Entercom/Audacy went to regionalized alternative programming about a year ago, and people were griping on these boards about the segues into and joins from the breaks the first day. The powers that be knew that was a problem from day one.
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I know ALT 103.7 (KVIL) hasn't ever had great ratings, but a 1.1?!?!?
- Thread starter victorres43
- Start date
Entercom/Audacy went to regionalized alternative programming about a year ago, and people were griping on these boards about the segues into and joins from the breaks the first day. The powers that be knew that was a problem from day one.
Okay, they just flipped their Alternative in San Francisco, and their numbers were just as bad as KVIL:
From Radio Insight: Alt 105.3 flips
From Radio Insight: Alt 105.3 flips
i got a idea, but i don't think Audacy would go for it, why not move KLUV's format and everything to 103.7, and sell 98.7 to EMF along with the KLUV calls and KLUV IP they own so they can have K-Love on KLUV while KVIL can be reborn as oldies radio KVIL.
I absolutely agree.
As much as I think Audacy could do a lot worse than launching an urban derivative in Dallas, I don’t see it happening. How many urbans has Audacy/Entercom EVER launched? It's launched a few throwback stations, but I'm hard pressed to come up with any urban or urban AC's in its portfolio that it hasn’t inherited.
No way that happens. Alternative billing whatever it’s billing plus a license in DFW are worth more to Audacy than anything EMF, or anyone else, could offer. If Audacy files bankruptcy and ends up in the hands of a different group of investors, that could change, but that's not happening in the short-term, at least not without Audacy being offered another commercial FM license.
They like variety hits. They flipped an underperforming CHR in Boston to variety hits a few months ago.
This is the second alternative station they've flipped in the last 6 months.
Third, if you count their flea-powered “HFS” in Baltimore. It makes me wonder if others could be on the chopping block. Their stations in DFW, Miami, and Detroit are “Beggin’” for new formats.
Pre-CBS Radio acquisition, Entercom owned WJMH, WVKL, and The Block (Upstate South Carolina). Entercom also launched Hot 105.7 in Milwaukee.
Funny thing is that the Detroit station was flipped to Alt quite recently. I don't know why they killed The Breeze in that city when most indicators were that it was doing pretty well. Just feels like Audacy likes self-inflicted wounds...
Probably for financial reasons. It was a station that had good ratings but wasn't making money.
It was killed because Audacy's brain trust thought a station geared toward millennials & younger would be beneficial to the cluster.
They also evidently disregarded 25+ years' worth of local ratings data indicating Alternative's track record - both ratings and revenue wise - was very shaky in Detroit.
89X's best numbers came when it featured Dave & Chuck in the morning, and the station during that entire era steered clear of most indie-pop and could best be described as two parts Active Rock and one part Alternative. Inclusion of Can-Con (songs from Canadian artists) gave the station some unique flavor.
Even when 89X was a top 3 station in Men 25-54 and #1 or #2 in Adults 18-34, I think it didn't even bill $4 million a year when top FM stations in Detroit were easily billing north of $10 million. (WRIF, WNIC, WOMC and WJLB at times approached $20 million, although those numbers mostly occurred prior to the Great Recession.)
Prior to Bell Media completely closing its Metro Detroit office and studios and consolidating all operations in Windsor, 89X tried a heavily indie/pop flavored version of Alternative with only a limited amount of guitar-oriented titles remaining in the playlist. It was an absolute disaster that sent 89X to all-time record low ratings (for that point in its life anyway).
iHeartMedia briefly tried Alternative on 106.7 FM in Detroit with a butchered & repackaged Woody Show in mornings; the ratings were atrocious. Ironically, it was branded "Alt 106.7." Smartly, the plug was pulled about 16 months into that experiment and the station flipped to classic rock for the third time since year 2000.
We will see what becomes of Alt 103.7. If Audacy wants to give the format a realistic shot of any success, the very first thing they need to do is cancel the Lazlo show.
When alternative was last available on a 100,000 watt blowtorch, its numbers were underwhelming. iHM wisely pulled the plug and capitalized on CBS Radio's foolish decision to abandon Adult Contemporary.
The present-day 103.7 is like a crappier version of the old 102.1 The Edge.
They also evidently disregarded 25+ years' worth of local ratings data indicating Alternative's track record - both ratings and revenue wise - was very shaky in Detroit.
89X's best numbers came when it featured Dave & Chuck in the morning, and the station during that entire era steered clear of most indie-pop and could best be described as two parts Active Rock and one part Alternative. Inclusion of Can-Con (songs from Canadian artists) gave the station some unique flavor.
