SuperQ said:
"Why would Holston Valley scrap their very profitable Soft Rock thing to tackle the Rabbit? Simple. WXBQ outbills WTFM by a 2-to-1 margin. WXBQ takes one-third of all the available radio revenue in the Tri-Cities market. It's worth the bother. "
So if WXBQ is billing 6 million and WTFM is billing 3 million (hypothetical), WTFM should go after WXBQ. If they can take half their billing, they would be back up to 3 million. AFTER spending an untold fortune changing formats, re-branding, and losing a boatload of money after blowing out their existing 3 million. It's never cheap to tear down a heritage station in a country or AC format, and the revenue usually trails the ratings victory by 2 to 3 years.
You need some better math. If XBQ was doing six times TFM's billing, maybe.
Well, that's the kind of thinking that's kept the Big 3 locked into their comfy non-competitive slots for decades... and WXBQ entrenched at #1 (save for a glitch or two) since 1980. "Don't rock the boat."
Hypothetically, let's say Holston Valley shifts Soft Rock over to WVEK--enabling them to preserve 95% of their audience and their AC billing (losing only a direct account or two out in the hinterlands)--and possibly preserving a percentage of their Classic Hits audience and billing as well--but, more importantly, clearing 98.5 for Country.
Then let's assume that HV's sales crew--with longtime well-established client relationships in place--are able to launch Country 98.5 to a profitable start from the git-go. That makes the rest easy.
Operationally, the real question is how much MORE HV would need to spend operating Country 98.5--including massive promotion--than they're currently spending to run 'VEK. An extra $200,000 a year? An extra $500,000 a year? Remember, the extra money spent growing Country 98.5 would actually be an investment that they'd see returned if the gambit works (that is, if they can cut XBQ in half).
How long will they need to turn the Rabbit's 20 share into two tens? Three years? How long until that $6 million turns into two piles of $3 million?
So if they can preserve Soft Rock's current $3 million by switching it to 102.7, the new pile of $3 million really is replacing the current billing of Classic Hits, which is what? $500,000? A million?
Where in the world can you turn $500,000 into $3 million in just five years time--and never lose a dime doing it?
Johnson City, Tennessee. Ain't America great?