Back in April, WRKZ/Columbus returned to its Active Rock roots after two years with a more mainstream format. Listeners have been passionate for the change as the station’s ratings have nearly doubled and The Blitz jumped from 12th to 3rd among persons 18-34 and 13th to 5th among persons 25-54. After getting the positive news, Director of Programming Operations Hal Fish spoke to FMQB about the adjustments.
Hal Fish
After a two-year run as “The Rock,” WRKZ/Columbus returned to its Active Rock roots as 99.7 “The Blitz” on April 22 this year. The change proved fruitful as the station’s ratings nearly doubled, moving from a 2.1 share of listeners 12+ in the winter to a 4.1 share in the spring. The brand new morning duo of Blazor and Mo also made strong inroads in the market after they replaced The Bob and Tom Show. After getting off to a great start with the new station, PD Hal Fish spoke to FMQB about the changes.
eQB presents excerpts from the September FMQB magazine
Rock Up Close: The Blitz Is Back On In Columbus
“There had been inconsistency following the departure of Howard Stern and that was reflected in the numbers. As time went on, we were under a lot of pressure on the sales side to grow the station older. That had always been a difficult thing for The Blitz to do. We were known through the ’90s and into the 2000s for being hard and being new. Those were strong positions for us, and the brand was very well known in the market. But the ownership commissioned a study that came back with a format opportunity which was The Rock. It was based in ’90s Rock with a fair amount of ’80s hair bands. It definitely brought in more 25-54 numbers, but they just weren’t staying around. It was a radio station that no one was passionate for. People had always been passionate for The Blitz, so I got the green light to take it in a different direction.”
“We put forth an initiative that we called the ‘True Listener Engagement Project’ and it began with a Rock Town Hall Meeting. We blocked off three hours of time from 3 to 6 in the afternoon and opened up the phone lines, utilized Facebook and texting, and allowed people to weigh in. We had a pretty good idea what they might say, but we weren’t going to assume that. We wanted to open it up and get a real good feeling for where they were. As a result, we began the process of making the change.”
“When we add new music now, our music meetings basically consist of music that we put on the web and let listeners rate. Not everything we add is in that survey – there are things that are going to be automatic. But most everything else we’ll put in and get their feedback first. We also do the more conventional online survey where they can rate stuff that we’re already playing. We keep that information public and we tell them which songs are at the top of the voting. We try to keep an open flow of information.”
“We certainly are able to benefit by the [PPM] trial and error that’s already taken place in other markets. For us, PPM is probably less of a mystery than it has been for some of the markets that led us into PPM. We have become more economical. We’re always moving the station forward. We don’t ever want to sound like we’re stopping. We tend to sell things forward through our stop sets in a way that we didn’t as much under diary.”
“I think we knew before PPM that new, unfamiliar music might have a tendency to make people switch the station. But you’ve got to play new music sometime. It has got to get familiar somehow. Hopefully over time when you bring in these songs that you feel have a good chance to sell through to your audience over the long haul, it has more benefit than detriment.”
“I’ve actually heard programmers say, ‘I want people on my website, I don’t want them on Facebook.’ But we’re very engaged with Facebook. Our jocks use it constantly when they’re on the air. They engage the audience in ways off the air on Facebook that they don’t always mention on the air. We don’t avoid it at all. We embrace it heavily, and we also encourage them to use text when they communicate with us.”
** QB Content by Mandy Feingold **