Even when 89X was a top 3 station in Men 25-54 and #1 or #2 in Adults 18-34, I think it didn't even bill $4 million a year when top FM stations in Detroit were easily billing north of $10 million. (WRIF, WNIC, WOMC and WJLB at times approached $20 million, although those numbers mostly occurred prior to the Great Recession.)
Prior to Bell Media completely closing its Metro Detroit office and studios and consolidating all operations in Windsor, 89X tried a heavily indie/pop flavored version of Alternative with only a limited amount of guitar-oriented titles remaining in the playlist. It was an absolute disaster that sent 89X to all-time record low ratings (for that point in its life anyway).
iHeartMedia briefly tried Alternative on 106.7 FM in Detroit with a butchered & repackaged Woody Show in mornings; the ratings were atrocious. Ironically, it was branded "Alt 106.7." Smartly, the plug was pulled about 16 months into that experiment and the station flipped to classic rock for the third time since year 2000.
We will see what becomes of Alt 103.7. If Audacy wants to give the format a realistic shot of any success, the very first thing they need to do is cancel the Lazlo show.
When alternative was last available on a 100,000 watt blowtorch, its numbers were underwhelming. iHM wisely pulled the plug and capitalized on CBS Radio's foolish decision to abandon Adult Contemporary.
The present-day 103.7 is like a crappier version of the old 102.1 The Edge.
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To be honest, I'm surprised the numbers on 103.7 are as good as they are. I don't know what Audacy was thinking, but alternative was a bad idea. Maybe it's raking in money in the demo they want, I don't know. I do know that every time I have tuned in, I haven't heard anything worth sticking around for. I hope they will find a better format for that frequency, but I'm not holding my breath.
At one time, a station could just play music in any format, and that alone was enough to attract an audience. Today, playing music can be a complete turn off. The fact is there aren't a lot of songs that will attract a consensus audience. The winning songs are becoming fewer and fewer, and we see with this format change in San Francisco. The bad news for Audacy is they already own KJKK, so adult hits is not an option for this frequency.
Maybe. The other thing about The Breeze is it had a lot of expensive local talent. So it was not cost effective. The new format may attract fewer listeners (especially 6+), but they're spending less money to get that audience. Sometimes, in cluster programming, it's good to have a few low cost stations next to expensive talk and classic hits formats. Audacy has three stations in Detroit's Top 5. They're not failures at reaching older local audiences.
I always thought 102.1 The Edge was a bad station since their move back in 2000 but Alt 103.7 proved me wrong.
This statement is simply not true.
Afternoons were tracked by Smokey Rivers from Seattle and then by Race Taylor from New York.
Evenings were voicetracked by Sandy Kovach, a recognizable longtime Detroit personality, but she was not live.
The morning team, who were longtime personalities from the Tampa market, only were on mic for maybe ten minutes an hour. Based on the content of their show, utter lack of discussion of Detroit-centric items, and zero (to the best of my knowledge) appearances on local TV or on the streets to promote their show & the station in general, I believe it is probable they never relocated to Michigan.
The one definite live & local personality the station had was Kim Adams in middays. Her firing was a prominently displayed story on detroitnews.com for at least four weeks straight, for whatever reason.
Weekends were either jockless or voicetracked, depending on time of day.
So, while The Breeze spent more on air talent than the present-day Alt 98.7 (who spends zilch), it definitely did not feature "a lot of expensive local talent."
Indeed, WWJ and WOMC will always be very popular stations among geezers. Before David Eduardo reminds us that old adult audiences are generally not monetizable, these two stations are perennially among the top billers in the Detroit market (WWJ is often #1), even though WOMC is seldom among the top five stations in A25-54 (and sometimes isn't even top 10), and even though WWJ seldom appears in the Top 10 among A25-54 for the week.
Both stations have terrific relationships with a large number of local & regional advertisers.
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As you admit, the hosting of shows when the station was called The Breeze was more expensive than when it became part of the Alt network of shows and hosts. So just eliminate the word "local" from my statement, and it's true. So there were several reasons why the change was made: To save money, to support the new corporate format, and to diversify the audience base for advertising. The company already covered the Breeze audience with WOMC and WWJ.
Can you produce any proof of that? As I said, the salaries were only one part of the reason.
What I've noticed nationally is that The Breeze as a format is underperforming its ratings. So lots of listeners does necessarily translate into lots of money. It's one big reason why you haven't seen more stations flipping to it lately.
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