Mike Kaplan named PD of WRFF

[macattack]

Macattack: WWCD is two hours down I-71 in Columbus. WNWV is here in Cleveland and has a considerably safer playlist than WWCD, but not quite as safe as an Audacy or iHeart owned.

I keep mixing up where WWCD is and one of these days I'll finally get it straight. Thanks.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

To piggyback on macattack’s point, it’s not just an Alternative problem. Over the last few months, several heritage CHRs have placed greater emphasis on gold product as a result of a diminished number of well-testing currents. Whether they’re doing this until the currents can resonate better or if this is the future of the format(s) is to be determined.

Gold songs and music testing are great tools for radio but like anything else, becoming obsessively over-reliant on your tools and crutches ultimately wrecks the product.

There's a ton of great music out there but new adds at Big Radio are all based on quid pro quo at the highest levels of the company and it's all top-down chain-wide programming now. Since the labels don't seem to care much about radio anymore they aren't cutting those sweet deals to get their records played, so stations go back to leaning on burnt out gold instead.

And country.

Because Nashville is the one machine that still has lots of money and incentives to throw at radio. So we end up with Country songs and burnt out gold at CHR.

Audience numbers keep plummeting, and corporate talking heads blame streaming. Well duh, why do you think everyone is streaming?

 

[DavidEduardo]

Audience numbers keep plummeting, and corporate talking heads blame streaming. Well duh, why do you think everyone is streaming?

1. It's ad-free of has limited ads.
2. You can create you own playlist
3. You have more programmed playlist options.

The funny (as in "peculiar" and not "ha ha") thing is that playlists of nearly all users over about 30 or so are smaller than the average radio station in the same style and type of music.

 

[TheBigA]

There's a ton of great music out there but new adds at Big Radio are all based on quid pro quo at the highest levels of the company and it's all top-down chain-wide programming now.

Huh? I assume you're talking about the alternative format. Who tells John Allers what to add? Who tells Lisa Worden what to add?

The main fear everyone here has about Mike Kaplan is that he alone will be the person deciding what to play at WRFF. Right?

There is no "top down" programming in the alternative format because there's no money in it and nobody "at the highest levels" cares.

If you don't like the music being played, MAYBE the problem is in the music industry. Maybe the big labels are so poorly run that there's nobody guiding artists in their careers and nobody promoting their music ANYWHERE, not just radio. How are the labels promoting their music on TV or at Spotify? Give examples. They're just throwing music at streaming services and waiting for people to discover it.

Because Nashville is the one machine that still has lots of money and incentives to throw at radio. So we end up with Country songs and burnt out gold at CHR.

Nashville has an infrastructure that knows how to write, record, market, and promote music. Something missing in alternative today. That's why bands know that if they want to make money, sign a deal in Nashville. It's not just radio. Look at TV. On Monday Fox is airing the Academy of Country Music Honors. Next week, NBC is airing a special country edition of the People's Choice awards. Why aren't they doing that for any other genre? Because the only genre that knows what it's doing is country.

 

[MVB13]

Kaplan was not the reason Alt 92.3 failed. The first few months under Michael Martin's leadershup were misguided musically and presentation-wise.

You can arguably blame KROQ on him, but how much of it was him being made to be the scapegoat for decisions above him (ie letting go of Kevin, Allie & Jensen and how it was done) depends on who you ask. Prior to this run at Audacy, every Alternative station he ran over-performed.


Kaplan developed the two-minute promise during his first run at Entercom at 107.7 The End where it helped grow the ratings immensely.

He's not making a morning show change. He was the one who brought the Woody Show to KYSR Los Angeles and built it into something iHeart could syndicate nationally. He and Woody worked together at Nassau Broadcasting in New Jersey in the early/mid-90s.

Under John Allers, WRFF succeeded because "Radio 104.5" continued the tradition in the market set by WPLY of having a Pop Alternative lean making it more female or office friendly than most Alternative stations in the country. When he was let go and it was rebranded as "Alt 104.5", it was put more in line with the rest of the company's stations in the format. Kaplan has done both variations of the format during his career and the company obviously sees that WRFF needs a stronger leader by bringing him in, so watching the music and imaging will be the key to whether he's being given enough control to make the station more sellable again.

Radio 104.5 was much better.

 

[RStacey1990]

Radio 104.5 was much better.

By far, not even a comparison. The name change was the beginning of negative changes and everyone knew it.