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RADIO COLUMN: IT’S GOING TO BE A MERRY XMAS FOR Z103 AND CBC |
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Written by Alex J. Walling
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Sunday, 17 December 2006 |
By Alex J. Walling
 The radio ratings are out (early December) and it’s going to be a very good Christmas for the newcomer Z103.5 (The beat of Halifax) and the CBC’s Information Morning team of Don Connolly and Liz Logan.
They are the big winners while the losers or stations that did not do as well include HAL-FM and CJNI otherwise known as News 5.7.
Believe me I know how BBM’s work and realize one can make his/her spin on the numbers but HAL-FM was expected to do more. As for News 95.7 there was an increase from the spring book but it was very miniscule. And in a way that does surprise me as I expected more, a lot more and higher numbers.
Let’s look over a few things. This last book marked the first real test for some of the new stations that came on board a year ago. They’ve sort of had a full year to test the market and to make an impression.
And believe me its not easy. When I hit the scan button on my car radio something like 16 stations come up on the FM car dial and a couple more (CFDR and CJCH) on the AM dial. (Yes, believe it or not the AM dial still exist.)
That is one heck of a lot of radio stations for this size of market. In order to make an impression one either has to hit a format that is very desirable to the public or be able to draw from existing stations.
All applicants who appeared at the CRTC hearing a few years ago thought they could do one or the other, if not both.
This radio survey book is a testimony to their beliefs.
The big winners and there were two of them and that is CBC Radio and especially the Information Morning Show with co-host Liz Logan and Don Connolly. While their spokesperson talked about ‘depth of programming’ and all that fine garble the fact was CBC got the numbers it has been getting for over 20 years. The drop last year was not due to a poor performance by the Logan/Connolly combo but rather due to the CBC strike. This Information Morning team is as steady and has become the “Heinz Ketchup” of morning radio. Don and Liz have become like the Old Town Clock, part of our information lifestyle. They are to radio what Steve Murphy and the ATV News (Yes, I still and will always call it ATV News) are at 6pm.
The News 95.7 radio boys were hoping to take a big chunk of the Info Morning target and that they did not do.
Information Morning getting big numbers especially with the adult (35-54) crowd is not surprising but CKHZ (Z103.5) is.
While all new stations want to do well very few really make a big splash in a market on their first try. The ‘beat of Halifax’ did. If we concede the adult news/info/talk format to CBC (CBHA) then the boys at Z103.5 scored a bull’s-eye in the ultra competitive music format race.
When it comes to listeners 18+ this new radio station is #1. That more than C100 and Q104 in total adults! Now mind you, both C100 and Q104 have certain demographics in which they either lead or do very well.
The trouble with ratings is they can be looked at in so many ways. One station may, let’s say be in 6th place over all with total numbers but be very high within their ‘target demo’.
One can slice the BBM pie in a million ways. One year in running a radio station we got killed in 87 of the 88 categories which included a break down of ¼ hours. But in one segment, young women, we had 100 more young women (18-24) than my competition. Other than that we got clubbed.
Guess what our new slogan was… “We are the station listened to by more young women than any other.”
There’s always a spin on it although if you get killed it can be hard to find. The last time a new station made such an impact in a ratings book was when SUN-FM was launched some 16-years ago as a full fledged easy listening radio station. We’re talking real ‘easy listening’ with plenty of instrumentals.
In their first book they came in third (behind C100 and Q104) but had over one million hours tuned which is a terrific number. As great as the acceptance of this station the sales staff simply could not sell it to those demographics. Hence the station went from an easy listening station, then lost the instrumental category and today it’s called KOOL-FM. (96.5 CKUL-FM).
The interesting thing is while the current KOOL-FM has no where near the ratings of SUN-FM of those early years it is doing much better as a money maker as it aims at a prime demo.
So why did Z103.5 do so well? Jeff Cogswell, the affable morning man of the station credits the format. “It’s the format. There was such a void in this market and we were able to fill it.” It may be the format but Cogswell handles it very well.
The same sentiments were echoed by the other members of the morning team, Nikki (Balch) and news director Shane Wilson. And some of the team members also pointed out to the promotions carried out by the station aimed at the audience such as what seems to be hundreds if not thousands of Z103.5 T-shirts.
“We aimed and targeted at a certain market,” says Dan Barton the program director of the station “and that seems to have paid off.” Barton also says that research showed this market was ready for his format.
