Since WLUP went off the air terrestrial wise. This pretty much still doesn’t leave a format gap for classic rock, but will it leave a Motörhead, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Motley Crue, Classic Hard Rock bands ect. Will WDRV pick these up? I’m worried about WKQX what do you think? Will we loose Alternative too?
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WLUP
- Thread starter PettyOfficer
- Start date
Saul the Iguana Killer
New Participating Member
WDRV will most likely stay the course, and probably pick up no less than a 1/2 share doing nothing at all. As far as alternative goes..I can't listen to WKQX for more than 5 minutes. The newer music they play that's labeled alternative just doesn't cut it for me. Given the choice, I would have much rather seen them sell WKQX first. If they can't negotiate on WKQX, and it gets flipped by a new owner, I could see iHeart flipping WEBG to alternative. I'm perplexed that Chicago still has 2 country stations (if you can consider either one truly "Country")! I wonder how long it will take Cumulus to unload WLS AM/FM if they lose WKQX.
Thanks in part to their purchase of Citadel, Cumulus has several 2-station and even 1-station clusters in their company. So I'd expect they'll retain the combo in order to give them market clearance in Chicago. The company also has a sales office in Chicago.
WKQX is still owned by Merlin, not Cumulus, and Merlin has made no secret that it intends to sell it. Once sold, given the ratings, it's likely to flip to another format, depending on who buys it.
I don't know if I'd go so far as to say "likely to flip."
WKQX performs well in Adults 18 - 34. In Men 18+, I suspect they do pretty well, too (especially upon removing Urban stations from the equation).
If a new owner were to ditch the Alternative format from 101.1 MHz, I suspect iHeart would flip 95.5 in a heartbeat.
WKQX performs well in Adults 18 - 34. In Men 18+, I suspect they do pretty well, too (especially upon removing Urban stations from the equation).
If a new owner were to ditch the Alternative format from 101.1 MHz, I suspect iHeart would flip 95.5 in a heartbeat.
I agree with that, but the reason I say its likely to flip is because the alternative format, regardless of owner, tends to underbill its ratings for some reason.
It'll be interesting to see if Hubbard sticks with Alternative in St. Louis.
ksradiogeek
Star Participant
Hub launched Alt AZ a few years ago. So far, it's decent. It may not bill the greatest, but works in tandem with KUPD and KSLX. If Hub grabs KQX, it'd be an ok sales combo with Drive and maybe Mix.
JeremyAndrews
Star Participant
The Loop didn’t play any of these artists in recent years to begin with. WFXF does.
Well I heard that IHeartMedia is going down under too so who knows who will pick up these stations. I’m guessing Entercom will and have WKQX sound more like KROQ, which is closely how Q101 sounded before they kicked the bucket. If Hubbard purchases WKQX it will most likely keep the alternative format and put Sherman and Tingle WKQX. Bring Mancow to 97.1 The Drive. The Drive starts playing bands like Judas Preist, Metallica, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Guns N Roses , Motley Crue, Iron Maiden ect. I mean these bands are 25 + years old and these are bands 90 percent of what Classic Rock Stations already play. Now I know you guys will disagree with what I said about hiring Mancow to the Drive but remember WLUP and WDRV had almost identical ratings. Unfortunately I live in Northwest Indiana where 95.1 Will Rock, 103.9 The Fox, and 100.7 is out of reach. 103.9 X-Rock is a crappy Classic Rock Station. My brother lives in Dallas so I stream KEGL on my unlimited data plan.
iHeart is not "going down". They filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and will reorganize, with the intent of emerging with lower debt. The station group is very profitable, but not enough so to carry the current $20 billion in debt caused by the 2008 LBO. With less debt, they will be a very good company.
#1: I think fans of Mancow will agree he's not as dominating a personality as he once was. #2 Hubbard isn't the kind of company that wants an edgy guy who will cause trouble, and Mancow has that kind of reputation. #3: The reality is that the classic rock format is less valuable as its audience ages. Given all that, I don't know that Hubbard sees an advantage to hiring Mancow, especially if the ratings are almost identical.
