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WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Discussion pertaining to the Tri-Cities, Flint, Mt. Pleasant, and Bad Axe
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MWmetalhead
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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by MWmetalhead » Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:25 am

Do you mean in terms of taking on an incumbent, highly successful hard rock station? Bear in mind Detroit had multiple stations playing hard rock or alternative at the time, whereas the Tri-Cities has only one (Z93), unless you wish to count Christian Rock Radio U 101.7 / 103.5.

You are correct insofar as most markets seem capable of supporting only one hard / active rock station for any extended length of time. Cincinnati is the one outlier that comes to mind.

One could argue Detroit during the 00's and early 00's could qualify, too, but both WRIF and 89X played plenty of songs that could not be heard on the other station.



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by TheGeekJedi » Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:37 pm

Here's my take on some of the complaints - being a former long-time PD and OM:

The complaints here are actually pretty typical radio things. When you launch a new station you always want to have a super-tight playlist of your highest testing songs. There will be a lot of sampling going on, so the last thing you want is some obscure song to play, leaving a bad first impression.

As for the song rotation? It is pretty standard to "recycle" your slower rotating songs between overnights and mid-days. Typically the audiences will be different, and you can burn through the titles in those categories much slower. Add that to what I said about a tight playlist, and that describes the repeats.



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by Realist » Thu Sep 29, 2022 5:59 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:25 am
Do you mean in terms of taking on an incumbent, highly successful hard rock station? Bear in mind Detroit had multiple stations playing hard rock or alternative at the time, whereas the Tri-Cities has only one (Z93), unless you wish to count Christian Rock Radio U 101.7 / 103.5.

You are correct insofar as most markets seem capable of supporting only one hard / active rock station for any extended length of time. Cincinnati is the one outlier that comes to mind.

One could argue Detroit during the 00's and early 00's could qualify, too, but both WRIF and 89X played plenty of songs that could not be heard on the other station.
You forgot Banana 101.5 which can be heard pretty well in Saginaw and Bay City



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by Realist » Fri Sep 30, 2022 11:12 am

Drove through Bay City and Saginaw yesterday. Saw absolutely no billboards or any outdoor advertising for this station. I still truly question how people are going to know they exist. The only people who do know they exist, short of other radio enthusiasts, are the employees of the other radio stations in this town. Granted, there was a news article in mlive.com last Friday, but how many millennials read the paper anymore?

I did just find this one minute video on their Facebook page and website that they just posted. The thing is, unless this is advertised on social media, who is going to see it?

https://fb.watch/fSLXkqlk4J/?mibextid=34ey5e



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Colonel Flagg
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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by Colonel Flagg » Fri Sep 30, 2022 1:06 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:25 am
Do you mean in terms of taking on an incumbent, highly successful hard rock station? Bear in mind Detroit had multiple stations playing hard rock or alternative at the time, whereas the Tri-Cities has only one (Z93), unless you wish to count Christian Rock Radio U 101.7 / 103.5.

You are correct insofar as most markets seem capable of supporting only one hard / active rock station for any extended length of time. Cincinnati is the one outlier that comes to mind.

One could argue Detroit during the 00's and early 00's could qualify, too, but both WRIF and 89X played plenty of songs that could not be heard on the other station.
This has all the makings of a flanker station, placed there to be a nuisance to the competition. To Infinity's credit, at least 97.1 Detroit and 92.3 Cleveland were full power signals for Extreme Radio. Too bad the suits knew little about the format, and wouldn't listen to those in the building who did. The out of town morning show is another factor. In the beginning, there was some promotion of K-Rock. There was basically ZERO promotion money spent on the shift to Extreme Radio. We had one box of t-shirts, and election style lawn signs, many of which were placed in front of the studios on 12 Mile near Greenfield. :lol I have a feeling that's what's going on here, with WGER:

*Piped in morning show

*Very narrow music format

*Inferior signal compared to the competition (WKQZ)

*Sales execs with their car radios likely tuned elsewhere, and unfamiliar with the music

*No promotion budget or very little

Modern Rock is a good idea, but you have to be "all in" to win. I interviewed years ago at a station, where the GM admitted to me it was there to be a flanker. I told him "I don't flank. I play to win, or I don't play at all" Needless to say, I didn't take the gig.


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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by Realist » Fri Sep 30, 2022 5:10 pm

Colonel Flagg wrote:
Fri Sep 30, 2022 1:06 pm
MWmetalhead wrote:
Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:25 am
Do you mean in terms of taking on an incumbent, highly successful hard rock station? Bear in mind Detroit had multiple stations playing hard rock or alternative at the time, whereas the Tri-Cities has only one (Z93), unless you wish to count Christian Rock Radio U 101.7 / 103.5.

You are correct insofar as most markets seem capable of supporting only one hard / active rock station for any extended length of time. Cincinnati is the one outlier that comes to mind.

