WVLT - What Happened ?

[GeekBoy]

I listened to Cruisin' 92.1 today . What in the heck happened ? Last year at this time it was fast becoming a force to be reckoned with , with great music and a uniform brand. Today I heard 3 shifts doing 3 different types of music in which no more then 50% were ever hits or never heard of , ( at least by me ) . What on this green Earth would make a station that had finally hit the AC and Wilmington book, change music format back to the " Mixed Up " format it used to be. I think Bill Marshall was doing the music last year. Did he get the axe or what? To all you radio guys and gals out there, Please tell me the logic of this. I'm baffled !

 

[JimWilliams]

Well as I understandf, they're mostly an oldies station but feature loads of brokered programming...much like how the station I work for, WSNJ, is mostly a nostalgia station (my hosting/producing shift contains like 6 decades of music to give you a broad as hell range, matter of fact) with loads of brokered programming (4H Club this, religious that...especially on Sundays).

The simple answer I can give you is, it's based in Cumberland County, NJ. Need one say more?

 

[GeekBoy]

So the weekday format is not formated any more ? That's my question, why ? I know it was a year ago and they hit the books with a good start. If they abandoned a music director, what would be the reason ? ???

 

[fred flintstone]

When did you listen and who was on?

This does sound like you caught a brokered show.

I have not heard what you describe during regular programming.

 

[starlitejon]

Corkey Warren was Music Director of WLVT for the past Year and Programmed the Great Oldies that Finnally put WVLT in the books in Atlantic City,Delaware and even Showed up it Philadelphia,some of the Jocks Complained to the GM That they wanted to Play more of there own Music and Corkey Stepped down and Walt Lundy a Good Oldies DJ Himself is now Programming the Music a couple of days a week and Letting a Couple of Jocks Walk all over him.
Bill Marshall has nothing to do with the Music and only a Consultant to the GM

 

[GeekBoy]

To Fred Flintstone ~ I listened from about 8 am Friday to about 4 pm . The morning was a lot of b sides. The mid day was Doo Wop and the afternoon was Oldies Hits from the 60's and 70's. It was strange.

To Starlite ~ Why pay a music director if he is urinating in the wind ? As I ask further, people tell me they are hearing the same songs over and over . I never understood that with an oldies format.

 

[fred flintstone]

To Fred Flintstone ~ I listened from about 8 am Friday to about 4 pm . The morning was a lot of b sides. The mid day was Doo Wop and the afternoon was Oldies Hits from the 60's and 70's. It was strange.

This is sound like a case of the inmates taking over the asylum.
Some jocks think radio is for their own personal and artistic self-expression. A guy I used to work with called it "showmanship."
It's the same thing you see on this site all the time. People think other people will like what they like; if I play what I like, they will come.

I haven't listened for eight hours but as GB pointed in another post, putting more variety in the playlist is the most effective way to drive away an audience.

 

[JimWilliams]

GeekBoy, you think that's strange? Doo Wop and '60s/'70s sort of blend together at least.

In contrast, sample my shift at 'SNJ Saturday mornings...3 hours of '50s-'80s music when I host (think Sunny 104.5 with a bit of humor and PERSONALITY!!!), then 2 hours of Big Band music (every week some person calls in to say that they're dancing in their kitchen to Les Brown), then an hour of Frank Sinatra, then POLKA for 4 hours! If someone listened straight through their head might explode. ;D

I'm not complaining about the format...I think it's...well...unique and could only work in the area served. And all the folks are nice and do their thing well (that starlitejon guy, I dunno about though, j/k) but, hey it's a niche station no matter what any of the higher ups tell me.

And I guess WVLT is sort of the same in that respect...a lot of brokered programming in which if you've got the dime, then they'll give you whatever on their time.

 

[eatspaste]

I haven't listened for eight hours but as GB pointed in another post, putting more variety in the playlist is the most effective way to drive away an audience.

They lost 78% of their audience in 6 months in Atlantic City-Cape May (down to almost a 0.0). In Cumberland County, their cume is down nearly 50% since the Spring. That station could be a powerhouse, but instead some Philly stations are beating it from 35 miles away.

 

[starlitejon]

Geek Boy and Fred
I Agree with your Last's Post's 100% Percent.

