XLNC1 - VERY ODD MARKETING

[sdwulfdawg]

I have never quite understand San Diego's classical music juke box station, XLNC1 104.9.

Whenever they are doing some kind of marketing effort it is always a bit odd. Now they have changed logos to a very austere 104.9 FM "Hits Forever." On their buscards they have J.S. Bach's picture, Beethoven, The lead singer from "The Doors" and John Lennon....AVOIDING AT ALL COSTS mentioning that they are doing some sort of classical formatted station.

How would a classical music aficiondo just moving to San Diego know that they are a classical station? What does John Lennon and "The Doors" have to do with classical music? It is almost like they are avoiding at all costs any chance to be a success and to "preach" to their audience. It's bad enough their move of frequency to 104.9 has been questionable in terms of coverage.

Any ideas, anyone?

 

[radio-darn]

Having been a communications VP at Califormula when Victor Diaz started this as an internet-only radio station, nothing surprises me. They do now have the domain http://hitsforever.org but it points to the old http://www.xlnc1.org address and they only change is that they now had the 104.9 Hits Forever logo superimposed over the same old graphics, but no Lennon or Morrison.

Victor never marketed XLNC as a "classical" station per se: you still have to drill down into the website to find the word "classical," used on the ABOUT US page:

"light classical programming"

Victor called it "The top 400 hits of the past 400 years" and "Hits Forever" sounds like a poor attempt to play on that.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

KDFC is "Bay Area Classical," WQXR - is "The Classical Music Station of New York City," WFMT is "Chicago's Classical and Folk Music Station," WRR in Dallas is, "WRR Classical 101.1," KING-FM is "Classical KING-FM," KBPS in Portland, OR is "All Classical 89.9," CFMX in Toronto is "Classical 96.3." Mmmmmm....you think their might be a pattern?

In my opinion, the station is being run by a run of amateurs who "think" they know what they are doing. For me, as a classical music aficionado, the station is UNLISTENABLE, especially with Kingsley MacLaren's announcing non-skills.

Saying "104.9 Hits Forever" communicates nothing...

Ugh...no use banging on my head on the wall. It drives me crazy when I see stations not marketing themselves very well.

 

[fredcantu]

Hits Forever is an attempt to break down the format walls and market the station to non-classical listeners. I believe there was a classical in Florida that branded itself as "400 Years of Hits." I also recall WMAQ in Chicago in its country days never calling itself country, and of course EMF's K-Love never calls itself Christian-- just "positive and encouraging."

 

[sdwulfdawg]

Hits Forever is an attempt to break down the format walls and market the station to non-classical listeners. I believe there was a classical in Florida that branded itself as "400 Years of Hits." I also recall WMAQ in Chicago in its country days never calling itself country, and of course EMF's K-Love never calls itself Christian-- just "positive and encouraging."

It is very confusing...and the mark of amateurs in marketing and advertising....who think they know something about marketing and advertising (there are a lot of them here in San Diego). The station is really weak in its programming and approach to classical music. If the station had unlimited money it might work, but saying "Hits Forever" is kind of esoteric. Should KSON not tell its listeners that it is a country station to its listeners in its advertisers "to break down format walls"?

There are a lot of classical music aficionados that don't know that XLNC exists simply because it seems to be scared to admit that it is a station that plays classical music.