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The Straight Skinny
The New Wave, "Rich And Smooth"
By Carol Archer |
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Dramatic changes are afoot at CBS Radio's KTWV(The Wave)/Los Angeles under new PD Jhani Kaye. The station's bulletproof air staff renders a bright, tight, "rich and smooth" AC presentation, with two live breaks per hour, at :19 and :47 (except when they don't). The term "jazz" is history. Instrumental gold – every third tune -- is tighter than ever, and I do mean ever. Those tracks turn over very, very quickly. (Is "Rise" really in power or does it just sound that way?) To get a handle on the music, I suggest you listen (online at 947thewave.com). I'm monitoring and keeping an open mind, and will return to this subject soon.
The Wave's new marketing partnership with PBS-TV's KCET/L.A., brokered by former PD Paul Goldstein, debuted very recently – at 7p.m. straight-up, between PBS' New Hour and Tavis Smiley, likely with copy adjusted to reflect the station's new position. Yellow and blue graphics accompany Wave air personality Deborah Rath-Howell's artful voiceover, which intones that The Wave "is Southern California's place to relax and unwind," before going into its iconic jingle. And there's a redesigned Web site, http://947thewave.com that emphasizes The Wave's lifestyle affinity. Trip-a-day anywhere in the world (or $1000 cash, or a getaway to either Pueblo Bonito Resort in Cabo San Lucas) remains, with a new fillip or two.
In response to Larry Rosin's "Save The Niches!" former WQCD(CD101.9)/New York PD and All The Excess! founder Blake Lawrence weighs in: "What is happening is that agencies are buying the top X number of stations in key demos (based on Arbitron/PPM numbers) without digging deeper into the data. Qualitative is available (Scarborough, et al) but selling on that requires that agencies listen to your pitch and react, rather than quickly buying stations based on whatever their magic formula is. So you have to have an agency willing to be flexible and an effective seller working them. In the case of Smooth Jazz, it'd really be helpful if more of the buyers were in the SJ demo, but so many are 20- and 30-somethings that won't relate to the best qualitative pitch about a format that doesn't speak to them.
"Even if a qualitative pitch is successful it isn't likely to earn you the lion's share of a client's budget. You may get a fraction of what a WLTW or a KOST gets whereas you wouldn't have gotten any. Sales works extra hard to get only a tiny sliver of the pie; eventually, they get frustrated that the effort isn't turning into that much cash. Suddenly more mainstream, younger-demo formats look extra attractive," he says. |
