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Meet 97 Rock's new midday host
- Thread starter ckg279
- Start date
WGRF (97 Rock)/Buffalo Taps John Mathews As APD/Middays
This story says he was already working for Cumulus. Sounds less like a new hire, but rather adding more workload to someone already on the payroll...
This story says he was already working for Cumulus. Sounds less like a new hire, but rather adding more workload to someone already on the payroll...
Or Cumulus promoting from within. He's on-air live in Buffalo after moving here and has added APD stripes at 97-Rock. That sounds like a pretty big step up from Erie.
The article says he will continue as APD and I assume afternoon host on the Erie station. I know it's only about 90 miles from Buffalo to Erie, but he can't be "Live & Local" on both. The previous 97 Rock midday host supposedly quit because he could no longer work from home. His replacement can't fulfill that "in studio" requirement in two cities.
The Classic Rock format doesn't need "Live" hosts anyway.
What's left to say about the same 250 songs that have been in rotation for 40 years? Maybe it was a promotion, but seems more like addition by subtraction...
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My sources say he's live and local in Buffalo. Your take on the need for "Live" hosts is exactly what's wrong at too many radio stations these days. One of radio's biggest strengths in the past has been timeliness, particularly when major events happened. That, and local knowledge and programming aimed at a local audience are two of the biggest reasons radio has seen declines in both listeners and time spent listening in the Age of the Consolidators. (Cue "TheBigA" to tell us everything is better now than it ever was.)
I've never said it's "better now." What I say is it's different now, and it's constantly changing. Staffing is a function of budget. That's always been the case. Fortunately, 97 Rock has the budget for a local DJ in afternoon drive. WBUF also has a local DJ in afternoon drive. How does that translate to audience or as you say "timeliness?" The existence of live & local DJs will not cause anyone to throw away their digital devices and instead return to OTA radio. Entercom was a company that always emphasized local staffing, local content, and local sales. How's that working now? The same people who ran the company then are still there now. What changed?
They overpaid for a group of major market stations and borrowed way too much money to do it. Operations aren't killing them. Interest payments are, and those rates aren't going to get better. They're the latest in a series of big players who were convinced that they could pay for big station groups by creating "synergies" and cutting their way to prosperity. A lot of those "synergies" became VT and syndication, consolidating sales staffs while cutting commissions, and using radio income to pay for digital expansion while station operations were cut. How's THAT working out for them?
That's an oversimplification. They bought some the highest billing stations in the country, and those stations continue to bill extremely well in a very bad economy. They took on debt at a time of extremely low interest rates. The things that hurt them was the pandemic and the lack of a digital strategy. Now we're in an advertising depression that's affecting all companies, including Sirius and Spotify.
But they didn't do that. The VT shifts were begun when the stations were owned by CBS. They took a country station in New York that was mainly an outlet for Cumulus syndication, and replaced those shows with all local DJs. Then they realized there was no local advertising base for country. The station made more money before. So they flipped it to a classic urban station that once again has all local talent. They keep doing radio the way they did it before they bought CBS. But the economy and the business has changed.
You're picking and choosing a few facts that support your argument. CBS started cutting costs to make their stations more attractive for sale, not to preserve the long-term health of the enterprise. Entercom/Audacy cuts since then have been widespread and deep. Overall, Entercom followed the same path that put iHeart and Cumulus/Citadel into bankruptcy. If big corporations don't take into consideration that there may be a downturn during such a major ownership transition, why the hell are people at the top of the food chain paid millions of dollars? When the rest of us take out a mortgage, smart people understand that we need to live within our means and that we need a cushion "just in case." What baffles me is that several of the people that put their companies into bankruptcy are still heading those corporations. The ones that aren't left with many millions of dollars stuffed into their suitcases as they were ushered out the door.
That's not exactly true. CBS Corporation was planning to spin off CBS Radio as it's own company. They even took out the $2 billion in financing that Entercom later assumed. But those two things are not mutually exclusive. Cost cutting can be done in order to preserve the long term viability of the enterprise, especially when the industry is going through substantial changes. That's what CBS Radio was doing. They were shifting their investment from on air to online. One example was Radio.com. My view is that the biggest mistake Entercom has made is not continuing in that process. I think the investment community agrees.
The cost cutting is not what led to any of those bankruptcies. Spending more money on employee salaries and benefits would not have changed the outcome.
Lew Dickey smartly sold a lot of his ownership stake in Cumulus to investors. That left him vulnerable to being fired by those investors when things got rough. So far, the Fields haven't sold out to anyone. They still control the largest stake. Bob Pittman is in the last year of his contract with iHeart. It'll be interested to see what happens. My expectation is he'll get an extension with a bonus.
I would say content is more important than "Live & Local". The jocks on a station like 97 Rock have no say in the programming. It's Radio By Rote. Nothing compelling about saying "Led Zeppelin up next after 9 minutes of obnoxious commercials". There are scores of stations across the country playing the exact playlist.
As the Rock artists continue to die off, I suppose it's helpful to have a live body on hand to play some tunes and discuss it. Of course, most people will find out first on Twitter or Facebook when breaking news occurs. Radio can't go back to the days before the internet. A station like 97 Rock is a huge turnoff for many people. Yes, they have their base blue collar listeners. The same people who've been listening for 25 years. Nobody else cares because the content is bad...
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The ratings are done by the same company with the same methodologies in every significant market in the US. So the format mechanics of stations will be determined by what produces the best results in the Nielsen system.
And that is because TV and the Internet have made the same songs "hits" in each musical audience subset or group, nationwide. Why is that surprising to you wen Kellogs Corn Flakes or the Ford Mustang are national consumer brands?
