Why Did WYAY Fail

[carolinaradio]

WSRV is more of a classic rock station than classic hits (I prefer calling it "lite classic rock."  They aren't like WYAY was.  They are pretty much rock that's softer than what full classic rockers play....they lack the pop, new wave, disco, R&B, type of music and upbeat presentation that classic hits stations (SHOULD) have.

[atlantaboy]

^Atlanta's a southern market, though, so 70s rock is going to be much more popular than, say, 70s pop/disco

Are there any other large southern markets with successful Classic "Pop" Hits stations?

[carolinaradio]

Like I've said, though, ATL is transient enough that I don't think "southern" has much to do with it anymore...

There aren't many, if any, markets on the same scale as Atlanta to really compare to in the south (except maybe Dallas and Tampa, both of which are successful with classic hits, and Houston). 

[acheron82]

But remember, Atlanta is NOT the only city that WYAY covers.  This station also reaches out to many rural areas in northeast Georgia. 

www.big983.com  -   This station is in Savannah and does pretty well.  In addition, their signal is amazing to the south.

[kal30005]

I was in Tampa this past weekend and I listened to Q105 for a little while and I think that type of format could do well, though I should mention they were playing a what they were calling a Summertime list of music. It was pretty standard hits of the 60s, 70s and 80s, but it was all very upbeat mostly dance music. But it was fun!

That to me has been the problem with the classic music stations they've tried here in Atlanta. Stations like Max and AGH just kind of played very general chart toppers as opposed to making it fun. When I moved here in the mid 80s, Fox 97 seemed to play fun music but their oldies selection was a little before my time.

And quite honestly, that was what I liked about The Groove when it first started. They were playing a lot of older 70s and 80s fun music but they dropped it to play what everyone else was playing.

[BRENT]

The Groove could have been the best station on the dial if they had continued what they were doing.

[atlantaboy]

I was in Tampa this past weekend and I listened to Q105 for a little while and I think that type of format could do well, though I should mention they were playing a what they were calling a Summertime list of music. It was pretty standard hits of the 60s, 70s and 80s, but it was all very upbeat mostly dance music. But it was fun!

Notice that the station is in Tampa, where huge numbers of people retire...

[secondchoice]

WYAY went from 2.2 to 2.9 (6+) in 3 months,  IMHO 106.7 was headed the correct direction both ratings and music wise.  Late bloomer yes, failure I am not too sure.

[DTF1960]

I just posted this in response to another post, but thought it made sense here too: Yes, AGH WAS trending up...and their cume was continuing to climb, too. Individual dayparts - including weekends - were also getting back to their 2011 highs, beating out other well known stations in town in key demos (including Mara Davis, who I often hear touted as a "great talent" on these boards). If Tripp West had gotten any help or promotion to get his numbers up, who knows where the station might have been? I talked to someone there and they tell me it was more of a "hands being tied" situation over the last few months...That the staff knew the end was coming so morale was down and music wasn't being refreshed, which left the dj's having to talk about the same songs/artists over and over. Yet, despite all that, it was still trending up. Perfect time to pull the plug!

[kal30005]

Notice that the station is in Tampa, where huge numbers of people retire...

60s, 70s and 80s dance or party music doesn't really target senior citizens. I'd say it largely targets those in 40-60 age range, which there are plenty of in Atlanta.

The primary difference between AGH and Q105 is that Q105 probably skews a little younger, at least from what I heard, and played music that was considerably more uptempo.