B-93 Birthday Bash... Stick a fork in it?

[Reese K Rickards]

In years past this once apex summer West Michigan Concert would be days away from giving away, or more correctly now, selling vastly overpriced tickets. This morning, there is no mention of the show at B93.com Is Bash dead?

Why?
1. No or little new talent coming out of Nashville.
2 The radio station doesn't have enough jocks to do the remotes.
3 The last few shows at the ball park have been so lame no one cares anymore.
4 Listeners realize the event is a money grab.
5 Management has forgotten the original intent of the show was to say thanks for listening.

This is one more chance for a potential competitor to come in and do things right.
Thoughts?

[MWmetalhead]

I'd say it's a combination of 2, 4 and 5 and possibly 3. (I am unsure of last year's attendance).

B93 is running on its brand name and little else at this point. To their credit, they do seem to be doing a better job keeping the audience interested than another heritage station in the market, WLAV. I suppose in LAV's case, oldies and classic hits stations are acceptable substitutes whereas country listeners want to hear...country!

Cumulus made a major gaffe in moving its country brand to 107.3, a station that was on few presets due to the small listenership of its prior format (sports).

The last handful of times I've listened to B93 (the most recent being February), I thought the playlist was awful. Dan + Shay, Morgan Wallen and Sam Hunt all played with absurdly high frequency. The rotations remind me of a CHR station.

Looking at today's log, the station does seen to be playing a 90s or 00s track or two an hour now, which is an improvement. I still dislike the current song selection. WYCD in Detroit does an overall better job with playlist construction, in my opinion.

[TC Talks]

Here's an option: Acts aren't interested in performing at a radio station concert in market #68, for the same reason Beyonce has the top selling country album for 2024 without much airplay support.

[georgetownt]

Radio is near death. Smart devices made it as relevant as the type writer.

[MWmetalhead]

I found a reddit post on this topic, where someone mentioned attendance the last two years was lackluster and that a Birthday Bash this year was "doubtful."

[Reese K Rickards]

Interesting thoughts.....

but....

TC says acts are not interested in playing radio station shows in market # 68. Nonsense...Acts go where the money is AND where stations promote the records. Period.

Georgetown says radio is dead. BS. Give me B's 320 watts. It still makes money, and with the right people at the helm, it will make more...a lot more.

MW says attendance has been lackluster. Sure it has. Standing room tickets for miserable artists at outrageous prices. Back at the race track, parking alone was 60 bucks...limited to 10 k cars. It was still a sellout because quality acts came and to make sure, the radio station sold the sizzle, and made 600 thousand on parking alone. Then add 30 ticket give away remotes at 3 to 5 grand a piece, an godly sum on merch, managements cut on food and beer, and volunteers to work security for a free tee shirt, it's a total no brainier. Then on top of that,a country show is a family show, and with free tickets,the entire family can load up the hoopty and go to a show they could never afford.

Then you hire a genius like Neal Dionne to work against child abuse and neglect. You can't go wrong. You bring in a cute"chick" or just a chick with a butter in her mouth voice for mid days, a family man for afternoons, a young smart aleck for evenings, and someone not to lose the license at night. And don't think for a moment those jocks aren't out there. They are and are just waiting for a phone call.

Thoughts?

[MWmetalhead]

I agree the door is open to do country radio (and events) the right way in West Michigan.

The problem is... corporate goon ownership is sucking the localism (i.e. sense of community) out of radio.

iFart would rather promote its branded country concert in Austin, TX that no one in Michigan gives a rat's ass about than take the initiative to do a big time event on a local level.

I cannot speak to the GR market specifically, but I know in some clusters / markets, corporate radio groups have slashed local sales staff. I don't know if this holds true with iHM in Grand Rapids or not, but if so, it may be yet another reason Birthday Bash is apparently kaput.

[jesusjenny]

Probably a combo of most of things...

