May I speak in defense of The Dove?
A recent R&R Ratings Report (I think it's a year and a half old) shows that in the Tampa Bay market, The Dove is ALWAYS #1 12+ but also #1 among 35-64 listeners. So David Eduardo is wrong about every listener being 65+. I'll conceed that probably most listeners are 50+ since the station doesn't do well 25-54. Live audio streaming at
www.wduv.com
The Dove evolved in the 90s from one of the last easy listening stations in a large market (50% vocal, 50% instrumental) to a VERY soft AC format that played the easy hits of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. So that meant mostly soft Beatles, Beach Boys, Lionel Richie, Elton John, Dionne Warwick, Billy Joel, etc. with an occasional hit by some nostalgia artists (Sinatra, Andy Williams, Dean Martin). After all, WABC and KHJ would play those artists if they scored a Top 40 hit in the 60s and 70s. We accepted those artists once in a while as we listened to Top 40 radio growing up. Something Stupid with Frank & Nancy Sinatra and The Candy Man by Sammy Davis were giant hits in their day.
But today the Dove, in an effort to stay at the top in the 35-64 demo has pretty much eliminated all pre-Beatles titles and any song that might be considered "nostalgia." I think all the Sinatra and Dean Martin has been deleted. Some Streisand, Bette Midler and Neil Diamond songs remain, since even Lite-FM in NYC and KOST in LA were playing these artists up till a couple of years ago. I think "It's Impossible" by Perry Como is still in slow rotation.
The Dove once per hour (around :35) plays an instrumental but it's not the Mantovanni version of "Michelle." It's usually a song heard on a Smooth Jazz station or maybe the theme from a famous movie like Forrest Gump or Driving Miss Daisy. "The Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" by Henry Mancini is playing as I write this. It was #1 on WABC for a week in 1969.
No, I imagine the Dove doesn't bring in the big bucks. A few years ago, Cox switched it to a lesser signal in the Tampa market with a Classic Rock station getting the better 103.5 signal. Yet its audience followed it to the new frequency, 105.5, licensed to New Port Richey, about 20 miles north of Tampa. Yet the station still shows up in the ratings in markets many miels away, usually #4 in Sarasota and also showing in the Winter Haven-Lakeland ratings. I'm sure those listeners are tuning into the Dove, with static and in mono, because there's no other station that plays their music.
Interestingly, Cox also owns another Soft AC in the Tampa market, WWRM, which also evolved from Easy Listening, although years before The Dove did it. But WWRM today is programmed much like a Soft AC in most markets, meaning it isn't that soft anymore and DJs talk over some song intros. That station co-exists with the Dove, usually as #1 among 25-54 females.
Cox owns these stations as well as rock stations in Tampa, even two stations that have competing Classic Rock formats, one hard-edged, one more pop-leaning. So I guess having one Cox station aimed at the 35-64 audience that runs on a shoe-string is not a bad thing. Cox has no AM station in the market so I guess The Dove duplicates the ratings of a good AM News-Talk station... #1 12+, #1 35-64 but not good in younger demos. The only employee is morning host Dick Ring. He even reads his own news headlines in the morning. The station is automated the rest of the day and all weekend. I don't have access to any earnings statements but it sounds like they run the usual amount of commercials. Of course, most of them are local mom-and-pop retailers aiming at mature customers, with a few regional accounts. We're not going to hear ads for Taco Bell or Budweiser on The Dove.
Cox has owned and operated the station all these years and I assume if it stays at #1 12+ and #1 35-64, it's safe from a format change. When I look at some stations in big markets around the country that CONSISTANTLY generate poor ratings and little profit, I wonder why more group owners don't put a station like The Dove on an underperforming signal. It won't be the market's biggest earner but it won't be the worst either.
Gregg
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