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Yet *ANOTHER* terrible move by the Eagle

victorres43 said:
It looks like KEGL has poached talent from other stations to build a new Freakin’ sports talk format.

radioinsight.com

iHeartMedia Dallas Launches 97.1 The Freak

After a weekend of stunting, iHeartMedia officially launched Hot Talk "97.1 The Freak" KEGL Fort Worth/Dallas at 3pm today. The
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
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Well guys.. I guess you no longer have to worry about which rock songs they will play....
 
victorres43 said:
It looks like KEGL has poached talent from other stations to build a new Freakin’ sports talk format.
Click to expand...

Makes sense to me. As I said earlier, rock music divides people. They need a format that unites people, and sports can bring people together. The problem is it's expensive, and iHeart doesn't have a lot of experience in this kind of thing. Where they do it (such as Seattle with KJR) it doesn't get big ratings.

I mentioned Josh Innes earlier in this thread, and he does a sports-oriented rock morning show for WLLZ in Detroit. iHeart has been syndicating him to other classic rock stations. There are a few other people like him in the iHeart system. But Josh fits the bill as "hot talk."

 
I assume DFW's other sports stations stick to talking about teams and games. This sounds like an attempt to blend sports talk with "guy talk" on music, dating, politics, wokeness, etc. That may be the only approach to take to make any kind of impact.
 
CTListener said:
I assume DFW's other sports stations stick to talking about teams and games. This sounds like an attempt to blend sports talk with "guy talk" on music, dating, politics, wokeness, etc. That may be the only approach to take to make any kind of impact.
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People ask why does the Sports Hub absolutely destroy WEEI in Boston? The answer is the talk. The hosts have built so much passion among the audience that it doesn't matter if Brady left town for Tampa.
 
TheBigA said:
People ask why does the Sports Hub absolutely destroy WEEI in Boston? The answer is the talk. The hosts have built so much passion among the audience that it doesn't matter if Brady left town for Tampa.
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And you'll recall that in the days when WEEI was the only sports talker in town, much of their buzz was centered on their morning team of John Dennis and Gerry Callahan, who constantly courted controversy with non-sports talk. They knew their sports, but being right-wingers (politically and socially) in a left-wing market, they couldn't resist stirring the pot. I doubt KEGL (and will there be a change of call letters?) or any other sports station would try the opposite approach, but I have to admit it's fun to think what the reaction in Texas would be if a liberal morning duo came on suggesting that high school football be banned because of the concussion risk.
 
This will be interesting. With the strength of The Ticket it will be a tough competition, but KRLD-FM is one of Audacy’s weaker sports stations.
 
The name fits the “Freaker’s Ball” concert they are throwing next month. Lol.

A while back, there was a “the freak” station in State College, PA, spelled FREQ. It was a pretty good AAA.
 
neosolbrudda said:
Well guys.. I guess you no longer have to worry about which rock songs they will play....
Click to expand...
I guess playing no rock songs is a solution! We shall see how it works out for them, but becoming the third sports/talk station in a market is going to make things a rough going.

This move also means that the top 5 metropolitan markets in the US will be lacking an Active Rock station. Though Cumulus may just flip KLIF 93.3. It's also possible that KVIL may adapt a stronger Active lean to prevent a competitor from emerging.
 
macattack said:
I guess playing no rock songs is a solution! We shall see how it works out for them, but becoming the third sports/talk station in a market is going to make things a rough going.
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But as has been noted many times here on RadioDiscussions, the sports format outperforms all others when it comes to generating good advertising revenue with minimal ratings. Compare it with active rock or alternative rock and it's no contest. Advertisers and agencies are so locked into the slacker stereotype of the modern rock listener that most stations in the format underperform in ad revenue, no matter how strong their ratings are.
 
It's nice that iHM is finally flipping low rated underperforming stations on FM in major markets to Sports. They should've started doing that fifteen years ago.

iHM does not like having classic rock and active rock on full power signals in the same market for whatever reason. Dallas - Ft. Worth was one of the few holdouts. San Diego is the only other market that comes to mind where that circumstance exists, but in recent years, Rock 105.3 has begun playing quite a bit of current & recurrent alternative product alongside the standard Active Rock fare.

If it's true 97.1 is ditching Rock entirely, I could see 93.3 picking up the mantle, although that is far from a sure bet. Conversely, it would not entirely shock me to see Cumulus flip 93.3 to a simulcast of 96.7 / 1310 in order to improve FM coverage in Dallas County.
 
Seems iHeart is going for broadcast rights for NFL games. I'm guessing they'll attempt at it in the future.

One of their biggest sports stations is KFAN in Minneapolis. They do a hybrid of Sports and Non-Sports related Talk. Think of it as a conversation your average 35-54 male would have over a few drinks. They plotted cloning KFAN's approach in Milwaukee on FM for over a year. They already had it on WOKY-AM, it was getting a 0.1. They wanted the Packers but had to lure them from WTMJ-AM. So they flipped their CHR station. First they immediately shifted the Badgers games (which they already had) to the new sports station, then they finally succeeded this year in getting the Packers. A big part of it was brand association. iHeart and NFL.

Wouldn't be surprised if they attempted to lure the Cowboys from Audacy at some point in the future. They have already succeeded in other markets. They have 2 formats they usually run NFL games on. Sports and Rock, Classic Rock.
 
MarkW said:
If it's true 97.1 is ditching Rock entirely, I could see 93.3 picking up the mantle,
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I don't. It's not like it's a sure fire winner. And I don't see that they have a lot of tools within Cumulus that would help.

JeremyAndrews said:
Seems iHeart is going for broadcast rights for NFL games. I'm guessing they'll attempt at it in the future.
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Correct, and they have a very good pitch to teams, offering to produce their online content for them. iHeart sees this more as an online feature than on-air.
 
MarkW said:
If it's true 97.1 is ditching Rock entirely, I could see 93.3 picking up the mantle, although that is far from a sure bet. Conversely, it would not entirely shock me to see Cumulus flip 93.3 to a simulcast of 96.7 / 1310 in order to improve FM coverage in Dallas County.
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Hot 93.3 exists to be a combo sale for Cumulus with KSCS/KPLX against iHeart's KHKS/KDMX/KDGE trio. IF there were to flip KLIF-FM now, it would likely to be a simulcast of KTCK/KTCK-FM to have The Ticket on FM throughout the market with the addition of KEGL to the local Sports battle.
 
lanceventa said:
IF there were to flip KLIF-FM now, it would likely to be a simulcast of KTCK/KTCK-FM to have The Ticket on FM throughout the market with the addition of KEGL to the local Sports battle.
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And that’s what’s going to eventually happen. That’s why I think this is a very risky move. I’ve launched a sports format before and served as a PD for 5 years. Sports talk is expensive and there’s no guarantee it’s going to work or make money, especially building around the Mavericks (who are not the Cowboys). And, I don’t see Jerry wanting to dump a sweetheart deal with Audacy to go to 97.1. If Dallas couldn‘t eventually support 3 sports stations, I don’t see why they would now. Honestly, I’m studying the Eagle, and their issues are so fixable. On another note, what happens to a concert that 97.1 is putting on (Freaker’s Ball)? Or, will that along with rock in some form or fashion still be on 97.1? My suggestion is that they at least keep music overnights or weekends. While having satellite fed sports is cheaper to run in 2022, than 2000, I learned personally it doesn’t equate to ratings and revenue. I’m just stunned 103.7 took out the Eagle
 
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