Programatic buying tends to be format agnostic and looks at the cost vs. delivery equation for each market.
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CBS RADIO merges with Entercom: DFW Impact
- Thread starter LibertyNT
- Start date
Programatic buying tends to be format agnostic and looks at the cost vs. delivery equation for each market.
KDGE has great demos in 18-49 and 25-54. In the average of Apr-May-June books, they were 1st in 25-34 women, and 2nd in 25-44 and 25-54 women in the market. 3rd in 18-34 women, too.
What they will gain from the flip is a likely a much better power ratio, as alternative stations in many markets tend to below a 1.0 ratio, while Hot AC and AC are often well above that mark. Example: high rated WRFF in Philadelphia has a 0.31 power ratio.
Impressive rankings, indeed!!! Definitely not "poor"...LOL.
iHeart appears to have made a terrific format decision; CBS appears to have miscalculated horribly.
The audience KDGE now enjoys in all likelihood would belong to KVIL right now had KVIL not abandoned Adult Contemporary.
I bet iHeart commands an outrageous share of the W18-49 and W25-54 audience locally! Has to be tops of any owner in the market by a mile.
My point was that CBS didn't change the format just to do so. It either assessed itself as not competitive with the prior format, or saw an opportunity with CHR that AC wasn't offering.
You made the point that, for some reason, they should've hung onto the KVIL branding. Why? If they're changing the identity, changing the branding would seem worthy of trying.
I didn't know what KDGE's demos were. My point wasn't so much about them, but that CBS saw a need to change its format based on what it was drawing.
Regarding this assertion, "The audience KDGE now enjoys in all likelihood would belong to KVIL right now had KVIL not abandoned Adult Contemporary." do you have anything, I mean anything, at all to support that? How many ACs do you think a market even as large as DFW can support?
You made the point that, for some reason, they should've hung onto the KVIL branding. Why? If they're changing the identity, changing the branding would seem worthy of trying.
I didn't know what KDGE's demos were. My point wasn't so much about them, but that CBS saw a need to change its format based on what it was drawing.
Regarding this assertion, "The audience KDGE now enjoys in all likelihood would belong to KVIL right now had KVIL not abandoned Adult Contemporary." do you have anything, I mean anything, at all to support that? How many ACs do you think a market even as large as DFW can support?
I agree with your last sentence, but it is my view the format should not have been changed. Musically, the station should've never gone more aggressive than Hot AC. Why do I feel that way? Because KVIL has been a cash machine for years & years playing AC and Hot AC.
Had KVIL straddled the fence between AC and Hot AC, iHeart would've never flipped KDGE to Mainstream AC. Dallas - Ft. Worth can comfortably support two secular Hot AC / AC stations combined. KDMX and KVIL each have generated strong ratings & revenue for many years.
History has shown DFW is only willing to support one (!!!) CHR station, which is why it is completely senseless to me that CBS would want to enter 103.7 into that fray. Ironically, it was CBS who owned the chronically ratings & revenue challenged Hot 100 / Wild 100.3. I think history is going to repeat itself. Just as KHKS wiped the floor with 100.3, it is now going to do the same with 103.7.
Had KVIL retained the sound it had under Ron Harrell, the two Hot AC / AC slots would've continued to have been occupied by KDMX and KVIL. Do I think The Edge would've survived had the opening for a Mainstream AC not existed? No, I do not. I think 102.1 would've flipped to either Country, Urban AC or Urban instead.
Not true. DFW only supporting one CHR is a relatively recent phenomenon. The market has a history of strong competition in the format. It had four CHR's in the mid-80's, and the battle between KEGL and KHYI was one of the epic CHR battles of its time. Though both stations won about half the time, after KZPS and, ironically, KTKS went away, KHYI won 75% of the remaining battles. Prior to that battle, KLIF was involved in several over roughly two decades.
More than anything, DFW has a well-programmed CHR that's been hard to beat. Despite its ownership and the loss of its star morning personality, KHKS is one of the nation's best programmed CHR's. Knocking it off is going to be difficult. Plus, KDMX has done an excellent job of flanking it. CBS was surely aware this venture was going to take some time.
KVIL's problem as a CHR isn't that nobody's listening. Looking at the cume breakdowns, people are well aware of the station's existence and don't seem to have a problem with its recent changes. The problem seems to be either that people don't listen long enough or, more likely, don't come back often enough.
I suppose I should've written "recent history" as opposed to simply "history." 
Hair metal was popular in the late 80's. Hip-hop music was in its infancy. Rock had yet to be influenced by the Seattle scene. DFW had yet to see a gigantic influx of people from other parts of the country. In terms of what works or doesn't work today, I consider the 80's to be ancient history and not very instructive. The fact of the matter is for the past 20+ years, the market has only been willing to support one CHR station with consistently strong ratings & revenue, and that station (as you correctly point out) is KHKS.
KVIL's high cume is a function of its format (CHR by its very nature generates high cume) and the fact it's been a preset on many listeners' radios for years.
The format change & branding change at KVIL constitutes a solution in search of a problem! Why cannibalize a station that's been a strong revenue performer for decades???? It makes NO sense! Did CBS not learn from the Cumulus / Mix 107.3 fiasco in Washington ???
