• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

What's going on at WOGL?

Logo update is nice enough, and probably overdue.

There isn’t that much of a legitimate battle over the 80s, the occasional liner aside. WOGL is comfortably ahead of Ben, which seems to kind of chug along with their own thing with minimal marketing. More and Today’s aren’t head to head with WOGL....heck, WMGK probably shares more songs as a percentage of airtime.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Logo update is nice enough, and probably overdue.

There isn’t that much of a legitimate battle over the 80s, the occasional liner aside. WOGL is comfortably ahead of Ben, which seems to kind of chug along with their own thing with minimal marketing. More and Today’s aren’t head to head with WOGL....heck, WMGK probably shares more songs as a percentage of airtime.
Click to expand...

True. I just generally lumped them all together as those playing some vein of 80s "Classic Hits". WOGL handily beats Ben FM ratings wise, and WBEB/WTDY fall into the "AC that plays 80s" category
 
To me. I still feel like Ben FM plays a much better variety of 80s, but WOGL has a better presentation. I wish that WOGL would play the same 80s songs that Hot Hits played from 1981-1987 and Eagle 106 played from 1987-1993. I prefer the other Entercom Classic Hits Stations playlist to WOGL. I like Sunny 105.9 in Orlando, WOMC in Detroit, Kluv in Dallas, WCBS in NY, Kool FM in Phoenix and Krth in Los Angeles. WOGL's ratings have decreased over the past year. I am not sure if has to do with them getting rid of most of their air talent.
 
They shouldn’t play what doesn’t test well, though, regardless of what 98 or 106 played in their day. And to many people, 98 IS playing what they played as Hot Hits.
 
This is true. I guess I just seem to like the other classic hits playlists. I think it has been noted, but WOGL seems to lag a bit behind the other classic hits stations in years. Most other classic hits stations are playing Mostly 80s, with 1-2 90s and hour and 1 70s. I guess it is working for them. I think if Ben FM flipped formats then WOGL would really play a wider variety of 80s and not just the safer ones.
 
AM/FMRAINMAN said:
WOGL's ratings have decreased over the past year. I am not sure if has to do with them getting rid of most of their air talent.
Click to expand...

WOGL had the best average over the 12 regular books of any year of the last 6 or 7. The average for the whole year as a 7.9.

Their biggest issue is that they are averaging around 10th in 25-54, and getting to the point that the audience is way too old.
 
AM/FMRAINMAN said:
This is true. I guess I just seem to like the other classic hits playlists. I think it has been noted, but WOGL seems to lag a bit behind the other classic hits stations in years. Most other classic hits stations are playing Mostly 80s, with 1-2 90s and hour and 1 70s. I guess it is working for them. I think if Ben FM flipped formats then WOGL would really play a wider variety of 80s and not just the safer ones.
Click to expand...
I say this as someone who prefers Ben as well, but I don’t believe Ben disappesring tomorrow would correlate to a shift at WOGL. I’m not saying someone isn’t keeping close tabs on what the other guys are doing, but I’m having a hard time, with the current market dynamics, imagining someone at 98 excluding songs because of what 95.7 is doing.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Their biggest issue is that they are averaging around 10th in 25-54, and getting to the point that the audience is way too old.
Click to expand...

The understandable initial response to this is likely "Well, then delete the '70s and add the '90s" but of course they'd end up competing with their own sister station. It's quite the pickle.
 
It also can be looked as at as a complimentary asset within the cluster as a whole. Ben and WMGK share a good number of 80s rock songs, too.
 
What "Classic Soul Christmas tracks" did they play? I figured that subset would be avoided with WDAS still on the air.
 
polaris said:
Well, in my opinion, the "corporate standard" is horrid. What ever happened to a radio station sounding individual, sounding like it's city? Now, radio just sounds like the same old same old, no matter what station I listen to. It's really distasteful; what are America's radio programmers thinking?
Click to expand...

They are thinking, what can I do to stay employed and keep the boss happy...
 
DavidEduardo said:


WOGL had the best average over the 12 regular books of any year of the last 6 or 7. The average for the whole year as a 7.9.

Their biggest issue is that they are averaging around 10th in 25-54, and getting to the point that the audience is way too old.
Click to expand...

