OMW hears it has been officially announced this morning...Cumulus rock WRQK/106.9 Canton ("Rock 107") is headed for Clear Channel.We don't have many details, but we understand that a station swap may be involved among the two companies.
Though we do not know what other stations are involved at this time, we are making the assumption that the other property or properties are outside Northeast Ohio.
More details as soon as they become available...
30 comments:
OA--
Was THIS the big Canton news we're been waiting with baited breath for?
If so, can I breathe now? I'm turning purple over here...
The big news is yet to come. The Big three will be at WHBC tommorrow. Then the fireworks begin. It looks like Clear Channel is tightening the noose on Nextmedia.
Well this makes it pretty obvious that 101.7 is most likely going on the WRQK tower on 22nd St.
The Big three are at WHBC today. Not Wednesday.
WOW!
Could this be the reason Clear Channel registered www.kisscanton.com a week or so ago?
This is total speculation on my part, but what if CC moved the rock format to 101.7 and relaunched 106.9 as a CHR station?
Interesting idea. A rocker and a CHR in Canton would seal the rest of the players doom. IE....Donnie Petersons pathetic excuse of a radio station and WHBC's dominance.
Why does Canton need a second CHR, when the market has indicated it won't support the one it has?
If there is a Nuclear Mushroom cloud over downtown Canton, it likely won't happen till Friday, or perhaps Monday, at the doomed WHBC..
Re: flipping formats.
WRQK: WRQKiss Canton.
Makes sense.
Well goodbye 1480 it was a great run Clear Channel YOUR RUINING RADIO IN CLEVELAND,AKRON AND NOW CANTON Z92 your next as well as WNPQ.
I'm confused....
Clear Channel has nothing to do with WHBC. How is Clear Channel responsible for the rumored changes at WHBC?
Painting with a broad brush is never a good idea.
Look around you, corporate radio is everywhere. WHBC has been owned by a company from out of market for a few years.
Clear Channel is going to slash ad rate big time 1480 is going to be gutted like a fish give it time before CC BUYS 1480
My first time posting and didn't want to go thru the registration process. I lurk here occasionally and feel the need to point out a few things...
As a media buyer in Canton, I can tell you first hand it costs $25-30 more per spot on WHLO than it does on WHBC-AM. WHLO is an attractive buy for our clients as we can buy both the Akron and Canton markets with one station. WHBC does not reach listeners in Akron and we’d have to place two separate buys previously. We now take the two buys and make them one with WHLO. I am still using sports sponsorships on WHBC, but at a fraction of what they were even 3-4 years ago. I recently purchased a high school football sponsorship on WHBC-AM for almost 70% less than two years ago. Meanwhile I’m paying more on WHLO and WAKR for HS Sports and getting equal results.
Don’t discount the large audiences WHBC delivered to clients for years. They have done an amazing job serving the community, but not a single client has ever asked me to spend their dollars because of the community service. The 1st thing most of my clients ask, (before how much is this going to cost me/), is where can I reach the most people?
As a Canton native I’ve been proud to see what WHBC was and is to the community, but they aren’t the only ones.
WHLO was a joke for sooooo long in the market, in the FIELD of radio, a complete non-entity after being an incredible, hostroical powerhouse that you .. are simply wasting money.
If you are a pro media buyer buying WHLO, you need to go find another business to be in.
If you buy cheap, you're gonna get cheap. If you're buying WHLO at premium, you're on some form of dope.
Sorry.
Radio's a tough biz.
Facts are facts.
Check Arbitron's tools sometime..have a salesperson walk you through it..
Want some more facts?
After 10am, about 80 percent of WHBC-AMs morning drive audience leaves as soon as Fred turns off the mic....some come back for Indians games in the Spring and Summer..
Most do not..
WHLO has either tied or beaten WHBC in afternoon drive in the last several books, in both station's key demos..
Just one example..
I'm the media buyer up a few posts.
To the anonymous poster who said:
"WHLO was a joke for sooooo long in the market, in the FIELD of radio, a complete non-entity after being an incredible, hostroical powerhouse that you .. are simply wasting money"
Correct. WHLO was a joke for so long. No longer. It's now considered a real radio station again and an attractive solution for my clients. My clients are not only just spending dollars on the station, but getting results. We recently did a live remote and while we were aware there are no live personalties to host the event just some interns in t-shirts handing out stickers, we saw a great response. We bought the remote on the sole purpose of getting the promos and commercial schedule. We were thrilled with the traffic that came into the store front that afternoon and we sell high ticket items.
