CD101 to go exclusive on 102.5 FM on Monday Dec. 13

[Nu_Roo_2]

The diaries have gone away.  For three months Arbitron has captured Columbus radio listening solely via its Portable People Meter device.

[xmusicmatt]

The diaries have gone away.  For three months Arbitron has captured Columbus radio listening solely via its Portable People Meter device.

the PPM is the only way CD101 err 102.5 is getting away with what their doing.. THEY would be messed under the old book system... 101 would count towards 101.1 FM I am pretty sure even if they actually were listening to 102.5  Now the PPM meter picks up what frequency your on... on air you could ident yourself as "the station that is america's #1 Channel 273 your rock alternative" and the PPM would catch the listenership as long as the person was tuned into 102.5 and listening.

[Nathan Obral]

The diaries have gone away.  For three months Arbitron has captured Columbus radio listening solely via its Portable People Meter device.

the PPM is the only way CD101 err 102.5 is getting away with what their doing.. THEY would be messed under the old book system... 101 would count towards 101.1 FM I am pretty sure even if they actually were listening to 102.5  Now the PPM meter picks up what frequency your on... on air you could ident yourself as "the station that is america's #1 Channel 273 your rock alternative" and the PPM would catch the listenership as long as the person was tuned into 102.5 and listening.

I guess. But what major-market radio station out there - any station, for that matter - uses an obsolete channel number as the core of their brand? None that I know of. It's cumbersome and unnecessary.

And again, if they wanted to use an obsolete channel number, then WWCD should have arranged the deal with tOSU in a different way. If they go to court (where WWCD will obviously lose, and big) Mr. Vaughn only has himself to blame.

[Nu_Roo_2]

All so true.   

Well, at least we have theme music for this goofiness, courtesy of Hall & Oates' old AC hit "One o(n) One":

101 I wanna play that game tonight
I think I might know you too well
101 I wanna play that game tonight
I want you can't you tell

[gabigley1]

I asked Dan Eaton if the word "CD101" would be prohibited in the new WWCDs branding announcements and he said, "yes" based on what he read in the contract. He said he is not a lawyer and neither are most of us here...
But it just stands to reason it would be prohibited because WOSA 101.1 is using the moniker "Classical101".

Here is the article he wrote on this topic:
http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2010/12/cd101-ready-to-complete-move-to-1025.html

Business First - by Dan Eaton Date: Friday, December 10, 2010                                                                                                                            Read more: CD101 ready to complete move to 102.5 as WOSU takes over frequency | Business First http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2010/12/cd101-ready-to-complete-move-to-1025.html

"The move gives WWCD a stronger signal than it had for the previous 20 years, though it does give up its 101 branding per the agreement."

I also found a cool CD101 TV commercial from 2006 that some of you may remember.... They also wanted to brand themselves as "Not Clear Channel". Click here to view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At7VXJqzvOU&feature=related

and here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/WWCDFM#p/u/8/zsjw4WUG1hw

Maybe they will be calling themselves "CD102.5" after the first of the year?? Any more guesses?

[Nu_Roo_2]

Back before digital readouts became the norm it was fairly common to have two stations using the same rounded frequency.  I believe both WSNY and WHOK may have used "95" at one point.  I'd imagine this still occurs in some places.  Of course, using 101 when you're at 102.5 is another story, and I'd be surprised if that doesn't stop sooner or later.

[Nu_Roo_2]

Despite a multitude of big signals, Chicago doesn't have two soft or mainstream AC's unless you count some suburbans that don't even show in the ratings.  What are the two soft/mainstream AC's in Cleveland?  Cincinnati?  Etc... 

As always, CC should be ashamed of how they're wasting 93.3 in a market that really comes up short for its size (probably shorter than any other) when it comes to city-grade signals

Don't know what made me think of this right now, but for the record the huge market of Chicago actually does have two mainstream ACs -- CC's WLIT and CBS's WCFS.  I had forgotten about Fresh when I posted this.  Definitely mainstream, though it plays some gold titles that are far edgier than anything 93.3 or 94.7 would touch, i.e., there's more differentiation there than between Columbus's ACs.  And while there a couple exceptions, as the marv pointed out, having two soft/mainstream AC's is pretty rare these days even in markets three times Columbus' size.

