Quality, heritage, and the battle to win
Don Day | August 30, 2008
Over the past two decades or so, there are several instances where an upstart station bested the heritage player in the category. KZMG/Magic 93.1 destroyed KFXD/KF-95… KTHI/107.1 K-Hits beat out KLTB/Kool Oldies 104.3 and a few other scattered instances.
KAWO/WOW Country 104.3 hopes it is on that kind of meteoric rise. But for every Magic beating KF-95 there’s a mis-fire (K-106 taking on KZMG anyone?). When Clear Channel launched KTMY/My Country 104.3, it didn’t offer anything better than KIZN. Sure it played country music, but just spinning similar tunes to KIZN or KQFC isn’t enough. When Peak came in, they dumped the lame My Country presentation and started over by putting together a team of people hell-bent on winning, and dropped the money they needed to do it. The station is well-packaged and put together – and frankly makes KIZN and KQFC work harder to earn their place in the market.
Who wins? The listener. Country listeners have three solid options, with three different approaches to the market and different sets of talent. You’ll have your Mee in the Morning die-hards, KQFC loyalists and WOW fanbase.
This fight isn’t likely to be the type that leaves a station on the chopping block like what Mike Kasper and the Magic team did to KF-95 15 years ago, but KIZN and KQFC have a real enemy to battle (other than each other… which we all know has been the weirdest competition in his market) – and they are both sharper and stronger for it.
