BIG CHANGES COMING ON PDX RADIO STATIONS

It's going to get interesting with chess moves at Alpha Broadcasting. The risk these guys are taking multiply due to not having any connection with this "strange market". Their first monumental error was Replacing Tim McNamara who is a PDX radio legend with a bunch of slicksters from Nevada. These guys think they know it all because they hit one mega jackpot selling off a radio group, but this town has weird radio habits and it starts with making the staff happy. Their first big move was moving the troops downtown in "The Leaker" Pac West Building. Locals from the Paul Allen regime warned them that downtown is costly for the staff and not a smart idea. They pulled that trigger anyway. Now comes the anticipation of what format change on 99.5 FM. Many predict they will make a dash against K103. Nobody will beat that franchise, maybe take 2 points here and there...Possibly oldies since the head cheese likes the format...80's/90's to pull off from Entercom and CLear Chananel? Who knows. The investment firm that ponied up millions is wondering at this point how brilliant these people are, it's going to be interesting. Bringing McNamara back would be their most brilliant idea.

Comments

[750 loyal]

Tim was the best. I go to work now buried deep in a holes and experts.

[Allen]

Pandora is eating radio's lunch and dinner.

Time is only a measure of change and change the only constant.

[Chuck Martin]

wait, so this new experiece in radio whether it be in pdx or anywhere usa is a loser from the git go,and so i must ask.....so what....what else would be new. the suits in control of broadcast decisions make these frigging blunders all the time. so once again....what the hell else is new

[James]

Yeah, they are making some changes to their lineups at the different stations and I am not impressed with most of what I see/hear. I find myself listening to KXL less now than a few months ago. I can understand a desire to go against stations that have existing formats without changing anything. From a listener perspective, There are already too many stations playing the same stuff. You can change the name but if you play the same cuts, there is no difference. We don't need any more stations playing 70, 80, 90, or whatever the latest is. We need a station playing 50's and one playing earlier stuff. The word is that advertisers don't like that age group so stations don't want to play to it. So we get more of the same stale small playlists.
Boring.

[tombrooks]

I was curious to see how Alpha was doing in the ratings - Here is the latest Arbitron Ratings by Month 12 + Portland Market #23 Population of 2.2 Million: (I am cut & Paste hopes this reads OK)

All Alpha Owned Stations Portland Market ARBITRON 12+
...............Dec...JAN...FEB...MARCH
KUPL......4.1...4.3...4.2...5.1...Country
KXL AM.....2.9...3.5...3.0...2.6...Talk - Simil with FMMarch
KXL FM.....2.5...3.0...3.1...2.4...Talk Sim with AM in March
KINK.........2.7...3.1...3.5...4.0...AAA
KXTG........2.1...2.4...2.2...2.2...Sports

As any broadcaster will tell you the formula:

Ratings + More $ for Commercials = Happy Stockholders.

At least Alpha is not a huge corporate mega chain and is trying.

I wish them well in their quest!

[Mary]

The ONLY station I listen to anymore is 95.5 the game. Anything else comes from a CD or my ipod. I gave up on the idiots in charge a long time ago.

[S. Cohen]

Pac West move was a costly blunder. The investors will get tired watching the numbers bleed and will sell it all off to Another bunch of dark suits... At a gigantic loss.

[Some_Guy]

Blah, Blah. All this complaining about radio is tiring. Sure, there might not be a radio station out there that caters EXACTLY to what your tastes are. Guess what? Radio is a medium that has to satisfy MASS appeal. Of course you're not going to like it all of the time. Heck, maybe radio isn't for you. So get your iPod out and stop wining. I don't work in Portland radio, and I don't like every station, but some of them do a great job.

[j]

99.5 FM Is Entercom, KWJJ