I'd check out 93.3 today at 3p

[iamarussianpirate]

How do you propose selling today’s KUBE with no local program director, one live and local show and what is so far a very edgy rhythmic, far from mainstream product to Seattle advertisers who have a long history of steering clear of the format even when it was closer to mainstream?

Easy, the same way they sold Power. Katz will package KUBE in with other Top 40's across the country and sell it nationally. The vast majority of 93.3's ad revenue over the past 5+ years has come through national. Buyers on that level are looking at how many points they can buy in a market, they don't dig into the details of every station on their buy sheet, so KUBE will get on those buys.

Locally they'll get dollars from concert promoters (Live Nation/AEG), attorneys, nightclubs, direct response/remnant buyers, a few car dealers, and maybe the local community colleges. Looking back at the last full year of KUBE (2015), of the 700+ accounts they had on-air, roughly 100 were local. I don't expect that to change very much with KUBE 2.0.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Easy, the same way they sold Power. Katz will package KUBE in with other Top 40's across the country and sell it nationally.

In my experience, which includes having been a NSM and dealing with reps, reps present clients with "packages" that cover the desired client demos. So, for a buy against 25-44 women might include CHR, Hot AC, AC, urban, urban AC, Spanish Contemporary and Country stations that are efficient in reaching that demo and which, individually and on a market by market basis, meet the CPP goals of the agency.

Unless a campaign is specifically targeted via the creative to a single format or small group of formats, there are not many format-specific buys. But if the creative featured Katy Perry as spokesperson, then they might buy only CHRs and Hot ACs that did well in the target demo.

The vast majority of 93.3's ad revenue over the past 5+ years has come through national. Buyers on that level are looking at how many points they can buy in a market, they don't dig into the details of every station on their buy sheet, so KUBE will get on those buys.

About 25% of Seattle revenue is from non-local agency business. Of course, the bulk of national is concentrated in the 8 to 12 stations at the top of the rankers, so major stations have higher national percentages. But nobody can live on national alone.

Keep in mind that many "national" account buys are placed by local franchisees, dealer associations, via coop dollars, etc.

For example, some time back I used to deal extensively with the Lenscrafters account, then placed out of Cincinnati. While the buy was "national" it was placed only with the consent and approval of the local store managers. So I did semi-annual meets with them to see if they were happy with the results, and participated in their marketing concerns. This got me a renewal every time; the buy was national but the final decision was local.

And with national undergoing a steady migration to new media, local is even more important. Look at the Q1 financial reports so far: the only company reporting revenue increases is Saga, and Ed Christian focuses on local all the way, in both programming and sales.

 

[Rob Piotrowski]

Look at the Q1 financial reports so far: the only company reporting revenue increases is Saga, and Ed Christian focuses on local all the way, in both programming and sales.

And local is what radio does best. But AEs have to work harder to to generate that local business and initially make less so they go instead for the lower-handing fruit.

 

[DavidEduardo]

And local is what radio does best. But AEs have to work harder to to generate that local business and initially make less so they go instead for the lower-handing fruit.

If given an option on who to call on, yes, that occurs.

Generally speaking, it's not a good idea to mix direct and agency accounts on individual seller's lists; the skills needed for one type of sale are not usually compatible with the skills needed for the other. It's transactional selling vs. relationship selling.

Some exceptions will occur. In 54 years in management, including stints as DoS, GSM, NSM and group sales manager I have never seen one of them. But I am told they exist. I've been told that about the Sasquatch, too.

Bad agency sellers can, indeed, grab low hanging fruit by quoting low rates or by repping a top rated station. Otherwise, agency selling requires a very good skill set.

 

[Bongwater]

Everybody gets nostalgic sometimes and ponder the what-ifs, the coulda/woulda/shouldas and that kind of thing. But over time, it's become my observation that when a radio station does get a second life, it never matches it's previous quality or success because the times have changed and so has everyone and everything else. And it usually ends up a regrettable mess.

 

[AQH]

Everybody gets nostalgic sometimes and ponder the what-ifs, the coulda/woulda/shouldas and that kind of thing. But over time, it's become my observation that when a radio station does get a second life, it never matches it's previous quality or success because the times have changed and so has everyone and everything else. And it usually ends up a regrettable mess.

Precisely why the notions of resurrecting shows from the past are mocked.

 

[FMSteve]

I finally listened to KUBE. This is rediculous. It’s a time warp from 2003-2007. It’s the “hip-hop” lifestyle, man. The times and the music has changed. Listen carefully to such groups as The Chainsmokers. Slightly Electronic and Pop. This is the trend.

Yes, I predict Tacoma, Bremerton, Everett will do well for KUBE. Anywhere there is a Military base.
But King County, not so much. High housing costs leave only the highly educated and highly-paid Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, Google, etc young worker. With a large percentage having advanced graduate degrees and the majority having Bachelors of Science/Arts degrees. No more “hip-hop” lifestyle. They are way beyond this now in 2018.

 

[bobdavcav]

I think there will be pockets of King County where this will do well, like Auburn, Federal Way, and maybe even Burean. To me, it doesn't seem like most military people would listen to KUBE, but then again I thought many Access drivers listened to KING or KUOW. Yes there are a few, but the vast majority listen to other stations.

 

[KXA]

I was reading somewhere on this forum where someone wondered if KUBE 2.0 would last. Correction: this is KUBE 3.0. KUBE 1.0 lasted from spring 1981, to winter 1991. What was sandwiched in between was KUBE 2.0.

Time for iHM to reinvent 93.30 MHz with something that actually works. (Maybe in six months they'll blow it up for Power 2.0.)

 

[boombox4]

I finally listened to KUBE. This is rediculous. It’s a time warp from 2003-2007. It’s the “hip-hop” lifestyle, man. The times and the music has changed. Listen carefully to such groups as The Chainsmokers. Slightly Electronic and Pop. This is the trend.

Yes, I predict Tacoma, Bremerton, Everett will do well for KUBE. Anywhere there is a Military base.
But King County, not so much. High housing costs leave only the highly educated and highly-paid Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, Google, etc young worker. With a large percentage having advanced graduate degrees and the majority having Bachelors of Science/Arts degrees. No more “hip-hop” lifestyle. They are way beyond this now in 2018.

Seattle itself has just over 650,000 people. The rest of King County, where the working class (and working poor) live, has the other 1.4 million. Whenever I hear someone's car stereo blasting out the surrounding windows south of the Seattle border where I work, I hear hip-hop and rap more than any other form of music. Sometimes I'll hear pop. But mostly loud rap and hip-hop.

Otherwise, your point is well taken.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Seattle itself has just over 650,000 people. The rest of King County, where the working class (and working poor) live, has the other 1.4 million.

And King County itself has slightly less than 50% of the population of the 6 county MSA (Nielsen MSA, not the OMB MSA)

 

[boombox4]

And King County itself has slightly less than 50% of the population of the 6 county MSA (Nielsen MSA, not the OMB MSA)

True, and much of the rest of the MSA (aside from the maybe 190,000 on the Eastside) is demographically more similar to the working class areas of South King County than they are similar to the demographics inside the Seattle City Limits.

 

[Gregg.]

We may assume that a station playing Hip Hop is aimed at the African-American community. But I think KUBE is, or should be, designed for the growing Latino audience, and some Asians and whites as well. A notable station like KPWR in Los Angeles may also be playing Hip Hop. But I'd be willing to guess it has more Latino listeners than black. It even plays an occasional song in Spanish.

Maybe iHeart doesn't realize this and the new KUBE does sound like an Urban station one might hear in Washington or Detroit. But that's a missed opportunity. StationRatings.com lists the Seattle radio audience as 6.5% black but 9% Hispanic.

 

[DavidEduardo]

We may assume that a station playing Hip Hop is aimed at the African-American community. But I think KUBE is, or should be, designed for the growing Latino audience, and some Asians and whites as well. A notable station like KPWR in Los Angeles may also be playing Hip Hop. But I'd be willing to guess it has more Latino listeners than black. It even plays an occasional song in Spanish.

Maybe iHeart doesn't realize this and the new KUBE does sound like an Urban station one might hear in Washington or Detroit. But that's a missed opportunity. StationRatings.com lists the Seattle radio audience as 6.5% black but 9% Hispanic.

KPWR is what is commonly called "Rhythmic CHR". It's not urban. And yes, it has more Hispanic listeners than African American ones, but the market has nearly six times as many Hispanics as Blacks so that situation is quite reasonable.

KUBE's list looks more like KPWR than an urban station. So it will have an Hispanic and African American core, but, given the performance of similar formats elsewhere, will likely have as much as half of its listeners among non-Hispanic whites.

Of course, Seattle is not much like LA at all, so the comparison is merely statistical and not analytical.

 

[Goi]

Has anyone seen an application to change the calls of KPWK? The Radio Insight FCC report today only showed one call change. In related news, Megan doesn't appear to have been let go from iHeart, I've been hearing her filling in in afternoons on 95.7 this week, as well as doing weekend middays. I'm not sure if the weekends will be permanent or whether this is all temporary, but that's good that she is still getting some work in. Laurey Bradley could use one less station.

Wow seriously a shot at Lori Bradley.... you have reached a new low. Sad.

 

[bobdavcav]

I have absolutely nothing against her, but how many stations can one person handle? Replacing her with a local talent is a good move.

 

[semoochie]

I have absolutely nothing against her, but how many stations can one person handle? Replacing her with a local talent is a good move.

She's been on in Portland for what would have to be descibed at this point as, "many years"! I wonder if anyone knows she isn't local.

 

[TheBigA]

She's been on in Portland for what would have to be descibed at this point as, "many years"! I wonder if anyone knows she isn't local.

Seems like geographic discrimination to me. The question shouldn't be if she's local. The question should be if she's good. Just my opinion.

 

[semoochie]

Seems like geographic discrimination to me. The question shouldn't be if she's local. The question should be if she's good. Just my opinion.

That's pretty much what I was thinking.

 

[FMSteve]

Seattle has 725,000 residents now according to the Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattl...est-growing-big-city-in-all-of-united-states/

This is an increase of 114,000 in Seattle since 2010. All other cities in King County increased just by 15,000 or 1%.