Market 223 - Destination Bangor Maine

[Maine-i-ac]

Regarding the spring ratings for the Bangor market: http://www.radio-info.com/site/markets/grid/bangor

1) If you put WVOM (103.9) and WVQM’s (101.3) ratings together would that give them a 9.6 and second place in the market?

2) Like many other listeners, I just don’t tune into the radio as much as I used to. My wife listens to WKIT (100.3) frequently and I can see why they are always near the top of the list. No other station based in Bangor screams local like the crew working with Doug E. Graves. Their fundraisers for major disasters truly brings out the fun and the results are evident. Having said that, WQCB (106.5) also gets it right with their daytime local programming and with their news department.

3) How the mighty have fallen! I’m speaking of WKSQ (Kiss 94.5). I’m not privy to the dayparts, but I’ll bet they could turn off the transmitter after Mike and Mike leave their shift and not many would care. Mike and Mike also know the meaning of local and they prove it with the interaction they have with their listeners. I’m just sorry they are stuck at what is the second from the bottom Bangor station in this book. Remember when Kiss was near the top and relevant? I know I’m dating myself but when Mark Osborne and Natalie Knox (who have the best sounding station around with WNSX) sold this station, it has made a fast trip to the bottom and it will take a miracle to bring it back up. Remember when the Kiss bumper stickers were everywhere? Remember when “Kiss In the 60’s”, “70’s” was live on Saturday night and a must tune in? Remember “News, five minutes sooner”? I miss that station. Now, I’m still not sure what musical audience they are trying to reach. Sorry I’m chewing on them so bad, but, in my opinion they deserve it.

4) Which brings me to the last Bangor based station. Blueberry’s WAEI-FM (97.1). With the powerhouse transmitter that frequency always had, why isn’t there a format that could take advantage of it and put it at the top? When they were B97 before this wonderful sports format change  they may not have been at the top, but they were definitely not at the bottom. Sorry, but Imus is not relevant anymore. Remember when WWMJ had him at the Bangor Civic Center in the 90's? Could he even fill the dining room at Wilson Street McDonald's now?  While I’m at it, what about WAEI-AM (910)? It wasn’t that many years ago, when it was still a very relevant station and was hovering near the top 5 in the ratings? Bangor NEEDS a standard or an oldies station and if done right could be a success.

I’m just an oldie myself now ranting. The Bangor market has potential! Blueberry could really shake things up if it had the money and the right people. And I ain’t talking about consultants from the big city. There are people in this area who I bet could take those stations and make something out of them. If they failed, well, it wouldn’t, nay couldn’t be any worse than they are now.

[Mainedude2007]

i think 97.1 flipped to sports just for 'EEI, but since they couldn't pay for that they flipped to Fox just to save face but now they need to blow it up and bring back B97, but I doubt they have the resources to do that, since most of their jocks are already on 2 or 3 stations.

[musicman75]

I've posted on this board from time to time, currently i live and work in bar harbor and listen to local radio a lot.  I'm up here for the summer working, i live in portland the rest of the year.  Across the board, i agree with maine-i-ac, kiss 94.5 is a joke.  The music mix is horrible, and like all of the other blueberry locally programed blueberry stations, the voice tracking, cut and dry intro's and outro's, multiple jocks on 3 or more stations, all of it makes for bad radio, and if it's bad people don't listen.  Take the cumulus group, i don't think that there are anymore people to go around for those stations then blueberry, but they all sound better, and have a much more local and live feel, even if they are not and we all know most of them are vt'd has much as blueberry.   I can't tell you how many times over the last 6 weeks or so that i've heard mandy's voice tracked show on TOS, and she has come out of the song that crosses over with kiss 94.5 and she'll outro the song with a kiss 94.5 tag line or liner.  this happens on TOS at least every couple days.  That is bad radio, do you think you'd ever hear chuck froster do something that like ?  Or any of the other cumulus people ? BTW, NSX does an amazing job, and i agree 97.1 is a complete waste of a radio station. Does U maine sports make that money for blueberry ?

[True Grit]

I would jump in here with some commentary but it seems like when ever I do, someone's nose gets outta joint. You know who you are.   

[CygnusX1]

The music mix is horrible, and like all of the other blueberry locally programed blueberry stations, the voice tracking, cut and dry intro's and outro's, multiple jocks on 3 or more stations, all of it makes for bad radio, and if it's bad people don't listen

Bingo.

[special ed]

It's just embarrassing how these numbers bounce around so much.  Many of these stations have not made significant changes in years.  Yet they bounce up and down all the time.  Without a valid sample, I don't see how this is any more valid than if you asked people walking through the mall what station they listen to.