Wild gunning for piece of small CHR pie
Don Day | November 1, 2008Is there a market in Boise for three CHR stations, plus KCIX/Mix 106? Folks who like a little Akon in their musical diet are well served – with three stations playing rhthymic cuts.
KWYD/Wild 101 lit up its new transmitter this week – and is bounding out of the gates with 15,000 songs without a paid commercial. Former CHR powerhouse KZMG/Magic 93.1 also had a major change this week, when it took Dan Tooker off the payroll and re-tooled its morning show with Melissa Dawn and MJ.
KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM had a remarkably strong book in the spring, fueled by huge female demos for its Hooker in the Morning Show – and also saw strength across the board (which may have been the glow of its “Live for 175″ sutnt). The station has been well-programmed and seems to have found a niche musically that works — so it has the three Ms – Music, Mornings and Marketing going strong. The somewhat cheesy but effective “Whose House” and “Muawwww” buzzwords seem to stick with the audience and engage in a way that I wouldn’t have expected. Even if they don’t know how to spell them on a billboard.
KZMG/Magic 93.1 is having trouble on all three fronts. We’ve talked at length about its problems finding a morning show that sticks around – with an average of more than two per year over the last five years. If there’s one thing that’s consistent at 93 – it’s change. The station’s marketing position isn’t clearly defined either, and with Citadel’s cash woes, it doesn’t seem there will be much of a change. The station is understaffed and outgunned. PM dude Miggy Santos is a big bright spot for the station – but of late, he’s the only thing it has going for it.
That brings us to Wild. Impact has launched four very distinct FM stations in the past two years – oldies, Spanish-language, variety hits and now rhythmic. The station is ignoring KZMG all together and focusing in on KSAS. The news release from Impact yesterday noted that most markets in our region have a Rhythmic station – from Seattle to Spokane to the Tri-Cities and even Colorado Springs (which is in many ways similar to B-town). No one has ever tried it in Boise, though both KSAS and KZMG have toyed with the idea and even have programmed closer to that edge at times – always to retreat back to the pop middle ground. If the Wild folks are smart they’ll find a way to build buzz very fast. 40 days without a commercial can be effective – witness what KCIX/K-106’s launch as an AC station did all those years ago with 106 days of commercial free music. But they’ve got to let people know the station exists. So far there’s been no general media play, and they didn’t blow up someone’s favorite station, so there isn’t even buzz on that front. The imaging so far is pretty basic. The Mac vs. PC ad takeoff is overdone (even another local advertiser is doing it right now), and KSAS is smart to not step into the snakepit that KZMG did in the late 1990s by acknowledging their cross-town rival. It remains to be seen if Wild will pop – or be able to make revenue.
Three pop stations pulling a 2 to 3 share isn’t going to work. If however just two stations are left standing – it’s very possible that KZMG won’t be one of them without something changing. Ending the Tooker experiment early was probably the right call – the show just didn’t have the right tone somehow, and seemed entirely out of place on a pop station. MJ and Melissa could have a better go of it – but the rest of the station has to improve if they are going to last for more than six months like so many shows before them couldn’t.
The CHR format IS becoming quite saturated in this market. It will be interesting to watch what happens. After their 15,000 song stunt, is Wild 101 going to add live talent and a local morning show, or are they going to head more into the automated realm of Bob FM?
Even though 93.1 isn’t doing real well, they do have the significant advantage of a much stronger signal than Wild 101. So does Kiss. Driving around Boise, I’ve noticed that Wild’s signal gets quite fuzzy and distorted in spots. They seem to cover Nampa, Kuna, and well, their city of license, Parma, much better than Boise.
It reminds me of the old days of “The Music Monster.” Their signal was rough in downtown Boise as well. However, they really took off- if only for a short time.
This will be interesting to watch.
I have checked out this website for months and to be honest am a little suprised. Why is everybody so hateful? My comments are around Dan Tooker and staff. The guy gets cut because of budget and everybody says how bad he sucks. That is just bitter. The guy didn’t suck. Was he on the wrong station? Yes but he was also fed a lot of lies and that is why he probably came here. They fed them to us as well. Tooker had results at events and otherwise. Were Citadel and Tooker messed up was the Hooker and Tooker deal. I was in a meeting and Melissa and Matty are doing all of Tooker’s promotions. What is going to happen when they run out? (EDIT) Did he talk trash in a building that people trashed him including above? No. Nobody on this board should get trashed. The industry is what is wrong. Stop knocking talent and start looking else where. Three CHR’s in a market shows you how F-ed up this market is. Kiss will win because they KNOW who they are. Magic did nothing for a year but hire a Large market morning show and did nothing else. Somebody mentioned it on this board. 3 M’s. Mornings, Music and Marketing. They had one. I was personally in meetings where the PD and GM said we would have all three on Magic. The morning show was all about family and helping the Treasure Valley and the afternoon show was about ….Well the afternoon show. Was about himself. Tooker and gang faught till the end but had no support. We all saw it coming but they faught till the end. People in the building laughed and talked trash but Tooker , Matty and Casey faught on. I hope all of you who judge don’t turn out like them. They are all good people who worked harder then most but got screwed because of the state of radio.
Editor’s note: Removed a short piece of innuendo that doesn’t belong here. The edit doesn’t change the overall tone of this comment. Also, saying the Tooker show didn’t fit on the station is only my opinion – but it is not meant as an attack.
The Boise radio market is OVER-EVERYTHING’D. Too much CHR, too much country, too much Air 1 and more Butt Rock than anyplace I can think of. It’s not my format of choice, but the few minutes I spent with Wild 101.1, the imaging sounds solid. Good luck to Impact.
I heard some new guy on nights on Magic. He’s not on the kzmg website, so I don’t know anything about him, does anyone? Why have they not marketed him? Who is this Dickman guy?