For the moment, they are very low billing. The power ratio is about 0.3 which is really low, but they may be doing better this year; the rhythmic AC format was introduced during the pandemic and thus has a disadvantage.
The biggest problem with KOOL-FM is that it is old. To many... actually to most... people in the sales demos it is their parent's station or their grandparent's station. They don't have a programming issue as much as an image problem.
In the most recent 6+, KOOL was the lowest rated station in the Audacy cluster. For a once strong station to fall below the not-too-recently almost dead KMLE, and the not exactly stable/extremely successful KALV is not a very good sign for 94.5’s future if they hadn’t made changes. It was broken, and something had to be done to try to fix it. I don’t think anyone has a place to criticize until the “makeover” is complete and established and there are enough months of numbers to draw a conclusion.
And renaming it "Big" does not solve any of that. It is their parent's or grandparent's station with a new coat of paint.
But it is not "KOOL-Eff-Emm" any more. That was the station that was old sounding to me when I was at ASU in the earlier 70's. That was half a century ago, or two generations.
In this example, your hypothetical 42 year old mom would not be giving the station nearly as much grief as you are right now.
Consider that NPR is much more "middle of the road" in its reporting than most of the other straight news outlets. Perhaps listeners have caught on to the politically influenced 'news' who tend to cowtoe to their preferenced political party.
Just as calls are not considered important any longer (by some here) why would any listener be convinced to try an old station with a new brand?
In radio, if a station gets the image of being your parent’s station, that is a serious problem as it taints the self-image of listeners who don’t want to think they are old.
Yet the term is proven over and over to work. That is the same reason packaging and logos get updated.
The image among the 35-54 target is “old”. It is very likely that they did some perceptual research about image and foun that the very, very old name was hurting them.
If that's a serious problem for some people, no radio station can do anything about it. Such issues should be dealt with in the world of psychiatry and/or psychology, not radio programming/marketing.
Only on those with an IQ lower than a shoelace. Most consumers are smarter than this.
Then the KOOL call letters should be changed to something else. Problem solved. Or not. As I said above, this sounds like some folks have issues that are long beyond radio.
It may have been "old sounding" to you, but it wasn't to me. The music was from about 1950 thru just-barely-faded-from-Top 40, a span of just over the previous 20 years. Those listeners would have been in the Prime Sacred Sales Demo at that time. Lots of Elvis and Beatles, but not Glen Miller or other big bands.
In radio, if a station gets the image of being your parent’s station, that is a serious problem as it taints the self-image of listeners who don’t want to think they are old.
Yet the term is proven over and over to work. That is the same reason packaging and logos get updated.
The image among the 35-54 target is “old”. It is very likely that they did some perceptual research about image and foun that the very, very old name was hurting them.
Why? If people did not like looking and feeling younger, there would be no new fashions, no trends in the color paint on our walls, no cosmetic surgery, no new car designs.
Every mass marketer knows that any use of "new" is very positive. "New improved formula" and phrases like that are very successful if the product supports the claim. That is college Marketing 101.
They use the calls once per hour, in the legal ID. For all practical purposes, they are not "KOOL" or "KOOL FM" any longer. They simply flushed the reminder that they have a 60 year old format where the music has continually reflected 35-54 tastes, but the image stagnated 50 years ago.
But I was in my 20's then, and I did not want to hear music as old as I was. I listened to KRUX, KWIZ and KUPD as well as KUNA on occasion.
Then they should update their product. Changing the brand will only make long time listeners angry or confused.
Very few of the "long time listeners" were wanted. The station was way outside the top 10 in 25-54. They needed to clean the slate.
Cars have a brand new model every year, but Americans were quick to abandon them for VWs and Datsuns and Toyotas when the US brands proved themselves so inferior.
My dad used to listen to KTKT back in the day, just like us kids. My mom didn't listen to the radio at all. My kids seem to have a similar taste in music radio that I once did (except for my Marine son who went Country and seems to have drain bramage).
The big splashy big red letters might be the actual draw and convince the buyer to give it a try but in fact most of this is pure illusion. Remember the big Coca-Cola "New Coke" fiasco? Right down the dumper once people tried the new product. The marketing genius who suggested this change is now CEO of a pretzel wagon on 7th Avenue now.
