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Star 94-1 Has New PD

R

RoddyFreeman

Walk of Fame Participant
All Access has announced Star 94-1's new PD as Ron Roberts from Mix 97.7, iHeart's CHR in Myrtle Beach.

I was in Myrtle Beach a couple of weeks ago and was impressed with how good Mix 97.7 sounded. They have a syndicated morning show and of course air voice-tracked shows, but their live local jocks as well as their formatics and music sound great.

Of course, Star 94-1 is not CHR. It sounds like Star made a good hire, but I personally consider the PD who left, Tony Lorino, to be one of the best when it comes to Hot AC.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
All Access has announced Star 94-1's new PD as Ron Roberts from Mix 97.7, iHeart's CHR in Myrtle Beach.

I was in Myrtle Beach a couple of weeks ago and was impressed with how good Mix 97.7 sounded. They have a syndicated morning show and of course air voice-tracked shows, but their live local jocks as well as their formatics and music sound great.

Of course, Star 94-1 is not CHR. It sounds like Star made a good hire, but I personally consider the PD who left, Tony Lorino, to be one of the best when it comes to Hot AC.
Click to expand...

Roddy: Why do you think Star performed so dismally under Tony? Do you think the Jen and Jeff hire was a good move? Was the music correctly programmed for the P1 which was/is the "soccer mom?"
It seems to me, in the Atlanta area, that "The Fish" and "The Joy FM" are the soccer mom favorites by far.
 
wavo said:
Roddy: Why do you think Star performed so dismally under Tony? Do you think the Jen and Jeff hire was a good move? Was the music correctly programmed for the P1 which was/is the "soccer mom?"
It seems to me, in the Atlanta area, that "The Fish" and "The Joy FM" are the soccer mom favorites by far.
Click to expand...

Good questions, and I'm not the most qualified person to answer them, not being involved in programming. But I'll tell you my perceptions. First, Star's ratings have been strong in the past couple of monthlies with what is still Tony's product. That said, someone definitely has been minding the store; the imaging--with Neil Wilson and Rachel McGrath remaining the voices--has become a little more aggressive. And the music seems a bit more rhythmic although that's the way pop music has been going lately.

Atlanta is a tough market in that there is so much Urban radio here, which takes a fair amount of share points to start out with. Moreover, so many stations are programming for women 18-49/25-54: Star 94-1, Power 96-1, B98.5, Q100, 104.7 The Fish. The pie is divided into a lot of slices.

People perceive B98.5 to be the station that's acceptable to play in the background in restaurants, stores, doctor/dental practices and offices. That gives B98.5 a tremendous head start in the ratings and is an advantage that the competitors usually cannot overcome.

The PPM has pretty much obliterated exclusive cume, but 104.7 The Fish's unique format still attracts loyal listeners who do not listen to other stations. (I don't consider The Joy FM a factor.)

Aside from all of that, I really don't know. Star 94 musically is close to Q100, which has good adult numbers. With the stations so close musically, maybe people tend to prefer CHR over almost CHR, which is what Hot AC is.

As far as Jeff & Jenn, I thought hiring them was a no-brainer. They had a few really good months before Q100 woke up and made some adjustments, including presenting new material in the 9AM hour. You have to give Bert credit; what he has accomplished in this market is nothing short of amazing. I haven't seen morning drive ratings for recent months.

I'm hoping someone who knows more than I do will post their interpretation of what's going on.
 
Roddy - I'm not sure if I'd classify Star's ratings as "strong" the last several months. I won't quote exact share, but the station has been outside of the top 10 with persons in prime each month so far in 2018. April was the lowest, with the station ranking 15th. I'm not saying Tony Lorino is to blame, who knows what sort of corporate directives and politics were at play, but we both know sales can't make a dime if they're 15th.

Star is close to Q100 musically, and that's about where it ends. A station can't survive just being a knockoff of another station in the city. Q100 is bulletproof as long as they have Bert, and despite changes in cast members on his show, he continues to do extremely well. Bert's high performance in Nielsen makes the rest of Q100 strong, without the morning show, Q wouldn't have the ratings it has today. That is exactly what Star's problem is, they don't have a strong morning show. Jeff and Jenn have high awareness in Atlanta, but when you turn the show on it's low on entertainment value. It's like a spin-off of your favorite TV show without the biggest player from the show. Sometimes it works, but in this case it does not. When I listen to Jeff and Jenn I hear too many voices and not enough thought out content. Bert built a show with multiple voices, but an extremely disciplined casting of each of those voices. Star sounds like they just tried to fill the studio with as many people as they could do be like Bert, and that will never work.

