Monday, October 1, 2012

92.9, 97.1 & 100.5 Look for Male Companionship

It's too bad eHarmony does not allow radio stations to sign up.  The website's compatibility test would be a big help to 92.9 The Game, 97-1 The River and Rock 100.5.  All three stations are trying to pick up men, many of whom became available when they and their favorite station went their separate ways.

Not that the market's females are exactly settled in.  With all the recent changes, the instability of relationships for Atlanta's women has been on the rise.  But their uncertainty pales compared to men.

92-9 Dave FM had the most dual audience of the stations in the Rock genre, with men and women divided about equally.  Where are the former Adult Album Alternative listeners likely to settle?  It's difficult to say, but based on music, I would not be surprised if both genders landed on Star 94.  In fact, I think that Star 94, during its revival as a Hot AC, put the nails in Dave FM's coffin.

Star's playlist was heavy on the Nickelback, Train and Kings of Leon type of sound, acts that straddle the Hot AC/AAA border.  For a while, Star 94 was doing its Big 90s Weekend, which brought over a lot of men under the radar.  The sweet spot for both 92-9 Dave-FM and Star 94 is 35-54 so both men and women could be moving 1.2 megahertz to the right.

Luring some former Dave-FM listeners is not out of the question for 97-1 The River.  Though The River is older and more male than Dave, both stations are on the softer side of Rock.  The River does, however, throw in an occasional Led Zeppelin or Def Leppard.  Its classic hits have had little in common with Dave FM's AAA except for a fit of experimentation early this year by former Dave-FM PD Scott Jameson.

Rock 100.5 has seen a lot of iterations in its 5-year life but seems to have finally perfected the recipe.  The station is Classic Rock based, with a harder edge than 97-1 The River.  And the Classic songs include an occasional 80s heavy metal band, such as Metallica.  Added to the mix are some titles from the 2K decade and the 90s.

Rock 100.5's music has little similarity to either Dave-FM or Project 9-6-1 though it leans a little toward the Project taste.  And like Project 9-6-1, Rock 100.5 has a compelling morning show.  Just the availability of unattached men and the market's limited Rock choices could benefit the station, which has been on a ratings upswing.  Of course, Cumulus created 98-9 The Bone to grab disenfranchised Project 9-6-1 listeners, and whether they run to fetch the small FM translator signal remains to be seen.

Where 92.9 The Game will get its audience will be interesting.  Undoubtedly, the All-Sports share in the Atlanta market will increase.  And CBS has done too well with the format to fail, especially on that big signal.  So from where will The Game's audience come?

What portion of its First Preference listeners will come from the All-Sports AM's, 680 The Fan and 790 The Zone?  I expect The Game's PPM shares to exceed The Fan and The Zone combined, and if I turn out to be correct, many probably will come from WSB, the Rock stations and other places.  The All-Sports format has a higher male audience composition than any other format; 89% of 680 The Fan's listeners are male, as are 88% of 790 The Zone's audience.

With WGST's former listeners now added to the mix, watching the market's new relationships will be more intriguing than speculating about Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel.  How things ultimately shake out is anyone's guess.

Thanks for reading.  I would love to hear from you at roddyfreeman@bellsouth.net.  Follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/atlantaairwaves, and we'll follow you back.

Link to Rodney Ho's AJC Radio & TV blog:  http://blogs.ajc.com/radio-tv-talk/

4 comments:

  1. Randall Bloomquist and Nancy Zintak are programming geniuses compared to what the morons in the Building of Death did last week to WGST. With this current action, the station can never come back as a viable talk station.

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  2. Thanks, Firebird. We'll talk about WGST next week.

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  3. I haven't checked out Star 94 yet, but I suspect I'm not going to be hearing my older alternative faves (Elvis Costello, Peter Gabriel, Squeeze, etc.) anywhere in Atlanta now. I do enjoy 98.9 The Bone somewhat, but I'm totally disappointed that Dave is going away.
    Signed,
    Disenfranchised 48 y.o. male.

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  4. All I can say is it's truly a sad time for Atlanta radio. I'm a 53loving year old man and I don't think there is another station I really care to listen to. 88.5 has always been on the cutting edge of new music which I loved back when I was in college, but I tuned it in today and even though I appreciate a lot of what's being played, it's not say, Roxy Music or Elvis Costello or Brian Eno. As I said in an email to Roddy Freeman, it looks like I'm going to be the owner of more cds and I'll have my phone plugged into my stereo listening to Pandora or another web based station. Yes, a sad time for Atlanta radio!
    Signed,
    A truly sad listener

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