Z93/ Dayton (CHR) Set to Flip

[threedollafoaholla]

Say goodbye to CHR Z93/ Dayton, as it is preparing to flip formats on Friday, 11/2, at Noon.

I have good information that says it will become some form of AC.

[EvanJ]

WGTZ, which was recently sold from Radio One to Main Line, is tied in the Summer 2007 ratings with CHR-Pop competitor WDKF. Going "some form of AC" makes sense because AC WLQT is first and Hot AC WMMX is third and there is only one station of those two formats in Dayton. WDKF, WLQT, and WMMX are all owned by Clear Channel.

[atlantaboy]

It's almost like they might have been bribed or payed off by Clear Channel - why it is that Clear Channel is always the station to stay CHR/Top 40, even if it's tied in ratings with its competitor? What'll prob. happen is Z93 will officially change its label to Hot AC (but actually be a mainstream CHR just like WKRQ cause there's an additional Hot AC "Mix" station in their market) thereby defaulting the CHR label to WDKF, which will then prob. go completely teen-rhythmic!! (Further messing up the CHR chart!!) >:(

Hope I'm wrong though...I hate how Clear Channel seems like its tryin to buy up the CHR/Top 40 market and convert it all to rhythmic!!

I guess it would make more sense for Z93 to flip to AC though cause the AC station in Dayton has higher ratings...somethin tells me though that this is gonna be a repeat of WKRQ and WZPL though...

[threedollafoaholla]

atlantaboy said:

It's almost like they might have been bribed or payed off by Clear Channel - why it is that Clear Channel is always the station to stay CHR/Top 40, even if it's tied in ratings with its competitor? What'll prob. happen is Z93 will officially change its label to Hot AC (but actually be a mainstream CHR just like WKRQ cause there's an additional Hot AC "Mix" station in their market) thereby defaulting the CHR label to WDKF, which will then prob. go completely teen-rhythmic!! (Further messing up the CHR chart!!) >:(

Hope I'm wrong though...I hate how Clear Channel seems like its tryin to buy up the CHR/Top 40 market and convert it all to rhythmic!!

I guess it would make more sense for Z93 to flip to AC though cause the AC station in Dayton has higher ratings...somethin tells me though that this is gonna be a repeat of WKRQ and WZPL though...

It won't be like WKRQ or WZPL. IF (and I say that because of some of the speculation that I've read elsewhere) it is a form of AC, it will be traditional, not "Hot."

Other websites have the format landing on Adult Hits, which is a reasonable possibility. Either way, it appears that WDKF finally figured out a way to get rid of Z93 with their recent slim-lining of their staff and resorting to a very music-intensive presentation. Z93 had more cume, but their TSL was atrocious.

I don't expect WDKF's ratings to benefit all that much, really. They're still a marginal signal into the Dayton market and won't be able to cover a lot of areas that Z93 owned. I would expect WDHT to tweak to a CHR/Rhythmic presentation and gain some audience that way.

[EvanJ]

atlantaboy said:

It's almost like they might have been bribed or payed off by Clear Channel - why it is that Clear Channel is always the station to stay CHR/Top 40, even if it's tied in ratings with its competitor?

There are several examples of that:

Dallas-Fort Worth: KHKS was ahead of what was then KRBV owned by Infinity (now CBS Radio)
Detroit: WKQI (Clear Channel), WDRQ (ABC Radio) changed formats
Pittsburgh: WKST (Clear Channel), what was WBZZ (CBS Radio) changed formats and recently went back to CHR-Pop
San Antonio: Clear Channel owns KXXM. CBS Radio changed the format of their CHR-Pop station and Cox changed a station to CHR-Pop and then last year to Rhythmic KPWT.

There are also examples of markets which had two CHR-Pop stations and the Clear Channel one changed formats:

Tulsa: Still has KHTT, Clear Channel used to own a CHR-Pop station there
Roanoke-Lynchburg: Clear Channel changed WJJS/WJJX to Rhythmic, leaving CHR-Pop WXLK.
Jackson: Still has WYOY, what was WDBT changed to Gospel WHLH. WHLH has had 10 or more shares for the last four seasons.

[threedollafoaholla]

evanj said:

atlantaboy said:

It's almost like they might have been bribed or payed off by Clear Channel - why it is that Clear Channel is always the station to stay CHR/Top 40, even if it's tied in ratings with its competitor?

