Santa 98.7

hdradioeng said:

.......doesn't make much sense, an already supersaturated format and they think somehow Chad and Kristi are a magic pill. This smells like Play with lower expectations or an oh shit IHR beat us to the point. The interesting thing is a little bird from Ohio told me this isn't done (you could read alot into that right there) so whats the next move in the chess game.

Again another missed opportunity for someone to get out of the box and "Make Radio Great Again" Congrats Justin Chase on more of the same regurgitated crap. Old man Beasley would be proud.

Any bets on where Bubba goes? I would hate to be on the receiving end of his anger. I think it could be likely he would sacrifice Ft Myers if it meant he could get back at (insert favorite Beasley manager here) LOL

We now return you to boring corporate playlist of Justin Chase programming superstar.
(this should stir the pot)
LOL @ Plan B (I see the Play on Play there)

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If B 98.7 isn't the end game (and becomes something else), do Chadd and Kristi end up elsewhere in the Beasley cluster (likely Q105)? If Mason Dixon retires......

As for Bubba, (according to him, at least) apparently iHeart was also interested before he signed with Beasley (presumably for 98 Rock). Of course with the ongoing Nielsen trouble, that's probably not in the cards.

Obtuse said:

If B 98.7 isn't the end game (and becomes something else), do Chadd and Kristi end up elsewhere in the Beasley cluster (likely Q105)? If Mason Dixon retires......

As for Bubba, (according to him, at least) apparently iHeart was also interested before he signed with Beasley (presumably for 98 Rock). Of course with the ongoing Nielsen trouble, that's probably not in the cards.

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Bubba in Tampa was supposedly bringing Beasley HUGE money from ad sales. That is the reason they did not toss him overboard when the ratings manipulation fiasco happened.

Something must have gone south in terms of contract renewal, because if they were going to put up with the bad press, embargoing of a couple of ratings cycles of data, and probably having to hand out a whole bunch of free inventory as "make goods" , why would they show him the door now.

As for the new format, it sounds to me like they will be siphoning off some listeners from Q105.

As for "Mason Dixon" the guy is on the far side of 65, how much longer do you think he wants to be getting up in the middle of the night to come to work. Plus Beasley is rumored not to be as willing to compensate talent the way CBS did....

Wally Brine at Beasley's recently acquired WROR FM Boston just tossed it in and he is not much older..... he had been doing mornings with Loren Owens there since 1981

BTW Nikki Cruz ended up in Portland Maine and her FB posts on moving to a place where they have to shovel snow and parallel park are humorous.

My best guess is the ratings fell off the charts at 10am. I think the station as a whole did "OK" the first year while they were running the anything goes Bubba music mix. Once the ratings tampering occurred, and they took the station to a more straight forward rock station as "No Rules Rock", it became VERY boring. The music mix was horrible the last 7-8 months. Public perception is "Bubba was fired again"... however I don't think he was entirely at fault. I'd love to see the numbers the rest of the day. I find it very hard to believe that with overall ratings of 1.2 to 1.6, the station wasn't completely tanking the other 20 hours of the day. Just my best guess. As far as pay by Beasley, you gotta figure they threw a ton of money at Chadd and Kristi. I mean... why would you leave a comfortable gig, and consistently well rated station for another that's has a checked history and sub-par signal in certain listening areas? Like I said, either they're getting a ton of money and control to make it worthwhile or the conditions at Cox have gotten to the point where they wanted out. Fact is, they're all in on that morning show. Unless they bring in other known Tampa Bay personalities, the playlist itself will do little to move to the needle aside from splitting the adult contemporary pie a bit more. I'll be the first to predict that WDUV will lose it's longtime grip on overall #1 within a few months and that's simply because 98.7 is gonna pull a little bit from everyone else. Between Mix, Magic, Dove, B, and to some extent Q105 and the CHRs, that audience is gonna be spread a bit thin. As for the mainstream and classic rock stations, I expect The Eagle and 98 Rock to see gains based on 98.7 and to some extent Thunder not being options anymore.

I see Magic taking a hit (as some listeners will follow Chadd/Kristi), but WDUV has little to worry about as they are so far ahead of the next overall station (WXGL).

I'd also imagine a sizeable portion of Bubba's audience were Country listeners who will simply go back to WQYK and WFUS in the morning.

This channel reminds me of a mixture between 94.9 and 100.7. Not worth listening to honestly and especially here in Brandon. The signal is hardly drivable here. I have noticed that some radios do better with it though. My friend's stock Honda radio actually makes it come in somewhat well.

98.7 is now identifying as "WPBB". I'm assuming they wanted to get away from the negative press of "WBRN-FM" after the BTLS ratings de-listing and so forth... and also the fact that I think they were paying another broadcaster for those call letters (WBRN-AM Big Rapids, Michigan)