 

[GeekBoy]

I've never heard of anything like this. I've seen stations make mistakes plenty of times but in a short period of time, scramble to correct or try something else. I didn't know that it was Corkey Warren who was laying the music down but I do know he is still at WVLT because I listen to his show on Saturday nights from time to time. Why don't they use him as a consultant ? The music was REALLY great last year and the ratings showed it. I thought Marshall was still there but I guess I'm mistaken. ???

 

[GlennSummers]

Oh, I know I am going to incur the wrath of many with this post, but here goes anyway:

Problem 1: No matter how "creative" the music mix is, unless you are consistent with the format, you will be doomed. You cannot play "your style" of "alternate" oldies and expect to gain what can be perceived as that niche audience when you slam the listener with a three to four hour block of talk programming during the weekeday nights or on a Saturday morning. Standards is not oldies either. Pick a format and nurture it.

Problem 2: You are not a Philadelphia station. Why this station tries to be a Philly station amazes me. True, the signal is strong. But my $.02 says only those who are friends of or know of the show hosts are tuning the Grundig into 92.1 for that "great" programming the station offers. Get at least a 2.0 in two Philly books and then call me wrong.

Problem 3: The Geator. Enough said.

Problem 4: Marketing. There is none. No contests, no promotions, nothing outside the website that makes any attempt to offer the station to the masses.

Problem 5: With the exception of daily one shift, the "club jock" approach to the on air presentation is tiresome. Scope a few hours of the shows and you'll see what I mean. And no fair scoping the satellite guys, either.

There you have the flame, folks. Feel free to throw some gas on it. I'm a big boy, I can take it.

 

[starlitejon]

Glenn, You have really done your homework,Your post is right on the Mark

 

[fred flintstone]

I agree, Glenn. It's sort of like a community college station for people too old for community college.
A sandbox for radio geeks and brokered shows to pay the bills.

It's sort of a nice fit. On the weekends, brokered shows take over and Oldies move to NJ101.5.
This is why Oldies fans look forward to weekends.

 

[SoulCrusher]

It's sort of a nice fit. On the weekends, brokered shows take over and Oldies move to NJ101.5.
This is why Oldies fans look forward to weekends.

Well, if you want to call what NJ 101.5 plays "Oldies". Technically, it's more like Classic Hits, because pretty much everything they play is from the '70s and the '80s, including stuff like "Born In The USA" era Springsteen, Bryan Adams, and even Bananarama.

This is a rant for another board, but we're seeing every station that ever had a connection to Oldies skew younger. WVLT could very well be the last station in NJ that plays any pre-British Invasion music, and for that they should be appreciated despite their flaws. Come to think of it, pretty much every station that reaches the Philly and NYC Metro areas have dropped that era as well. It's rather unfortunate when you think about it. But I guess that's not what the middle-aged Females are listening to these days.

 

[fred flintstone]

It's sort of a nice fit. On the weekends, brokered shows take over and Oldies move to NJ101.5.
This is why Oldies fans look forward to weekends.

Well, if you want to call what NJ 101.5 plays "Oldies". Technically, it's more like Classic Hits, because pretty much everything they play is from the '70s and the '80s, including stuff like "Born In The USA" era Springsteen, Bryan Adams, and even Bananarama.

This is a rant for another board, but we're seeing every station that ever had a connection to Oldies skew younger. WVLT could very well be the last station in NJ that plays any pre-British Invasion music, and for that they should be appreciated despite their flaws. Come to think of it, pretty much every station that reaches the Philly and NYC Metro areas have dropped that era as well. It's rather unfortunate when you think about it. But I guess that's not what the middle-aged Females are listening to these days.

Too late. That rant has been dominating the Oldies board for some time now. It's been dominating the Standards even longer. Oldies is music that was popular when one was in Middle School/Junior High, High School, College and single. People stop dating, get married, buy houses and have kids, their musical tastes become frozen in time and they enter the money demos. That's when they stop being Top40/Contemporary Hit fodder and become Oldies fodder.

Standards - Depression/WW2 Generation Oldies
Real Oldies - Early Boomer Oldies
Oldies/Solid Gold - Late Boomer Oldies
Classic Hits/80s - Gen X Oldies

NJ101.5 has a target age segment. People come and go, passing through their target age range. The target stays the same. They have to keep updating the playlist to stay with a moving target.
Small market stations, like WVLT, deal with local merchants and don't have to worry about things like target marketing.
Jack/Ben stations don't play what they like (their stuff is thoroughly tested); boonies stations do.

