Wednesday, March 07, 2012

FM 94/9: About The Music (Again)

One of the most divisive moves in recent radio history was FM 94/9's acquisition of The Mikey Show. Instead of rehashing the controversial move by the station, I'll just report that The Mikey Show is no more. Mike Esparza's contract was through January 2013, so it will be interesting to find out why his contract was cut short. Personally, I would love to believe that with all the craziness around Rush Limbaugh in the past few weeks (um, decades) the station is somehow taking a stand against politically divisive rhetoric in what is going to be an extremely volatile presidential election year. I'm probably way over-thinking, however, and it probably just has a lot more to do with the show not meeting ratings expectations as radio ratings shifted so dramatically when PPM was introduced. It also just might be part of the station's recent buttoning-up that included the end of some of the specialty shows and features. Eyes and ears will definitely be glued to see the station's next move, especially as 91X is still looking to fill the recently vacated PD position that also has the potential to alter the market. I don't usually solicit comments, but I would LOVE to know what you all think about this. If you wanna be a troll, the commenting has already begun on Facebook.

7 comments:

matt said...

Music to my ears! Hated that stupid Mikey show and it really did affect the amount of time I listened to 94.9 throughout the day.

Afam said...

It's sad that Mikey got fired. I really enjoyed his show and I always have since his days at 105/3. FM 94/9 is making a big mistake if they think the show can go on without Mikey.

Unknown said...

Since I know nothing about the radio business could you please explain what PPM and PD are? Thank you.

Rosemary Bystrak said...

Sorry, unknown, I came from an advertising background and should explain more...

PPM- Personal People Meter

Radio ratings used to be determined by selected people in a market filling out a diary of what they listened to on the radio. It was a faulty system because people would over or underestimate how much time they actually listened and they could easily credit one station while actually listening to another. Still, for years, this is how radio ratings were determined and the ratings were used to determine advertising sales rates.

PPM is a whole new system where the selected pool get a physical device that looks like a pager, and they wear it wherever they go. The PPM picks up their actual listening habits, even picking up things maybe missed in a diary, for example if you walk into a store and they have a radio station playing, it would consider that listening time. While it is more accurate, advertisers and radio stations still haven't quite figured out how to make the accuracy work in their favor. Acquiring Mikey was a big gamble for ratings.

PD- Program Director

This is the guy who ultimately controls what music is played and what personalities are on air at a station, in a nutshell, but ultimately sales forecasts, major events, promotions, etc, all come back to this guy (or girl). Garrett Capone was PD at 91X and just left, leaving a vacancy temporarily being filled by Christy Taylor. Garrett Michaels is the PD at FM 94/9.

Rosemary Bystrak said...

Afam-

I do not know what happened at the station and it isn't clear if Mikey was fired or stepped down.

John Clark said...

Well, now I can listen to music in the morning on my favorite station... I had set up my car radio station key to switch easily between 94.9 and 102.9... a Spanish language station... that actually played music... and seems to survive... In any case, I was using someone else's car for the past few weeks, and didn't want to tweak the button setup, and listend to Mikey and Co. for what now is the final weeks of the show... my only abiding thought was 'didn't I leave this sort of crap in the Middle School lockerroom?'... When Mikey arrived, I fired off a email to the station, indicating my displeasure... fat good that did at the time... but apparently, the weight of ratings bore out that the show did not yield the listenership desired... about the only think I can think of that has changed for the better, is the Friday night Beer hour... Friday evening seems to be a more appropriate hour for tasting beer... and given Mikey's 'story'... its no wonder that it wasn't maintained on Friday mornings... Anyway, I hope there is something that does maintain listenership, because if Mikey was supposed to 'pay' for the rest of the broadcast hours... that sure didn't work out well...

Matt Smiley said...

So happy that Mikey is gone and I hope that the show goes away too. Not that I hate anyone, but the reason I listened to 94.9 was for music, not silly anecdotes by a morning "zoo crew"--I can get that anywhere. They will find a home, but in the meantime I will celebrate by listening to music and people who know music.