How many local consumer brands exist any more? Ones that are superior, like In-and-Out, are becoming national and those that could not compete are slowly disappearing.
Music radio was live in the 50's and 60's and 70's because for most formats automation was too expensive and too inflexible. As technology improved, more and more things could be "automated" and we got our morning show on Saturday and Sunday or our midday talent on overnights.
We were only live because there was no alternative. And guys used to pop out of a building to pump our gas for us, too!
Generically, it is called "progress".
Many will, many will not. Not the entire adult and teen populations use each of those multiple times a day.
And do advertisers care about any of that? They buy ratings points and GRIPs, not lifesyles and jobs. They don't seem to give a flying f--k about the things you seem to think are important.
You don't seem to think that growth is important. Does this station bring in any new listeners to the Radio Tent? I would expect that this station has an audience that is 85 percent White men over 50. They are on the same trajectory as WBEN. The advertisers will start to care when the demos aren't desirable (as you've said many many times)...
You just changed the subject. It was how stations sell ratings points and GRIPs, not, to any extent, income levels of station listeners.
Most markets are very well established, and specific format and their local stations don't particularly find areas of growth. There are occasional exceptions, such as when a direct competitor changes format or when a music style is having "a good year" such as Country right now.
No. The radio tent is slowly contracting, due to things that are not controllable such as people being willing to pay for ad-free or limited ad services.
Buffalo is not a market where a huge percentage of sales comes from national agencies. Local agencies and local advertisers are far less focused on demographics.
50-54 is inside even the agency preferred demos. It's 25-54 they look for all or part of. Ethnic buys are usually 18-49 as Black and Hispanic groups are younger.
So the 55-64 demo is very salable locally. Even 55-74 is not going to drive away local accounts in a market like Buffalo that has a very high average age.
Can you play "Hotel California" for my girlfriend?
Freeeee Bird! Putting local yokel callers on the air is the lowest form of Radio. I wonder if any 97 Rock listeners will know or care if the new midday host is "Live & Local". Nobody seemed to notice when the morning show got fired over ignorant jokes...
Sweet Jeebus, again with the "97 Rock thing?!" Like it or not, 97 Rock continues to produce competitive ratings. Advertisers get response. Listeners participate in the station's promotions. We, you, I ... may have heard those songs a few hundred times over the years, but a whole lotta listeners actually like Whole Lotta Love, Free Bird and Roadhouse Blues. And there is a generation of Men 12-34 who haven't heard Freebird, Gimme Three Steps and Whole Lot of Love 753 times. This is new music to them.
The 97 Rock personalities have been, until recently, consistent and known to the station's listeners. John Matthews recently joining the line-up for middays has some work to do in order to become settled in to Buffalo and accepted as part of the 97 Rock family, but with proper direction and guidance he'll get there. It's not easy coming in from out of the market, having been away from the daily grind for a few years, and replacing a personality who was at the station for 25 years and has taken his act cross town.
I'm not a regular 97 Rock listener, but I do check the station out. If they're playing Whole Lotta Love, or any of the other 279 songs in safe rotation and I'm in the mood, I'll turn it up to eleven and enjoy it. Other times I'll say "Heard that one a few times before, but not today." A lot of it is situational and emotional. I suspect that outside of the station's core audience, most potential listeners treat the station ... perhaps all radio stations ... similarly.
The 97 Rock personalities have been, until recently, consistent and known to the station's listeners. John Matthews recently joining the line-up for middays has some work to do in order to become settled in to Buffalo and accepted as part of the 97 Rock family, but with proper direction and guidance he'll get there. It's not easy coming in from out of the market, having been away from the daily grind for a few years, and replacing a personality who was at the station for 25 years and has taken his act cross town.
I'm not a regular 97 Rock listener, but I do check the station out. If they're playing Whole Lotta Love, or any of the other 279 songs in safe rotation and I'm in the mood, I'll turn it up to eleven and enjoy it. Other times I'll say "Heard that one a few times before, but not today." A lot of it is situational and emotional. I suspect that outside of the station's core audience, most potential listeners treat the station ... perhaps all radio stations ... similarly.
Rusty, Do you have any data that says Males 12-34 are seeking out Zeppelin and Skynyrd as "New To Them" music.? That age group is more likely listening to Hip Hop, Rap, Country or even Taylor Swift with their girlfriends(And not on the Radio). Sure, a handful find their Grandpa's vinyl collection because records are "cool" again. I'm very skeptical if many 12--34 year olds are listening to that station. David can probably provide Nielsen numbers...
In my anecdotal experience speaking with people in that age range, what I'm told is they become familiar with that music through video games and Guitar Hero. However they become aware of it, they're fans.
You make a legitimate point about the popularity of Hip Hop, Country, etc. among young listeners, Bolt. "Grandpa's vinyl collection" actually made laugh. Would be a good name for a feature if it weren't so condescending, but as Homer Simpson once remarked, "It's funny 'cause it's true." My observations about 12-24, 12-34 Males being attracted to Classic Rock is a combination of anecdotal evidence and observation tempered with some "Holy mackerel! surprise" when friends have quoted Men 18-34 shares in markets like Philadelphia, Middlesex County, NJ; Pittsburgh and Buffalo, wherein the Classic Rock stations were Top 5 in demo in certain rating periods. To the point 'A' makes, Classic Rock has made an impact on young adults in video games, on-line gambling sites where a snipet can be heard from time to time used as staging (weird, hearing that, it almosty sounds accidental, but nothing is accidental when it comes to gaming and gambling) and popular games like Guitar Hero. And yes, Classic Rock is aging as a format. Boomers aren't 43 anymore. But to paraphrase the line from the classic Irish Spring TV ads, "...kids like it, too."