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WOULD WOGL STILL FLIP WITH THEIR STATUS

S

saintrichard

Guest
It has been said on this board that Infinity would never flip WOGL with their current fantastic showing. The question I have is, would the owners care about this, if I remember correctly, Hot Hits WCAU-FM was in the top 10 and doing very well in its demo when they were flipped to oldies. This move was a gamble, depending on the older demos and WIOQ also being oldies. So I ask all of you, with oldies formats drying up all over the US, except for some successful AM's, plus the demos, would Infinity still flip 98.1 with their current success. I would say YES. I think we all agree that BEN threw a wrench in Infinity's plans to Jack WOGL. What's left, Alternative or Classic Rock Hits, if so, WYSP's current path (less Alternative/Classic Rock) makes room for this on WOGL. Is Couzin Ed coming back??
 
I think the difference between Hot Hits flipping to Oldies and Oldies flipping to "Format X" is that people still took chances with radio back then.

The scrutiny of different demos and focused advertising was really heating up and it was okay to be experimental because radio was still a thriving industry where lots of money could be made.

Nowadays, there's just about no chance-taking going on. With the industry being what it is, company's are no longer so quick to say "Let's try something else" if the station in question is still making at least some money. Also nowadays, as soon as a station abandons a format, another station in the market jumps on it within six hours...so if station A realizes they made a mistake, it's often too late to turn back.

I'm not saying Oldies 98 is gonna be around for long but really, what are they gonna flip it to? Still, Sunny is closing in on their demo and Sunny is hella cheap to operate.

> It has been said on this board that Infinity would never
> flip WOGL with their current fantastic showing. The
> question I have is, would the owners care about this, if I
> remember correctly, Hot Hits WCAU-FM was in the top 10 and
> doing very well in its demo when they were flipped to
> oldies. This move was a gamble, depending on the older demos
> and WIOQ also being oldies. So I ask all of you, with
> oldies formats drying up all over the US, except for some
> successful AM's, plus the demos, would Infinity still flip
> 98.1 with their current success. I would say YES. I think
> we all agree that BEN threw a wrench in Infinity's plans to
> Jack WOGL. What's left, Alternative or Classic Rock Hits,
> if so, WYSP's current path (less Alternative/Classic Rock)
> makes room for this on WOGL. Is Couzin Ed coming back??
> <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by E. Gill CVI on 07/26/05 03:23 PM.</FONT></P>
 
I remember when WCAU-FM flipped from Oldies to Disco back in 76, they had over a 4.0 rating and dipped to under a 1.0 with the disco format. Back then, they took a chance when they went from popular oldies to a format nobody knew about, but like you said that was then and this is now..
 
A column in the Star Ledger last week by its radio guy quoted a radio market analyst from Mt. Laurel (if I recall correctly) who explained what he believed to be Infinity's logic with respect to the WCBS/WJMK flips. Infinity poured a lot of promotional money into WCBS starting in the fall of 2004. They had a jingle and if you called in you could win a couple of thousand dollars. There were also billboards (one near the exit for the Lincoln Tunnel) advertising this. Then, of course, they went to the expense of hiring Mickey Dolenz to do mornings in January. Inifinity expected a return on all this promotional money, and when they didn't get it, they flipped.

Admittedly, they care a great deal about the younger demo, but, more basically, WCBS was not doing nearly as well overall in New York as WOGL is doing in Philadelphia. WCBS languished near the bottom of the Top 10 (and even fell out of it at times), managing a 3.5 or so. WOGL, on the other hand, has been at 4.0 and above in the overall for a few periods now, recently hitting a 4.6. The morning show, which was lagging way back when Don Cannon left, has come up to #5 with Ross Brittain. (Dolenz failed to move the needle at all during his 5 month stint at WCBS.)

Is this success-- whereby WOGL has consistently outperforms WJMK and WCBS-- enough? I think so. Infinity has to be shelling out some serious dough for the second year in row with the "Vacation A Day Giveaway", so if they had the slightest worry over the revenue WOGL was generating, I think would have killed it by now. As long as WOGL makes enough money to justify what Infinity is shelling out in promotional gimmicks, it's safe.

But I agree with the general sentiment of posters that WOGL, in the long-term, is not entirely safe. A few more periods of consistency would help.
 
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