My Week Listening to Tampa Radio

I spent a vacation week in Tampa earlier this month. And I've got to say, this is quite an unusual radio market for several reasons...

First, WDUV. I have to confess I had this station on most of the time, hearing great soft tunes from the 70s, 80s and a few 60s (Beatles, Temptations, Van Morrison, etc.) Yes, it's automated outside morning drive, but that's not a bad thing. Yes, by the end of the week, I noticed I was hearing some songs repeated a few times. I also wonder why I didn't hear certain artists I expected would be in this format... no Whitney Houston, Gloria Estefan, Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion. On the older side, I also heard no Neil Diamond or Dionne Warwick. Maybe they give certain artists a rest for a while and I just happened to notice the absence of these artists?

I was surprised that WDUV is trying to pick up the tempo a bit, so as not to aim above the 25-54 audience. I heard some songs I frankly didn't think fit, such as Superstition by Stevie Wonder and Don't Stand So Close to Me by The Police. They also play the long version of Santana's Black Magic Woman, which is more uptempo and guitar-driven than the single. Odd.

But the station is on everywhere. As soon as I landed at the airport, the car rental van had it on. I heard it coming from a car parked at a Walmart with an African-American man behind the wheel. It clearly is Tampa's #1 station, even though few other markets have a Soft AC station anymore.

Second, I listened to 102.5 WHPT The Bone. Again, almost no markets have a Hot Talk station anymore. CBS tried it on several of its FM stations around the country, both with and without Howard Stern. But they all flipped to something else. It's clear the hosts on The Bone are trying to do Guy Talk, with comedians playing local clubs as guests, and talking with the producers and callers. The topic sometimes was sex. But they also try to hold the line on anything that might get them in trouble with advertisers or the FCC, something Stern ran afoul of. And I also noticed they kept repeating the weekday shows on overnights and weekends, so there was no music on the station whatsoever. The ratings are good, #8 in the latest book, while the traditional Talk Radio station, iHeart's 970 WFLA has dropped below half the Bone's ratings.

A few other notes... Why are the ratings for WHFS-FM so low? Not even a one rating? Yet from what I heard, they sound like a decent CBS FM Sports station. There are few markets where an AM Sports station, in this case 620 WDAE, so thoroughly beats an FM Sports station, especially one that has the backing of CBS Corporate. WDAE has local shows most of the day, only relying on the ESPN network nights and weekends. So why does the AM Sports station totally dominate?

I thought WRBQ is a good CBS Classic Hits/Oldies station. I hope the new owners keep the standards as high. DJs and production sounded good. Same for Cox-owned WXGL Eagle 107.3, a Classic Hits/Classic Rock station. (We've really got to stop calling both these stations Classic Hits. They're not the same format.) NPR affiliate WUSF had good local news. I didn't catch any local shows though, if they have any. Kudos to WUSF for also having a 24/7 Classical outlet, WSMR. Most of the time I could get either the main station from Sarasota at 89.1 or the Tampa translator at 103.9.

The morning shows on Talk WFLA and WWBA sounded pretty good. Most of the day and night I could also tune into Cuba's Radio Reloj, either at 790 or 950. It really is an amazing oddity. A time station with anchors reading news stories over the beeps, trying to time their stories so they end by the beginning of the next minute, which gets a long beep and a morse code signal, along with a time check. Ocho horas, cinco minutos. Di-di-di-di.

And at night I heard Chicago stations 720 WGN and 780 WBBM quite reliably. Some nights I even caught 880 WCBS from New York, about 1000 miles away, on my car radio. Tampa is a really great city to visit for a beach vacation and some interesting radio!

If you listened to the Fan's local offering for at least a few minutes, 1) You are in a very, very small minority and 2) you should understand why the numbers are so low.

One more thought about Tampa radio... There are two Urban/Rhythmic stations: CBS-owned 94.1 WLLD, #6 in the ratings, and iHeart-owned 95.7 WBTP, tied for #8. Yet there's no Urban AC or Rhythmic Adult station. Isn't that odd? In Miami, the Urban AC station is #1, in Orlando it's #3, both well above the more contemporary Urban and Rhythmic stations. Yet the format doesn't exist in Tampa?

I really didn't listen to WLLD or WBTP to see if either is leaning more adult and filling that void.

Miami and Tampa are two very different markets. That's the nice way to say it. The population make-up in Tampa simply isn't such that justify the number of Urban/Rhythmic stations you'd prefer. And on the other side of that, you chose not to listen to Tampa's two top-rated country stations. Country is huge in Tampa, not so much in Miami. That should tell you something.