Are they absolutely sure it wasn't their abandonment of the good times Oldies or the on-air staff that made listening fun? I'd be interested in the average age of the suits making the decision.
These products have to be cyclical to get people to buy the next big thing. Skirts go up, then down. Colors are "in" then out. If this car looks too much like last year's model why buy new? It all marketing. Same old crap underneath.
Why would you be annoyed? You've been in the industry a long time and a respected member to boot. And now that you are of the (ahem) senior side of 30 it seems a perfectly valid question (considering the context of course).
Bingo! The product has to measure up to the claims. The vast majority do not.
Kids today don't relate to an old time call. It is irrevelant to them - even if they listen to radio at all. People 35-54 years already know the calls. And I'll quibble with the 50 years ago statement. Unless you are misusing the intent of 'classic' (meaning the high point of something rather than its age) the music from the mid-50's through the mid-80's was, and will probably always be, the very best popular music of all time. With a large enough playlist so that a station takes advantage of the width and breath of that time period I don't see why most people would find it old or out of date. Of course the kids will always want their own music but that is outside the KOOL-FM target demo, right? The fact that, until recently, KOOL has always been one of the premier stations here is proof of that. Then they got cheap and bought into the "let's change our name so we're as meaningless as the next guy" merry go round. At least they keep things going with their HD2 signal so someone there does understand.
Most youth rebels against their parent's old tastes. That is why so many stations can't transition to a second generation without a new format or a refresh.
The best marketer in the world, P&G, fails with about half its new products. TV networks have always failed on half the "new season" shows they offer. Coke's marketing people retreated and none were fired.
Listeners in their 30's and 40's today don't want disk jockeys that "make listening fun". We get our entertainment on social media and online, we get music from radio. Younger demos hate DJs unless they add something exclusive, like talents such as Seacrest, Bones and Charlemagne do.
And music goes through trends and cycles, too. That affects radio formats.
I'm annoyed because some think that anyone over 50 has to love Sinatra. Honestly, I very thoroughly dislike almost all of his songs and don't like being considered a partisan.
Actually, most that do that see very positive results. Even things like changing package color or, for example, adding little red grains to a powdered detergent, make people happy with their purchase decision.
In your opinion. The fact is that Classic Hits (using the industry definition) is moving away from almost all 70's and even thinning the early 70's crowd. Obviously, the people under 50 don't want that music and don't "miss" it.
Classic Hits is best defined as "the music of the most fun years of your life". It is not about the songs as much as it is about the emotional ties of adults with periods of their youth. I have just given you about $100,000 in perceptual research boiled down into two sentences.
No, the brand became highly tarnished and was not succeeding with 25-54 demos. The oldies station took their 55 and older listeners, leaving them with no "bulk" and very, very poor under-55 levels. In other markets, the same music blend is good for a top 5 rank in 25-54, but KOOL had an image issue of being an old fashioned station due to an ancient image.
You said earlier the range was 35-54. Does that change things materially?
Those two things are unrelated. Buyers decided that the new foreign brands did have superior build quality (although not at first) and American carmakers tried competing with inferior products. But many foreign brands also bit the dust during this time as well (most British non-luxury brands and virtually all from the Iron Curtain countries). The early Japanese entries weren't all that great here either. A couple of recessions, a "fab" engagement with "fins and things" really soured some American car brands as well as the increasing cost of maintenance, repairs and fuel. "Longer, Lower, Wider" bit the dust when it came to just transportation.
All of the brands you mention, except Saturn, failed to compete in their respective price ranges. For instance there was only the price difference that made Mercury 'better' than the equipped Ford. In the old days there was some perceived value in having a car that matched your standing in society. WWII essentially brought that to an end and cars had to compete not only with their formal competition but also with other models in their own companies. Pontiac, for instance, was the hot buy in the sixties but 10 years later, when the youngsters now had families, there was slipping demand for "sports" two door models so they didn't sell well. There were just too many models and the added costs of both manufacturing and buying could not be ignored.
