I'm not a fan of rumor posts, so please excuse me, but I wanted to post what seems to be repeated on many other message boards. Maybe someone has something they can add. The crux is that the Hot staff is, at least in part, still employed and will be moved over to 96.5 for the launch of 96-5 NOW or Amp 96-5. The Mix morning team, according to word, is out. I actually think they fit in on The Spot... Which makes the idea of flipping 95.7 first weird. A lot of non-radio insiders seem to be upset over Hot being flipped. I haven't seen this much 'outcry' since Jack FM went away.
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96.5 Rumor Mill
- Thread starter jayxs
- Start date
Would this make any sense? First CBS ends Top 40 programming on 95.7. Then it waits a while and starts Top 40 programming on 96.5? If that was the goal, why not just put Adult Hits on 96.5 and re-focus 95.7 as AMP Radio or whatever? Would CBS send KKHH's listeners off to other stations, hoping to get them back some time later on KHMX? Maybe some of the KKHH staff will stay employed on KHMX, but I would guess they'd still be doing Hot AC, aimed at 30+ year old women, not the 18-34 demo that KKHH was aimed at.
No better way to draw attention than to flip 2 stations. The average listener has no idea KKHH & KHMX are co-owned.
For Grins & giggles and wishful thinking, perhaps KGLK's (107.5) sister station, KHPT (106.9) should flip
to an Oldies format and 101 KLOL should return to Classic AOR Rock......just sayin'!! An Oldies format
would sell regardless what the "all-knowing" Madison Avenue egg heads say......
to an Oldies format and 101 KLOL should return to Classic AOR Rock......just sayin'!! An Oldies format
would sell regardless what the "all-knowing" Madison Avenue egg heads say......
You're right....it would sell to info-mercials about retirement plans, reverse mortgages, erectile dysfunction, and colon cleansers. Lots of money there. But the listeners would complain about the quality and length of the commercials. And they'd complain about the repetition of the music.
Those sorts of ads were basically what WDRC-FM Hartford was down to in its final year -- a year, ironically, when it topped the "beauty pageant" numbers in a quarterly book for the first time in memory. Now it's a '70s-early '90s classic rocker with less than half the 12+ number, trailing even the NPR news/talker in some books, but carries plenty of big-league ads, including national accounts and a bunch of car dealerships. It really is all about the kind of listeners you have, not the sheer numbers.
About the "repetition of the music," just stay away from that evil "short-list or safe-list playlist."
Now, listeners are smart on that "short-list playlist." That is why I hear them say it is a "tune-out"
factor. Pick any time of day, and COMA will play that exact song "always and forever." Oy Vey!
I have read where the youth (20 to 30-somethings) are beginning to love Easy Listening, even!
Now, listeners are smart on that "short-list playlist." That is why I hear them say it is a "tune-out"
factor. Pick any time of day, and COMA will play that exact song "always and forever." Oy Vey!
I have read where the youth (20 to 30-somethings) are beginning to love Easy Listening, even!
Oldies, defined as 60's based pop / Top 40 hits with perhaps a smattering of early 70's and some 50's, appeals to an audience base that is mostly in its 60's or older. There is no ad revenue available against that audience, particularly in Top 10 markets where much of the business is transactional.
I think that the idea that Spanish language stations may be vulnerable comes from the misconception that they bill significantly less than general market stations.
This is not true. In recent years, KLTN has on occasion been the billing leader in the entire market, and has consistently been in the top 4 or 5 stations in revenue. KLOL and KOVE have long been in the top 10 billers.
The suggestion of a format shift at a very successful station like KLOL fails to take into account the changes in the market, where Hispanics now make up nearly 37% of the MSA population. It also does not consider the fact that Hispanics use more radio than non-Hispanic whites, making them very attractive ad buys.
The idea of Spanish language stations somehow being worth less comes from Bruce.
Just kidding.
Seriously, that idea of diminished value comes from the fact that early Spanish language stations were, for the most part, defective AM signals that could no longer compete with bigger AMs and the growth of FM. They were stations like KLVL, tucked away in a funeral home in Pasadena or KIFN in Phoenix, a low powered daytimer or KXEX in Fresno, a high-on-the dial daytime station. Those facilities were sometimes not totally professional and often sold at lower than "market rate". But as the recognition of the Hispanic market grew, major stations in the last several decades have been professional and competitive.
As you said, KLOL is not changing anytime soon.