One could argue Detroit during the 00's and early 00's could qualify, too, but both WRIF and 89X played plenty of songs that could not be heard on the other station.
This has all the makings of a flanker station, placed there to be a nuisance to the competition. To Infinity's credit, at least 97.1 Detroit and 92.3 Cleveland were full power signals for Extreme Radio. Too bad the suits knew little about the format, and wouldn't listen to those in the building who did. The out of town morning show is another factor. In the beginning, there was some promotion of K-Rock. There was basically ZERO promotion money spent on the shift to Extreme Radio. We had one box of t-shirts, and election style lawn signs, many of which were placed in front of the studios on 12 Mile near Greenfield. :lol I have a feeling that's what's going on here, with WGER:

*Piped in morning show

*Very narrow music format

*Inferior signal compared to the competition (WKQZ)

*Sales execs with their car radios likely tuned elsewhere, and unfamiliar with the music

*No promotion budget or very little

Modern Rock is a good idea, but you have to be "all in" to win. I interviewed years ago at a station, where the GM admitted to me it was there to be a flanker. I told him "I don't flank. I play to win, or I don't play at all" Needless to say, I didn't take the gig.
I completely agree with your above assessment of The Core. They are going to be a nat to Z93. I often thought Mix 106 should have changed formats years ago with their low ratings. Never thought they’d switch to this.

No promotion = no ratings.



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by bmw » Fri Sep 30, 2022 6:25 pm

TheGeekJedi wrote:
Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:37 pm
When you launch a new station you always want to have a super-tight playlist of your highest testing songs. There will be a lot of sampling going on, so the last thing you want is some obscure song to play, leaving a bad first impression.
This from me, a radio fan and not a PD or someone who has worked in the industry ever: The flip side of this is, you don't want potential P1 listeners to get bored after 3 days after having already heard 90% of the playlist and hearing most songs repeating already. You gotta play, even if just once an hour, a song that you haven't yet played. I can understand 80 to 85% of the playlist being tight, but In the case of a station that plays both active rock and alternative from a 15-year span, there's plenty of, if you don't want to go as deep just songs that barely charted for a few weeks, certainly stuff that spent 10+ weeks on the charts and made it into the top 20 that can make up that other 15%. People like me who grew up listening to all kinds of music in the 90s and 2k's are probably going to know the vast majority of that what others might call "obscure" music, and often get excited when we have that "oh, now there's a great song I haven't heard on the radio in a long time" moments.

Now as to 106.3, maybe my timing is just bad, but every time I check the station out I hear commercials. Or a song that I've already seen just by briefly browsing their playlist over the past week. This is a station that if I lived close enough for it to come in better, it MIGHT end up on one of the last presets on my dial and probably wouldn't be on much.

My overall take as of right now - this will be stale corporate radio that performs, at best, marginally better than Mix 106.3 performed.



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:12 am

They play a LOT of commercials, which is a big turn off to potential listeners. All that does is send rock listeners back to Z93 (or Sirius XM, Pandora or Spotify).
You forgot Banana 101.5 which can be heard pretty well in Saginaw and Bay City
I did not mention Banana simply because WWBN has never been a significant ratings factor in that market. Their signal is merely OK in the Saginaw area, is probably flimsy in Bay City (projected strength is only ~48 dBu there) and is useless near Midland.

106.3 has at least produced a TV commercial - it can be viewed on their Facebook page - whether it actually will air anywhere or on streaming platforms is another question.



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Oct 01, 2022 9:12 am

Looking at the log, a commercial break during the 11p hour last night and during the 6a hour this morning were each nearly or exactly eight minutes in length!!!

Joby, I know you read these forums on occasion. Do you think 8 minute long commercial breaks is a good programming practice? Just curious.

Most hours, the max break length is about six minutes per break. Even that is "pushing it."

To be fair, Z93 is not much better. At least one commercial break most hours is at least six minutes long. Did not find any eight minute breaks but I did spot one or two breaks pushing seven minutes. I do remember being very annoyed by the length of a commercial break on Z93 when driving through the area last October.



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by Mega Hertz » Sat Oct 01, 2022 10:49 am

The 6am break (if it happens during the week) may not be their fault.

D&CtF often play best-of until 6am, and then stay in spots until 6:14 or 15. I didn't understand that to begin with as D&M used to start even a few minutes before 6. Why are you starting your prime hours with a quarter hour of spots?


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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:10 am

They are not adding Dave and Chuck until October 10, I believe. The lengthy 6a break happened this morning (Saturday).



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by MWmetalhead » Mon Oct 10, 2022 5:21 pm

Drove through the heart of their listening area four days ago and again this afternoon. Audio processing and signal are very good throughout Saginaw County and pretty good in eastern Midland County. Reception didn't get bad until I was maybe ten miles west of the infamous Sanford Dam.

The commercial breaks remain annoying, but I heard the same amount or nearly the same amount of commercials on Z93.

I do wish The Core would stop playing so much Everclear. That band is garbage. (I'd rather hear the band "Garbage," in fact.)

Decent sounding station overall, though, and I certainly hope they do well.



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Jan 21, 2023 4:33 pm

Stopset length on 106.3 remains awful.



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by Realist » Sat Jan 21, 2023 10:13 pm

I’ve been told that the ratings for the Tri Cities will be out in a couple of weeks. Considering that there was only an article in MLive when they flipped, then some portable signs in front of a few businesses shortly afterwards, I don’t think most people know this station exists and I’m sure the ratings will reflect that.



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Re: WGER flips to 106.3 The Core

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Jan 22, 2023 8:44 am

Alpha Media has been promoting the station on their other brands. I've heard promos air on The Moose, for example.

Pretty sure there were some billboards, too, last autumn.

I prefer 106.3's playlist and station imaging. Z93 has the heritage, strong local morning show, and bigger signal on its side.

Both stations are pretty bad with regard to commercial loads. The nasally, synthesized male imaging voice on Z93 gets fatiguing after a while.



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