Jack Ryan's big announcement

[Hundredthousandwatts]

I love it when the children come out to play

THANK GOD FOR KEYUDS.

Local radio here in Knoxville is dead. It starting dying a couple of years ago when the Frog took away its LIVE all-night show, which threw out the live feel early in the morning.  (So much for an old friend talking to you and telling you the weather or traffic you need to know at 5AM....you cant find anything local before 5:30 on the FM dial....meanwhile local TV fires up at 4:30AM). Also gone is that information source in the middle of the night.  WIVK was exposed last June when the tornado hit Western Avenue in the middle of the night and the station was playing Taylor Swift andnot talking about the warning and the largest power outage in KUB history. Of course, this is radio as usual in other cities. WIVK used to be as strong as a TV station but we all know what has happened.

Predictions-- WIVK to dip to possibly as low as a 13 share within 18 months, WJXB stays around 10-11 (more news and weather on The B is a plus) Keep in mind 'IVK has been as low as the 15s over the past few years. 'IVK to continue to occasionally lose in key dayparts such as 10-3p. Other dayparts will see volatility from book to book in men and women, different ages, etc., which will lead to some surprises in afternoons and maybe mornings. 

While this volatility will remain constant, and the Frog's numbers will fall and make it vulnerable to The Bee, WIVK will still be number 1 12+ two years from now, unless 100.3 or another 100000 watt station flips to country. (If I'm wrong, Merle and Q are stonger than what we think.) If a big signal flips and does it right, game over WJXB number 1 in less than 3 years.

If the PPM hits Knoxville the frog is gigged

[Kent T]

I look for WIVK-FM to be 11 in a year. 10 share in not much more time. And in this market, you have South Central and Journal which are nimbler companies, smaller, and able to make decisions with less upper management BS.

[Tennessee Cowboy]

Anybody else notice a big change to this board?  Nobody from Cumulus is making any effort to defend what's going on.  I'm wrong on a regular basis, but please correct me if I am this time.

The people at Cumulus Knoxville are perplexed as to why their home company doesn't want to maintain dominance, since it's generally more profitable.  To borrow from my friend from yesteryear, Suitcase Simpson, Cumulus corporate is more concerned with making fees passing billions of dollars of notes back and forth between investors than it is in making a ton of money in radio.  Currently the locals are embarrassed that they will slide into mediocrity.  Eventually, they will come to accept that it won't change their lives one way or the other.

South Central became corporate-like a few years ago.  At some point The B will be #1, and they'll celebrate with some kind of cake, and a Bill Lumberg home office type will tell them how they couldn't have done it without the little people.  Then they'll all schlep back to their cubicles.

Journal will keep making hay with the 25 year old listeners.  Nobody else wants them anyway.  It doesn't matter if they do country, rap, or death-metal accordion.  They may try to reach an older audience on occasion, but one of the other groups will beeyotch-slap them and they'll go back to what they're comfortable with.

Johnny?  I guess he's happy as long as there's no red ink on the books.

Ron Meridith?  It looks like he built his business, made a radio station that's good to listen to... (I loathe the idea of nailing some dang satellite receiver box onto the dash of my truck to pay for the privilege of listening to George Jones or Willie Nelson.)  Nobody I know has ever said anything genuinely bad about this guy.  Some of the little girls at Citadel would sneer a little, but actually that's to his credit.  The people that work for him appear to be loyal.  Now he's found his Margie Ison. 

Go, Ron Meridith.  Make a few more million dollars while everyone else looks the other way.

[radio30]

In my opinion, Ron Meredith is pretty much the only owner in Knoxville doing radio the right way. That will go in his favor as long as the corporations in charge of what passes for radio in K-town keep going the way they are. I'd love to see Ron get a 100 kw signal for Merle. If that were to happen, it would be "game on".

[Tennessee Cowboy]

One of the other jocks made a crack about the weight of Ryan's wallet this week.  Either Ron is sanctioning it or there's unrest in the building.