An already ho-hum CBS cluster in DFW has been made worse by this change. Good luck, CBS, trying to get female buys when iHeart has not one, not two, but three (!!!) high powered FM stations that draw in female listeners in droves.
CBS has proven repeatedly that it is unable to be competitive with incumbent iHeart-owned CHR stations in major cities (see San Diego, Boston, Philly, Houston, Detroit, Orlando, and of course, New York). The one exception - and it is a very notable one - is San Francisco. There was much more of an opportunity there. Wild 94-9's identity was that of a CHUrban, non-Urban CHR music became increasingly popular, and 99.7 swooped in & wisely took advantage.
KAMP in L.A. - although never catching KIIS - put up a very formidable fight (ratings wise anyway) for a number of years. Being a nice W18-34 and 25-44 counterpart to KROQ (which performed strongly in M18-34 and 25-44) helped. Unlike five years ago, today both KAMP and KROQ enjoy mediocre ratings, and if things don't get turned around in L.A. soon, you will start to see ad revenue hemorrhage there for CBS.
In L.A.,just like DFW, iHeart has a wall of CHR - Hot AC - Mainstream AC that delivers truly incredible numbers. To allow iHeart to recreate that in DFW will prove to be a bad, bad move on CBS's part. Their only hope is for iHeart to self-inflict wounds on KHKS.
Hair metal was popular in the late 80's. Hip-hop music was in its infancy. Rock had yet to be influenced by the Seattle scene. DFW had yet to see a gigantic influx of people from other parts of the country. In terms of what works or doesn't work today, I consider the 80's to be ancient history and not very instructive. The fact of the matter is for the past 20+ years, the market has only been willing to support one CHR station with consistently strong ratings & revenue, and that station (as you correctly point out) is KHKS.
KVIL's high cume is a function of its format (CHR by its very nature generates high cume) and the fact it's been a preset on many listeners' radios for years.
The format change & branding change at KVIL constitutes a solution in search of a problem! Why cannibalize a station that's been a strong revenue performer for decades???? It makes NO sense! Did CBS not learn from the Cumulus / Mix 107.3 fiasco in Washington ???
An already ho-hum CBS cluster in DFW has been made worse by this change. Good luck, CBS, trying to get female buys when iHeart has not one, not two, but three (!!!) high powered FM stations that draw in female listeners in droves.
CBS has proven repeatedly that it is unable to be competitive with incumbent iHeart-owned CHR stations in major cities (see San Diego, Boston, Philly, Houston, Detroit, Orlando, and of course, New York). The one exception - and it is a very notable one - is San Francisco. There was much more of an opportunity there. Wild 94-9's identity was that of a CHUrban, non-Urban CHR music became increasingly popular, and 99.7 swooped in & wisely took advantage.
KAMP in L.A. - although never catching KIIS - put up a very formidable fight (ratings wise anyway) for a number of years. Being a nice W18-34 and 25-44 counterpart to KROQ (which performed strongly in M18-34 and 25-44) helped. Unlike five years ago, today both KAMP and KROQ enjoy mediocre ratings, and if things don't get turned around in L.A. soon, you will start to see ad revenue hemorrhage there for CBS.
In L.A.,just like DFW, iHeart has a wall of CHR - Hot AC - Mainstream AC that delivers truly incredible numbers. To allow iHeart to recreate that in DFW will prove to be a bad, bad move on CBS's part. Their only hope is for iHeart to self-inflict wounds on KHKS.
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One of the reasons CHR is popular is that it typically draws a high cume, though there are plenty of cases where that hasn't happened.
I'll be the first to admit my jaw dropped when I read KVIL had flipped to CHR. I don't know if it's going to be a good move. If it is, it's going to have to convert a few of those P2's into P1's, and, yes, it's going to have its work cut out for it. An upstart is never going to beat an established station that's well programmed.
I do, however, understand the predicament CBS was in with KVIL. I've been wondering how much longer you can run 80's music on an AC when the youngest listeners in its target demos weren't even around when that music was popular. Plus, I'm not sure that music meshes well with what passes for AC today. While some stations are still successful running Cyndi Lauper and Meghan Trainor, CBS may not have felt it had that option with KVIL as KLUV and Jack are already playing a ton of that music. If too many of your stations start cannibalizing each other, one has to change formats. In CBS's case, that was KVIL. That's also what we witnessed with iHeart and The Edge, and, if the four decades of favorites approach on Star starts skewing too old, we'll probably see either Star or Now flip formats, too.
I'll be the first to admit my jaw dropped when I read KVIL had flipped to CHR. I don't know if it's going to be a good move. If it is, it's going to have to convert a few of those P2's into P1's, and, yes, it's going to have its work cut out for it. An upstart is never going to beat an established station that's well programmed.
I do, however, understand the predicament CBS was in with KVIL. I've been wondering how much longer you can run 80's music on an AC when the youngest listeners in its target demos weren't even around when that music was popular. Plus, I'm not sure that music meshes well with what passes for AC today. While some stations are still successful running Cyndi Lauper and Meghan Trainor, CBS may not have felt it had that option with KVIL as KLUV and Jack are already playing a ton of that music. If too many of your stations start cannibalizing each other, one has to change formats. In CBS's case, that was KVIL. That's also what we witnessed with iHeart and The Edge, and, if the four decades of favorites approach on Star starts skewing too old, we'll probably see either Star or Now flip formats, too.
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