Posted by Z-92 on April 4, 2023, 10:58 am, in reply to "Cavanah out"
Is this the proverbial "writing on the wall" moment? Todd gets out before all the big changes, format or otherwise, take place? It does seem like major news.
Re: Cavanah out
Posted by Jeremy Andrews on April 4, 2023, 10:59 am, in reply to "Re: Cavanah out"
It looks like he quit.
Re: Cavanah out
Posted by Z-92 on April 4, 2023, 11:01 am, in reply to "Re: Cavanah out"
Exactly
Re: Cavanah out
Posted by WYTZZ95FM on April 4, 2023, 11:28 am, in reply to "Cavanah out"
Everyone in the know and those that are not should read into it. He did not leave voluntarily. He was honorably given the opportunity to step out graciously. More than a lot of others are given in this industry.
The positive? Todd defeated the odds and was here forever where people get blown out for blinking once too much. He should be proud he had some good years being the leader at B96 in its heyday. Def not a good on air jock, but he IS a leader and he led.
The negative? He was in that position for way too long.His style of management does not mesh with the way the industry has changed. He knows how to navigate corporate and not step on toes. That was his saving grace as the industry changed around hm.
His comment: Secondly, the most amazing human being on planet earth, Erik Bradley. Useless. Start getting those Mariah posters and your office belongings together, you are next. Right place, right time, he is lucky that Todd gave him a break and was his boss.
Yes, this is one shoe to drop, there will be another one.
Z
Re: Cavanah out
Posted by John from Wisconsin on April 4, 2023, 2:43 pm, in reply to "Re: Cavanah out"
You don't sit somewhere 3+ decades and look elsewhere."Excited to see where my next...job will be." There's a time to retire, enjoy life.
So, if you are told to leave, you certainly have time to write up a nice letter. The jock at times, has a last show. Here, he was told, "you can say goodbye" and leave on good terms.
I'm retired (and NEVER in radio.) I saw people "told to leave," people who NEVER should have been promoted, etc. Saw MANY bad managers in my 3+ decades with the same company. On my exit interview, I told the head of the company, "you know you have bad managers." The answer, "yes, I know. Boot lickers & yes men!"
I DO wonder if this story was the "Chicago surprise" talked about last week.
And old boss of mine said, "everything is politics!" Never forgot that.
Re: Cavanah out
Posted by WYTZZ95FM on April 4, 2023, 4:49 pm, in reply to "Re: Cavanah out"
John, Todd leaving is Step #1. There is more to come. A good friend of mine and I were speaking, name is not needed here except they are awesome, Explained that B96 is living off the heritage history. I call it the "heritage tit". That is how a legendary station be in the 1 share range can still carry on. It will not last forever. They also brought up a good point, Todd always centered B96 AS Chicago. Audacity has lost that flair trying to make it cookie cutter like every other CHR they own. Add in bad music, the younger demos are just checked out of radio, the ratings prove it.
You will most likely see The Score on 104.3 and B96 go classics. Not sure if it will be classic Dance, Classic throwbacks, currents added or not. Jury is still out. 🤷🏻♂️
I know some don't agree here. Audacity is done owning or renting land to house AM towers. Add in owning AM radio stations. The writing is on the wall, they are ahead of the curve. You will see "The Score" on FM sooner than later. Same with the 2 AM sticks in Chicago being sold to a minority or Religious entity to earn more tax breaks. Coming to a theatre, near you!
Z
New PD
Posted by Jeremy Andrews on April 5, 2023, 10:38 am, in reply to "Re: Cavanah out"
From All Access:
Molly Cruz Named Brand Manager At WBBM-F (B96)/Chicago
Posted by Shizam on April 5, 2023, 10:45 am, in reply to "New PD"
Erik Bradley is taking over 104.3
And Greg Solk is saying it is one of the most important CHR's...LoL! Looks like it aint going anywhere folks!
Re: New PD
Posted by WYTZZ95FM on April 5, 2023, 10:48 am, in reply to "Re: New PD"
Smoke and Mirrors.
