102.7 WEBN

[MarioMania]

Funny The Lunatic Fringe

I thought the name from hometown hero Jon Moxley, But it's from Red Rider

 

[Imlivinontheair]

WEBN used to be a powerhouse top-5 station back in the day. Now they are in the mud behind 'KRC.

I would like to hear some frank discussion on here as to why this happened???

How did it go from the Lunatic Fringe, which annually pulled off one of the largest publicly attended celebrations... to what it is today??

 

[RadioKid]

WEBN used to be a powerhouse top-5 station back in the day. Now they are in the mud behind 'KRC.

I would like to hear some frank discussion on here as to why this happened???

How did it go from the Lunatic Fringe, which annually pulled off one of the largest publicly attended celebrations... to what it is today??

Probably a variety of factors. Off of the top of my head:

1. 96 Rock has split at least some of the audience that WEBN once had a huge share of. Clearly, the rock format has been good to Cumulus since they haven't flipped the station since 2007. Must be getting some decent numbers there.

2. The Kidd Chris Show, while having had a pretty big national profile based on their affiliations with Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony, hasn't endeared itself to The Queen City in the same way that The Dawn Patrol did. I STILL hear older people tell me about fond memories of Bob the Producer and Wildman Walker. Those guys became icons to the people of that era. Can you say the same about the current weekday AM crew? If your morning show is crucial to the success of your radio station, then I think it's fair to assume that there's been a drop off there.

3. Rock radio doesn't carry nearly the cultural cache that it once did sadly. Outside of the annual fireworks, how many average Joes really talk about WEBN on a regular basis?

 

[Imlivinontheair]

Probably a variety of factors. Off of the top of my head:

1. 96 Rock has split at least some of the audience that WEBN once had a huge share of. Clearly, the rock format has been good to Cumulus since they haven't flipped the station since 2007. Must be getting some decent numbers there.

2. The Kidd Chris Show, while having had a pretty big national profile based on their affiliations with Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony, hasn't endeared itself to The Queen City in the same way that The Dawn Patrol did. I STILL hear older people tell me about fond memories of Bob the Producer and Wildman Walker. Those guys became icons to the people of that era. Can you say the same about the current weekday AM crew? If your morning show is crucial to the success of your radio station, then I think it's fair to assume that there's been a drop off there.

3. Rock radio doesn't carry nearly the cultural cache that it once did sadly. Outside of the annual fireworks, how many average Joes really talk about WEBN on a regular basis?

Excellent points, RadioKid!

Radio was probably the most fun when each station was owned by a different company and they all had to compete with one another for audience. I believe in economic terms they refer to this as competition.

Sadly there isn't much stuff to talk about on any of the stations these days. It is mostly a big snooze-fest. Gone are the Dawn Patrol, Morning Zoo and whatever else....

About the closest thing that I can find on the dial where it sounds like something is happening these days is on the Spanish station, 97.7 La Mega. It can be 2 am or 2 pm and it sounds like there is a big party going on. And their imaging is bold and big loud. It can be really quite entertaining to hear someone having fun on the radio even in another language...I believe that La Mega run by an independent group.

WDJO has got the local thing going on and is shaking things up a bit with their programming. But again, they are owned by a local independent company.

There are some great airchecks of the old WSAI from the 1960's that are on youtube. I am glad that someone archived these! Those guys were having fun or at least they made it sound like it..saying ridiculous things on the air (not crude... just silly) and having constant contests, taking requests and making public appearances (everywhere).

WEBN was a family-run station back at the beginning. The father started it and son and daughter helped run it. How cool would that have been for any of us??? The family hired who they wanted (or whoever hung out at the house) and played a format that no one else was doing at the time. They were different and edgy and as FM got going so did WEBN.

In my opinion the consolidation feeding frenzy of the 1990's and 2000's is probably where the problems with radio (WEBN included) started. Companies bought up as many stations as they could...and paid too much for stations, which eventually could not return the money needed for debt service AND profit so....they had to cut costs. Add in a couple of economic downturns...which only makes things tougher...so then they had to get rid of more talent, use automation, cut budgets etc etc...and what ends up suffering is the product...what's on the air.

By the way... 96 Rock is a reincarnation of the old 96 Rock which was around in the heyday of WEBN. The two stations competed with each other back in the day (circa 1982). At the time they were trying to grow the stations audience from a 2 share. I believe Eddie Fingers was doing mornings at 96 Rock as "Bender and Fingers In The Morning". Mike McConnell left WTUE and came to Cincinnati to be the PD and his wife, Mary Kuzan, was made the mid-day host.

And I do agree rock n roll is not king right now....I don't think anything really is. So that definitely doesn't help...

So, the undoing of WEBN has been a common, long and sad story that is the same for most of radio....in my opinion.

But I believe that radio can be live, local and fun again. There are local stations already doint it. And, yes, young people will rediscover it (if it ever evolves back to its former self) just like they have rediscovered the Polaroid camera...and free TV (just add an antenna, presto!)

But for this to happen in my opinion, radio has to get back to being more entertaining, again.

 

[keys2]

All excellent points above. ^ I might add that ever increasing commercial loads have had a negative impact as well. I stopped listening to FM radio over 20 years ago when I converted to satellite radio. And since then, consider how streaming services have also helped change the way a younger generation gets their music. They don’t have the patience to sit through these tortuous blocks of 10+ commercials that can go on for over five minutes. I know I don’t, and I’m older than my millennial-aged kids who simply don’t tolerate commercials when listening to their favorite music.

Granted, with each passing year I’m more removed from the radio biz so I probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but it seems that trying to attract new young listeners to FM has become increasingly more futile. And frankly, I don’t know anyone over 50 with money to spend who listens to WEBN. Even most of the old farts my age utilize sat radio or streaming services for their music.

Re: WDJO....I want to like this little station, but even they have caught the voice-tracking bug unless I’m mistaken. It just doesn’t sound live and lively to my ears. The jocks sound detached and voice-tracked to me.

 

[TheBigA]

I might add that ever increasing commercial loads have had a negative impact as well.

FYI I have no data that says radio commercial loads have increased. If anything, they've dropped due to the pandemic with fewer advertisers. They reached a peak about 15 years ago, and have been dropping. But to rock music fans, ANY commercials are perceived as bad, so the number of commercials may seem to be increasing. We expect to see another increase in music royalties which will lead to a lot of streaming services either increasing their subscription fee or number of commercials (or both). My understanding is the current royalty rates expire next year, so everyone can expect an increase starting in 2023.

 

[JBraddock]

We expect to see another increase in music royalties which will lead to a lot of streaming services either increasing their subscription fee or number of commercials (or both). My understanding is the current royalty rates expire next year, so everyone can expect an increase starting in 2023.

Well, not 'everyone.' The labor-of-love pirate streams will continue along with their handful of fans (who know enough not to openly promote them). As the royalties go up without a stream-only non-profit discount structure, the support for the pirates only grows.

Granted, the vast majority of listeners will still flock to Spotify and its ilk, allowing the hit-makers to make something of a living, but limiting the opportunities for outlets that support music discovery.

So crank up those royalty rates, baby! I wonder if SiriusXM subscribers have an upper limit to their tolerance of royalty surcharges? I've just about reached mine.