| Re: Gamble and lost?
Posted by Larz  on 11/6/2009, 10:35 am, in reply to "Gamble and lost?"
Bill Gamble and CBS have a plan for Fresh, but it is a slow plan. Don't expect to see any more changes or additions until after the holidays. Look for a new morning show in early January and a new push for the station in early 2010. Until then, any "tweaking" will be fairly minor.
If it is still under-performing in the the Spring of 2010, that's when the worrying will begin.
I've been pretty vocal about my unhappiness with Fresh's approach. To hire talented personalities and then only let them speak for a few seconds, maybe four times an hour is crazy. There is absolutely no way to connect with an audience that way. Their target audience (Females 25-54), want to have an emotional connection to their radio station. WTMX (Fresh's perceived competitor) does it. WUSN (Bill Gamble's other station) does it. WVAZ, WGCI, WDRV, WXRT, WILV all do it. Even WLIT, with barely any living, breathing humans working at that station, does it. To lose a good talent like Mike LeBaron is nuts. To hire a good talent like Roxanne Steele and not let her voice be heard is nuts. Being music intensive is great, but being cold & soulless is not. A balance must be found. It's way out of balance right now.
CBS' master plan is to franchise & syndicate out the whole "Fresh" package to smaller markets. Their thoughts are that smaller markets will enjoy all the music with less talk, much like many smaller markets enjoyed the whole "Jack/Bob" formats. CBS' thinking is flawed and outdated. (Go figure.) With only a few exceptions around the country, the "Jack/Bob" format is dying. The novelty has worn off. Even Chicago has had to alter the playlist to a classic rock format to try and regain listeners (which worked for them somewhat in the October PPMs). In many other markets, the "We Play What We Want" formats have been replaced, altered dramatically or added live voices. Smaller markets like to connect with their radio stations just as much as larger markets do. It worked for about two years, but that was a few years ago. For CBS to not see the obvious trends is laughable. For a veteran programmer like Bill Gamble to go along with CBS' plans for mediocrity is a shame. I would hope that CBS will take a harder look at what works and what doesn't.
Bill Gamble needs to be the man pushing the Fresh format forward, not leaving it stuck in the muck it has been in. They hired him because they believe in him. He will have his chance to shine in January & February when he makes some changes over at WCFS. A great many eyes and ears will be waiting to see what he does then. Will it be a "Fresh" station or the same ol' stale corporate ideas?
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