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WOGL Rebrands at Big 98.1

Meh, I’ve never been bothered by buried IDs. I guess I’m not bothered by the long ones, more amused than anything. I’m reminded of how little kids first using PowerPoint tend to throw every effect in. It’s like the audio equivalent of that—gotta get the Audacy sounder. Gotta get a station sponsor. Gotta get the tagline. Gotta get the actual letters. Gotta get those fake voices (at least on Big today) of “listeners” saying how they love it.
And if the station using those fakers happens to be a country station, and that station is anywhere in the Northeast, you can be sure that the people raving about the station will sound as though they'd never spent a day in your state. IHeart even uses them during morning and evening drives on some stations, shifts that feature local jocks. I'm sure there are thousands of people in Hartford or Springfield or any of the other markets where iHeart does country who love their local country stations and would be thrilled to be able to record a bubbly "I LUUUUVVV Country 92-5!" for future use. So why don't stations give them that opportunity? It could even be done at a remote by the promotions guru, I would think.
 
If anything, Big 98.1 is playing less 90s than KRTH, CBS-FM, or KXSN. Sounds like the exact same playlist as before to me.

I guess I’m in the minority. When stations dropped “Oldies” in the mid 00s and started using just calls and dial position, I found it extremely bland so a name isn’t exactly bad. I get in the case of CBS FM it’s different, and even WMGK, but I don’t know if the WOGL calls held much brand value like others. If it is an issue, they can always tweak it to say “WOGL” on occasion after Big 98.1.
 
Maybe Angela Mason will come back as a local host. She was good IMO, when live on-air.
I've heard her VT and just, meh.
Then again, she was a local host with the old brand too, so maybe not.
I believe she's still the head of production though.
John
 
Listened for about an hour. I didn’t notice anything different or unusual about the playlist and honestly unless you were listening for the jingles (which ordinary folks do not) I’m not convinced most of the audience is going to notice anything different. As someone else mentioned earlier, there are people who still call it Oldies 98. Last year it was on at work and one of my colleagues actually complained that they call themselves Oldies 98 but they don’t play any oldies. I smirked and nodded. After all, it’s been two decades. What could I say?
They didn’t change too much, other than getting rid of the DJ’s minus Coop. If they fully rebranded to a new station, they would need to change advertising. I believe we will hear different music plugged in overtime, but nothing too crazy.
 
Somewhat related/somewhat unrelated: I happened to hear a TOH on B101 today. It felt like it went on for over a minute! If I were stuck in an office and had to sit through that nine times per day, I'd throw the radio (computer? table? phone?) out the window.
It can’t be as bad as THIS, which my local classic hits station keeps making longer and longer:

 
Why try to fix something that is not broken. The WOGL name brand is a staple in Philly. WMMR, WDAS, WXTU, these are stations that have be on the air for ever and people recognize their names right away. 🤦🏻‍♂️
 
Why try to fix something that is not broken. The WOGL name brand is a staple in Philly. WMMR, WDAS, WXTU, these are stations that have be on the air for ever and people recognize their names right away. 🤦🏻‍♂️
They are not "fixing" but, instead, refreshing. Stations that don't constantly refresh imaging and format execution grow stale. The problem is that one has to make the changes before a feeling of staleness begins to be felt.
 
Why on earth would you go from tuner to cassette then to audition, when you can go tuner direct to sound card?
I plan to record tomorrow morning, when Coop is actually on air.

Two reasons. One is that I want to lol. And secondly I keep a whole cassette collection of Philly airchecks because I think analog tape sounds better, even if to post online it's still getting digitized. So yeah I really don't care.
 
Why try to fix something that is not broken. The WOGL name brand is a staple in Philly. WMMR, WDAS, WXTU, these are stations that have be on the air for ever and people recognize their names right away. 🤦🏻‍♂️
Clearly they have data that says it was a drag on them. Back in the day, people would have argued EZ101 wasn’t broken, but Jerry Lee recognized it needed to be updated, and that was exactly the right decision. Just because something continues to work for business A does not mean it is true for business B.
 
The TOH montage on the new "Big 98.1" is irritating. I do not like the choice of imaging voice, either. I have no issue with the refresh in theory, but the execution here leaves a lot to be desired.
 
Clearly they have data that says it was a drag on them. Back in the day, people would have argued EZ101 wasn’t broken, but Jerry Lee recognized it needed to be updated, and that was exactly the right decision. Just because something continues to work for business A does not mean it is true for business B.
That's the station that renamed itself to "More FM", because "the B101 name was dated and did not reflect its current on-air content". Then a few years later they figured out it wasn't so dated after all, and changed it back to "B101", now tacking on a clumsy ".1". (Speaking of which, why couldn't Audacy just call it "Big 98"? Is there really anyone in Philly who doesn't know WOGL is on 98.1?)
 
But Jerry Lee didn’t change it back. Entercom did. Maybe Jerry was wrong that time. Maybe Entercom was. But it’s two totally different entities making those decisions. I’m not even sure if it is or isn’t the same market leader from then to now (I’m sure someone knows that).

It’s possible for heritage of one business to have more upside than downside, and another business to have that equation reversed.
 
I wonder if they want to cater to a younger audience at 98.1 considering the rebrand
The refresh is to focus the music on what the intended demo wants to hear. They're not really trying to get younger listeners, per se; they just need to eliminate the songs that have aged out for the demo and replace them with more recent songs that the intended audience wants to hear instead.
 
The refresh is to focus the music on what the intended demo wants to hear. They're not really trying to get younger listeners, per se; they just need to eliminate the songs that have aged out for the demo and replace them with more recent songs that the intended audience wants to hear instead.
This, as well as brand perception; sometimes a refreshed brand can do a lot for a station even if the music hasn't changed drastically, especially if they found that the WOGL brand had a negative connotation with the target demo they're going for (25-54).

I don't mean to downplay the significance of a heritage brand getting replaced after 30+ years, but it could help turn the station around.

P.S. just for grins and giggles, do we think the callsign will change?
 
I wondered that too. How come not "Big 98?"
They coulda kept it "Philly's Greatest Hits: Big 98."
 
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