I'm not looking for low ball rates, so assuming WHLO is just getting a good deal is wrong. We recently took a good chunk of money off an FM station (15k+)and gave it to WHLO, and it appears to be working.
To The Media Buyer The Reason That WHLO Is A Real Station Again Is That Clear Channel Owns Them Watch Out Soon They Maybe The Only Game In Town And Like The Oil Companies The Price Game Screw Job Will Begin
Clear Channel cannot buy WHBC. They would be over the limits
RE: Clear Channel not being able to buy WHBC (AM).
Whether they're over the limits depends on what the final "limits" turn out to be. That depends on how the "market" is defined--whether it's the current countour-based definition, or ultimately the Arbitron-based system (like TV ownership levels are based on Neilsen). See 47 CFR 73.3555.
How many full-power stations, AM & FM, commercial and non-comm, send a listenable signal into Canton? That's the starting point.
Anyone give us a figure
So the die is cast. Clear Channel will not change format on WRQK, unless they're foolish. They'll put CHR on 101.7 ("Kiss Canton"), which will not significantly overlap with "Kiss Akron" (oops, "Cleveland") and will city-grade Canton, which 92.5 does not.
Also, based on several of the posts above, I guess we can blame the media buyers for the impending demise of WHBC. Which doesn't surprise me, because as far as I'm concerned, we can blame them for a lot of what's wrong with radio these days.
"We bought the remote on (sic) the sole purpose of getting the promos and commercial schedule."
Proof again why radio should never do "added value" promotions, just sell spots and bill the sponsors correctly.
Of course, if Clear Channel is smart or dumb enough to give away the store, why shouldn't you take it?
Wrong reason to buy a remote that was not apparently necessary or even wanted.
Well, everyone's obviously reading this board today.
To whoever made the last post, don't discount the possibility that the "media buyer" may be some Clear Channel employee trying to push WHLO vs. WHBC-AM in a public forum that is very widely read (especially today), at a time when WHBC is obviously going to have some serious changes made and is therefore very vulnerable. The post has all the earmarks of a sales pitch, including a glimpse at the rate cards. It would be very much like CC to pull a stunt like that.
Clear Channel will never buy WHBC AM & FM because they will never pay what Next Media paid for it, which was way too much. THAT'S the real reason that major staff changes are coming.
Yeah that's it! The "media buyer" is Clear Channel. I'm guessing they ordered pizza, huddled in a war room and said, "let's post on message boards so advertisers will read it and switch how they spend dollars".
Don't flatter yourself, and with all due respect to the mighty blog of fun, ain't nobody but radio kin reading this thing.
Somehow I doubt the Fred martin car guys are checking in to read the happenings in radio.
could be true...could be crap....
The rumor mill circulating around market ave is former HBC owner Ted Boyd took a phone call from a local business owner who expressed interest in combining forces with Ted to purchase back WHBC AM/Fm from Nextmedia.
I hear Ted is still laughing from the offer, too bad Donnie wasn't kidding.
If you think that CC doesn't post on internet message boards in an attempt to influence the opinion of "radio kin" (not advertisers), then you must be either ignorant, or a fool.
The post above touting WHLO over WHBC is exactly the kind of tactic I would expect.
"Hello, I 'lurk here occasionally' but now am suddenly going to present all of the salient selling points about why little WHLO is so much better than big double-digit WHBC, and also make light of their community service, while paying lip service to their history so that I don't appear to be too disrespectful, since that would be a tipoff."
Read between the lines, man. You must live in a cocoon.
I'll bet media buyer is not with Clear Channel.
My money is on a disgruntled WHBC employee trying to get the heat off their building.
or
another station in the market trying to stir it up.
It appears it will never end.
I don't think the "media buyer" is a WHBC employee, but the guy who suggested the media buyer is a CC employee might be a WHBC employee. If so, he'll probably be the first one out the door when the station flips on the bird next week.
Sources say that there ain't no bird flippin' going on after the big TWO (not 3) came to town.
Status quo-business as usual.
NextMedia dramatically overpaid for the two Canton stations, and they have exited other markets (Erie, for one). Maybe there are no changes right now, but to think that there will be no changes *at all* is to stick one's head in the sand.
WHBC isn't going anywhere...they just cut the fat a few weeks ago. All but Rich Bossler were worthless!
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