And yet, for the majority of listeners, the exact opposite is true. Study after study shows the larger the playlist, the smaller the audience base. Simple math. You can either appeal to a large majority, or a small minority. Radio makes money reaching the largest audience, so the smaller list prevails. You can say it's what you hear them say the most, but our research hears from a lot more people than you.
Also, this is a format that is based on radio stations in the 60s that had extremely small playlists, sometimes as small as 25 songs. So using a small playlist has a lot of heritage in this format. It was never intended to be a large list format. But it IS larger than just about every other format.
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The radio corporations are not the ones that make these decisions. It's the advertising agencies. Radio companies would LOVE to program to over 55s. Most of their top management and stockholders are in that demographic. But as long as revenue comes from ad agencies, they get to decide who the target demo is.
Having more money to spend doesn't mean they spend it based on :30 radio spots. Advertisers believe older consumers need longer ads to have an impact. Thus they'd want to use program length infomercials to sell their products. That's why programming aimed at older demos works better on radio that isn't advertiser-supported.
As far as the iHeart debt, it was caused by taking the company private, not by any on-air decisions. Most of their major market stations are very successful, and very profitable.
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This is not a radio-originated issue. It comes from the advertisers, who tell their agencies to buy specific age groups, generally between ages 18 and 54 or some subset of ages, gender, ethnicities, lifestyles, etc.
The primary reason why 55 and over is seldom bought is that the older a consumer gets, the less likely they are to make a spontaneous or impulse buy. This is due to various factors, including a lifetime of understanding advertising puffery, long-term buying habits and brand preferences and greater caution in spending money.
In any event, radio and individual stations can't do much about this. In the TV world, CBS has spent several years trying to get advertisers and agencies to consider buying 25-64 but the results have been quite unimpressive. Advertisers say, "sure, we can sell to older consumers. But it takes so many ad impressions to make the sale that the profit is erased by the cost of the ads."
As BigA says, that does not work.
Example: about 15 years ago I did a classic rock station in a market of about 17 million with a huge assortment of full signals and suburban and neighborhood stations.
We made a debut with a 22 share, and held there. Our playlist was just over 500 songs.
Obviously, with the next station having less than half the share points, we knew we'd have a competitor. Our prayers were answered and we got the competitor we wanted: the had a library of 1,800 songs and they marvelously stressed the fact that they played "three times as many songs as the other rock station".
6 months later, the competitor peaked at a 1.8. We kept the 22 share. A year later, they changed format. Even today, nobody has tried to compete with the station again. Listener research said, "they play too many songs I don't like and not enough of the ones I love". So they took our 500 hits and added 1,300 stiffs. Way to go.
And where did our list come from? Extensive in-home music testing of the library as well as several tests done on the air with listeners filling out a ballot they could get from a food location. 80,000 were returned. We played 500 songs because there were not any more worth playing. That's the way most stations do it.
The inside rumor is that KHMX will go CHR with the Hot morning crew moving to 96.5 and rebranding as 'The AMP' soon.....
Stay tuned....
Stay tuned....
Well, I'll say it again. Why drive all the 18-34 listeners away from 95.7 on January 1? Then on January 10 or some other future date, you hope they'll come back to 96.5? I have never heard of a radio owner blowing up a format on one station, then a few weeks later putting it on another station. I've heard of moving a format from one station to another immediately, especially if the two signals are not equal. But then listeners are told repeatedly to switch their radio dials. Usually both stations simulcast for a while as listeners get used to the new dial position.
Maybe you move an older-skewing format to a lesser signal you own and relaunch the better signal with something you think will get better demos and make more money. But both 95.7 and 96.5 are on the same tower in Missouri City. They're both at 1919 feet above average terrain. 95.7 is at 95,000 watts, 96.5 at 97,000 watts, with virtually the same coverage of the market. There is no reason to want all the car radios, office radios and store radios to have to find another Top 40 station on Jan. 1 when KKHH switches to adult hits. Then you hope days or weeks later all those 18-34 listeners will find their way to a new Top 40 station on 96.5.
Maybe you move an older-skewing format to a lesser signal you own and relaunch the better signal with something you think will get better demos and make more money. But both 95.7 and 96.5 are on the same tower in Missouri City. They're both at 1919 feet above average terrain. 95.7 is at 95,000 watts, 96.5 at 97,000 watts, with virtually the same coverage of the market. There is no reason to want all the car radios, office radios and store radios to have to find another Top 40 station on Jan. 1 when KKHH switches to adult hits. Then you hope days or weeks later all those 18-34 listeners will find their way to a new Top 40 station on 96.5.
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