WDRC-FM

[John Allen]

Hi - Um I don't have an internet or satellite radio in my (old) car.  I will miss the old WDRC.

Regards, John 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Boston-Radio-Interest [mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@lists.BostonRadio.org] On Behalf Of Jim Motyl
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2014 3:42 PM
To: M.Casey
Cc: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
Subject: Re: WDRC-FM

Everyone got excited about the WODS flip; just to discover it was moved to
103.3 HD-2. The old DRC-FM is still on 102.9 HD-2. One of the live oldies station is still WLNG on line and with a very sharp web camera.
Since everyone has access to the internet, there is very little reason to rely on 'regular' 20th century radio waves.


On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 1:46 PM, M.Casey <map@mapinternet.com> wrote:

> With Conneisseur Media's purchase of the Buckley stations in 
> Connecticut, things have really changed at WDRC-FM 102.9. Although it 
> is difficult to get extremely reliable listenership reports, those 
> available (combined with historic data as it relates to adjoining 
> markets where WDRC-FM was formerly
> listed) show that WDRC-FM has consistently been in the 5-7 share range 
> in not only the Hartford market, but also in adjoining New Haven and 
> Springfield, MA markets where WDRC-FM has a city-grade or near 
> city-grade signal. (Note that if the markets in this area were defined 
> similar to the Boston market, and many other areas of the country, 
> Hartford-Springfield-New Haven might actually be one market.)
>
> The new owners have changed the format from a very successful 
> broad-based/chart-based Classic Hits of the late 60's through early 
> 90's to a limited rock-only-based Classic Hits of the 70's through 
> early 90's.  The only complaint I've heard about the recent Buckley 
> format was that it seemed to some listeners to lean a bit too much 
> toward the disco hits. But, despite this, the ratings for the past 
> couple of years showed steady listenership. Now, listeners are without 
> a real broad-based Classic Hits station in the Hartford and adjoining 
> markets of New Haven and Springfield, MA. The new, Conneisseur 
> formatted WDRC 102.9 and competitors WPLR 99.1 (New Haven), WHCN 105.9 
> (Hartford), and WAQY 102.1 (Springfield, MA) are almost 
> indistinguishable. To add to the competition, 3 more stations WCCC
> 106.9 (Hartford), WRCH 100.5(Hartford) and WRKI 95.1 (Brookfield, CT) 
> compete for the "Classic" listeners also. With the exception of WRCH, 
> all of the pre-mentioned stations competed on a much, much lesser 
> scale with WDRC-FM's pre July 6 format.
>
> Conneisseur's spokesperson claimed that the Hartford market had a "hole"
> for a classic hits based station. With very similiar versions of that 
> type of that classic hits format already in existence on stations  
> WPLR, WHCN and WAQY, (that each cover the majority of the market and 
> duplicate each other), the new WDRC format does not fill any hole. Now, a real "hole"
> exists where the pre-July 6, 2014 WDRC-FM format once existed. 
> Listening to WDRC-FM before and after the format change, the listener 
> would be hard pressed to find more than 10% of the pre-July 6 songs in the new format.
> So, using some twisted math for entertainment purposes here, (I just 
> can't help it-ha!) maybe 90% of the listeners will go elsewhere.
>
> But, seriously, it's really hard to figure from both a sales/financial 
> and listener viewpoint why Buckley's unduplicated WDRC-FM format was 
> so changed to one already over-duplicated in the Hartford market, and 
> why it wasn't just fine tuned a bit. Hopefully the Conneisseur folks 
> will take a hard look at the format, the competition, (some of which 
> is their own!), listenership figures and demographics as they relate 
> to sales, and also appreciate the historical lesson of WCBS-FM's 
> 2005-07 change to an unsuccessful "Jack FM", then back to a successful WCBS-FM.
>
> Mark Casey
> Hampden, MA
> K1MAP
>
>
>
>
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