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WRUF-FM

J

Jeff2

Randy Wright from UF had a guest column in the Gainesville Sun this morning which was an answer to an earlier column from Chuck Woods suggesting a fine arts format since the flip to country wasn't working out.  Mr. Wright says Gator Country is #4-6 with 25-54 in Gainesville-Ocala depending on the day part and is #4 25-54 in Gainesville only (and top country station).  He also points out WUFT-FM is the #1 station in Gainesville with the 25+ audience.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20111205/OPINION03/111129494/-1/opinion?Title=Randy-Wright-WRUF-FM-is-doing-just-fine-thank-you
 
Numbers are our friend, particularly when the audience for such shenanigans doesn't have access to all the numbers and/or know what they mean. Mr. Wright flits from 25-54 to 25+ to "overall" (Does this mean 12-plus? 25-plus?) and shifts geography from G-O to Alachua-only in defending his moves. He's slinging it fast and furious.

Boasting of daypart rankings from #4 to #6 in Adults 25-54 is another way of saying "We're out of the money"--since agency buyers go three-deep, and never buy duplicative formats of Top 3 stations. WOGK still gets the cash. Nor will agency buyers break up a metro to buy county-by-county. In other words, Randy is pissing in the wind. But the average guy on the street, or Gainesville Sun reader, doesn't know this stuff.

And maybe this line of BS is good enough to fool the academics at Weimer Hall for the time being. Sooner or later it will come down to money, but apparently that time hasn't come yet.
 
Wrights article is a response intended for local advertiser consumption and is designed to mitigate the potential sales damage from Wood's opinion piece. In that respect, it's moderately effective. It was targeted to preserve the advertising market in Alachua County, so those are the numbers he breaks out for the reader. Given WRUF's relatively poor signal in Marion County and strong competition, the best that they can do is hope to carve out a piece of ratings pie in Alachua. I take the article for what it is: A decent PR job aimed at local advertisers by Wright.
 
I'll give you that. The Sun gave him a great opportunity to tell his story, and he did an effective job, regardless of the "truthiness" involved. Hey, we're all salesmen, and when someone hands you a prominent forum to whip a pitch on potential customers, we're going to highlight whatever positives we have in the holster.

As I think I've stated before, I have long ties to UF and just hate to see them continue to shoot blanks with 103.7. My hunch is that they've been able to generate enough local G-ville biz to operate it at break-even, while hoping that a nuclear bomb wipes out K-93 and Thunder--seemingly their only real chance of ever winning the Country war. You know--given 50 years, the competition will literally die...

But each year they piss away on this quixotic endeavor (a little literary reference for the professors), another $2 million to $3 million in cash flow (profit) passes them by--along with the legitimate opportunity to establish WRUF-FM as an influential media presence in north-central Florida. The ultimate risk is that eventually the university will lose patience and cash-out, forever losing a valuable longterm cultural asset and missing enormous opportunities. It has happened at way too many other universities in America, already.

On the other hand, Mr. W is really a TV guy, and perhaps they have made great strides in that arena, making radio more-or-less irrelevant. As Gator Country seems destined to remain.
 
PLUS there used to be a morning news block on WRUF-AM where student could learn and get on-air experience, right ?

This P.D. is a f#@*in' idiot. Maybe we should start a pool on how long he lasts.
 
Every UF media property has changed format with the exception of WUFT-TV although its programing has been slightly altered. The following outline shows the changes / adjustments over the past 24- months:

WRUF-AM 850 News-Talk to Sports
WRUF-FM 103.7 AOR / Active Rock to Country
WLUF-TV 10 PBS Overflow / Educational / Instructional Programming to All Local Weather as WRUF-TV
WUFT-FM 89.1 Classical / Jazz / Public Affairs to NPR / Local News-Talk
WUFT-TV 5 PBS some local and PBS programming deletions / Additions / Re-scheduling

Regarding the "opinion" in the Gainesville Sun, although I would not place Fine Arts programming on WRUF-FM, counrty is not on my top 5 list, either. Randy Wright's rebuttal to Professor Chuck Woods "Opinion" in the Gainesville Sun in defense of the decision to implement a country format on 103.7 was a form of damage control in an effort to inform the community WRUF-FM is on the right track, on target and hitting its pre-determined benchmarks.

As stated in earlier comments, WRUF-FM should do fine over time if it superserves Gainesville; However, it will not become the number one metro station if it continues to attempt to compete with its comparatively inferior signal against the number one market station with the same format and with a far more superior signal.
 
Safe to say the on year country experiement went well? If not, can we just bring back Rock 104? Rock stations are few and far between these days in Florida. Not many left between Gainesville and Key West.... :mad:
 
vadar said:
Safe to say the on year country experiement went well? If not, can we just bring back Rock 104? Rock stations are few and far between these days in Florida. Not many left between Gainesville and Key West.... :mad:
Click to expand...
I agree. But The Buzz is doing a fine job with active rock, so I think an alternative rock format, like WXXJ or the old WPLA in Jacksonville, would do quite well in the Gainesville area. ;D
 
Triple A. Good for students, good for bringing diversity to the market while being somewhat marketable. Perfect companion to an NPR News/Talk station.
 
Triple A skews Men 35-54--similar to the demo 103.7 ditched when it bailed from Rock, and similar to WUFT-FM's News/Talk core. Don't want to cannibalize their NPR gem. Similar lifestyle group to the NPR crowd, too. While "complementary formats" might work just fine in NYC or LA, G-O probably isn't big enough.

Anyone with half a brain--that is, any programmer with even the slightest skill in market analysis, knows--and has known for years--that WRUF-FM would kill as a CHR. No, not with UF kids running it--but they're not running it now. The 50,000+ UF students within a few blocks of Weimer Hall constitute a HUGE core audience for CHR, and the competitors are all either little Class A sticks, crippled C-2 or C-3 sticks, or marginal signals from markets far from Gainesville/Ocala.

This ain't rocket surgery, gang.
 
amfmxm said:
Triple A skews Men 35-54--similar to the demo 103.7 ditched when it bailed from Rock, and similar to WUFT-FM's News/Talk core. Don't want to cannibalize their NPR gem. Similar lifestyle group to the NPR crowd, too. While "complementary formats" might work just fine in NYC or LA, G-O probably isn't big enough.

Anyone with half a brain--that is, any programmer with even the slightest skill in market analysis, knows--and has known for years--that WRUF-FM would kill as a CHR. No, not with UF kids running it--but they're not running it now. The 50,000+ UF students within a few blocks of Weimer Hall constitute a HUGE core audience for CHR, and the competitors are all either little Class A sticks, crippled C-2 or C-3 sticks, or marginal signals from markets far from Gainesville/Ocala.

This ain't rocket surgery, gang.
Click to expand...
That would work too. 103.7 goes CHR, which then causes 106.9 to go AAA (which would compliment 100.5's active rock format nicely a-la 104.5/102.9 in Jax). I like it!
 
Doesn't KISS 105.3 serve as the only CHR in Gainesville? Signal is poor outside of Micanopy. 103.7 is a much better stick.
 
Well other the Kiss 105.3 the only other CHR is the Legendary WAPE 95.1. Which signal is rather weak considering its a J-ville station.
 
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