This week, as many of you I'm sure know, another major oldies station bit the dust. (WMQX - Greensboro/Triad NC) In some ways, it was surprising to me because the station indeed did not sound like "your father's oldies station." There were a lot of elements of classic rock/hits mixed with 60s rock n roll standards along with personality DJs. Yet, according to management it was still not enough to turn the tide in the revenue department as advertisers just continue to shun stations that have baby-boomer appeal. That's a subject for another day because my feeling is 55+ today does not have the same brand loyalty and reluctance to spend money as those just a generation ago. More on that in a future post.
I continue to wonder about Majic 102.7. There are some unique situations with Majic but obviously their owner, Lincoln Financial, will do whatever they want to do in the end anyway.
One of the unique situations about Majic is Rick Shaw. Ordinarily, when stations flip to something else, the talent never has an opportunity to say goodbye. Management doesn't want to open up a Pandora's box of emotion or take a chance that talent will loose it and say things that shouldn't be said etc. But Rick is a South Florida legend. Few in the business can ever say they had more than 40 years being on the air in the same market.
A win-win solution for Lincoln, I think, would be for Rick to announce he is retiring and for the station to send him out in style so to speak. More than likely, significant format changes would take place after Rick departs. I wouldn't think Rick would be a part of something new as the whole idea is to loose the image of being "too boomer" and Rick is typecast as being an oldies DJ.
As Majic has been trending down, I said to myself before the last numbers came out that if Majic slipped below an overall 3 share, they could not justify staying on the same course. Now that is a reality. They need to do something and do something quickly.
I have never been an advocate of using a lot of syndicated programming but I am rather surprised Majic did not add Tom Kent to it's line-up some time ago. Personally, I think it's one of the best syndicated shows for an adult oldies type format around. He starts out with this "Into the 70s" feature that would introduce tons of music Majic just does not play and indeed they should. It could have been a good barometer for them to judge if playing more 70s was helping the station skew better 25-54.
And for the folks who want real oldies - don't shoot the messenger-but the format is dead for major FM stations. Persoanlly, I love a lot of Pre-Beatles stuff but stations are in the business of making money and the costs of sounding too old far outweigh the benefits.
Anyway, curious what the locals think. I suspect Majic is in for change and it should happen sooner than later. They already made a big talent decision to save $$$ with their axing Eric Brandon. If ratings continue to drop, so will revenue. Somethings got to be up. Thoughts?
I continue to wonder about Majic 102.7. There are some unique situations with Majic but obviously their owner, Lincoln Financial, will do whatever they want to do in the end anyway.
One of the unique situations about Majic is Rick Shaw. Ordinarily, when stations flip to something else, the talent never has an opportunity to say goodbye. Management doesn't want to open up a Pandora's box of emotion or take a chance that talent will loose it and say things that shouldn't be said etc. But Rick is a South Florida legend. Few in the business can ever say they had more than 40 years being on the air in the same market.
A win-win solution for Lincoln, I think, would be for Rick to announce he is retiring and for the station to send him out in style so to speak. More than likely, significant format changes would take place after Rick departs. I wouldn't think Rick would be a part of something new as the whole idea is to loose the image of being "too boomer" and Rick is typecast as being an oldies DJ.
As Majic has been trending down, I said to myself before the last numbers came out that if Majic slipped below an overall 3 share, they could not justify staying on the same course. Now that is a reality. They need to do something and do something quickly.
I have never been an advocate of using a lot of syndicated programming but I am rather surprised Majic did not add Tom Kent to it's line-up some time ago. Personally, I think it's one of the best syndicated shows for an adult oldies type format around. He starts out with this "Into the 70s" feature that would introduce tons of music Majic just does not play and indeed they should. It could have been a good barometer for them to judge if playing more 70s was helping the station skew better 25-54.
And for the folks who want real oldies - don't shoot the messenger-but the format is dead for major FM stations. Persoanlly, I love a lot of Pre-Beatles stuff but stations are in the business of making money and the costs of sounding too old far outweigh the benefits.
Anyway, curious what the locals think. I suspect Majic is in for change and it should happen sooner than later. They already made a big talent decision to save $$$ with their axing Eric Brandon. If ratings continue to drop, so will revenue. Somethings got to be up. Thoughts?