WXNT

[cheers2you]

Posed this question before in the Abdul topic, but thought it may deserve one of it's own.

Would WXNT be doing better if the following happened:

-Stronger signal to reach a wider area
-Less signal drop (aka less dead air)...seems to happen several times a day now
-More developed, local programming interspersed with the national programs (not just joe shmo with the money to be on air, but more people like Abdul, Pete the Planner, etc)
-Mandatory selling of the station (i.e. more spots on the air, less PSAs, means more of a demand)

Or is the station just destined to be the lowest billing in the market until it's costing more to run than it's bringing in and eventually goes off air?

 

[flip23]

Their signal is what it is. When that frequency was WIRE playing country they were in the top 3 with that same frequency.

Dead air is caused by a lack of interest on the part of the people running the station.

Local programming would be expensive and wouldn't be likely to attract more listeners than the syndicated shows they currently air. They would be better of returning to a full 3 hours of Boortz live in place of that awful Glenn Beck show. There has to be something better than "free talk live" for nights. It was ok on the weekend, but they don't have enough material for weeknights too.

WXNT does run an irritating number of the same PSAs, but then again WIBC runs an irritating number of mortgage, divorce, sexual energy potion and hearing aid spots and a bit too many spots with their people endorsing things. Car makers, beverage makers and others with more entertaining spots don't spend much on local radio these days, at least not on stations with higher up demos.

Entercom would surely be glad to sell WXNT if somebody made a decent offer. For that matter they'll probably glad to sell the entire Indy cluster as soon as the right offer is made. Word has it that they've already been privately shopping it.

 

[cheers2you]

You have point on the signal. As for dead air, as far as I've heard there's no one actually working for specifically for that station any more. I think they have a few people doing the random local weather/traffic read a few times a day, but it's not their main job. Otherwise, I think it's one of those things of if it goes off the air, the engineers have to run in and fix it....otherwise it's all automation.

True about local programming as well. Most of what they do air is pretty unfortunate sounding and I'd love to see the numbers on most of it.

The PSA's, spots for a handful of local products and spots for the few local shows they produce seem to be about the only breaks they have left. At least WIBC is pulling in some money for those irritating commercials.

As for selling...I wouldn't be surprised. I've always heard that Entercom lost a lot of money on that cluster to start with and that's when they had some stronger stations that were pulling in money. Now I'd be surprised if they were actually bringing in enough to cover keeping the building up and running and the sales people in their seats. They've already down-sized both quite a bit in the last 2 years since Jenny Skjodt took over. Not sure there's much more to do other than a giant miracle turn around in sales and programming. Otherwise, I'm sure Entercom is looking to jump off that sinking ship of clusters.

 

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

Cheers2you

The local Traffic reports are actually coming from Chicago. i dont know if WNXT asks the Chicago Traffic People include the Weather forecast as well. or if its 2 different People doing the reports. but i do know the traffic reports are from Chicago

 

[radiopro]

Cheers2you: you are an idiot.

You have such an obvious axe to grind towards the Entercom cluster.

They're bleeding money. Jenny is getting replaced. They're firing people. The higher ups are secretly interviewing for a new GM. Entercom would be happy to sell them. The salespeople are miserable. Everyone hates everyone there. Things were so good there until the new people arrived.

Not one thing you have ever predicted on this site has ever come close to becoming reality. If you weren't so pathetic and transparent in your attempts to stir stuff up, you might be entertaining.

Moronic.

 

[cheers2you]

Mike you are right, but every once in a while in the afternoon Hunter (used to be on-air on WZPL) and others sometimes report on some of the weather/traffic going on at the moment. It's never really anything breaking and does usually focus on weather. I believe Deb Snider out of Chicago does do most of the major traffic reports though.

RadioPro...I'm just passing on what I know from people that work there, maybe not necessarily management, but many of the people who actually do the work there. I haven't heard much since they hired a new GSM which is a good thing on their side considering from October of 2009 until the most recent hire they've had (in some capacity) 5 of them under the current management. As for the salespeople being miserable, I wouldn't say it unless I'd been told by some of them. I'm sure a few are still happy there and are making a decent wage. I'm not sure I ever said everyone hates everyone since that's their own business. I know more people don't like or agree with the management than do, which is also pretty apparent with the insanely high rate of turnover there in the past 2 years. I've never really tried to stir anything up, just making guesses, sometimes educated sometimes just my own thoughts as an outsider looking in.

It seems you're usually the one getting riled up about it which in most cases means you've probably got something to lose if the assumptions are correct/come true. I've discussed things about this company and others in the past and most people actually comment back making it into a conversation, unlike you who would rather just insult people who post their thoughts and opinions in an open forum. This again makes me think you may have more to lose than myself and others who post on this board.

 

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

Well i dont know who is doing Traffic or where its based from now since Clear channel Canned Brian Casey on WNDE, Q, and X. im sure they are still using the total traffic network exclusively on the CC Stations nationwide. but they are condensing those down as well like Metro Did a few years ago consolidating. But the CC stations have at least in the Afternoons a new girl doing Traffic. Emmis, Cumulus, WXNT, Radio One and WXLW/WFDM. Uses the Metro Bureau out of Chicago which is where deb Snider is based. But Emmis and Cumulus just use their people in morning and Afternoon Drive i know of for sure. and WFMS's Mid Morning reports are by an in house person but distributed from the chicago office, and Deb Snider does Mid Afternoons on WFMS.

 

[flip23]

It's always obvious they are not local when they refer to a problem in CAR-mel or an accident in OAK-lunden (instead of oak-LAN-dun).

 

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

Flip anyone outside of indiana calls Carmel CAR-mel

 

[flip23]

Yeah, always a sure sign. I think lately new tv weather people are being trained right away on how to pronounce Russiaville & Galveston since the seeming obvious pronunciations aren't correct. I suppose the same would apply to Versailles or Dubois county. The correct French pronunciations will get you kicked out of the native Hoosier club.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

One thing they have is a good signal. Of all the AM stations 1430 has the best in town signal. WXLW has a good day signal but zip at night. WIBC has problems in many areas at night.

The entire Entercom cluster has a lack of ratings and sales. Symptomatic of a problem.

I think Radio One has better ratings but this might be diary weighting. Go to the new search engine "AskAmos" to know for sure. And a lot of that programming (Joyner,etc) is non local. 2 Class A stations beat 2 Class B stations. Why not something unique on the AM? Jazz, Urban, Texas Hold Em Poker, talk (local) and it could work.

The problem with radio is the exit of good talent. Think this is on air only? Sales has the same problem. It is only sold if it is easy and convenient for the salesperson to sell if there is no lengthy career. If there is a lengthy career old salespeople get lazy too.

Am isn't dead but it is on life support. Smulyan giving up on 1070 is just a part of the material that gives this proof from a factual perspective.

 

[cheers2you]

You do have a point on signal as far as AMs go. I've been able to pick it up in various places around town, sometimes more easily than some FMs depending on the time and place.

What do you think that problem is with lack of ratings and sales Chief? Just the general radio atmosphere? Something different?

I agree on the exit of good talent. I've seen many sales people and behind the scenes people in other departments be kicked around, lose their passion and either end up getting demoted, over-loaded or eventually leave to go work in other forms of marketing and media. Why do you think this is happening more and more lately or has this always been an issue?

 

[secondchoice]

I agree on the exit of good talent. I've seen many sales people and behind the scenes people in other departments be kicked around, lose their passion and either end up getting demoted, over-loaded or eventually leave to go work in other forms of marketing and media. Why do you think this is happening more and more lately or has this always been an issue?

It has been an issue for a long time (salespeople leaving for $$$). If you can sell intangibles (insurance, air time, etc.), you can always find a job. Two on the best radio sales people I have ever worked with were "ex" life insurance salesmen who wanted to be home with family at night. The advent of clusters has really cut down on the numbers of sales people needed. The high debt load has really put the pressure on sale crews. Getting messed over in radio happens to sales people too not just air talent. Some of your best accounts becoming "house accounts" when the station was sold, reduced commission rates, and reduced benefits have happened to me. Remember that in radio (and much of Corporate America) you are an "expense" and anytime expenses can be cut, more profit for this quarter. Very few organizations look long term.

 

[cheers2you]

Very few organizations look long term.
[/quote]

So very very true. So many stations are cutting the truly dedicated, talented people or downgrading them to just be able to say "well we're making budget and bringing in money" even if that money is very,very small and it's at the expense of the actual stations. It seems in the last 5-10 years there's a focus on draining every last penny out of a product while letting the product itself dwindle. Sure there are plenty of good initiatives and ideas out there, but if there isn't enough talented manpower out there to accomplish it, then they don't happen and we go back to what worked 20 or 30 years ago.

There are so many clusters that just think of their assets (outside of just strictly on-air and promotion) as useless and in turn don't sell them/push their importance, charge little to nothing for them and spend very little time developing them. With so much focus in the world as a whole going to the internet, podcasting, streaming, etc. you'd think the best idea would be to integrate everything with equal importance and really make the most money possible.

But again, it all comes down to the idea that many in management, etc. that are still around are of the old-school mind set/don't necessarily understand the newer products and are unwilling to take that next step. They would instead rather just cut jobs, commission, etc. to make that budget.

 

[various]

Um...Chief Engineer...diary weighting? The Indy market's PPM now. And WIBC hasn't been on the AM dial for a looong time. 1070 is now the Fan, and it's performing very, very well.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

With or without weighting, how are 2 Class A's beating 2 Class B's? IT isn't television ads or a lot of promotional money. WIBC will always be 1070 to a lot of people. The reason it died was it's signal, allegedly. Salespeople just couldn't sell Am to 22 year old agency buyers.

If 1070 is doing well, then, it's still being beat by 2 loser FM stations. It is beating WXNT. Not saying a lot.

Wait, it's doing very,very well. Not condescending, just factitious. I am laughing at it doing very,very well. Ala Monty Pythion, I snicker in your general direction. If you are selling this then come work for me. If I cared about ESPN at all I might go look at the ARB's. I am sure the complaints they can't hear it in Carmel exist. I just can't imagine they have their own sales staff. Is the cut 50/50 for selling it?

It is a fitting end for WIBC. The FM is not what the AM once was except in call letters. And ESPN? They took the only network the Crawfordsville AM could get. 1550 ESPN. 1070 ESPN. Sounds the same.

All that land and all those developers. Look at all the new factories and plants in Whitestown. Just a matter of time before the land is sold for more than what the AM is worth.

 

[various]

Wow, Chief, wow.

I waited a few days to post this reply. It'll be my last on this site. Ever. The tone here is...well, again, wow.

How you personally feel about ESPN might be irrelevant, but the ARB's are pretty relevant to potential advertisers. Are you looking merely at the 6+ PPM's? Surely you're aware that's a mere beauty contest and specific demos are what buyers are interested in?

Well, no matter. WIBC moved to FM to bring the product to a broader demo. The Fan hired local talent. A lot of Emmis folks have ridden out the hard times. And the results:

http://www.ibj.com/emmis-local-radio-station-see-postppm-pop/PARAMS/article/28385

That trend continues. Farewell.

 

[flip23]

Last night WXNT was running a public affairs interview with a person from the local United Way. Automation cut him off in mid-sentence, covering his thought up with an NAB promo talking about how dependable local radio is and how much local radio stations care. That was followed by a dated PSA talking about hurricane Katrina hitting last year, then 3 more minutes of PSAs, 5 minutes of Fox news theme music, 10 minutes of dead air, a Fox news cue tone test, 4 minutes of station promos and then the NAB promo again talking about how relevant local radio is. WXNT seemed to have had these types of problems fixed until the last year or so when they started to crop up again, worse than ever.

Meanwhile things were running smooth on WIBC, but they were running a dated show talking about the hurricane approaching New York, although it had already come and gone. At least they didn't run the NAB promo talking about how relevant local radio is and how much radio operators care.

 

[cheers2you]

Last night WXNT was running a public affairs interview with a person from the local United Way. Automation cut him off in mid-sentence, covering his thought up with an NAB promo talking about how dependable local radio is and how much local radio stations care. That was followed by a dated PSA talking about hurricane Katrina hitting last year, then 3 more minutes of PSAs, 5 minutes of Fox news theme music, 10 minutes of dead air, a Fox news cue tone test, 4 minutes of station promos and then the NAB promo again talking about how relevant local radio is. WXNT seemed to have had these types of problems fixed until the last year or so when they started to crop up again, worse than ever.

This is another reason I question how much longer the station will be around. i believe about a year ago there were still people actually working at the station, but now they are basically staff-free. It's brings up the question...you're station isn't pulling in ratings or money, do you remove the staff and let things like this happen on a constant basis or do you keep a few key people and at least make an attempt at having people there to fix giant whoops moments? Is it worth paying those people to keep the national programming worth listening to or is it easier and more cost effective to just let whatever happens happen and alienate listeners?

 

[secondchoice]

This is another reason I question how much longer the station will be around.

They will keep the station on the air just to keep someone else from getting the channel. The daytime signal covers the market and a 250 watt FM translator on one of the TV towers could cover this foot print. I have not looked into any translators in this market but they are popping up everywhere!