That is why Erik is "interim" not permanent replacement for Jams. There are more shoes to drop. Stay tuned.
This really should be a thread of its own. Jeremy, perhaps you should create it on its own. Will get a lot of discussion.
Z
Re: New PD
Posted by Jeremy Andrews on April 5, 2023, 10:54 am, in reply to "Re: New PD"
Expecting to hear a lot more Mariah Carey on 104.3
Re: New PD
Posted by disman00911 on April 5, 2023, 12:51 pm, in reply to "Re: New PD"
If B96 was so important, they wouldn't be 18th with a 1 share or whatever they are in the ratings. They weren't this bad ratings-wise in the 80s, where they would be between 5th and 10th on average. I get the billing argument but if a station is billing well, shouldn't they have a large listening audience of their target audience, especially for a station that claims to have mass-appeal? Looks like the higher-ups would continue this doldrum of a once-mighty station instead of trying something bold. I don't blame the younger audiences for tuning out.
Should B96 and 104.3 Jams merge and the Score 670 on FM happens, how are they (as "B96 Jamz" or whatever they decide to rebrand as) able to mesh together modern day pop (Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, etc.) with 90s/00s urban-rhythmic (Nelly, Beyonce, Notorious BIG, 2pac, etc.). I mean, 104.3 Jams still won't touch any of the house/eurodance/freestyle hits that defined B96 during their 1990s heyday (and Todd C & Eric B were running B96 back then!). Not even the R&B-friendly house hits that were also played on WGCI back then (think Ce Ce Peniston, Crystal Waters, the two Lidell Townsell songs or Aly-us' "Follow Me") from that era are being played on 104.3. It's like if electronic dance music never existed in the 1990s.
I looked through B96's playlists on OnlineRadioBox one day and spotted the following throwbacks 90s/00s/10s on the playlist (well, the ones I recognized anyway). Britney Spears - Baby One More Time Rihanna / Jay-Z - Umbrella Beyonce / Jay Z - Crazy In Love Missy Elliott - Work It T-Pain - Buy U A Drink B.o.B / Bruno Mars - Nothin' On You Outkast - The Way You Move Flo Rida - Good Feeling TLC - No Scrubs NSYNC - Bye Bye Bye Shaggy - It Wasn't Me Outkast - Ms Jackson Katy Perry - California Gurls Justin Timberlake - Rock Your Body Lil' Wayne - Lollipop Katy Perry - Teenage Dream Sean Paul - Get Busy Notorious B.I.G. - Hypnotize Bruno Mars - Locked Out Of Heaven Eminem - Without Me
104.3 Jams currently plays Beyonce and Notorious BIG but not Britney Spears or N'Sync even though the latter artists did chart on Billboard's rhythmic pop charts back then, though not as highly as they did on the mainstream pop charts. 104.3 is supposedly classic rhythmic and not classic urban/hip hop, correct?
Re: New PD
Posted by Jeremy Andrews on April 5, 2023, 1:01 pm, in reply to "Re: New PD"
B96 in general was more Hip-Hop between 1999 and 2002 and again from 2002-2009 or so. They went through a Top-40 lean before WKIE came along, lots of Goo Goo Dolls, Jewel, etc mixed in. Then again in 2002 they were playing Goo Goo Dolls - Iris as a gold (I remember hearing it a few times) and some pop-rock like Nickelback, Vanessa Carlton, Michelle Branch, No Doubt, etc.
Late 2018-2019 they went through a short lived rock gold phase. Lots of All-American Rejects, Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park tossed in.
Pretty much everything you hear on 104.3 was played on B96 at one point. It's probably the same music library. I've heard the exact same radio edits on 104.3 that I heard on B96 when they were new. 104.3 started adding more recent music in 2020. They started playing songs as new as 2017 around that time.
Audacy is doing corporate programming now. Many of the golds you see on that list are typical for some Audacy Top-40 stations. 103.7 in Milwaukee (Where Molly is coming from) plays a lot of these songs as golds.
