Bye Bye Jeff Dauler and Marino at Star 94.1

Not terribly surprised about Jeff but very surprised about Marino.

Star 94-1 in my opinion sounds better than ever formatically. The morning show was holding them back, but fixing or changing a morning show--even half a morning show--in the highly competitive race to attract women--is a far from a sure thing.

Wow. Heather Branch is "retiring." I personally think Heather is great.

And I assume Kannon in afternoon drive is the same guy who worked at the old 95-5 The Beat. I think he did the syndicated Saturday Night House Party after John Garabedian retired.

How does this affect Q99.7?

Does no one have anything to say about this? Not a format change but a big story nonetheless. I'll say some things:

I will miss Heather Branch. She was perfect for the music and pacing of Star 94-1. She is a great jock and terrific person. She could certainly find another job, but that probably would require relocating, and I don't know whether she would do that. But, I'm sure she'll be successful at whatever she decides to do. Marino has a really good voice and delivery, and would be a nice pickup by an AC station somewhere. I have no knowledge of whether B98.5 has filled its afternoon shift and of whether Marino has a non-compete, which he likely does. But, I expect him to do well.

Star 94-1 PD Ron Roberts has great radio instincts and a lot of creativity. When I was in Myrtle Beach last summer, his station, Mix 97.7, caught my attention because it sounded way better than I expected for a market that size. Now I'm hearing the same formatic excellence on Star 94-1.

I like the concept of Jenn Hobby (and Friends) because it's different from what everyone else is doing. Will it work? Jenn does have star power, but who knows? Amanda Kelly in middays will not be Heather, but she will still refresh the daypart and make it younger (and probably earn a lot less than Heather). Kannon in afternoon drive sounds like an excellent hire. I hope he's on until 7pm because there has been a fairly big drop-off in quality at 6. Overall the changes seem positive.

That said, significant movement up in the ratings for Star will not be easy for several reasons:

1. WSB-AM (+95.5 FM) is going to be #1 or #2 in this market for the foreseeable future.
2. Atlanta, because of its population composition, will continue to help Urban stations place in several of the top spots in the ratings.
3. B98.5 is widely perceived as the station acceptable for offices, restaurants and retail establishments, which gives the station a big head start in the ratings. And the PPM technology is favorable to stations being played where a lot of people congregate.
4. Too many stations are going for virtually the same women demos. The last time Star had a substantial increase in ratings, and it was short lived, was shortly after Scott Lindy joined the station and before the launch of Power 96-1. And the last time Star had a really sustained ratings run was in the late 90's under PD Dan Bowen, prior to The Beat and Q100. When Q100 launched at 100.5 and The Beat moved to Rhythmic CHR, Star maintained pretty good numbers until the combination of Steve & Vikki leaving (and being replaced by the wrong morning show) and Q100 moving to the bigger signal at 99.7.
5. When a station flips to a format already in the market, that format's share typically expands. That may not (or may) happen in the case of K-Love programming Christian Contemporary (in addition to The Fish) because that format has a limited fan base.

While I feel badly about the people who lost their jobs, I assume they knew what they were getting into when they went into radio. For us listeners (and radio junkies), competition is good, and I'm looking forward to the next several months on Atlanta radio.

I'm just really surprised that after all of this time, one of the AC/CHR stations has not cried uncle and flipped to something else, especially since CHR seems to be heading towards another one if its periodic doldrums. My guess would be Star first and Power 96 second.

If K-Love attracts even a slightly different demo than The Fish, then the market will expand. Fish will be nibbled at, but the CC market will indeed grow. The question is how many listeners like CC but don't like The Fish. Every time I have listened to them, they have had a tiny playlist of Creed and Creed wannabes.

I do wonder if the Fish's success has prevented a soft AC format from being considered by another station.

I feel like the Atlanta radio dial has been in a state of non-change for what seems like an extraordinarily long time.

I think Dauler's ego got the best of him going back to working with Bert Weiss. There is nothing wrong with being confident, but he was convinced he was better than the star of The Bert Show and it drove a wedge right through the success of them all at Q-100. It was only a matter of time before history had to repeat itself at Star. How many times have we seen similar falls from grace? Humble, respectful and on your game is the only way to survive today's bloodbath mentality.

jabba17 said:

I'm just really surprised that after all of this time, one of the AC/CHR stations has not cried uncle and flipped to something else, especially since CHR seems to be heading towards another one if its periodic doldrums. My guess would be Star first and Power 96 second.

If K-Love attracts even a slightly different demo than The Fish, then the market will expand. Fish will be nibbled at, but the CC market will indeed grow. The question is how many listeners like CC but don't like The Fish. Every time I have listened to them, they have had a tiny playlist of Creed and Creed wannabes.

I do wonder if the Fish's success has prevented a soft AC format from being considered by another station.

I feel like the Atlanta radio dial has been in a state of non-change for what seems like an extraordinarily long time.

Click to expand...

Speaking of the Fish...how in the world did they come in first 6+? And not during Christmas?

If a couple of your P1 folks go on vacation, get sick, move or replaced you can drop a couple of spots. Back in the diary days I experienced it in two markets. Sometimes a third of your listeners in a demographic or area would "disappear". That is why smart broadcasters have a contract that pays them during the non compete period.

It'll be interesting what Jeff Dauler does next.