“The ratings confirmed what we studied,” says Barton.
Now, I’m the first to tell you that Z103.5 is not punched on my dial. I’m in my late 50’s and that kind of music is not my thing. However once or twice a week I hit the ‘scan’ button and listen to everything on the dial for a few minutes. It’s the equivalent of going through the TV stations.
A few weeks ago I’m in the car and scanning and this Gordon Lightfoot medley is on the radio. I listened. It was like the old ‘stars on 45’ music and one Lightfoot hit after another came on the radio with a ‘beat’. It was Z103.5 and I understand it was done by a group called Star 54, or something like that. It was interesting. Here I’m enjoying the music while their audience, many don’t know Lightfoot, probably enjoyed the beat.
The Z103.5 morning show is friendly and Wilson does a good job with an ‘informal’ type morning newscast. Nikki handles the other personality role well. My only complaint when I listened to them in researching for this article is I would wish that Jeff and Nikki would give out their names more often than they did. I never heard Nikki’s name in the 20-30 minutes that I tuned in.
Many in the radio industry, including the ‘competition’ expected HAL-FM to do much better.
“They went from the A.M. band as CHNS with a 3.6 market share and ended up on a good FM frequency and didn’t even improve a full point. You should go from AM to FM and do much better. CHNS or HAL-FM came in with a 4.3 in a key stat. In fact in that demo here is what we are looking at.
Adults 18-34 (share of hours tuned)
CKHZ (Z103.5) 26.5
CBC (CBHA) 25.4
C100 23.7
CFRQ (Q104) 21.8
CHFX 12.8
KOOL 96.5 6.8
CHNS (HAL-FM) 5.1
CJNI (News95.7) 1.9
CJCH 1.4
To give you an idea of a demo breakdown let’s take a segment of the audience such as men between the ages of 35-64 and we find CJCH up with a 3.0 while the Beat (Z103.5) is hovering around the bottom. But then they are not after the ‘older crowd’.
Above: Jeff Cogswell Z103.5
They are the first station in a long while to actually have a radio reporter and one can see and hear Laura Graham just about any hour of the day. As one of my media confers told me “These guys actually break stories.” When was the last time a radio station did that?
I also like the fact this radio station does what other newsrooms should be doing and that is crediting their source for stories.
In today’s radio world there is simply no room, time, money, effort and resources to ‘go out and get the news (other than News95.7). Sure a few stations may call up and get a comment from a news source such as Doug Reynolds (News95.7) last week.
So radio while depending on wire services for national and international news get the bulk of their local content from both daily papers. Believe me, the most important person in morning newsrooms is the paper boy. The papers are scanned for content and usually re-written for radio or for the ‘ear as they would say.
I like the fact that News 95.7 credits the “Daily News” or the “Herald” for their stories. And they should. Also if a story happens to be inaccurate they can say ‘we quoted the papers”.
I recall earlier this year doing the morning show on Seaside-FM, a community volunteer station and both papers were late. I went on air and said “how can I inform you when I’m not informed” and gave the papers hell on air for not having their deliveries on time.
I ended up by listening to News 95.7 and ‘borrowing’ their cast and traffic report. Hey, it’s community radio without a budget.
News 95.7 usually provides me with a good chuckle or two a week. I’m still not over the term ‘collision free traffic’ at 5:30 in the morning. Not only is there ‘collision free traffic’ there’s hardly any traffic at all.
And the beauty of live radio. Last week Rick Howe of CJCH radio called councillor Gloria McCluskey lining her up for a an interview on his HOTLINE show. Gloria told him “sure, but I have to get off the phone as Doug Reynolds (a former collogue of Howe for 22 years) is going to call me”, so Howe ended the call.
Moments later, Reynolds does call, live on the News 95.7, and starts asking McCluskey questions. The first time I thought I heard wrong when the councillor from Dartmouth said “Well Rick…(as in Rick Howe)… Second later she said it again and called Reynolds ‘Rick’ for a third time in an interview that may have been a minute long. She did when Reynolds thanked her, say ‘Thank you Doug!”.
Ah, the beauty of live radio.
And why is News 95.7 not enjoying the success of the Beat (Z103.5)? Several are several reasons that come to mind.
Although the station has invested lots of money in staff, equipment and tons of promotion, print, billboard, TV etc. the information market seems to be satisfied by the giant CBC Info Morning.
The analogy I use is Heinz ketchup. Does it matter how many millions one would spend to start another brand how many would leave Heinz?
