Buzz

Which station is most likely to change formats? Survey Says…

Normally I hang up on unsolicited phone calls but more and more I’ve found myself hanging on the line for the three seconds that it takes to remove me from the bulk dialer and transfer me to a minimum waged call center drone.  I know it may be wrong and maybe a little sick but I’ve started to turn their scripts against them when I’m in the mood to.  This post isn’t about one of those calls though.  Over the weekend I was contacted by a market research firm conducting a survey of radio listeners in the Atlanta market.  For the first time in basically my adult life I was able to make it past Question #4 (Do you or anyone in your family work for a radio station?) so naturally I took the survey.  45 minutes later I was thinking, “hell Arbitron pays their samples in crisp dollar bills...where’s my money!).  Honestly, this was the most grueling and mind numbing survey that any self-respecting music lover should ever have to subject themselves to.  Several montages were played and I was asked how likely I was to listen to that particular format and which radio station came to mind.  Being the over-analyzer that I am, I have to call shenanigans on the whole thing and declare that 99x is about to change their format.  Find out why after the jump.

My thesis comes three fold.

1)Recently Susquehanna Radio Corp. came under new ownership (Cumulus).  Anytime ownership changes, the new guys want to make drastic changes to stations that “aren’t working.” Check out 99X’s arbitron ratings for the past year (12+ market share): Spring: 3.1%, Summer:2.2%, Fall: 2.0%, Winter: 2.1%.  Now I know 12+ means nothing because they’re targeting 18-34 male and you can even argue that a 2.1 share is pretty good in a market this size.  However, I have to argue that 99x isn’t even in the top 10 in this market (all top 10ers have at least a 3.0 share).  KNOE FM102 was always in the Top10 of Monroe (granted Monroe only had about a baker’s dozen radio stations).  I’m making the claim (as I’m sure the new board of Susquehanna is) that 99x is not performing and in jeopardy of change.

2)There’s been a lot of buzz recently that some 99x personalities are close to jumping ship.  Sure it would appear that they’re moving onto better things but why now?

3)And then there’s this little “market research survey” call that I got over the weekend.  The more I think about it, the more I can see right through the questions.  Sure there were some BS questions like what don’t you like about radio station X, Y, and Z and how often do you listen to the radio.  Those are throw away questions.  The real meat and potatoes came when I was asked how likely I would be to listen to music in a particular montage.  Other questions like “Rate Fred Toucher, Jimmy Barron, and Axel from 1 to 10” without mention of any other market personalities makes me suspicious as well.  The undeniable proof came with the final question that I was asked by the interrogator: “What station would you say plays everything alternative?” There’s your smoking gun.  The new management is trying to see if the public are responding to the format.  If no one says 99x when they are asked to identify the station by it’s slogan then something’s not working.

Based on that trifecta, “the powers that be” are about to screw up the best damn rock station in the ATL.  Now let’s all sit back and watch it happen.

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