Jeff and Jenn are a knockoff of the Bert Show and Star is a knockoff of Q100, which is exactly why they are in the shape they're in today.
 
I still think with CHR taking a turn back towards Hip Hop, this will make Hot AC stations stronger not only here with Star 94-1 but across the nation as well. Hot AC stations typically do much better in times like these. Listening to AT40 today, most of the countdown was some form of Hip-Hop or R&B. I wouldn’t be surprised if Q100 at some point went more Adult CHR like it was when Cumulus took over if CHR continues to trend this way. Right now Q appears to be playing almost all songs off the top 40 chart, Star plays almost all the hits off the Hot AC chart, Power plays only top 20 hits and they have to be trending upward. Notice Power completely killed off Shawn Mendes’ “In My Blood” on their playlist. It’s number 13 but is not trending upward on the chart anymore.
 
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RoddyFreeman said:
Atlanta is a tough market in that there is so much Urban radio here, which takes a fair amount of share points to start out with. Moreover, so many stations are programming for women 18-49/25-54: Star 94-1, Power 96-1, B98.5, Q100, 104.7 The Fish. The pie is divided into a lot of slices.
Click to expand...

That is something I have been wondering for a while. When is one of these stations going to throw in the towel on this demo and try something new? Is it going to take another 1981 or 1991 CHR doldrums to do that? This reminds me of the early-mid 80s when we had 6 stations (incidentally, three of them are on your list in prior lives) with various flavors of AC going after the boomer women market...now its millennials/GenZ and their moms.

Of course, that raises the question of what format would be more profitable, at least at the margin. Atlanta is also perceived to be a young market, which might prevent someone from trying Soft AC or a true Classic Hits station, both of which cater to older demos. I can't see any other format working...Atlanta is currently saturated with news/talk, and neither of the two country stations have really reached a consistent critical mass (plus they compete with a lot of rimshots).
 
RoddyFreeman said:
Good questions, and I'm not the most qualified person to answer them, not being involved in programming. But I'll tell you my perceptions. First, Star's ratings have been strong in the past couple of monthlies with what is still Tony's product. That said, someone definitely has been minding the store; the imaging--with Neil Wilson and Rachel McGrath remaining the voices--has become a little more aggressive. And the music seems a bit more rhythmic although that's the way pop music has been going lately.

Atlanta is a tough market in that there is so much Urban radio here, which takes a fair amount of share points to start out with. Moreover, so many stations are programming for women 18-49/25-54: Star 94-1, Power 96-1, B98.5, Q100, 104.7 The Fish. The pie is divided into a lot of slices.

People perceive B98.5 to be the station that's acceptable to play in the background in restaurants, stores, doctor/dental practices and offices. That gives B98.5 a tremendous head start in the ratings and is an advantage that the competitors usually cannot overcome.

The PPM has pretty much obliterated exclusive cume, but 104.7 The Fish's unique format still attracts loyal listeners who do not listen to other stations. (I don't consider The Joy FM a factor.)

Aside from all of that, I really don't know. Star 94 musically is close to Q100, which has good adult numbers. With the stations so close musically, maybe people tend to prefer CHR over almost CHR, which is what Hot AC is.

As far as Jeff & Jenn, I thought hiring them was a no-brainer. They had a few really good months before Q100 woke up and made some adjustments, including presenting new material in the 9AM hour. You have to give Bert credit; what he has accomplished in this market is nothing short of amazing. I haven't seen morning drive ratings for recent months.

I'm hoping someone who knows more than I do will post their interpretation of what's going on.
Click to expand...
The last time I saw the mechanicals WVFJ did extremely well in the southern counties and in Douglas county with females 6- dead. In the last book, at night, they did over a 3 share, female 25-54. They are hardly a non-factor.

WVFJ and WFSH, as you might expect, share a lot of listeners. You might be surprised to learn their next highest listener share is WABE! All three stations have very desirable female demos.
 
DoctorRadio997 said:
Roddy - I'm not sure if I'd classify Star's ratings as "strong" the last several months. I won't quote exact share, but the station has been outside of the top 10 with persons in prime each month so far in 2018. April was the lowest, with the station ranking 15th. I'm not saying Tony Lorino is to blame, who knows what sort of corporate directives and politics were at play, but we both know sales can't make a dime if they're 15th.
Click to expand...

What I said was, "The past couple of months."
 
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