WOGL Rebrands at Big 98.1

[CurtisNEPA]

Which reminds me, I wonder if other Audacy Classic Hits stations will follow suit. CBS-FM in NYC has always been "CBS-FM" for decades now and if any rebranding to say like "Big 101.1" will infuriate their loyal audience. Personally, I think Audacy has ultimately destroyed the WOGL brand with...rebranding, by moving its popular Saturday Night classic dance show to its HD2 signal where almost not everybody has HD-capable receiver.

To be honest, time marches on.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Dammit. Bryan Adams. Damn nerve damage in the hands strikes again when I try to type too fast!

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Which reminds me, I wonder if other Audacy Classic Hits stations will follow suit. CBS-FM in NYC has always been "CBS-FM" for decades now and if any rebranding to say like "Big 101.1" will infuriate their loyal audience. Personally, I think Audacy has ultimately destroyed the WOGL brand with...rebranding, by moving its popular Saturday Night classic dance show to its HD2 signal where almost not everybody has HD-capable receiver.

To be honest, time marches on.

Hmmm, that would be interesting re: WCBS. I don’t gamble, but if I did, I’d place money on that being left alone for the foreseeable future.

Moving Pantano was likely overdue. Sometimes the time comes to move past something. They’re not going to totally succeed anytime soon in shedding the Oldies 98 legacy, but if the existing WOGL branding was hindering that progression, a refresh makes business sense.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

I would agree, but only to an extent. WPHT is certainly not aiming for a younger audience and I can't imagine it costs them much to air two or three hours of a recorded show. I have no doubt the day will eventually come where Audacy can sell that timeslot to a brokered program that will pay more. It has less to do with what stands the test of time, but moreso balancing risk vs. reward.

Agree. This may be the “for now” plan, but that time is eventually going to be more valuable sold to a client.

 

[TheBigA]

I think Audacy has ultimately destroyed the WOGL brand with...rebranding, by moving its popular Saturday Night classic dance show

Not sure exactly how popular that show was, or who it was popular with, but my bet is that it was driving up the age demos, which may be why it was moved. Get it off the main signal and onto one that won't harm the sales numbers.

The other factor here is that it's no secret that WOGL was underperforming as compared to other Audacy classic hits. Something had to change. They're facing the same problem with KOOL in Phoenix.

 

[atthestars]

Which reminds me, I wonder if other Audacy Classic Hits stations will follow suit. CBS-FM in NYC has always been "CBS-FM" for decades now and if any rebranding to say like "Big 101.1" will infuriate their loyal audience.

Since I'm not as familiar with the history of WCBS-FM, were they ever called something like "Oldies 101.1" or referred to as Oldies?

I understand why WOGL did it. 20 or so years since dropping the "Oldies" name, people still referred to it as "Oldies 98" in their stubborn Philly way. Trying to shed that image, like how B101 changed to "More FM" because people associated B101 with artists like Michael Bolton and Celine Dion.

But if CBS-FM doesn't have the "oldies" stigma attached to it, no need to mess with the branding.

 

[Jstnpspck]

It was certainly strange to hear them spinning Green Day's "When I Come Around" (as opposed to, say, "Good Riddance") about two years ago, but seeing Nirvana in their recently played list over the last few days is... something else. My mom never enjoyed them when I had on Y100, I doubt she enjoys it when my dad's listening to WMMR, I'd love to know what she thinks now that they're on one of her stations!

 

[davideduardo]

The other factor here is that it's no secret that WOGL was underperforming as compared to other Audacy classic hits. Something had to change. They're facing the same problem with KOOL in Phoenix.

But something else happened in Phoenix. The station, quite suddenly, collapsed in 25-54 with no obvious destination for the departing listeners.

 

[CassChopper96]

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.

I think Ben Fm does a better job catering to 25-54 year olds that 98.1 does

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Which reminds me, I wonder if other Audacy Classic Hits stations will follow suit. CBS-FM in NYC has always been "CBS-FM" for decades now and if any rebranding to say like "Big 101.1" will infuriate their loyal audience.

Except for that almost-a-decade as Jack FM!

 

[MarkW]

I do like the tweaks made to the 98.1 playlist! The imaging, though, needs some work.

 

[101tm]

But something else happened in Phoenix. The station, quite suddenly, collapsed in 25-54 with no obvious destination for the departing listeners.