Gregg. said:

I really didn't listen to WLLD or WBTP to see if either is leaning more adult and filling that void.

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WBTP does lean a bit more adult than WLLD, which kind of fills the void.

Another notable difference between Tampa and Miami.....Tampa Bay currently has 5 FM rock formatted stations. Thunder, 97X, 98Rock, Alt 99.9 (well, northern Pinellas, anyway) and Eagle.

And only a Classic Rock station in Miami. But six FM stations broadcasting in Spanish. So it's true Miami and Tampa are quite different.

I should have made the comparison with Orlando and Jacksonville. Orlando has an Urban AC that's #1. Jacksonville has two Urban AC stations, one owned by iHeart, one by Cox.

Gregg. said:

Most of the day and night I could also tune into Cuba's Radio Reloj, either at 790 or 950. It really is an amazing oddity. A time station with anchors reading news stories over the beeps, trying to time their stories so they end by the beginning of the next minute, which gets a long beep and a morse code signal, along with a time check. Ocho horas, cinco minutos. Di-di-di-di.

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It's actually di-dah-dit di-dah-dit, which is RR in Morse Code. RR=Radio Reloj. Kinda like an ID every 60 seconds!

Had you ever listened to the other 2 stations behind Eagle. They are neck and neck pop stations. 93.3 FLZ and Hot 101.5 are trying to compete, but last month, despite 101.5 going to default pitch, they are #1 in the Pop rankings. I STILL HATE THEM, BECAUSE they switched from 3% pitch like since the beginning, and now went to default. I have a list of songs, but that will be too much, because this was going on for 5 MONTHS NOW! However, you can check the HOT 101.5 default pitch page that I wrote a "RadioDiscussions" Complaint to the station for more info about that. Why leave 93.3 FLZ, I love that station, and they are iHeart owned, so why lower them, if they have a format that will boost ratings up? Always have and always will love that station UNTIL 101.5 SWITCHES BACK TO 3% pitch. 101.5 has like a ridiculous pitch settings having songs that are default pitch one time, then 3% the next. For example, "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor goes at default pitch the first time, the next at 3% pitch. Besides, iHeart should put this sign up at their Gandy Blvd studios, where it says "iHeartMedia" at the top and all their stations by their logos at the bottom, where the CC M+E logo used to be. Q105, if it ever goes back to pop, it wouldn't be Amp Radio, because they are being acquired by Beasley. They would still be Q105.

Dude, we get it. HOT doesn't pitch up anymore and that really bothers you. Can you move on to other productive discussions that don't involve your disgust with HOT?

Hey, by the way, did you hear that HOT doesn't pitch up anymore?

Enough about "pitch" already. Am I the only one who feels this particular discussion has devolved into the most juvenile rant this board has seen in awhile?

Yeah, enough about pitch already, lets get back to what Tampa radio sounds like. You know what I think radio in Tampa sounds like? I think it sounds a lot like radio in every other metropolitan area of this country. You've got several stations playing the same "competitive" formats, with the same "competitive" playlists, with the same recycled jingles, and the same voiceover artists, and the same pukey DJ's trying to give it their best "Howard voice" on their 15 second live read for Jiffy Lube. You probably heard AC-DC on the rock stations, Toby Keith on the country stations, and Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight on the 80's station (do we still have an 80's station?). On the AM side you heard crosstalk and static... and Christian/Sports/Spanish/neoconservative talk 1/neoconservative talk 2/neoconservative talk 3/Spanish/static/Urban/Disney/Urban. How did I do?

Radio is boring me to pieces, I feel like I am wasting my time. There is nothing wrong with the medium, and nothing wrong with the technology. The problem isn't even the corporate control necessarily, the problem is that corporate doesn't allow anyone to take chances anymore. Local or time specific content is repressed because you can't automate or syndicate that, and absolutely nothing is allowed to be done unless a sponsor is involved first. Case in point, I worked at a station where a sales rep honestly and sincerely wanted to put a corporate logo on the American flag at an event. A minor caveat, the flag thing aside, that was still the best sales person I have ever met, to this day... but I digress.