Iheart doesn't have anywhere near the staff to pull of an event like Birthday Bash back in the day. As Reese mentioned, most people vouluteered for a free t-shirt etc and the event made good money. Bottom line,if it doesn't bring in the cash, Iheart won't do it. They have no interest in a local or heritage event nor do they care. Iheart had a staff of almost 200 people at one point in GR. I suspect it's somewhere closer to 20-25 if it's even that now and I bet half are sales people.

Also - The general public has figured out it's now a scam and the days of the "free" concerts are pretty much dead anywhere.

Bottom line - people have lost interest in local radio - at this point it's all about background noise at the dentist office or in an older car IMO. The model has changed. Iheart is way more interested in promoting digital platforms and their big giant Musicfests (in Vegas, etc) with corporate sponsors and big names.

Things like Birthday Bash - it's original incarnation, are done, especially with no local Jocks like Neal and Reese, Conrad etc promoting. Those guys were the key to it's success I believe, outside of the artists booked. The promotion of the event was top-notch.

[since16]

Curious if this is just a "bash" on Reese' former employer. I don't remember him moving on much after they parted ways with him. With a top station/morning show like that you just go onto another station or market or live the rest of your life "bashing" your former employer because they made changes.

Either way, radio stations have budgets, reasoning why they make changes and I think it's clear by the ratings OVER THE YEARS since they made modifications that it has not effected their listenership or brand.

[jesusjenny]

LOL - Let's see, A company buys up a heritage station, Eventually guts the whole staff, support staff and kills all of it's heritage events and you think he's bashing them because he got let go? Reese (and a few others) Built the entire brand so I think it's fair to say he has a leg to stand on here.. The Reason this station gets the "ratings" they do is for the work those guys put in - no way it's because of the cookie cutter voicetracked crap that's on there now. If you're here to defend iheart or corporate media in general - good luck with that.

[MWmetalhead]

Extremely well stated!

[since16]

The Reason this station gets the "ratings" they do is for the work those guys put in - no way it's because of the cookie cutter voicetracked crap that's on there now. If you're here to defend iheart or corporate media in general - good luck with that.

LOL, 8 years later since he was fired and with "cookie cutter" voice tracking now it's standing pretty well on it's own with all those changes. Thinking he has nothing to do with how well it's doing these days, ask most of the, especially younger listeners that would go to Birthday Bash and they probably have no idea who he is these days.

[MWmetalhead]

B93 gained presets because of the tremendous work done in the 90s, 00s and early/mid 2010s. Kids and teens who were exposed to the station in that era likely listen today as adults.

Cumulus handed B93 a big gift when they moved WTNR from 94.5 to 107.3. Cumulus did a terrible job promoting the move, muddied the waters further with a rebrand, and on top of the above, 107.3's signal is less than ideal in far SW Kent County and in much of Ottawa County.

What had been a 3 or 4 share country radio station at 94.5 (their final full book was a 4.1 share) is now a 1 to 1.5 share radio station at 107.3.

B93 does still have some quality on-air talent (Tony Brooks is very good as an example), but it's not like it used to be.

[jesusjenny]

Reese and that bunch had EVERYTHING to do with why B-93 is listened to now. 20+ years of building a brand across and entire generation which of course has expanded into younger generations.

You cannot tell me any station with all day/night voicetracking is "Standing on it's own" and is anywhere even close to what they were. I have no idea why you continue to defend a product that is former shadow of itself as somehow being okay or just part of "doing business" by gutting the entire industry. Why you continue to defend a lackluster product as somehow being as good as it was because of the "ratings" is beyond me. There is NO way that station is billing anywhere close to what it did back in the day.

MW has a good point as well, the competition (also gutted) has never really put a serious fight and fumbled constantly with the botched rebrands and signal moves etc.

And agreed, Tony Brooks has always been a solid talent. This thread is not a dig on him - more just pointing out the bigger picture.

[TC Talks]

Here's something I've wondered about lately...

If you rebuilt a solid air staff and promotions effort, would listeners and ad dollars return?

I don't think so, under the traditional commercial model.

KEXP, WMOT, KCRW MPR all are revenue powerhouses without ads, driven on donations. KEXP I'm told out bills all but 2 commercial stations in Seattle.