Monday, October 18, 2010

10.18.10 Bee-otch of the Day: Townsquare Media (for bringing us Channel 95-7)





DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!
 
-------------------
 
Name: Townsquare Media
Age: 14
Occupation: radio giant
Last Seen: Greenwich, CT
Bee-otched For: polishing a turd
  

----

The Grand Rapids radio market keeps getting more and more vanilla, don't it?
 
A week ago Friday, long-time adult contemporary radio station 95.7 WLHT let go morning jock Gerry Barnaby and moved midday host Kim Carson over to sister station WTRV/100.5 The River. With those changes, plus the fact that the station has new management prompted speculation that the station was flipping format.

And we were right.

Last Monday morning, WLHT became Channel 95-7, which now plays hot AC favorites from the 90's through today. The station's Facebook page even stated "we ain't yo momma's W-Lite!"

One of the most-major changes is the fact that the station now carries the syndicated Kidd Kraddick in the morning, which is based out of Dallas. WLHT is one of only two stations in Michigan that carry his show; the other being Sault Ste. Marie CHR WYSS/99.5 Yes FM. The show was previously carried in several other markets in the state to virtually no success.

According to Yes.com, WLHT's most-popular songs are Daughtry's "September", Maroon 5's "Misery", Neon Trees' "Animal", Sara Barielles' "King of Anything" and Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream". Older songs on the station playlist include Ace of Base's "Don't Turn Around", Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" and No Doubt's "Don't Speak".

WLHT had been an AC station since 1984 and had been a success since day one. However, the departure of long-time morning hosts Dave and Geri and multiple changes left listeners heading over to Grand Rapids' other AC stations, such as Clear Channel's WOOD-FM/Star 95.7 and WTRV. In the Spring 2010 Arbitrends, WLHT only scored a 2.7, just .2 of a share higher than the always-anemic 101.3 The Fox, the Clear Channel rock station that thinks that fans of Metallica, Breaking Benjamin and Linkin Park also like Styx, Foreigner and The Eagles.

WLHT is the market's first Hot AC since WVTI/I96 flipped to variety hits as WMAX/96.1 Max FM in 2005. That station - a few format flips later - is now an ESPN sports talker 96.1 ESPN.
Honestly, I don't think this station will be much more successful than when it was mainstream AC. Yes, the Elton John and Rod Stewart might be gone, but does Grand Rapids need another boring-ass vanilla station? I mean, not only is there WLHT, WOOD and WTRV, but there's also 105.3 Hot FM and all of the friggin' Calvinist stations that pollute the dial left and right.

What's amazing is that WSNX 104.5 - a very rhythmic CHR - is near the top of the ratings and it doesn't have any real competition. Neither Townsquare or Citadel have any stations that have many black artists. Why? It's weird that Detroit's got many black stations, and so does Lansing, Flint and the Tris. Even Muskegon and Kalamazoo have black stations and they do well. But Grand Rapids? Well, there's WYGR 1530 and its 500-watt daytimer glory and that's it.

With many of us heading over to satellite and MP3 players, I think radio needs to tap into that audience that's least likely to get into the new media, and that's minorities or even people too cheap to get one of them new-fangled devices. I think if Grand Rapids got an urban station on the FM in the same vein as WJLB, it would be a hit. Grand Rapids has too many stations that play Maroon 5. Same goes with rock; why can't 101.3 The Fox give either active rock or maybe even hard alternative a try? Like I said earlier, you won't get a three share seguing Styx's "Renegade" into Linkin Park's "Lying From You".

Grand Rapids radio: making bullshit mistakes since 2002. 

--- 

Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome!

Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!


No comments:

Post a Comment