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What a surprise...Warm flips to all-Christmas
- Thread starter Rob Piotrowski
- Start date
I've heard that promo, and I guess we'll have to see what happens on the 26th. AQH a couple things,
1. Maybe David Eduardo can help me out with this, but once again, I return to the example of WBEB in Philidelphia. While everyone saw that one coming a couple weeks before it happened, which I'll get to in a bit, it was treated as an evolution of the station, not a format change by the station's owner. I've always suspected something similar will happen here. How much of a sales impact this had if any is unknown to me on the outside looking in.
2. As far as format changes with no announcement, they happen all the time. Look at what happened when 98.9 dropped Smooth Jazz for Modern AC. Nobody saw it coming. The only thing we had to go off of there was that Smooth Jazz was dying in other markets and it'd only be a matter of time until it was killed off here. Also, look at the changes at iHeart back in January. All the chatter was about 102.9, with maybe some suspicions about 93.3.
1. Maybe David Eduardo can help me out with this, but once again, I return to the example of WBEB in Philidelphia. While everyone saw that one coming a couple weeks before it happened, which I'll get to in a bit, it was treated as an evolution of the station, not a format change by the station's owner. I've always suspected something similar will happen here. How much of a sales impact this had if any is unknown to me on the outside looking in.
2. As far as format changes with no announcement, they happen all the time. Look at what happened when 98.9 dropped Smooth Jazz for Modern AC. Nobody saw it coming. The only thing we had to go off of there was that Smooth Jazz was dying in other markets and it'd only be a matter of time until it was killed off here. Also, look at the changes at iHeart back in January. All the chatter was about 102.9, with maybe some suspicions about 93.3.
Star is the #1 billing music station in the market. They are definitely not using a Christmas music episode as a way to introduce a new format.
If anything, doing all-Christ mas is a way to cement loyalty with the female core and to perhaps get a bit of extra December billing.
Star has had consistent billing in a market that has had zero revenue growth in the last 8 years.
I can not think of a single case where a market-leading biller has used Christmas music as a door into a new format. Stations that do such changes are generally poor performers or stations that can see ongoing aging or erosion of their audience and have decided to be proactive in changing format. Neither case applies to Star.
So...the "new Star 101.5". OK this becomes more apparent. Star is still Star, but there will be some music refocusing. My guess is a little less hot AC and back to the basics of mainstream AC, but the actual change will be minor. All about perception and marketing. The lines today are quite blurry. Hence, not much to see here.
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Star is not changing format. David is exactly right. They determined this was the right move for this year to induce sampling and trial and encouraging people to stick around for 30 days after to build CUME. My guess is that they may follow that up with marketing which if past history is an guide I would suspect involves computer giveaways which seem to be a consistent winner. None of which should be a surprise to anyone. Period, end of story.
Why would you want to make any change in the top billing FM music station in the entire market?
Why? They are the billing leader among music stations. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
So why call it "new"? I think that was my original point. All marketing and perception. The music changes might be slight, but they can bill it as "new". I wonder how many listeners will even notice.
And they can simply update the imaging, positioners and stuff and come back as fresh and new after Christmas. Perception is what counts.
Except the armchair QBs who insist on turning nothing into something - like analyzing 6+ ratings. And I remember those computer giveaways - but today they might go for iPads or Surface tablets. Takes a lot less room to store.
I'll admit that my second point was a little weak, though I was trying to point out that nobody is going to see every change coming. As for point #1, is there any similarities here to WBEB? As far as I'm aware they're also the top billing music station in their market, and they rebranded with maybe some small musical tweaks in 2013. One thing I don't understand is if they were returning to their former identity, why didn't they just go all Christmas under that brand in the first place? Please explain the logic behind that.
Why not take that up on the Philadelphia radio board? What WBEB does or doesn't do isn't relevant to Seattle radio.
Different situation. B-101 rebranded to More 101.1 because the old "rounded" frequency was no longer useful and the name had been in use for more than a decade. WBEB is one of the most research driven stations in the country, and they likely wanted to get ahead of any perception that the station was "for people older than me".
As to refreshing the music, they do that several times a year after each music test.
Yes, this true. However, when they tag it with "The New", then it becomes more perception than reality. Probably what is going on here. Though I think I made this point earlier.
Not to mention freshen up the logo.
You mean, KPLZ, KRWM, and KCMS, right? KAFE and CHQM are not Seattle stations. Just trying to understand your post.
We agree on a lot, but Bellingham is not part of the the Seattle radio market, while TV is. Certainly you can catch some Bellingham and/or Canadian stations in the north end of Seattle.
But my question is for Seattle stations it is just KCMS, KRWM, and KPLZ?
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