Dave FM story

[Rodney Ho]

I'm working on a story about why Dave FM's ratings have fallen off the cliff the past year. Can you sage radio observers provide me some possible reasons and if there are any solutions. Plus, if there are no viable solutions within the Dave format, what format should they pursue?

[BRENT]

I'm working on a story about why Dave FM's ratings have fallen off the cliff the past year. Can you sage radio observers provide me some possible reasons and if there are any solutions. Plus, if there are no viable solutions within the Dave format, what format should they pursue?

They should go to an upbeat live oldies format with jingles.  Like this.  Ironically it says 929.

http://loudcaster.com/channels/929-pop-gold-radio

[ATLRadioFan]

From what I can tell with my resources, they lost a few heavy users...meaning there was a PPM panel change. It is truly amazing how losing just 2 or 3 meters can screw a station over.

With that said, why aren't current panelists tuning in? The station is all over the place. I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable radio person, but I'm not sure how I would even define their format at this point. It is so all over the place. Also, while Steve Craig, Sully, Margot are above average jocks, they're not "stars." Mara is a star and compared to the rest of the station her ratings back that up. Steve & Sully would be better suited to middays or nights. Steve isn't a morning show anchor and Sully isn't a strong enough afternoon talent. So with the music being all over the place along with personalities that are just "above average", there is no reason to tune in.

Flip it to classic hits....pattern it after CBS FM in NYC. Do what you can to grab Steve McCoy and Tripp West. Put Steve in mornings with a female news reader/sidekick. Mara in middays. Tripp West on PM drive. Oh and call it Z-93 once again.

[beachguy3b]

Does the station actually have a focus? Every time I ever tried to listen, it simply seemed to be a listless format aimed at no one in particular.

[kal30005]

I'm not a radio expert but as a casual listener, my opinion is that they haven't tried anything long enough to see if it really works. Every time you start to think you know what they are, they change and completely alienate their audience.

Personally, I thought they were at their best when they were kind of a lighter alternative/indie station, playing more stuff like older Elvis Costello, Shins and Eels. Not so much that that music mix overly appealed to me but I thought they had a good niche and were playing a lot of stuff nobody else was playing.

Since then, they have seemed to alternate back and forth between playing more alternative (compete with 99X), and then classic rock (compete with River), and back to alternative and now back to classic rock. Now instead of having a unique niche, they are tweening between 99X and River. Every time they change, they alienate their audience and start from scratch.

[atlantaboy]

I'm working on a story about why Dave FM's ratings have fallen off the cliff the past year. Can you sage radio observers provide me some possible reasons and if there are any solutions.

Dave's ratings were solid (in the 3.0-4.0 range) literally until whatever month it was that Lindy took over Star 94 - that month, Star skyrocketed and Dave plummeted by almost the exact same amount, and Dave never recovered

I have no clue why no one from Dave saw this pattern and concluded that they'd better drift towards Hot AC, but they didn't, and now it's too late, since B98.5 already made the move to go after Star

I still think they could recover somewhat by transitioning to straight Alternative - I don't think they'd lose any listeners, and they'd definitely gain some - or I guess Classic "Pop" Hits, but I'm not sure there's a lot of money in targeting people in their 50s/60s

[atlantaboy]

BTW, I want to write a story on why everyone on this board constantly wants Dave to flip formats, but they're fine with Rock 100.5 (which has ratings lower than Dave, and much lower billing numbers)

I'm guessing it's because they want a CBS Classic Hits station, rather than a Cumulus one

[trusty]

Dave blew up Z93's legacy.

What I would like to know (and read about) is why CBS kept V-103 at the top and seemed to not care about Z93/Dave - an apathy that carried the same message to its listeners.

("People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.")

[top16]

Bring back Crash Clark to mornings on Dave FM.  Lose the Indigo Girls & Florence & the Machine and artists such as those and play more of the 80's & 90's alternative and/or rock.  They've got to liven it up or their numbers will fall below Rock 100.5.

[IT_Guru]

BTW, I want to write a story on why everyone on this board constantly wants Dave to flip formats, but they're fine with Rock 100.5 (which has ratings lower than Dave, and much lower billing numbers)

I'm guessing it's because they want a CBS Classic Hits station, rather than a Cumulus one

The answer is simple: listen to AGH and then listen and look at some of the ratings of CBS' Classic Hits stations such as WCBS & WOGL. CBS supports the format and each one of their stations is programmed a little differently in a way that is "tailored" to the city that particular station is in. Cumulus on the other hand could care less about the format and doesn't know (or possibly care) about programming a successful Classic Hits station.