There are several examples of that:

Dallas-Fort Worth: KHKS was ahead of what was then KRBV owned by Infinity (now CBS Radio)
Detroit: WKQI (Clear Channel), WDRQ (ABC Radio) changed formats
Pittsburgh: WKST (Clear Channel), what was WBZZ (CBS Radio) changed formats and recently went back to CHR-Pop
San Antonio: Clear Channel owns KXXM. CBS Radio changed the format of their CHR-Pop station and Cox changed a station to CHR-Pop and then last year to Rhythmic KPWT.

There are also examples of markets which had two CHR-Pop stations and the Clear Channel one changed formats:

Tulsa: Still has KHTT, Clear Channel used to own a CHR-Pop station there
Roanoke-Lynchburg: Clear Channel changed WJJS/WJJX to Rhythmic, leaving CHR-Pop WXLK.
Jackson: Still has WYOY, what was WDBT changed to Gospel WHLH. WHLH has had 10 or more shares for the last four seasons.

DFW, DET, PIT, and SA are all markets where the Clear Channel station was ahead of the competitor at the time of the flip. Those were not situations where the two stations had the same ratings.

In Tulsa, Clear Channel shifted its weaker-signaled Rhythmic (101.5 The Beat) to the MUCH stronger 92.1 signal and killed off 92-1 KISSFM, choosing to carry the La Precisocia (sp?) Spanish Oldies network on 101.5 rather than just flipping the formats and frequencies.

In Jackson, it made perfect sense to attempt to get the same success on 95.5 as it was getting in Memphis with its Gospel station. I think that's more of the reason why 95.5 The Beat went away, rather than anything to do with ratings. Golden Eagle Boy could probably shed some light into that specific situation, as I think he's from Jackson.

[EvanJ]

threedollafoaholla said:

DFW, DET, PIT, and SA are all markets where the Clear Channel station was ahead of the competitor at the time of the flip. Those were not situations where the two stations had the same ratings.

That made me wonder if when a market has two CHR-Pop stations one of which is owned by Clear Channel if the Clear Channel one has better ratings siginificantly more or significantly less than half the time. For stations on the Mediabase panel (* denotes Clear Channel station):

Jacksonville: WAPE is ahead of WFKS*
Rochester: WPXY is ahead of WKGS*
Louisville: WDJX is ahead of WZKF*
Albany-Schenectady-Troy: WFLY is ahead of WKKF*
Grand Rapids: WSNX* is ahead of WHTS (WHTS is relatively new to the format)
Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle: WHKF* is ahead of WWKL
Syarcuse: WNTQ and WWHT* were tied in the most recently released ratings but the market is now embargoed
Toledo: WVKS* is ahead of WTWR (I wouldn't be surprised if Cumulus changed WTWR's format like they did for WYOK Mobile)
Melbourne-Titusville-Cocoa: WAOA is ahead of WBVD* (WBVD is new to the format this year)
Youngstown-Warren: WHOT is ahead of WAKZ*

The Clear Channel stations seem to be losing most of the time.

[threedollafoaholla]

UPDATE: Z93 is now Fly 92.9, a JACK-like Adult Hits station.

I've got to say that I'm somewhat surprised that they went in the JACK direction. AC would have made more sense, but as I understand it there was a substantial amount of market research done by Main Line Broadcasting when they bought the cluster from Radio One.

For those who are interested, the final three songs as a CHR were:

Daughtry - Over You
Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

[atlantaboy]

threedollafoaholla said:

UPDATE: Z93 is now Fly 92.9, a JACK-like Adult Hits station.

I've got to say that I'm somewhat surprised that they went in the JACK direction. AC would have made more sense, but as I understand it there was a substantial amount of market research done by Main Line Broadcasting when they bought the cluster from Radio One.

I'm thinkin maybe they went with the Jack-format because that'll take listeners away from BOTH the huge AC and huge Hot AC station - btw that's the highest rating for a large or medium-sized market Hot AC station I think I've ever seen (8.0 I think - that's from memory though )!

[Deleted]

evanj said:

threedollafoaholla said:

DFW, DET, PIT, and SA are all markets where the Clear Channel station was ahead of the competitor at the time of the flip. Those were not situations where the two stations had the same ratings.

That made me wonder if when a market has two CHR-Pop stations one of which is owned by Clear Channel if the Clear Channel one has better ratings siginificantly more or significantly less than half the time. For stations on the Mediabase panel (* denotes Clear Channel station):

Jacksonville: WAPE is ahead of WFKS*

Honestly, both stations suck so I wouldn't take being more listened to than the other as a compliment.

[atlantaboy]

^WAPE is becomin a little more liberal with their playlist, but they've had a "tight" playlist for as long as I can remember (although they are pretty much balanced rock/pop/hip-hop wise)