Classic Rock WLAV ties its all time record low AQH share in latest Nielsens

[billmich88888]

not only that, the young kids aren't buying the hype that this older music is cool like they did in the 80's/90's and maybe early 2000's....

[Realist]

I’ve never worked in Radio on my life. I know some of my ideas are kind of discounted from those that do work in Radio – not mentioning a certain program Director, who knows me and thinks I have this vision of what Radio should be. Anyway, this is what I would do to fix LAV

Anything from the mid 60’s to mid 70’s - 1-2 spins an hour MAX

Late 70s until the grunge era of the early 90’s should be 80% of your playlist.

90’s music - 10-15% of your playlist max, stay away from the grunge and harder rock that GRD plays. Throw in the main stream rock from the era.

Expand the hell out of your 500 song playlist! ! I completely understand that you have to play the classic rock “hits“, but there is a lot of music from artists released in that era that gets very little to know AirPlay. Face it, Supertramp and later Aerosmith rates great in listener surveys but I’m sick of hearing them. A prime example of stuff that isn’t played is Sammy Hagar era Van Halen. When Eddie died, SiriusXM ran a 24/7 tribute channel and I was hearing VH music I don’t hear on broadcast radio currently.

MW and others - am I dreaming or what?

[MWmetalhead]

Formulaically, that's about right. A good chunk of WLAV P1s hate alternative rock. When the station began playing two and sometimes even three 90s tracks an hour a decade ago, numerous angry comments were posted on their FB page and the ratings crashed.

WLAV should take a cautious approach with regard to 90s and newer. Maybe 1 to 2 songs of every 15 should be from that era.

WCSX in Detroit plays very little 90s outside of Alice Cooper's new weeknight syndicated show, which I believe airs from 10p to 2a there.

WDRV in Chicago appears to be less than 10 percent 90s outside of Cooper's show (which airs there at 7p local time weeknights):

https://live.wdrv.com/listen/?utm_sourc ... gn=livebar

WLAV's main problem is the purge of air talent. Tony Gates, Rob Brandt and Kim Carson are all gone. The imaging has taken a step backward since the passing of legendary V/O artist Chris Corley. The female voice they were using sounded great, I thought. The new male voice they now use lacks personality.

Putting Brian Vander Ark on a station that doesn't play his band nor any of his post grunge contemporaries is moronic, especially when their sister station plays a ton of that music. Few LAV listeners give two shits about The Verve Pipe.

With all the personalities with whom WLAV's decades long audience best connected now gone (save for Michelle), there isn't much reason to pick 96.9 over 101.3, 98.7, or SXM.

On top of all the above, it sounds like the station may be experiencing signal issues based on the anecdotal example 48125 provided.

[Honeyman]

Has it ever been revealed why Tony was let go? Has he spoken about it? It would seem the Grand Rapids Press might have delved into this considering his long history and legacy in GR radio.

[MWmetalhead]

No concrete reason was ever given to my knowledge.

Tony has a well maintained FB page but never discussed it there, either. I suspect he is bound by an NDA.

[Ben Zonia]

No concrete reason was ever given to my knowledge.

Tony has a well maintained FB page but never discussed it there, either. I suspect he is bound by an NDA.

Perhaps something just like Laurie DeYoung said about him circa 1980?

[MWmetalhead]

Tough to say.

More likely, Cumulus was just looking to cut payroll, the listeners and ratings be damned.

[Realist]

Tough to say.

More likely, Cumulus was just looking to cut payroll, the listeners and ratings be damned.

Sounds like Cumulus Saginaw, as each station has only 2 live personalities. Z93 and WIOG split one DJ. Rest are voice tracked

[teetoppz28]

Tough to say.

More likely, Cumulus was just looking to cut payroll, the listeners and ratings be damned.

Sounds like Cumulus Saginaw, as each station has only 2 live personalities. Z93 and WIOG split one DJ. Rest are voice tracked

Z93 has Matt, Adam, Breck (split w/ WIOG), and Duffy... correct?

[Realist]

Tough to say.

More likely, Cumulus was just looking to cut payroll, the listeners and ratings be damned.

Sounds like Cumulus Saginaw, as each station has only 2 live personalities. Z93 and WIOG split one DJ. Rest are voice tracked

Z93 has Matt, Adam, Breck (split w/ WIOG), and Duffy... correct?

Mike Duffy is voice tracked from 979X, a Wilkes-Berre, PA Cumulus rock station….

[teetoppz28]

Tough to say.

More likely, Cumulus was just looking to cut payroll, the listeners and ratings be damned.

Sounds like Cumulus Saginaw, as each station has only 2 live personalities. Z93 and WIOG split one DJ. Rest are voice tracked

Z93 has Matt, Adam, Breck (split w/ WIOG), and Duffy... correct?

Mike Duffy is voice tracked from 979X, a Wilkes-Berre, PA Cumulus rock station….

Ah, I didn't realize that. Matt and Adam refer to him like he's local during the Morning After show. Thanks!

[Greg Buben]

In the March ratings WLAV dropped down to 14th place while their sister station "Hot FM" was number 12. This was a
different situation where another Cumulus station did better than WLAV. Considering that there were no top ten stations
owned by Cumulus and their WLAV dropped so low that makes me wonder how long it will be until the Cumulus people
decide to sell their G.R. stations.

[MWmetalhead]

The GR cluster as a whole is profitable, I believe.

They won't exit GR unless (a) they receive an attractive price and (b) they can unload the Muskegon stations concurrently.

A somewhat more realistic scenario would be sale of a single "dog" station to a not-for-profit broadcaster. 107.3 WTNR fits the bill.

[craigrussell100]

"Considering that there were no top ten stations owned by Cumulus and their WLAV dropped so low that makes me wonder how long it will be until the Cumulus people decide to sell their G.R. stations."

No offense, but thats not really how it works. "One bad ratings period, and we change formats" "We fall behind other cluster mates, we better sell the whole thing". For starters, ALL the "big 3" groups are making money. Dont kid yourself. If they wernt, thewy would have sold eons ago. Now how much they are making is a different story. They probably wish they were making more, but they aint hurting, no matter what other people on the internet or even their own employees will tell you.

And as you probably have been able to tell, a bad ratings book or 2 does not mean instant format changes. Its really hard to change formats and keep any momentum or even advertisers, especially if the changes are drastic. And as we have seen, 2nd and 3rd station formats in a market (i.e. the second or third country station) usually struggle mightily. Sometimes its better to just stay the course and hope the Neilsen diary placement improves in the next ratings period. That really is the key most of the time to ratings success. Where the diaries are distributed.

[Radiobirdman]

Right now they are playing Journey's "Any Way You Want it." Honestly, what kind of advertiser wants to reach the demographic of someone happy to have heard that song 10,950 times in the last 30 years, besides Mountain Dew?