WDVD Rebrands Its Morning Show

[RadioRat]

The Blaine Fowler Morning Show is now Blaine and Lauren. It recently lost its executive producer and third personality.

Six years ago there were four cohosts and one fewer hour...the trend is not going in the right direction.

I think the station is going to clean house and flip formats before summer. Hot AC requires people driving into work and high cumulative monthly audiences. Post-pandemic, that's DOA. Too many work remotely.

[MWmetalhead]

Hot AC is losing to AC in many places throughout the country. Remote work has little to do with Hot AC's challenges. There are scores of AC stations out there (which are even more dependent on "at work" listening) with good or even great ratings.

The identity of Hot AC has become muddled.

In 96.3's case, the personalities sound too "old" relative to the texture of the station's music. The morning show lost its way when it became a knockoff of Mojo's show.

Adam Bomb's show at night sucks. He sounds like someone doing kiddie radio, and it's plainly obvious he is being piped in from hundreds of miles away.

96.3 was at its best 10 to 15 years ago when it was a very polished and highly listener interactive station with great local contests.

[Mega Hertz]

I would hate to go to Vegas with Cumulus. You'd be $50,000 in the hole and they would still say "hit me" with the cards totaling 20.

[tivoking]

No one is driving to work listening to radio anymore. There's probably tens of thousands that no longer work every day in Detroit alone. Most people will have the TV on in the background at home, not the radio like they would at work. Amazon truck drivers look young, so I'm assuming that they are using Bluetooth and streaming. AM radio is supposed to disappear from electric vehicles.

[MWmetalhead]

Speaking of Vegas, effective today, Beasley has ruined 107.5 KXTE. Not that Audacy did the station any favors under its ownership...

More info at RadioInsight.com

[Colonel Flagg]

Speaking of Vegas, effective today, Beasley has ruined 107.5 KXTE. Not that Audacy did the station any favors under its ownership...

More info at RadioInsight.com

If I had to guess... Walt Sabo strikes again. He was the architect behind all of the ridiculous machinations at WKRK about 20 years ago, and here we go again in Vegas. Bill McAllister and "Rudy the Phone Screener" should send a T&R. Is Ed Tyll still around?

As for WDVD, maybe they can take on WOMC, and become WVHS, your 80's and 90's station.

They should have stuck with "Planet" and tweaked it the way they wanted it. Somewhere, I have an in depth study that ABC had done on 96.3, by a top shelf marketing firm. Reading it doesn't really tell you anything conclusive that in the end, creates a hybrid AC station called "DVD". I am surprised that Dickey Lew, or Mike McVay didn't blow up 96.3 and start a new, being the presumed experts that they supposedly are.

[armchair pd]

Speaking of Vegas, effective today, Beasley has ruined 107.5 KXTE. Not that Audacy did the station any favors under its ownership...

More info at RadioInsight.com

As for WDVD, maybe they can take on WOMC, and become WVHS, your 80's and 90's station.

Perfect
They sounded good pre whoever the current PD is. Neither DVD or DRQ have had consistent success under his watch. Start there.
I wouldn't rule out a rebrand. A flip? I don't think so.
Yet.

[Mega Hertz]

I would love for this discussion to continue! There's a lot to dissect here. What is Hot AC now that they don't have the "best music without the rap" tag to fall back on? There's so much potential with these two stations, but (probably) corporate programmers just won't look into it.

It seems like contemporary pop of any kind is struggling these days. As was mentioned above, there doesn't seem to be too many P1's for this station as the demo tends to stream a lot more. And, I wonder, could WDVD and WKQI be dragging each other down? Both 93.1 and 96.3 have had great brands that could easily be brought back to life, DRQ and Planet respectively. So what moves will they make?

[non-anon bob]

How about a format similar to WOMC, but much less repetitive, with much less Queen, Michael Jackson, and George Michael... "The NEW KIX 96."

[stopnswop2]

How about a format similar to WOMC, but much less repetitive, with much less Queen, Michael Jackson, and George Michael... "The NEW KIX 96."

So like Variety Hits (Jack, Doug, Etc.) ?

[stopnswop2]

Is there a market for "pop music from 1996-2013" ?

[MWmetalhead]

I think there would be.

[armchair pd]

How about a format similar to WOMC, but much less repetitive, with much less Queen, Michael Jackson, and George Michael... "The NEW KIX 96."

Could work. Name blows though.

Is there a market for "pop music from 1996-2013" ?

Absolutely. WDVD plays quite a bit now, and the air staff is the right age for the demo that would listen.
Just drop the currents and rebrand it.

[MWmetalhead]

It would actually make sense to keep the WDVD brand if music from that era were featured. Would just have to dump the "Today's Best Music" tagline.

[CometGSR]

Bring Beau back and they would print money. We aren't kids anymore but that doesn't mean we are boring.