I think the only reason anyone still listens anymore is (ironically) for the nostalgia factor. It's so cool to turn on a simple old radio and have music and speech come out. Unfortunately, there isn't much interesting stuff for people (especially "cool" people) to listen to, so they assume that radio has seen it's day, and start learning how to use iTunes. As I've said in other threads, I think companies like "iHeart Media", have an obvious and (in)vested interest in making sure terrestrial radio gets stomped out, sooner rather than later. Maybe I'm a crackpot, but I've been right about everything else so far

coolaid213 said:

The problem isn't even the corporate control necessarily, the problem is that corporate doesn't allow anyone to take chances anymore.

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If it was your money, would you do things any differently?

I mean, even public radio, owned by colleges and non-profits, are pretty predictable. Don't you think?

If it was my money, and I was in dire financial straits like some of these big broadcasters, I would take a page out of the Randy Michaels playbook, and throw the rule book out the window. There is no excitement on terrestrial radio anymore, there is no more feeling that anything could happen at any moment. Even on Tampa's "Hot Talk" station, you know what to expect. They're going to shoot some guy with a BB gun, or darts, and then they're going to mispronounce a bunch of words, and insult their much more literate listening audience.

I totally agree with what you're saying about public radio, et al. But have you been behind the scenes at a station like 88.5? They operate exactly like the big commercial stations, the only difference is they don't have a sales staff.... except they do, selling "underwriting" for their programs.

Again, if it was my money, I would tell my air talent to go crazy, engage the listeners and callers, let them play whatever they want, or whatever the caller wants every once in awhile. You really can't get much worse than what's on the air now, and the numbers don't lie.

I'd like to add, from a sales standpoint, it's really EASY to sell fun... and the radio stations around here aren't exactly what I would call "fun".

coolaid213 said:

If it was my money, and I was in dire financial straits like some of these big broadcasters, I would take a page out of the Randy Michaels playbook, and throw the rule book out the window.

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I don't see Cox as being in dire financial straits. What chances do they take? What is the upside of taking chances when the audience, for the most part, wants predictable. Where do you see risk taking being rewarded? WMNF? With their "hodge podge lodge" of programming? It's not happening. They can't even get a 1 share. They're getting beat by HD radio! So you give the people what they want, which is McDonalds. WDUV baby. All the way. You want fun? Listen to QYK. Girls in daisy dukes is my idea of fun.

You're right, Cox is doing very well. But I have no idea what's going on at iHeart since the buyout. And it's no secret that the other companies are having some debt issues.

And you're right, WMNF is taking chances... lol I suppose that's the only way you can describe hours and hours of folky white people music interspersed with liberal talking points and begging.

WMNF isn't taking the kind of chances that I am talking about. Like I was saying before, they have the same sort of hierarchy as a commercial radio station. The place isn't brimming with creativity and excitement (as much as they would like you to believe it). I've been there, and there are some great volunteers, but there is also a large number of people who are getting paid way too much to do almost nothing... sound familiar? I'm telling you it's just like commercial radio over there...

When I say take chances, I am thinking of 95YNF, The Power Pig, Bob Lassiter, 620 WSUN, or 1040 WHBO as touchstones. I'm not speaking to the format, but how you engage the audience, and how you make people tune in for something that they can only get from terrestrial radio.

coolaid213 said:

When I say take chances, I am thinking of 95YNF, The Power Pig, Bob Lassiter, 620 WSUN, or 1040 WHBO as touchstones. I'm not speaking to the format, but how you engage the audience, and how you make people tune in for something that they can only get from terrestrial radio.

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What worked 40 years ago isn't going to work now. Not with today's generation. Engagement happens on multiple platforms. If you're not everywhere, on every device, at every local event, it won't matter what you're doing on air. I walked through Raymond James Stadium with a popular local DJ, and everyone knew him and wanted to talked to him because he put the time in off air. That's when local radio is working, and it's way beyond what was being done years ago. And the best part, for cost conscious companies, is it doesn't cost any money. The tools of engagement are at our disposal for free! Yippee!

coolaid, I think you hit the nail on the head there.

Thank you, Mailman. And BigA, saying that what worked on radio 40 years ago won't work now, is like saying people won't eat a Big Mac, because it's so 50 years ago. The content may change, and the delivery mechanism may change, but people like the same kinds of things, no matter what era you're living in. People want local news, they want local weather, they want local traffic, and on a music station they really do want to hear something different from time to time. They want information that is relevant to them, and they don't want to listen to some canned recording that is days old. When I worked at GUL we regularly aired 2 day old traffic reports... this happens more than you think. That's why people don't listen. Make it fresh, make it exciting, make it relevant, and people will listen. Again, Pizza is hundreds of years old, and people still love eating it.