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WRVR HAS JUMPED THE SHARK

F

Frank Renda

Guest
How sad. This great heritage AC is about to be f***ed up by the same Entercom ding-a-ling who has yet to make a smart decision at 5904 Ridgeway Center Parkway.

I heard Bill Bannister sign off Friday night just before 7, and he said something to the effect that he would be doing afternoons from now on. So I go to their web site and see that the midday show at WRVR is now hosted by CeCe Taylor. A quick Google of her name reveals that she has been doing middays at 98.5 KQK (no, that's not a mistake) in Gainesville, Florida for the last three years. Is she leaving Gainesville to come to WRVR? Of course not. She'll be voice-tracking from the capital of Florida.

On the WRVR web site she refers to "meeting new friends in and around Memphis." WTF? If you wanna blow up a midday show that pulls 10 shares and has 25+ years of solid success and VT from far away, then fine. But don't f***ing lie to us and act like you are here. CeCe has probably never spent a day in Memphis in her life.

Is she gonna play requests every day at noon like Bill has for years? Yeah, right. If you ever hear CeCe take a phone request, you can bet the ranch it was a phoner she got two years ago from someone in Ocala, Florida. Will she be at the Chocolate Fantasy to "meet new friends?" Sure.

I'm going to enjoy the first time we have a tornado warning in the Memphis area, and CeCe will be talking up the intro of an Elton John song blathering about what a great day it is in Memphis.

This brilliant move is brought to you by the same Entercom braintrust that brought us The Buzz, Snap!, Leon Gray/Progressive Talk and Classic Hits KQK. How are those working out?

My condolences to the fine people at WRVR, who has worked so hard to build a Memphis radio juggernaut, only to have some yo-yo in Texas screw it up.
 
I have not paid attention to WRVR since they fired Steve Butler.
 
> 98.5 KQK (no, that's not a mistake)

Maybe. 'KTK, maybe?

> Gainesville ... She'll be voice-tracking from the capital of Florida.

Did she move to Tallahassee or did the Capital move to Gainesville?

> yo-yo in Texas ...

Who is in Texas? WRVR is Entercom.

Just askin'

DE
 
Whoops ... thanks DE, and I apologize for moving the Florida capital and mixing up my KQK's and KTK's.

Although Entercom is based in suburban Philadelphia, their programming nitwit-in-chief makes his home in the Lone Star State.
 
Frank Renda said:
Whoops ... thanks DE, and I apologize for moving the Florida capital and mixing up my KQK's and KTK's.

Although Entercom is based in suburban Philadelphia, their programming nitwit-in-chief makes his home in the Lone Star State.
Click to expand...

I was going to ask you what personal agenda you had against WRVR and / or Entercom...but then I realized it doesn't matter, because you are absoultely right. This move defies logic...and I bet the WRVR listeners will catch on.
 
Geez!
Why must they continue to fix things that aren't broken and leave alone so many things that are?
Once again...Entercom makes me proud to have found another way to make a living.
Bannister has ruled Middays in Memphis for a looooong time, but basically I'm with FM Sales.
I knew even RVR was headed for the crapper when they let Butler go.
Nothing like taking a heritage and dismantling it piece by piece until you end up with a turd
similar to your other piles.
Way to go Entercom.
Thank God they aren't writing my paychecks anymore.
Good luck to Bill...who is he replacing on afternoons? Has that shift been doing poorly?
Might he help it until they decide to screw it up again?..or should he be updating the old resume just in case?
He doesn't deserve this any more than Butler did.
 
i blame the main munchkin on ridgeway. no ideas and all poser. surrounding himself with yes men. countdown to new building is on. bet your 401k that entercom sells the cluster after they move. this merger has been a nightmare for them.
 
If Bannister is (was?) the midday guy, at 'RVR, why was he on until 7:00? That's a long time for a middayer to be on, particularly if they are on the air from (at least) the lunch hour all the way to 7:00 p.m. I no longer live in the Memphis market, so I don't know what's going on there. But this is typical of the way radio tries to squeeze more work out of the people they already have working for them there. ::)
 
Scott Miller was doing afternoon drive at RVR but he recently left. Bannister has been filling in. I guess Entercom put Bill permanently in drive time because that is supposed to be more important in the ratings than mid-day. Then they got an out of town lady to voice track mid-days because its much cheaper than hiring another full timer. Mid-day ratings will go down slightly but they are saving money. That is my hypothesis.
 
I sat in on some recent PPM conference calls, where they explain the differences between a "Diary world" and a "PPM world." In many of the major markets that use PPM, mid-days are ranked #1, afternoons #2 and mornings #3 in regards to the total amount of listeners.