Re: New PD
Posted by disman00911 on April 5, 2023, 2:00 pm, in reply to "Re: New PD"
Agree with all yours points, mainly the one with the radio edits that 104.3 plays that B96 once played. When 104.3 first launched its current format, I heard a special mashup-like version of Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" that also featured the first verse of the Police's "Every Breath You Take". I recall hearing that version back when I listened to B96 in the late 90s/early 2k.
On a side note, I know B96 was always supposed to be a top 40 station but I always found it weird for them to play Jewel, Shawn Colvin, Goo Goo Dolls, Third Eye Blind, etc. (artists far more associated with 101.9 the Mix or Q101 with the latter two artists) as the station up to that point (circa 1997) was known for dance music and the major R&B/hip hop hits as the radio/music trade magazines like Billboard classified B96 as a rhythmic pop station.
I miss the days when corporate radio made stations appeal to a particular market, especially a major market like Chicago, instead of the one-size-fits-all cookie cutter approach of today. Yes, Milwaukee and Chicago are culturally similar as they are only roughly 80 miles apart.
Re: New PD
Posted by WYTZZ95FM on April 5, 2023, 2:10 pm, in reply to "Re: New PD"
On a side note, I know B96 was always supposed to be a top 40 station but I always found it weird for them to play Jewel, Shawn Colvin, Goo Goo Dolls, Third Eye Blind, etc. (artists far more associated with 101.9 the Mix or Q101 ......
Called late adds so they show the record companies they spinned them and can get credit. Also so they could stay on the "Mainstream Hot 100" reporting panel at the time. Back then, Mainstream reporting stations always garnered more sales dollars than Hip Hop leaning Top40s.
Z
Re: New PD
Posted by PhilJSmith on May 6, 2023, 2:07 pm, in reply to "Re: New PD"
Shazam: “Greg Solk is saying it is one of the most important CHR's… LoL!”
Z: “Smoke and mirrors”
disman: “If B96 was so important, they wouldn’t be 18th with a 1 share … in the ratings”
All truths.
Nearly every suit in terrestrial radio has to lie about the true state of their stations and clusters. 96.3 or 104.3 could literally flip tomorrow.
I feel like we are really close to seeing all these clusters driven by originating stations in NY, LA, Chicago, etc. like how KLove is fed nationally. Local ID at the top of the hour, zero localization for the other 59min 50sec with the exception of some commercial insertions.
Re: Cavanah out
Posted by Zak_rok on April 10, 2023, 8:09 pm, in reply to "Cavanah out"
Something is definitely up with their CHR nationally. They let go of Cavanah and now they blow out the RVP in Philly with their CHR which is rumored to change formats. Wonder if they're planning a national CHR format programmed by a couple PDs or if they'll just blow them up for sports, or some sort of hot AC chr type to compete with the Mix?
Re: Cavanah out; future of CHR?
Posted by PhilJSmith on April 10, 2023, 10:43 pm, in reply to "Re: Cavanah out"
The music the 18 - 34 demo are listening to is almost completely incompatible with FCC-licensed terrestrial radio. It’s CHR without the R, because many songs have what is considered vulgar or explicit language by FCC standards. Even SiriusXM is suffering a CHR drought because they can only play a subset of new, highly sought-after music — SXM doesn’t have a explicit-language hit-music channel. Some of these songs only get airplay if there is a very uncool radio-edit remix, and “Who wants to listen to that?” If young adults can’t hear all their music on FM or SXM, there is nothing motivating them to leave Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, Pandora, or the other 100+ successful streaming platforms. I don’t see how CHR will have any place in terrestrial radio much longer.
Posted by pumpin1973 on April 28, 2023, 1:05 pm, in reply to "Cavanah out"
Todd should have been gone about 15 years ago. He was a good PD in the past, but he had his time. I think that is one of the reasons why B-96 started to get stale. Todd became too comfortable and thought people will still listen to b-96 just because. But when you don't come up with something fresh and innovative, you are yesterday's news. I keep hearing the word "heritage" thrown around. There are reasons why businesses/brands become heritage. Not because they always played it safe, because they took risks that no one else would take. That made them stand out. You don't become heritage by not taking chances.
on April 4, 2023, 10:35 am