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New PD for WEBG

Big 95.5

Steve Stewart probably wasn't the right choice to lead this station; his resume wasn't particularly strong.

To me, it makes sense not to throw in the towel on country. Look at 94.5 KTI up the road in Milwaukee. That station after an OK start fell into a ratings rut that lasted over a year. The station eventually made some programming changes, and the ratings skyrocketed.

St. Louis, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Indianapolis seem to have no problem supporting two (or more) Country stations. Not sure why the same cannot also be true of Chicago!

I'm hard pressed to think of any format voids that could outperform a decently programmed Country station. Contemporary hard rock is only good for about a 2.0 or maybe 2.3 share and less than impressive power ratios. Smooth Jazz is dead. Another moldy classic rock station? Boring! There are plenty of stations in town already catering to African American and Hispanic audiences. Sports? Covered. News/talk? Covered. CHR/Pop? Definitely covered.

The only option that *might* be better than sticking with Country is Variety Hits. However, if 93.9 Lite FM with time evolves to a music mix as broad as sister station 100.3 WNIC in Detroit, there really won't be much wiggle room to squeeze in a Variety Hits station without disrupting WLIT in the process.
 
Dr Wayne said:
Does Chicago really need two Country stations? I would enjoy a Country Classic station.
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... but advertisers wouldn't. :rolleyes:

Classic Country audience is too old to work in a transactional market.
 
When I hear of someone launching a "classic country" format today, I assume it is a 90s-focused format like Nash Icon. Surely that's a 35-54 friendly format.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
When I hear of someone launching a "classic country" format today, I assume it is a 90s-focused format like Nash Icon. Surely that's a 35-54 friendly format.
Click to expand...

If you were in your early 20's when Randy and Garth hit the charts, and you liked "Quittin' Time" a whole lot, you are probably in your early 50's today. If you were a core country listener of that time, you are in your 60's.

That's not a format with a good demo in markets where much of the business is agency / numbers driven.
 
Dr Wayne said:
Does Chicago really need two Country stations? I would enjoy a Country Classic station.
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The question isn't if Chicago needs two country stations, but if iHeart needs to get its country programming on in Chicago. The answer is yes.

That's why they're spending money and transferring an experienced PD to Chicago. Its a big priority.

Lots more money in contemporary country than classic. That means classic anything, including classic hits.
 
I'm surprised that iHeart hasn't replaced Big 95.5's morning show with Bobby Bones, considering that a lot of recent country station launches by iHeart are usually intended to give Bobby Bones a clearance.
 
TheBigA said:
The question isn't if Chicago needs two country stations, but if iHeart needs to get its country programming on in Chicago. The answer is yes.

That's why they're spending money and transferring an experienced PD to Chicago. Its a big priority.

Lots more money in contemporary country than classic. That means classic anything, including classic hits.
Click to expand...

"Classic" is pretty much the same as "too old a demo for advertisers", am I correct? :)
 
Classic (but not too classic) Country works only in markets where there is already a lot of country listening. Cumulus Country Icon WSM-FM is usually the top country outlet in Nashville. Other strong Classic Country stations are in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. But Chicago isn't such an animal. A Classic Country station in Chicago would be trying to build its success on the 40-54 segment of the country audience, which is already not that big.

Most of the largest U.S. markets have two country stations and a few have three. The exceptions are NYC (1), Los Angeles (1), San Diego (1), Philadelphia (1), Washington (1), Miami (1) and San Francisco (0). Even places like Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Seattle and Portland have two.

There are plenty of Chicago-area residents who trace their family histories to rural America. They came to Chicago a couple of generations ago to work in the factories and other blue collar jobs so their offspring might be inclined to like Country. Plus there are a lot of full-power FM signals in Chicago, more than in most cities. You gotta program them with something. So it's smart for iHeart to give Country another try before throwing in the towel.
 
miketheradioguy said:
There was some speculation that following Lance Houston's move to Big 95.5, iHeart does intend to put The Bobby Bones Show in mornings, making Chicago the largest market to do so.
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Again, not gonna happen in market #3. With the slight exception of maybe Mancow and Stern, Chicago is not exactly in favor of syndicated AM shows.
 
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