B-93 Birthday Bash... Stick a fork in it?

[Reese K Rickards]

In years past this once apex summer West Michigan Concert would be days away from giving away, or more correctly now, selling vastly overpriced tickets. This morning, there is no mention of the show at B93.com Is Bash dead?

Why?
1. No or little new talent coming out of Nashville.
2 The radio station doesn't have enough jocks to do the remotes.
3 The last few shows at the ball park have been so lame no one cares anymore.
4 Listeners realize the event is a money grab.
5 Management has forgotten the original intent of the show was to say thanks for listening.

This is one more chance for a potential competitor to come in and do things right.
Thoughts?

[TC Talks]

Here's an option: Acts aren't interested in performing at a radio station concert in market #68, for the same reason Beyonce has the top selling country album for 2024 without much airplay support.

[georgetownt]

Radio is near death. Smart devices made it as relevant as the type writer.

[Reese K Rickards]

Interesting thoughts.....

but....

TC says acts are not interested in playing radio station shows in market # 68. Nonsense...Acts go where the money is AND where stations promote the records. Period.

Georgetown says radio is dead. BS. Give me B's 320 watts. It still makes money, and with the right people at the helm, it will make more...a lot more.

MW says attendance has been lackluster. Sure it has. Standing room tickets for miserable artists at outrageous prices. Back at the race track, parking alone was 60 bucks...limited to 10 k cars. It was still a sellout because quality acts came and to make sure, the radio station sold the sizzle, and made 600 thousand on parking alone. Then add 30 ticket give away remotes at 3 to 5 grand a piece, an godly sum on merch, managements cut on food and beer, and volunteers to work security for a free tee shirt, it's a total no brainier. Then on top of that,a country show is a family show, and with free tickets,the entire family can load up the hoopty and go to a show they could never afford.

Then you hire a genius like Neal Dionne to work against child abuse and neglect. You can't go wrong. You bring in a cute"chick" or just a chick with a butter in her mouth voice for mid days, a family man for afternoons, a young smart aleck for evenings, and someone not to lose the license at night. And don't think for a moment those jocks aren't out there. They are and are just waiting for a phone call.

Thoughts?

[jesusjenny]

Probably a combo of most of things...

Iheart doesn't have anywhere near the staff to pull of an event like Birthday Bash back in the day. As Reese mentioned, most people vouluteered for a free t-shirt etc and the event made good money. Bottom line,if it doesn't bring in the cash, Iheart won't do it. They have no interest in a local or heritage event nor do they care. Iheart had a staff of almost 200 people at one point in GR. I suspect it's somewhere closer to 20-25 if it's even that now and I bet half are sales people.

Also - The general public has figured out it's now a scam and the days of the "free" concerts are pretty much dead anywhere.

Bottom line - people have lost interest in local radio - at this point it's all about background noise at the dentist office or in an older car IMO. The model has changed. Iheart is way more interested in promoting digital platforms and their big giant Musicfests (in Vegas, etc) with corporate sponsors and big names.

Things like Birthday Bash - it's original incarnation, are done, especially with no local Jocks like Neal and Reese, Conrad etc promoting. Those guys were the key to it's success I believe, outside of the artists booked. The promotion of the event was top-notch.

[since16]

Curious if this is just a "bash" on Reese' former employer. I don't remember him moving on much after they parted ways with him. With a top station/morning show like that you just go onto another station or market or live the rest of your life "bashing" your former employer because they made changes.

Either way, radio stations have budgets, reasoning why they make changes and I think it's clear by the ratings OVER THE YEARS since they made modifications that it has not effected their listenership or brand.

[jesusjenny]

LOL - Let's see, A company buys up a heritage station, Eventually guts the whole staff, support staff and kills all of it's heritage events and you think he's bashing them because he got let go? Reese (and a few others) Built the entire brand so I think it's fair to say he has a leg to stand on here.. The Reason this station gets the "ratings" they do is for the work those guys put in - no way it's because of the cookie cutter voicetracked crap that's on there now. If you're here to defend iheart or corporate media in general - good luck with that.

[since16]

The Reason this station gets the "ratings" they do is for the work those guys put in - no way it's because of the cookie cutter voicetracked crap that's on there now. If you're here to defend iheart or corporate media in general - good luck with that.

LOL, 8 years later since he was fired and with "cookie cutter" voice tracking now it's standing pretty well on it's own with all those changes. Thinking he has nothing to do with how well it's doing these days, ask most of the, especially younger listeners that would go to Birthday Bash and they probably have no idea who he is these days.

[jesusjenny]

Reese and that bunch had EVERYTHING to do with why B-93 is listened to now. 20+ years of building a brand across and entire generation which of course has expanded into younger generations.

You cannot tell me any station with all day/night voicetracking is "Standing on it's own" and is anywhere even close to what they were. I have no idea why you continue to defend a product that is former shadow of itself as somehow being okay or just part of "doing business" by gutting the entire industry. Why you continue to defend a lackluster product as somehow being as good as it was because of the "ratings" is beyond me. There is NO way that station is billing anywhere close to what it did back in the day.

MW has a good point as well, the competition (also gutted) has never really put a serious fight and fumbled constantly with the botched rebrands and signal moves etc.

And agreed, Tony Brooks has always been a solid talent. This thread is not a dig on him - more just pointing out the bigger picture.

[TC Talks]

Here's something I've wondered about lately...

If you rebuilt a solid air staff and promotions effort, would listeners and ad dollars return?

I don't think so, under the traditional commercial model.

KEXP, WMOT, KCRW MPR all are revenue powerhouses without ads, driven on donations. KEXP I'm told out bills all but 2 commercial stations in Seattle.