I learned years ago that if someone is really satisfied with a ‘product’ then it is very hard to get them over to your side.
That is what News 95.7 has run into.
The prime station for news and information is 90.5 CBC. They are the equivalent to the proverbial comfortable slipper with very well known personalities in Connolly, Logan and to some extent sports guy John Hancock.
CBC has plenty of news on the hour (national) and the half hour (local/regional). And Connolly delivers on a variety of interviews from very serious (crime) to subjects like high school dances.
It took Connolly years to build his audience and he and Logan do nothing to force them to leave. And I won’t get into weekend morning radio where CBC’s Weekend Mornings with Duke, and Stan Carew I’m sure have more listeners than the other stations combined. It’s that successful of a show.
Also other stations such as C100 with Peter Harrison doing news, and Q104 with Lisa Blackburn handling the news run have been around for decades and to those who like some news along with their music; this is where they are staying.
In fact the all news/talk format did poorly in Halifax and Saint John but for some reason it did very well in Moncton. Maybe in this smaller market there was a better chance to make an impression.
Finally, some maybe wondering what about CJLU (Christian music), 97.9 Information Radio (with the likes of Harry Fleming, Clary Croft and some sports dude) and Seaside FM (94.7) the easy listening voice, and CKDU (Dalhousie radio) are doing?
The truth is no one really knows because they are not part of the BBM ratings. Stations pay to be part of the ratings and these stations choose not to do so.
Now there is a section in the BBM ratings called ‘other’ but that is hard to gauge. You can’t really take those four stations and divide by four. Some of these signals carry much better. CKDU can be picked up all around HRM, so can CJLU and for the most part 97.9 is decent in most places while Seaside-FM is hard to get in certain area (Bayers Lake, parts of Dartmouth, and Sunnyside Mall in Bedford). Also the easy listening voice of Metro is simply not accessible to most Metro homes. But I hear a power increase is on its way. In fact the forms will be sent to Transportation Canada in days.
The station is hoping to go from 50 watts to over 1000 and that should make them more accessible to the easy listening public.
Now Seaside Fm had an interesting promotion this past weekend where they went for a few days with ‘live announcers’ including the all-night show for a few days.
I mean when was the last time there was a live all night show? The answer was a few years ago when another 50-watt station CHCN (Cole Harbour) staged a few all nighters in an effort to raise money.
Now Seaside-FM was ‘commercial free’ during this period which is interesting as most of their shows are ‘commercial free’.
It’s one of my very few beefs about this station that I have spent some time volunteering. I like the idea of the station and the sound of 94.7 but would like to see those running the station (Board of directors and close friends) really look at the ‘business of running a radio station’. They are failing miserably in this regard and are surviving due to the largess of a business person.
I would like them to get some ‘radio-business’ expertise on their board. This station has lots of former broadcasters and great programming expertise in the likes of Paul Kennedy who is a great promoter of east coast music, to Paul Meagher and his easy listening magic. But, and as great as the music is, a station needs revenue and commercials to live and they don’t have a full time sales manager.
Jim Coe has the title but the fact is a station needs people who go daily and ‘make the calls’. Coe doesn’t and I don’t blame him as he has a full time government job and I don’t think his employer would be thrilled if this were the case.
Also, I really question from a business viewpoint why Seaside FM has entered into an exclusive car deal with MacPhee Pontiac. That’s right, no other car dealership can advertise on the station.
Mind you, this according to sales people in the industry has to be one of the most foolhardy decisions made. Let’s face it, car dealerships are the strongest advertisers in radio and to cut off that lifeline doesn’t make sense.
But MacPhee provides the alleged or acting sales person, Coe, with a Community Cruiser so that may have something to do with it. By the way I’ve been around Seaside for nearly two years and yet have to hear a ‘community cruiser’ report. I personally think MacPhee is losing out on the deal. But if I’m the recipient of a car/van do I really care?
But there are some very good radio people with sales and business and radio marketing expertise that would be willing to help out and it could only benefit the station. But it seems those in control of this station feel this kind of expertise is not necessary. With this attitude, you will hear many ‘commercial free hours’ in the upcoming months.
I have yet to hear a staple of community programming and that is ‘Christmas Greetings’. In fact I heard many 3-4 years ago when the station was coming out of a trailer park in Eastern Passage.
But then, it’s hard to sell ads when your sales manager has a full time job.
Have a good day.
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