bearcave

This post will compare the present challenges facing Vega FM in
Australia with the present challenges facing two stations in New York.

radio station's circumstances and instead be more analytical in
developing a suggestion.

Radio Ga Ga (in Australia) wrote:


It certainly was there for a while, but I question if anyone will have
the nerve the try it again.

Even Vega's talk/music formula in Melbourne (Vega 91.5 FM) and Sydney
(Vega 95.3 FM) has been watered down in favour of playing more music.

Having heard United States radio as recently as a week ago, I found out
that New York, as well as other cities with CBS Radio owned stations,
are experimenting with a talk format called " Free FM ".

The following link explains what Free FM is about:

http://www.cbsradio.com/freefm/index.php
It says that:


When you think about it, Vega have attempted something similar at least
in terms of " featuring an eclectic mix of personalities whose distinct
creativity, perspective, sense of humor, intellect and unpredictability
do not fall under the guiding principles of any particular theme".
Also in terms of being "an entertaining hybrid" of talk and music.

Yet, like Vega, the "eclectic mix" of Free FM has so far been
low-rating in the New York market:

Find out why at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WFNY-FM

As recently as December 2005, 92.3 Free FM replaced K-Rock, a station
that had long occupied that frequency and was home to top-rating Howard
Stern, who recently put the station into an identity crisis by moving
his show to Sirius Satelite Radio.

Free FM was launched "immediately" after Stern's final program as the
station struggled with the same problems Sydney's 2UE had with losing
Alan Jones - when the "personality brand" can be bigger than the
"station brand" (The "hard act to follow" problem).

WFNY-FM (Free FM) splits its HD Digital Radio signal into two, so
K-Rock continues to exist by occupying one of the two signals, while
Free FM occupies the other. Perhaps for this reason, Free FM has the
option of bringing back K-Rock on the analog tuner if things ultimately
don't work out.

Free FM's problems are similar to "the repeat problem" several
Melbourne radio stations have had with attempting to mix talk and music
as "a hybrid format" - with 3EE The Breeze in 1992 only lasting 11
months, 3AK's "More than great music" format sometimes rating as low as
0.5% of the overall market between 1997 and 2000, and now Vega 91.5 FM
putting its morning talk/music program between 9am and noon on hold,
with no confirmation yet that they'll give it another attempt.

Vega's soul-searching has lead them through a second major advertising
campaign in recent times, but this hasn't seemed to have had much
impact. Incorporated into this campaign was the message "Melbourne's
largest playlist".

This much about Vega's music format had been predicted for some time
before Vega's launch, with one industry rumour early last year that
Vega would adopt the successful " Jack FM - Playing what we want "
format that started so well in Vancouver, Canada and has since extended
its influence to many stations across Canada and the United States,
including the big New York and Los Angeles markets.

This link lets you know all about the Jack FM phenomenon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_FM

Jack FM is meant to be "a format for the times", trying to compete with
people's choice to use an ipod or other mp3 player to source "a large
playlist". Instead of playing just a few hundred high-rotation songs,
Jack FM will play a few thousand.

On Digital Broadcasting Australia's online forum, (
http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=32444 ), one person predicted that:


So they need to offer a wider selection of music (among other things),
a lot of which listeners wouldn't have on their ipods to attract them
<<<

Unfortunately for 101.1 Jack FM in New York, listeners haven't warmed
to Jack. As the following ratings figures show (sourced from
http://www.nyradioguide.com/ratings.htm ), since WCBS-FM replaced its
traditional "oldies" format with Jack FM, ratings have dropped from
3.6% to 1.5% (in a highly competitive and crowded market, even the
city's highest rating station, 106.7 Lite FM -
http://www.1067litefm.com/main.html - rated a peak of 6.1% in the last
twelve months, so for WCBS-FM to lose 2.1% points is a disaster).

One thing I like about Jack FM is its station IDs, many of which a very
funny. As all stations in America seem to be required to call-out
their "official call-signs" at least once per hour, Jack FM New York
sends up theirs by saying, "Jack FM puts the B.S. back into WCBS"

The problem for Jack FM is that many listeners take that message
seriously and just as Free FM may find itself going back to being
K-Rock, it might not be long before 101.1 WCBS brings back the "oldies"
format that continues to broadcast in Los Angeles on 101.1 K-Earth.

A similar experience is shared by Sydney's 2CH, which dropped its "easy
listening" format for a brief period in the mid-1990s, causing
low-rating 2SM to take advantage of 2CH's mistake and relaunch itself
as Gold 1269. 2CH quickly corrected itself and went into direct
competition with Gold 1269. An ownership change at Gold 1269 forced
that station to then further change format, leaving 2CH to reclaim a
monopoly on its format and conditions returned to normal.

Vega's problem is that being a totally new station, it must persist
with finding the right format, even though the New York experience
demonstrates the struggles of " FM talk " radio, in respect to Free FM,
and even though the same experience also demonstrates that having "a
large playlist" like Jack FM does not necessarily set or reflect a
trend in radio listening after all.

Perhaps DMG will eventually arrive at the decision that Vega's
"positioning needs" outweigh the organisation's desire not have Vega
disturbing the under 40s market.

The very simple book on Marketing called "The 22 Immutable Laws of
Marketing" by Jack Trout and Al Ries (1993 HarperCollins, page ix)
points out the conflict between the goals set for business development
and what Trout and Ries call "laws of marketing":


Perhaps the biggest problem for DMG is that "the exclusion zone"
imposed on Vega's format - to not compete in any of the Under 40s
demographics to avoid an overlap with Nova - comes at the cost of Vega
being able to invent a unique "positioning" in the market.

There are possibly cases to argue that Vega should shift younger or
older than where it is currently positioned.

I don't suggest this because I assume that everything Vega is currently
attempting must be wrong. Both Vegas in Sydney and Melbourne have
risen slightly in the ratings most recently.

But I do challenge DMG to consider that maybe to effectively "position"
both Nova and Vega, it will not be quite "the tidy outcome" of Nova
being for the Under 40s, therefore Vega's lower-end target being no
younger or older than 40 year olds.

....From Justin