I have listened to KOOL-FM and can’t figure out exactly what they did that caused such an exodus. It sounds like a run of the mill Audacy station. Heavily focused on the 80s. As I alluded to in another post, it has a very “dry” sound (no jingles or extensive on air production really, compared to CBS-FM or SunnyFM Orlando), but so do some of Audacy’s other classic hits stations like KXSN, KRTH, KLUV, etc. I’m not sure if Audacy is just putting their pretty general classic hits playlist in a market where it needs to be tailored, or what. But KOOL-FM was a market leader before and after PPM implementation. I don’t think a “Big 94.5” rebrand would help them very much. “KOOL” played oldies back in the day but there’s nothing in that identity really that says “old”.

Of course KOOL’s beauty pageant numbers are being walloped by KOAI, but at least KOOL probably still generates a little bit of cash…

 

[vw86]

A few years ago I would say not to touch WOCL 1059 Sunny FM in Orlando. But lately I'd say blow that one up too. Rick Stacy has turned the morning show into an amateur version of Tucker Carlson. The imaging got boring and tired. I'd do the same thing to WOCL and retain Domino as the sole talent and make him Brand Manager.

 

[JH_Radio]

Are you thinking of "Moves Like Jagger?" The Maroon 5 song?

There's a thread on another board about a classic hits station playing songs from the 2000s. As we get deeper into the 2000s, it becomes more likely.

https://www.radiodiscussions.com/threads/2010s-music-on-wiad.748883/

Audacy's WIAD is playing Bruno Mars.

Yeah I realized a few hours later I got the title wrong.
Moves Like Jagger.
I think time is marching on musically in radio faster just like anything else in this world is.
I'm sure the internet and music streaming from the likes of Apple Music etc have some say in that.
See bob's dance party sponsor is still running , too.

John

 

[JH_Radio]

The only thing I was saying about Moves Like Jagger is that I was surprised to hear that on a classic hits station.
But then I was surprised to hear that on an AC station too when I first did.
Moves Like Jagger played about 6:00 AM this morning.

 

[jt99]

But something else happened in Phoenix. The station, quite suddenly, collapsed in 25-54 with no obvious destination for the departing listeners.

KLUV in Dallas-Fort Worth has been on a downward slide as well in 6+, so I can't imagine their 25-54 numbers are very promising either. Very interesting that just a few years ago, pretty much all of the Audacy/Entercom Classic Hits stations (save for WIAD) were doing very well, but now a few of them are starting to slip, with one of them already seeing some tweaks. One has to wonder what's going on.

 

[JH_Radio]

Not a fan of the imaging either on WOGL.
Also, no, CBS-FM was never known as "Oldies 101."
although they did do the entire "Best Oldies" thing with Jams Jingles, and even before that.
However, it was never in the branding, just in the slogan.
The branding was always CBS-FM.
Or 101 CBS-FM.

 

[101tm]

A few years ago I would say not to touch WOCL 1059 Sunny FM in Orlando. But lately I'd say blow that one up too. Rick Stacy has turned the morning show into an amateur version of Tucker Carlson. The imaging got boring and tired. I'd do the same thing to WOCL and retain Domino as the sole talent and make him Brand Manager.

105.9 SunnyFM went through a weird phase in the mid-2010s where they were very deep in dance/new wave from the 80s and had almost a dance tilt and used those weird vocoder jingles. In the past few years they seem to have fallen in line with the rest of the Audacy classic hits stations.

KLUV is struggling it seems, but not at KOOL-FM levels. It’s another one that Audacy gutted the image and character of.

One reason I feel these stations were successful under CBS was they had a very fun, upbeat and interactive presentation that used a lot of jingles, sound effects, music beds, etc as I said in an earlier post, much like old top 40 radio in the 80s. Over the past couple of years Audacy has taken them in a more straight laced direction (sans CBS-FM) and the imaging of the stations just no longer pops. iHeart’s classic hits starions like KJR, KOSF, KQQL, WRIT and KLTH have more life in them these days than a lot of what Audacy is putting out.

 

[JH_Radio]

I also think that under CBS, there was more local hosts but maybe that's cause it was a different time too.

 

[AM/FMRAINMAN]

Is there any other place to see WOGL’s full playlist from other than there Audacy page? As there are multiple songs for some reason that do not get captured on their playlist. I have noticed that most of the songs that are not captured are from the 90s or newer. There are also some newer 89sbut it seems like all 70s seem to show up on their playlist.