He may not be as dominant as he used to be agreed, however that’s why he may be a better fit for a Classic Rock Station. I think it was pretty impressive to still pull a 3.0 on WLUP with a clone for a competitor just a .8 notches down the FM dial. The Drive is Chicago’s only outlet for Classic Rock on the FM dial so there will be an advantage to hire Mancow. There is no direct competitor. I believe the Drive has the power to carry The Legacy of the Loop over. Classic Rock isn’t exactly not a valuable formart anymore, it’s just that classic Rock Stations hasn’t musically changed in the last 20 years. I mean classic Rock stations are still at times playing music that are too old for classic hits stations. Classic Rock should broaden their playlist and start adding later music. It’s time for a classic rock make over. I believe it would be wise for Hubbard to purchase WKQX, and do what the previous post I mention did. It would make a perfect cluster, but that’s just my two sense.
Look at KLOS in Los Angeles Classic Rock Stations should sound like that now.
Look at KLOS in Los Angeles Classic Rock Stations should sound like that now.
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You're making the wrong argument. The Drive would need unique talent to distinguish it from a competitor. They now have no direct competitor. The attraction for listeners is the music, not talent. Plus, as I said earlier, he didn't actually attract more listeners when he was at the Loop. So obviously listeners didn't find an advantage having him. So why should Hubbard pay the money and deal with the aggravation?
You sure right TheBigA you are much more experienced about this stuff than I. I can't believe 13 years later I'm still following FM forums. It doesn't matter whats going on in any station. We are in a generation where podcasts, music subscriptions, Spotify, YouTube Red, and SirusXM radio is taking over. Once SirusXM starts streaming in FM quality it will be the end of FM. DAB radio will commence in the US soon. FM radio will suffer the same fate analog cable and analog television did. FM will be used for News and Emergecies only. Apple already admitted that iPhones already have an FM chip but doesn't want you to access analog radio for because it will allow "free" music without a subscription. There is no money in FM anymore.
Meanwhile Pandora hasn't made a profit since it started 17 years ago.
As Mark Twain once said, "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated".
When over 90% of the adult population listens to radio an average of 10 hours a week, the medium is hardly dead.
Sirius / XM streams already, for a price. The main issue there is that, as curated programming goes, it is not the best it could be.
No, it won't. There is no plan to move to DAB, and in the US the band is used for other purposes. DAB failed in Canada, and is not used anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. DAB can only be imposed by government mandate and, it seems, only works where the government controls a significant part of the radio market such as England, Finland, Norway, etc.
What do you base this odd conclusion on?
There are $16 billion in radio revenues. As BigA says, Pandora has never made a profit.
The main issue with the latest iPhones is that they do not have a headphone jack, essential to capturing an FM signal.
You mean The Drive should emulate KLOS?
KLOS is 11th in 25-54, vs. WDRV which averaged 6th in 25-54 in the Fall 3-book average. Why would they want to change anything? Or copy a station that is not doing as well in a very different market?
david
Leading Participant
I just added SXM streaming to my in-car plan and the sound fidelity differential (improvement) is striking over the in-dash sound fidelity. I am considering on my next renewal to ax the in-car portion and just go with streaming.
Regarding curated programming - I'd like to hear more of your take on it. The SXM app provides expanded access to their curated programming - some of which is quite wonderful - such as Magnificent 7 Monday on First Wave; several shows about Broadway musicals including Seth Speaks Broadway, Sunday Funday with John Tartaglia; Underground Garage has shows like The Rodney Bingenheimer Show and The Jersey Guy Does Jersey; as well as several channels with classic rock elements that offer special curated shows including Deep Tracks, The Spectrum, and The Loft. IMO, this is a pretty impressive platform to tout their curated programming bonafides.
If you like classic rock, it will likely be the only place to hear it in a few years. They're building a pretty solid talent lineup for the newly retired.
IMHO Sirius is doing a much better job than Pandora, Spotify, or Apple.
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