WZNE's profit to take tumble; format change to follow?

[NewsSleuth]

According to some acquaintences in the radio biz, employees at The Zone 94.1 are bracing themselves for a huge profit loss early this year when Howard Stern leaves their airwaves. They face considerable losses in advertising revenue, as some of their major accounts have withdrawn or cutback without the Howard "live read." It is believe that most of the Stern audience will not embrace the replacement "Rover's Morning Glory" show, and that the station may have been able to get higher ratings playing music. That I would have to agree with.

Therefore this leads me to believe that our own WZNE is prime for a JACK makeover in the near future.

 

[Obtuse]

> According to some acquaintences in the radio biz, employees
> at The Zone 94.1 are bracing themselves for a huge profit
> loss early this year when Howard Stern leaves their
> airwaves. They face considerable losses in advertising
> revenue, as some of their major accounts have withdrawn or
> cutback without the Howard "live read." It is believe that
> most of the Stern audience will not embrace the replacement
> "Rover's Morning Glory" show, and that the station may have
> been able to get higher ratings playing music. That I would
> have to agree with.
>
> Therefore this leads me to believe that our own WZNE is
> prime for a JACK makeover in the near future.

My guess, they stay with New Rock (they are the only real game in town), especially with Fickle not exactly setting the market on fire. Also I'd imagine
if any change is in the works, my guess would be Hip Hop or Infinity's FreeFM (Talk/Rock hybrid).<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Obtuse on 12/11/05 06:44 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[dampier]

> My guess, they stay with New Rock (they are the only real
> game in town), especially with Fickle not exactly setting
> the market on fire. Also I'd imagine
> if any change is in the works, my guess would be Hip Hop or
> Infinity's FreeFM (Talk/Rock hybrid).

I'm waiting to see the first FM in the market consider an all-talk format or at least the FreeFM idea.

 

[Bob1370]

> I'm waiting to see the first FM in the market consider an
> all-talk format or at least the FreeFM idea.
>
You'll wait a while. For that format to work, you need a full market coverage signal, rather than a signal that struggles to be heard in some of the 'burbs.

About the only underperforming one that comes to mind immediately is WVOR. Clear Channel won't flip it to talk for fear of hurting stablemates WHAM and WHTK. No one else with a full market signal is performing poorly enough to make a flip desirable right now.

WPXY has also seen better days, but I'm sure Infinity realizes it can fix that station's problems with some tweaks.

The FMs that are rating poorly are by and large the lower power stations that don't cover the full market well. They need to program with niche formats that play best to the areas they cover best.