The following is a template that can be used for most of the posts on this site:

_____________ (format playing music I don't like) sucks. _____________ (name of market) radio sucks. We need a ___________ (name of format playing music I like) station. Stations are greedy. They shouldn't care about sales. They should play good music (i.e., music I like).
Like "Different strokes for different folks."

 

[SoulCrusher]

I completely understand all of that - the "hit music" audience in that era is now around 60, and I suppose they become less attractive to advertisers upon approaching retirement age. The thing that's shocking is that sooner or later we're going to see an era where everyone has forgotten about Elvis. I can't get over how infrequently The King is played these days. I may be in the minority, but I'm under 30 and I'm a big fan of the music of that era. That was pretty much all I listened to until I discovered bands like The Cult, R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction in the late '80s. I guess the most attractive demo now would be the people that grew up listening to Hall & Oates and the like.

Those Jack stations are a farce. "Playing what we want"? How about playing something that wasn't a mainstream smash hit from the '70s through today? How about some Henry Mancini, or maybe a Schubert composition? Let's hear some Slayer or Bauhaus! Yeah, fat chance we'll ever hear any of them. Anyone who thinks that they're going to hear something truly surprising that really deviates from that comfortable norm that Jack is programmed in would be well advised to look elsewhere. I do like the eclectic approach and the deep playlist of those stations, but I don't like the relative lack of personality or the aforementioned misleading promotional tagline.

 

[fred flintstone]

I completely understand all of that - the "hit music" audience in that era is now around 60, and I suppose they become less attractive to advertisers upon approaching retirement age. The thing that's shocking is that sooner or later we're going to see an era where everyone has forgotten about Elvis. I can't get over how infrequently The King is played these days. I may be in the minority, but I'm under 30 and I'm a big fan of the music of that era. That was pretty much all I listened to until I discovered bands like The Cult, R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction in the late '80s. I guess the most attractive demo now would be the people that grew up listening to Hall & Oates and the like.

We have already entered an age in which people have forgotten about Bing Crosby, probably the most influential performer of the 20th Century. He is to popular music what Babe Ruth was to baseball. And his only airplay in recent years were a few of his holiday cuts when Sunny went all Christmas.
As long as Sid Mark (and Sinatra's cult groupies) are alive, Sinatra will be remembered.
But who were the great singing/recording stars before Crosby? There really weren't any.

 

[eatspaste]

Small market stations, like WVLT

That's part of the problem with WVLT. It thinks small market while pretending to hit Philadelphia. It's a station that covers parts (or all) of 6 counties in South Jersey; it should be able to make a ton of money (without brokered programming) with a solid format. If it can't do that, then the people in charge have no clue how to run a radio station. That's Radio 101!

If WVLT doesn't want to be SoJo, Jr., then it can focus on Cumberland, Salem, and lower Gloucester. WSNJ-FM isn't on the air anymore, WJKS goes after Wilmington, and 97.3 isn't focused on the area. Again, it should be able to make a ton of money on itself without junking up its dayparts. With 104.5/Philly on the air, move the brokered stuff to WMIZ.

 

[fred flintstone]

That's part of the problem with WVLT. It thinks small market while pretending to hit Philadelphia. It's a station that covers parts (or all) of 6 counties in South Jersey; it should be able to make a ton of money (without brokered programming) with a solid format. If it can't do that, then the people in charge have no clue how to run a radio station. That's Radio 101!

If WVLT doesn't want to be SoJo, Jr., then it can focus on Cumberland, Salem, and lower Gloucester. WSNJ-FM isn't on the air anymore, WJKS goes after Wilmington, and 97.3 isn't focused on the area. Again, it should be able to make a ton of money on itself without junking up its dayparts. With 104.5/Philly on the air, move the brokered stuff to WMIZ.

It's not that easy.
NJ101.5 did it by creating a new market out of three Central Jersey markets and selling that idea of agencies and listeners. But it wasn't easy. And very few (actually I can't think of any) have done it since. Mostly ad agencies still buy metro markets as defined by the Census Bureau (and rated by Arbitron).