging the small share potential, they should have simply changed format. I think they were hoping not to sacrifice 100% of the revenue, which would happen with a full format switch.
In any case, WLS-FM will likely be down even more in May based on my read of the weeklies, and they will have to come up with something better to appeal to the sales demos. They certainly would not go backwards towards 60's music and geezer demos.
The station sucks as it currently is. I understand they had to get younger. IMO, they should've changed the music more gradually instead of so suddenly. By doing it the way Jeffries did it they lost practically all of their former listeners.
Using legendary DJs to play music that they were never associated with was never a good idea. Keeping those names and gradually going younger with the music would have had better results.
Using legendary DJs to play music that they were never associated with was never a good idea. Keeping those names and gradually going younger with the music would have had better results.
radioman148 said:
They really had no reason to keep the former listeners, since most were outside the sales demos.
The bigger mistake is in keeping some of those "names" when their appeal with 40-55 year olds would be minimal. Fans of Biondi's big early 60's years on WLS are now around 70 and above.
DavidEduardo said:
You'd be surprised how many younger fans Biondi has. When he hosted the very popular Friday Night Request Show, most of his requests came from a younger group--quite a few from people in their 20s. Also, if you attend any of his record hops these days you'd be amazed at how many younger people show up. It's far from being just a get together of old geezers.
My point was that a more gradual change would have worked better if they were going to continue to keep the classic hits format. On the station with legendary calls, using DJs who were there during their (WLS' glory years) it would have been a much better transition to allow those DJs to play a little more of the music that they were associated with.
Otherwise, if you're going to make such a dramatic and sudden change to the music, why have the talent that was not associated with playing those records?
Jeffries wanted to have it both ways.
The problem is major markets like Chicago rely on regional/national agency buys. Those agencies are only buying 18-49 or 25-54. The boomers who have money to spend (far more than their parents) are stilly buying toys in their 50's and 60's but they are supposedly not important to retailers.
Bull.
Stations like WLS-FM who go after an older demo have to go after more local retail dollars and not rely just on on national/regional agency buys. Unfortunately, groups like Cumulus in markets of that size are not set up to do so and don't understand the concept. So, formats that appeal to older demos (35-64) who still listen to the radio as their primary source for music are being cut out.
Notice how in smaller markets Classic Hits stations are still viable. It's because they sell direct to people who own businesses and believe in that demo and format.
Bull.
Stations like WLS-FM who go after an older demo have to go after more local retail dollars and not rely just on on national/regional agency buys. Unfortunately, groups like Cumulus in markets of that size are not set up to do so and don't understand the concept. So, formats that appeal to older demos (35-64) who still listen to the radio as their primary source for music are being cut out.
Notice how in smaller markets Classic Hits stations are still viable. It's because they sell direct to people who own businesses and believe in that demo and format.
Marconi said:
The problem in big, big markets is that very few non-agency accounts are big enough to afford full market, major station rates. Often the reason is that they have a single location or just a few locations, so the money spent on covering a multi-county metro is substantially wasted
And the accounts big enough to afford Chicago rates are more than likely to be with an agency.
And this goes beyond a top 5 market like Chicago. I was GSM, among other things, at a station at the bottom end of the top 15 markets. 95% of our revenue was agency; there just were no direct accounts that could afford our rates... or even discounted rates for less desirable times.
That's may be true in some instances but not all by any means. I know a station like WLS-FM is one of the lower priced stations in the market due to their poor performance in the 25-54 demo which agencies are buying. There are plenty of businesses in a market the size of Chicago which spend substantial money and are not handled by an agency. I wasn't talking about Mom and Pop businesses...rather businesses like car dealerships, convenience store chains, furniture stores, etc which have money to spend and need to be called on by a local account rep. The direct sell is powerful whether you are in Chicago or Charleston. You would be surprised how much money people will invest when you hit their sweet spot. It's an entirely new avenue of sales the big boys are unfamiliar with.
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