I have just finished writing a very nasty letter to CBS expressing my views on the change of the Oasis. It really concerns me in this day and age that CBS is more concerned that their radio station may be referred to as a "black" radio station so to speak than just a great one.
Who said they changed it because it had about 40% Black listeners? They changed it because the billings were low, and the average age was increasing and the old demos made it hard to sell.
Bottom line in all of this....the change was made because of 2 colors...black and green. Basically they felt that Black people were not shelling out enough Green to support their station. And if it's not White...It's not right.
The change was not made on color lines. It was made because the station was becoming significantly 55+, and you can not sell that even if the listeners are purple.
I am a Biracial 29 year old female that strongly thinks that we are already conforming enough in the United States to Hispanics in general. If you go to Mexico or any other Hispanic populated country, you will not see any of them trying to keep our English listening ear. I feel if the radio station was falling into a financial crunch they should have reached out to their loyal listeners instead of just writing us all off. This whole situation is just a tragedy for ALL involved.
How can you reach out to 55+ listeners and ask theum to be younger again? I wish they could, though.
There are twice as many Hispanics in dallas as Blacks, so you are going to get about twice as many stations trying to cater to Hispanics as to Blacks. Not because either group is being favored, but because if you get too many stations chasing
any group, the shares are not enough to go around, so the market adjusts.
We have Spanish language stations in Dallas because about 70% or so of Dallas Hispanics like them, listen to them, and produce salable ratings. There are not enough English dominant folks in Mexico City to support a station in English, so there is no such staiton (although there used to be in the 60's through the early 90's). It is all about how many people would listen to a station in the age groups advertisers want (basically 18 to 54).
To clarify....the Oasis was not a Black or White radio station at all. It was a great jazz station that probably just needed some fine tuning or a facelift. It is very sad to hear now that it will be a Hispanic geared radio station now though. Weird. It's not ok to say that it may have been a "Black" radio station but it IS ok to say that it WILL BE a Hispanic one.
Again, it is abot the age of the listeners, not the color. The second highest biller in the market is a Black station, so there is no stigma placed on such a station in the market. KOAI died of old age, not of racism.
Oh Yeah....I forgot...this wasn't about race...it was about aging.
So I guess we are doing to this radio station what we do to our seniors....put them in a home for the "Old and In The Way"
Advertisers support radio staitons. And most do not buy any audience 55+, so its definitely about age. Advertisers love a good in-demo Black station, as KKDA proves. KKDA, last year, outbilled KOAI by about 2.5 to 1.
