-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Will Audacy ever realize that 102.9 The Wolf isn't working?
- Thread starter RadioGuy1019
- Start date
The question is do they keep the Twins. That's likely where the money is.
Delilah is pre - recorded if i’m not mistaken.
The show is made up of work parts that are assembled on each affiliate's audio system.
My understanding is that she does the show the way Seacrest does, in bits and pieces. That way each station can have their own commercial load, schedule and even music type. The staff assembles the "bits" and "pieces" (or "kibbles and bits" as I am fond of saying).
Alternative just wouldn't work I don't think; see the old KQGO Go 96.3 ratings for reference. Not terrible, but nothing impressive for a 19kW station with full coverage to the Cities. (I think their highest rating was like a 1.9 or 2.1) 95.3 had 900w of power and had crap coverage even in some parts of the metro and STILL got over a two share as Hip Hop. Alt isn't the format it once was and hasn't worked well in the TC since The Edge and even Drive 105. But god knows what Audacy will do, they flipped a very successful station which only existed two years (which is very rare to build a format that works that quick) in Detroit (WDZH; The Breeze) to Alternative.
And don’t forget The Current. When that signed on, it seemed to mark the beginning of the end for Drive 105. Drive limped along for a couple more years before they finally threw in the towel. That may also be a factor in Go 96.3’s lackluster ratings. They had to compete with a more adventurous non commercial version of itself. I see a parallel between that and the lack of commercial classical outlets in the market, since MPR has that covered as well.
Keep in mind, also, that classical tends not be commercially viable because the audience tends to skew older than what advertisers want. Commercial classical stations have been falling by the wayside nationwide for at least the last 30 years. Granted, KSJN 99.5 does an excellent job, but that has very little to do with why commercial operators aren't interested in the format.
Something somewhat ironic is that Audacy/Entercom largely got into radio by buying FM stations in the 1960's and early 70's when FM wasn't considered prime real estate. There were some exceptions, but Entercom frequently bought FM's on the cheap and ran either beautiful music or classical on them. In the early 80's, it dropped those formats at a very quick clip and replaced them with rock, AC, and oldies formats.
As a frequent visitor to the Twin Cities as a kid, how far south is that signal reliable? 694/94 (Brooklyn Center etc) Mounds View on 35W etc.
As good as any of them.
i hadnt been that way in ages
What is extra ironic is that many forget that Entercom did that HERE. They owned 93.7 as WAYL (mostly automated “Beautiful Music”) and then flipped to what we now call “Classic Hits” before debuting the first incarnation of 93X. They would, of course, sell the station to ABC who would go on to launch the most successful Modern Rock station in the US at a time when the format was in its prime, and then blow it up later to go back to the current 93X.
Not happening. Alt has largely failed since the debut of MPR’s non-comm service, and hip hop on a full 100kw signal in a (still) largely Caucasian market (though the demos are changing, the Cities are not like more Southern markets or Chicago or Milwaukee) is hard to sell. Where iHeart has it now on a translator where their core demo resides is the best case scenario to ensure hip hop/R&B has any sort of commercial presence in Minnesota (not counting non-comm KMOJ).
Last edited:
Unless if there can be a revision to the deal to opt out early and keep the team on AM or move them to Jack, I can’t see them flipping until the deal runs out in ‘23. AC and sports don’t exactly mix...just look at what K-Twin did for a bit.
That's exactly right. Entercom actually bought 980 several years after it had already owned WAYL 93.7. (980 was orginally paired with 101.3 as WYOO.) I suspect, at the time, it paid the same as or more than it paid for 93.7. In 1977, AM and FM were worth roughly the same.
WAYL ditched beautiful music for classic hits as KLXK and was originally planning to flip to oldies, but KTWN beat them and became KQQL. KLXK was essentially a classic rock station that dipped a little further into the pop category if I remember correctly.
As I've mentioned several times, I grew up in Texas and Oklahoma, and Entercom had an FM in Houston and another in OKC that followed similar paths. Classical KLEF 94.5 in Houston became AC KJYY, which lasted about a year and gave way to oldies KLDE. KFNB/KLNK 101.9 ran an easy listening and jazz format before becoming KLTE “Lite Rock 102.” Lite Rock 102 never caught on and became oldies “K-Lite 102” around October 1989. It became KOQL “KOOL 102” a little over a year later. Around Thanksgiving 1993, Entercom sold KOQL, and that was the first time Entercom had sold a station since the 1960’s. The second time was a few months later when it sold KRXX 93.7!
I could see them moving the Twins to Jack if they finally decide to flip. Jack does better anyway, and I'm sure some listeners of Jack and even CCO would like it. There wasn't exactly much promotion of the Twins also being on 102.9 to begin with, at least from what I could see. I could be wrong, I might've been looking in the wrong places... Idk. On the air on 102.9 they needed more promos like "Your Home For The Twins On FM, 102.9 The Wolf" and even on CCO, something like "Your Home For The Twins On AM 830 and FM 102.9."
In other words, If they wanted listeners to know they carried the Twins on 102.9, they'd drive it into their listeners, both on 830 and 102.9. Maybe integrate more references to the Twins in slogans on 102.9, something like "The Twin Cities New Country Leader And The FM Home Of The Twins, 102.9 The Wolf." I don't listen to 102.9 too often, but when I have I haven't heard anything like this. Say I'm flipping around, like a regular listener (say I'm a Twins fan who listens on 830) probably does at some point, and they catch a song they like on 102.9 and then hear the promo, they'd probably be like "Hmmm... so you mean the Twins are on FM? That's nice." The issue is, some may make a mental note and then forget it, that's why CCO should also be pointing Twins fans/listeners to 102.9 if they like the cleaner sound. I don't know, just another thought.
That was before my time, so I have learned most of that from reading accounts online. From my understanding, 101.3/980 was owned by Fairchild after being sold by the original owners (Stewart). U100 sounded like it was a great station, but Fairchild wanted out and I think might have sold the station for cheap (as one recollection was that Doubleday bought 101.3 because they thought the studio was a good deal and the FM was just a bonus).
What is a bit more confusing to me is the studio! When 980/101.3 were co-owned, the Stewarts built that studio out in Eagan. Obviously that studio followed the stations, but historical accounts state that the studio actually went to Doubleday with 101.3 and NOT to Entercom with the 980 purchase. There was even a time when 101.3 originated from Eagan while 630 originated from Richfield, I believe, during the days when the two signals split and 101.3 became Stereo 101. But, fast forward a bit and I found some pictures of WAYL clearly broadcasting out of Eagan (from I believe the 1980s) and I know that KRXX also broadcast from there because I saw some b-roll of the outside when ABC started their "end of the world as we know it" stunt before launching KEGE. Now, I know ABC didn't buy the building, they had no interest in it, and it eventually went to Salem when 980 was sold to them, because it still houses that station to this day (along with 3 other radio stations). Anyone know how the building went from Doubleday to Entercom? Or is historical knowledge incorrect and the building went to Entercom originally when they bought 980?
- Status