[Nathan Obral]

What are the two soft/mainstream AC's in Cleveland? ...

CBS Radio's WDOK/102.1 and CC's WMVX/106.5. Yes, WMVX is a gold-based AC - way too much 80s for my liking - but they still play 90s and currents.

WDOK's sister station WQAL/104.1 could also loosely be called an AC station, but they are of the "Adult Top 40" category so as not to cannibalize WDOK.

Also, Canton has CC's WHOF/101.7 and NextMedia's WHBC/94.1... plus WKDD/98.1 Munroe Falls still targets both Akron and Canton.

[Nathan Obral]

I asked Dan Eaton if the word "CD101" would be prohibited in the new WWCDs branding announcements and he said, "yes" based on what he read in the contract. He said he is not a lawyer and neither are most of us here...
But it just stands to reason it would be prohibited because WOSA 101.1 is using the moniker "Classical101".

Here is the article he wrote on this topic:
http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2010/12/cd101-ready-to-complete-move-to-1025.html

Business First - by Dan Eaton Date: Friday, December 10, 2010                                                                                                                            Read more: CD101 ready to complete move to 102.5 as WOSU takes over frequency | Business First http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2010/12/cd101-ready-to-complete-move-to-1025.html

"The move gives WWCD a stronger signal than it had for the previous 20 years, though it does give up its 101 branding per the agreement."

I also found a cool CD101 TV commercial from 2006 that some of you may remember.... They also wanted to brand themselves as "Not Clear Channel". Click here to view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At7VXJqzvOU&feature=related

and here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/WWCDFM#p/u/8/zsjw4WUG1hw

Maybe they will be calling themselves "CD102.5" after the first of the year?? Any more guesses?

Dude, Dan wrote about this back in AUGUST. (read here)

It's hardly *news* by any stretch of the imagination. Again, Mr. Vaughn knew this was coming all along.

What good is being accomplished here by pointing out the painfully obvious?

[Nu_Roo_2]

What are the two soft/mainstream AC's in Cleveland? ...

CBS Radio's WDOK/102.1 and CC's WMVX/106.5. Yes, WMVX is a gold-based AC - way too much 80s for my liking - but they still play 90s and currents.

WDOK's sister station WQAL/104.1 could also loosely be called an AC station, but they are of the "Adult Top 40" category so as not to cannibalize WDOK.

Also, Canton has CC's WHOF/101.7 and NextMedia's WHBC/94.1... plus WKDD/98.1 Munroe Falls still targets both Akron and Canton.

When comparing to the Columbus soft/mainstream AC duplication we can start by eliminating the Akron-Canton stations, since they are not really a factor in Arbitron's Cleveland market.  Also -- as you explained -- WQAL is nowhere near the mainstream/soft realm, so we can eliminate that one too.

That leaves WDOK -- which certainly fits the soft/mainstream category, and CC's WMVX.  If 93.3 here was more like WMVX, the local situation wouldn't be quite as "me-too" and frustrating.  While I haven't heard it in awhile (and it's in Christmas mode now), it's hugely more uptempo than the local AC's.  It  plays songs that are far, far edgier than anything either 93.3 nor 94.7 would get near -- even though it's gold-heavy as they are.  WVMX and WDOK are nothing alike...it's a very different situation than we have with 93.3 and 94.7

Again, the core issue is CC's continuing "forever" to use its 93.3 "big signal" for an approach that's so texturally similar to traditionally soft-leaning WSNY.  If 93.3 would finally try a MUCH more uptempo version of AC (but still gold-based to avoid stealing from NCI -- and could still even be called "Soft Rock" since that's such a nebulous moniker), we wouldn't have *quite* as ridiculous a situation -- even though Classic Hits is such an ultra-obvious hole in this market and attractive to both Sunny's demo and workplace listeners...and even though Gen-X's obvious potential is being unnecessarily capped by the sometimes-iffy 106.7 signal (e.g., it was frustrating watching the stereo indicator fade in and out for 106.7 a few days ago as I was driving up 315 from downtown -- worst around Lane Ave, and not completely clean until north of Bethel...while the Christmas audio on 93.3 was pristine).

And getting back to Cleveland for a second, even to the extent any stations may "hug" each other formatically there, it's not as egregious a situation since Cleveland has plenty more city-grade signals than Columbus.