“The Sound” to fill gap in local rock

By Robert Riggsbee

(This column was provided exclusively to the Courier by Riggsbee, president of Cincinnati-based Inside Media.)

Entercom has flipped 97.3-FM, formerly “Everything Alternative,” to an edgy country format with attitude called “The Wolf” while 94.9-FM debuts Cincinnati’s newest rock station now know as “The Sound”.

Entercom knows rock. The new owners of “94.9 The Sound” own and operate a large number of “New Rock”-oriented radio stations coast to coast. The derivatives stemming from this format represent about 22.7 percent of Entercom’s total current station composition. Entercom, for all intents and purposes, is an expert in the rock arena.

The new “94.9 The Sound” is a unique progressive rock format that has been customized in Cincinnati to fill a void in the rock music category which Entercom believes WEBN 102.7-FM is not currently filling.

Entercom employed Mercury Research to conduct an extensive local focus group panel to determine exactly where the hole is in the Cincinnati rock music and audience landscape. Their finding suggest that there is a desire by male rock listeners between the ages of 25 and 39 to hear “progressive rock music that takes a straight ahead, non-hyped, socially conscious approach,” according to Entercom’s Cincinnati Director of Sales Mike Fredrick.

In other words, it will be targeting a more educated, professional, socially responsible and eco-friendly, married male with one child in the household and another one on they way, or “the exact opposite of WEBN’s bad-boy, shock-jock, in-your-face image that the irreverent heritage rocker has successfully positioned themselves as for the past 39 years,” says Fredrick.

So “94.9 The Sound” will take a more sophisticated approach in regard to music quality and quantity towards our listening audience,” says Fredrick.

The major point of difference with WEBN will be less talk from its on-air talent, and more music being played. WEBN personalities are notorious for their sometimes shocking promotions and the controversial bantering between their show hosts and their audience all in the name of very healthy ratings.

The customization of the “94.9 The Sound” format and its delivery is not by accident. Entercom has taken the best music from a few of its heritage rock stations in key markets and have melded a sound which it feels will take share, and revenue from Clear Channel’s top-rated and highest billing music station WEBN. The station delivery and playlist is derived, in part, from the following stations and will share the same on-air music and artists as follows:

Boston’s WAAF 97.7/107.3-FM (Active Rock) playing: Hinder, Ramones, Everlast, Pearl Jam, AFI and Stone Sour;
Portland, Ore.’s KNKR 94.7-FM (Alternative Rock) playing: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime, Bob Marley, The Killers and Depeche Mode;
Seattle’s KMTT 103.7 (AAA Rock) playing: U2, Green Day, Beck, REM, Clash, Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots.

It is a combination of these three stations and their formats that help make up “94.9 The Sound,” but it is KNKR in Portland (www.knkr.com) that Cincinnati’s new rock station most resembles.

Based on Arbitron’s four book average, Clear Channel has 37.2 percent of the 18-34 adults demographic between 6 a.m.-midnight, Monday-Sunday, and 35.2 percent of adults 25-54.

Entercom has 20.9 percent of adults 18-34 and 18.5 percent of adults 25-54. Entercom stations have about half of the audience in both key demographics to Clear Channel’s station cluster. WEBN is Clear Channel’s No. 1 rated and top revenue-generating music station.

Entercom already owns the No. 1 country station in the market, and it will now use “The Wolf” to protect the country format while flanking its secondary demo 18-34 while WUBE concentrates on the core 25-54 demo.

Because Entercom has a monopoly on the country format, it was decided to use the 97.3 frequency, the weaker of the two signals, for “The Wolf,” while taking the powerful 94.9 signal and giving it to “The Sound,” thus allowing the new station to better compete with WEBN by giving it a much stronger signal that has better market penetration.

For this reason it makes perfect sense to target the adult rock listening audience, because that is clearly where the majority of the 18-49 male listeners currently reside.

There is too much competition in the female radio marketplace, and the only formidable competitor to WEBN is its own sister station WOFX 92.5-FM “The FOX.” With WEBN concentrating on the men 18-39 demo, and WOFX concentrating on the male skewing 35-49 demo, there should be some room for “The Sound” to tightly focus on the male 25-34 cell which will complement both of the sister stations WKRQ and 97.3 “The Wolf.”

This strategy will be used by Entercom to position its four-station cluster to the advertising community from a cost efficiency standpoint across the two most sought-after 18-34 and 25-49 demographics.

In the summer Arbitron book, WEBN had a 1.4 AQH men 25-49 rating, Monday-Sunday 6 a.m.-midnight, ranking second in the market. Based on ratings and trends from Entercom’s stable of similar rock stations, “The Sound” may possibly come in with a 0.9 rating under the same parameters. If this happens, then Entercom would view this as a very successful launch. However, this most likely would not occur until the winter book.

Entercom will need to get a full ratings period under its belt before realizing the true value of the format.

“The Sound” will run commercial-free for 23 days, and will play approximately 9,490 songs without interruption. Once the music marathon concludes, “The Sound” will debut its new local and live on-air personalities to its audience.

One thing is for certain, with all of the recent changes in the local radio market, it is quite obvious that Entercom and Cumulus are going head to head with Clear Channel.