WBVB Switches back to "B"

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Mr. Jones
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WBVB Switches back to "B"

Post by Mr. Jones »

They've ditched the Oldies 97.1 & returned to the "B97" branding, along with Classic Hits.

Guess they're going to take The Mix head-on?
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Big Media
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Re: WBVB Switches back to "B"

Post by Big Media »

I imagine they are both bonus stations anyway. You know, buy the big stick, get the little stick free. May not be that bad, but I can't imagine there are many advertisers lining up for classic hits.
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Re: WBVB Switches back to "B"

Post by cgarison »

I don't think they would have enough advertisers to pay the power bill for that stick with the "B" Classic Hits format. I hate to say it, but we only have one station like that left in the Philly market when we had 5 of them ten years ago and honestly they have changed to skew more Hot AC during the daytime with classic hits in the evening and weekends. The rest have gone to full blown AC with a couple going a little more edgy/contemporary and others leaning more towards soft rock and country. One of them literally blew up their "B101" branding to become "The Mix" last January.

Somebody at iHeartRadio has to have a better idea. :roll: Wait, I have seen their senior management and none of those people had a bright idea in the prime of their careers so this is simply par for the course. Nevermind..... I just realized that I have once again preached to the choir. Now where is my iPhone/Android phone with iTunes radio, Spotify and Pandora.
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Re: WBVB Switches back to "B"

Post by cgarison »

It was a little after 6:00pm this evening evening my wife an I are cruising around in the car when I decided to turn on the radio to listen to my favorite radio station. After hearing "World Cafe" said less than a minute into listening, I realized that I did not want to hear a recording from my 4th favorite station (which is located in Philly) so I began searching the dial for something better I quickly found WMXE's repeater in Westwood, KY and it is a nice popular/classic rock mix. My wife was getting irritated as the mix was just right for me which means too edgy for her so I decided to hunt down another option. I landed on 97.1, left the tuner in that position and thought I would give the station a whirl....

Well.....

My wife loved the mix of 80s pop and other music and in all the station sounded rather pleasant. Up beat tempos for the music without the rough blues sound that sets some folks on edge. So..... Maybe I was wrong. The format sounded like the old "B101" in Philly and the playlist was well composed. Not a bad sounding station all around. It was upbeat enough enough to keep me listening and not too rough to force my wife to ask me to change the station.

My only question is whether they can convert this nice playlist into ratings to drive up ratings to sell ads at a higher price. Maybe, but probably not.
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Re: WBVB Switches back to "B"

Post by The Interpreter »

A dollar a holler.

Literally?
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Re: WBVB Switches back to "B"

Post by cgarison »

Lord, I forgot about that which explains the ads on the B97 website.

OH! B97 needs to change their RDS because it still says "Oldies" on the dash of our car. :lol: Some things with Clea... (cough, er) iHeartMedia never change.
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Re: WBVB Switches back to "B"

Post by The Interpreter »

Like, say, Tom Roten?

Terp, who likes to ask questions.
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Re: WBVB Switches back to "B"

Post by Big Media »

The ONLY advantage I can see to this format is the target audience is a touch older than Top-40, and a touch younger than the oldies format. But that is not necessarily an advantage because the 35 to 54 demo is still buying their kids' braces and college tuition and have very limited disposable income.
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