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Saturday, July 14, 2007
Future to the back 
| | Dean Landsman, ex-broadcast consultant extraordinaire, explains why CBS failed attempt to replace a loved New York oldies station with a canned format called "Jack" was worth exactly the latter. Excerpts: |
| | At CBS-FM they took the hits on buying out the contracts of a number of long term on air talents. The ad budget was slashed to smithereens. Minimal TV ads, almost no print or outdoor. And Jack conducted almost none of the audience involving, loyalty and brand building sort of on-air activities that were a hallmark of CBS-FM. So running the Jack format, programmed mostly from afar by a consulting firm (I hate it when consultants mess up!) and trying to make a hit with a low-budget product, eventually failed. The format didn't sound or feel like New York, it had minimal interaction with the audience. It might as well ahve been radio for Topeka or Cedar Rapids. This was not a New York radio station, not by a long shot... |
| | In the years since I'd been active in radio it became clear that the top brass at CBS was less and less the old crew, more and more the new people in radio, teh conglomerists. So Oldies went into the crapper and Jack became the format for the CBS Group Flagship FM in New York. |
| | Well guess what?! Jack was a dud. Miserable ratings. Sales results that follow those sort of ratings. And no growth trends,with numbers never coming near the performance of the Oldies format that preceded it. You know, the format that was not good enough, the one that cost too much. What's that phrase? Oh yeah, this is it: nothing is more expensive than cheap. |
| | CBS announced a few days ago that the trade press rumors were true. Jack will be replaced by (you guessed it) an oldies format. A little hipper and more contemporary oldies than the old CBS-FM, but oldies, just the same, will be back on the air in New York. Some of the air talent is coming back, as well. It will cost a little more, it will require some real promotion. But properly spent, tehat money should pay off in ratings and sales. And listeners embracing the return of a format for New Yorkers by New Yorkers. |
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