Why are 25 year olds even in the same group as 54 year olds? I don't see them having much in common, musically. When I was 25, I definitely had a different taste in music than my Mom's generation
 
Fakeem said:
Why are 25 year olds even in the same group as 54 year olds? I don't see them having much in common, musically.
Click to expand...

This has come up before. It's a sales demographic created by advertisers, not a music demographic. Usually there are subgroups within that larger group that an advertiser wants to target.
 
Fakeem said:
Why are 25 year olds even in the same group as 54 year olds? I don't see them having much in common, musically. When I was 25, I definitely had a different taste in music than my Mom's generation
Click to expand...

As BigA says, this is a time buying demographic. Advertisers, in their vast majority want to reach people in that age range. They know that to use radio, they often have to buy several stations deep to cover the younger, older and middle parts of the demographic.

Stations target portions of the demo. A few, like WBEB, cover the entire demo with strong listening in 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54. Others reach different segments and are still attractive to advertisers.

Many advertisers are more specific in targeting, depending on the product. Beer, the classic example, targets men. So they usually buy Men 25-54. Or men 25-44. Or...

In some markets, you see very specific gender, age and ethnicity as a target: Hispanic Females English Dominant 25-44. In LA, that's nearly as many people than the entire market total in the lower Top 100 markets.

Even 25-54 is not a "done deal" in all cases. Most ethnic buys target 18-49 (just like TV) and there are definitely 18-34 buys, too. But there are very few 55+ or teen buys.
 
WOGL should go back to the Oldies format...<Now that's a REAL CLASSIC HITS station. 50, 60s, and 70s would be Classic Hits. 80s, 90s, and today...Adult Hits.
 
BJSteigner said:
WOGL should go back to the Oldies format...<Now that's a REAL CLASSIC HITS station. 50, 60s, and 70s would be Classic Hits. 80s, 90s, and today...Adult Hits.
Click to expand...

This will never happen.

The guiding line for the music someone identifies most with is what was playing when they were in high school.

A person who graduated from high school in 1979 would have been born (on average, give or take a year of course) in 1961. Someone who graduated high school in 1955 ("Rock Around the Clock" topped the charts, commencing the current rock/pop era) would have been born in 1937.

So the "oldies" format you propose and some stations are still trying today would be bringing in listeners age 57-81. Firmly out of the demographic most advertisers want to reach and, literally, dying out. This is where the "standards" format was a decade ago and how many standards stations do you see anywhere, let alone in a top 10 market?

Back when Oldies was at its peak in the late 80's, and CBS was really driving it with stations like WOGL, the rule of thumb was "1955 through 10 years ago." In 1987 this gave you a target demographic of 28-50, exactly who advertisers wanted to reach.

The modern equivalent of CBS's oldies format would be music from 1978 through 2003, or 15 years ago. (I think 10 years is a little too current for today's tastes.)

In addition, it would be imaged like a pop station from around 1984 (think Hot Hits WCAU-FM) and probably have a "morning zoo" style morning show. This would be consistent with when WCBS went Oldies and WOGL launched; the two were programmed to sound like a station out of the late 50's/early 60's with imaging reminiscent of that sound and talent like Hy Lit and Cousin Brucie. It's the sound the target demographic remembers from when they were most into radio.

Oldies as we know it is dying and there will be no resurrection.
 
The question I have is, why do remote towns and villages, some in middle backwoods America, have full time AM and FM translators playing classic oldies and country from the 50's and 60's, some so obscure they were only played when first came out.. The audience they are reachng doesn't know the difference between Frankie Avalon, Anette or Fabian from Sam Smith lol. Why doesn't the big cities on the east coast where the residence grew up on this music, know every word of every song and embraced it not have a local outlet for it. Makes no sense, but signals like WFAT, WKCE, KFXM and many, many, others, some in one horse towns are playing this and all the floundering AM's in NYC and Philly won't budge.
 
Different ad buying. Vanity/pet projects. Different competition. Other content.

Mix and match among those and other factors. It’s apples and oranges—to put it mildly—trying to compare. Quite apart from moldy oldies, there are some fun small-town stations I enjoy when traveling, but I’d never suggest that because it works “there” that it would work here, with agency buys, ample competition and a different audience.

But that’s been explained before. And those who don’t want to accept it will simply continue to pose the same argument disguised as a question.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom