Hammond lands at the Q

[BRice16]

This could get interesting: http://www.wbir.com/news/article/220049/2/Mike-Hammond-hired-as-Q93-program-director?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Cbc%7Clarge

[Kent T]

Good move on Journal's part. I think Stage One is in play, hire away a WIVK Veteran PD/Operations Manager. Stage Two. Switch 93.1 over to Star in around one year. Stage Three. Put the Q on 102.1 and watch the blood pressure of Cumulus Knoxville Cluster bigwigs as the sucking sound of No.1 Arbitron ratings become Journal or South Central Media's. Put on your seat belts gentlemen, we are about to have competition in the once quiet and staid Knoxville market. Gonna be a wild ride.

[Tennessee Cowboy]

Watching this could be fascinating.  There are a LOT of variables in this new equation.  If you're Star, do you give up something profitable to risk it for a run at the frog?  How much money do you give up in the transition?  Mike had substantial influence at Old Kingston Pike.  On Amherst, he's the PD of the lowest rated FM in the building, and he has to answer to an OM and a GM. 

And Mike was THE guy who made frog sound the way it did.  If he uses what he knows at The Q, will it come off as a copy of WIVK?  And which would you rather listen to...  WIVK or the station that wants to be WIVK?  I'd love it if they played George Jones, but then they'd just be perceived as trying to be Merle.  And most of their listeners are under 30.  How do they attract and keep the 45 year olds?

If he can come up with a winning strategy, he'll be a super hero.  If he makes one mis-step, he winds up in the same category as Ed Brantley.

[Enigma]

This is the bigger problem for that cluster:


http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Cumulus-Media-Reviews-E7959.htm?sort.sortType=RD&sort.ascending=f

[Kent T]

With the present format, Star will do no better than Third Place in the Knoxville Market. South Central's B 97.5 will be good for at least Second Place reliably. Like I have said earlier, Star's youth based format is not in the Money demographic. Q on a good stick has superior odds of becoming a Money demo favorite and being real competitive. With Mike Hammond at the PD slot, Q can be WIVK's nemesis on that superior stick. You can't have a Top Knoxville market CHR without being a Gold Based Listen At Work station, B is, Star is the youth CHR.

[RMarino]

Can 93.1 upgrade now that 92.9 Newport is gone?

On the demo issue, 18-34 is the desired advertiser demo now. 25-54 ruled when the Baby Boomers were in that demographic, but now that they have aged out of it, advertisers would rather spend the money on the more impressionable younger demo. I'm talking about national advertising by the way. I'm not sure if more local Knoxville ad dollars go 25-54, but if they do, then obviously that demographic still has some importance here.

[RadioGaGa75]

I'm sort of surprised Pirkle didn't make a run for Hammond after he left the Frog Pond.  Surely he's got to concede the whole NewsTalk thing on 100.3 has been a disaster.  We all know 100.3 has the watts to go after the Frog with Country.  In fact, if had been Pirkel, I would have gone Country the moment I took over 100.3 two years ago.

[RadioGaGa75]

Isn't that why Mr. Dick did an LMA on WOKI in the first place? . . .to eliminate the Hick Kicker?

[Kent]

With the present format, Star will do no better than Third Place in the Knoxville Market. South Central's B 97.5 will be good for at least Second Place reliably. Like I have said earlier, Star's youth based format is not in the Money demographic. Q on a good stick has superior odds of becoming a Money demo favorite and being real competitive. With Mike Hammond at the PD slot, Q can be WIVK's nemesis on that superior stick. You can't have a Top Knoxville market CHR without being a Gold Based Listen At Work station, B is, Star is the youth CHR.

Let's be realistic.  Even with Cumulus gutting the Frog, another full-market country station will never be any better than second.  Simply put, the Frog isn't going to rock bottom, even if it loses audience share.  Getting enough of that share to not only vault over the Frog but also B-97.5 just isn't likely.  Getting a second country station to rank any better than third, let alone second, is going to take a long time, even with Hammond running the show at Journal's country station.

So, the question becomes whether it's worth the risk to move Star to a lower power station.  From one standpoint, the potential 25-54 numbers a country station could pull in are very attractive.  From the other, 93-Q has been flat since it signed on, and it was well-programmed under Paul Orr.  Yeah, the signal's average, but Star got roughly double the ratings 93-Q's been getting when it was on 93.1  Star's a known quantity, and it used to pull in better 25-54 female numbers than you might think.  After all, 70% of 18-34 listeners are also in the 25-54 demo.  I can't tell you how it does today, but it seems like it's doing well enough for Journal as they've only made minimal changes to the station.  Does the benefit of having a bigger signal to attract potential country listeners outweigh the risk of moving your existing cash cow to a lesser stick?  I don't know.  We can armchair quarterback it all we want, but I don't think any of us can effectively decide it as it's not our money.

[Tennessee Cowboy]

We can armchair quarterback it all we want, but I don't think any of us can effectively decide it as it's not our money.

Ahem....  Mr Kent T. (if that's your real name) this, sir, IS the forum for self-appointed media experts.  If you continue with this particular line of logic, we will request that you tell us what you do with YOUR money so that we may inform you of what WE would do with it.