K~
 
As I recall, Arbitron's PPM device tracks actual encounters with a radio station as opposed to the recall system of the paper diary. So, if you are in a store that is playing a radio station, PPM tracks that station as one one that you listened to that week, even though it was not by choice. They showed us one diary where the person was asked to fill out a paper diary and wear a PPM device during the same week. The person only annotated a few stations on the paper diary when in fact, they had listened to seven. The person also misidentified certain listening, in regard to what day and what time they thought they listened to a certain weekly feature on a particular station.

I'm very excited by the new system, although I think it will take a few years to see the true effectiveness of Programming in a PPM world, and how it moves the needle.

K~
 
I haven't seen a whole lot of the PPM data here in Dallas, but I can tell you this:

Christmas music is even more huge in the PPM world.

Encoded signals in webstreams DO get counted.

Tejano stations will tend to do extremely well.

Classic Rock may not be the dying format many thought it was.
 
News Flash 1: This is happening in almost every market in the country, large and small...even "drive" shifts. It's called...ready for this...down-sizing. Cost the company around 7K a year, as opposed to 35 or 40K. Might as well get over it. Like it or not, it's here.

New Flash 2: When you fake a VT, you're SUPPOSED to act like you're in that market!
 
radiosaur said:
News Flash 3: I-pods and MP3 players.

It's called......terrestrial radio has become a bad product.
Click to expand...

Ha...zing!

Sadly. :(

PBM
 
Good discussion on the PPM...and now from another perspective.

Large corporations and their mega agencies, who spend big bucks on broadcast, want an improved radio rating system. Neilson offers a very nice measurement service. I was on the Neilson panel for over 3 years. It was claimed that over 10K in equipment was hid throughout my 1 bedroom, 2 TV apartment. The technology was amazing.

And look at radio....the industry has been fighting, tooth and nail, to abandon this electronic measurement standard. You would think PPM is the biggest threat the radio industry has ever faced. Radio is exhausting MAJOR dollars into lobbying, and recently caught the ear of the NY Attorney General office who is attempting to litigate the issue. I don't understand what the industry is thinking. Maybe they industry thinks they are protecting themselves from data that could tarnish the product? Maybe the industry believes that when all this electronic measurement data becomes a well oiled machine, it will help prove that less people listen to radio than once thought? Or maybe it will prove that only a very small portion of the audience hangs around for commercials? But when it comes down to it, whatever the radio industry's reasoning, I believe the resistance is causing major economic damage to the industry.

Here is a comparable scenario. American automobile manufacturers profited, for years, on large gas guzzling trucks and SUV's. Due to increased global demand on fossil fuels, gas prices both slowly and quickly rise over the pervious 4 years. The American consumer becomes concerned as to the rising costs of driving their plush truck and demands a product more efficient. Consumers communicate their concerns and demands by abandoning the American vehicle for a more efficient foreign vehicle. American companies failed to respond. We all know the result.

Radio companies profited, for years, on the diary rating system. Due to continuous improvements, technology is now challenging the effectiveness of the diary rating system. Clients of radio become concerned as to the continued use of the old antiquated system of measurement. Clients of radio demand these enhanced measurement efficiencies so they can better target their market and more wisely spend their marketing budgets. Clients of radio have and will continue to communicate their concerns and demands by abandoning radio to embrace mediums that better calculate an audience. The radio industry has failed to respond. We all know the result.

While the above examples are not perfect, you get the picture. PPM and electronic measurement is not a cure all for the troubled industry, but it may help.

One of the companies I work with spends millions per year on broadcast. Over the years we reduce our spend in radio and roll it to TV & cable. We track better returns with TV & cable dollars. Maybe with a new radio measurement system we could better target the market and increase our return? In turn, maybe we increase radio buys? Like I said, this may not be a cure all but it certainly would not hurt the industry. Fighting change hurts!
 
It is a shame that radio is "tooling down". At a time when a falling economy and job losses point to the yawning chasm of a national fiscal calamity, and the transition from analog to digital tv could disenfranchise millions of viewers (no job = no cable or direct tv); radio would be the best medium to reach everyone for those reassuring "fireside chats".
 
I just watched a whole show on Franklin D. Roosevelt and his 'Fireside Chats'. Talk about a different time. Instead of people sitting around a TV staring like Zombies at 'Deal or no Deal, they were sitting around a speaker, listening to the President talk to them like the people that they were..human adults.
Nowadays people complain when the President is on because they are missing an episode of American Idol.

By the way: in 50 years when kids are studying our generation/decade in school, we will be known as the 'American Idol' generation....

F this, I'm moving to Mars.
 
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