I 94

[bigtime]

Doesn't look like Carl Frye is heavily involved with i-94. PD is Jeff Andrews.

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

He had great success with a CHR in Billings and had a good run with WZPL. He's an intelligent, creative thinker. Perhaps in my anger I was harsh in my statement, but I'll be damned if I apologize for being loyal to a friend.

I wish I-94 the best! Chris Wheat is a good man and I wish him good health.

First off, Billings is smaller than Muncie in market size. And, I'm not sure his "good run" at ZPL was very successful--I believe that was a very low-rated period for Z.

I never suggested you should apologize for being loyal to a friend (in fact, it is a commendable quality). I was just disagreeing with the idea that Fritz is/was a good PD. He's not the worst ever, but far from the best. Again, though--I'd still take him over Carl Frye.

I also like Chris Wheat and wish I-94 well...though I think it will be a tough road if Cumulus doesn't get local talent or spend money to promote it.

 

Carl Frye isnt the PD at the new I94. the PD has posted in this thread and is from WYZP in huntsville Alabama. Thus all the mentions of WYZP for in this thread. I know Carl Frye know his history of the Indy radio and 93.9 frequency and ratings along with the Bear's move from 104.5 and 93.9 and the fact that Z99.5 has more than 2 local shows

[HarryWolper]

Carl Frye isnt the PD at the new I94. the PD has posted in this thread and is from WYZP in huntsville Alabama. Thus all the mentions of WYZP for in this thread. I know Carl Frye know his history of the Indy radio and 93.9 frequency and ratings along with the Bear's move from 104.5 and 93.9 and the fact that Z99.5 has more than 2 local shows

True enough that WZPL has more than two local shows. However, one of their non-local shows is during afternoon drive, which is really dumb. Not only did they lose a good air talent in Kelly, but by replacing her with a syndicated show, they also lost good local presence--i.e. remotes, appearances, etc. Doing that for the nighttime daypart isn't as big an issue, but to do it in the second-most listened to part of the day really takes away from other money making opportunities.

There is a "hole" in the market where I-94 is trying to fit--more of a CHR than Hot AC WZPL, less rhythmic than Now. And if I-94 does have good, local-based talent, then that will help. But is the "hole" deep enough to be worth fitting in there? I mean, even if they position themselves well, can they get enough ratings--or, more importantly, agency buys--to make it worthwhile? Of course, Cumulus also needs to be willing to spend money on promoting it, or it has no chance.

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

If the PD is going to be doing an Air shift on I94 like it seems to be thus far more often than not i bet ya that will be voice tracked which is one less live shift they will especially going against Syndicated Seacrest on ZPL and Live show in Rayne on Now. they will probly be on Otto Mason from 7pm till morning drive. or some form of Syndication in the evening if there is a syndicated CHR show out there. so thats at least 3 local shows one of them on the Comp half the time. and its still to see what they do in Middays

[bigtime]

How many full time air people did 93.9 have when they were Warm? 1? 2?

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

at the End warm had 2 people when they were both canned. but at one point i think it was at most 4 or 5

[hoosier45guy]

Well said. ZPL's over-reaction came from Roger Ingram wanting to "stick it" to WHHH, despite H only having about a third the ratings points at the time (TLC was getting hit much harder than Z). So Roger dumped London and brought back Gary Hoffman, who promptly ran ZPL into the toilet.

Before that, ZPL was regularly #1 in 18-34F and even 25-54F every few books...even after HHH came on. It took an arrogant, over-sensitive GM to destroy all of that almost instantly.

BTW, anybody know Roger's whereabouts since he left WTTS a couple years ago?  I had heard that he headed out West.

[N_D_Radioguy]

It's both hilarious and alarming to read how much incorrect information permeates this thread.

Mike alone could choke the servers at Snopes with all his erroneous "info."

[Marv-L.A.]

Does anyone happen to know when and why WZPL evolved from CHR/Pop to Hot AC?

I know that the top 40 format lost dozens of stations starting in the late eighties after many of those stations copied KIIS/LA's horrendous overreaction (loading up on rhythmic product to try and reclaim the teens who'd abandoned KIIS for KPWR) to being flattened by Emmis's KPWR, which went from non-existent to #1 in less than one year.

Did anybody launch a CHR/Rhythmic station in Indy anytime between the late eighties and the arrival of WHHH which wound up doing to WZPL what KPWR did to KIIS in 1987---that is, swiped all or a hefty chunk of WZPL's teens, and eventually drove them out of the format for good?

I don't know if there's a hole in the market between WZPL (listed as a Modern AC by Arbitron on this website) and WNOU where I-94 could conceivably prosper, but given the national renaissance of top 40 radio over the past 2 1/2 to 3 years, Cumulus might get lucky.

[PTBoardOp94]

WHHH began broadcasting in 1991 as an 80-90 station.

I believe WZPL began to head in a Hot AC direction in the late 1990s.  They switched up the branding in '97 or '98 to match the musical change.