What's Clear Channel up to? -- Not much, but not for long., 06:25:44 02/07/14 Fri [1]
Some people are disappointed to learn of recent personnel shifts at CC Pittsburgh, hoping to hear instead of format switches. What are the suits at CC waiting for? My guess is as good as anyone's, so here goes.
CC has a big problem: too much debt. Corporate recently told managers in all markets to cut another 5% out of expenses. Problem is, there's not much left to cut at CC Pittsburgh. Merkel, Krenn, Quinn & Rose are all gone. Now Paulsen, again. And that's just morning hosts, big ticket items.
There's another problem, specific to Pittsburgh. CC has contracts with Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity that most likely make it difficult to make changes like dropping the shows or switching them to another frequency.
Ratings on 104.7 are not what they used to be and it's a hard sell to many advertisers. It makes sense CC would want to abandon Rush's expense and go with a new, cheaper format that would be easier to sell, like Country or Sports.
Then there's the competition. CBS finally found a format fro 93.7 that not only cuts into DVE's ratings, but also sells ads like crazy. The Fan, no matter what some posters on this forum may think, is a ratings and sales success.
And then there's Y-108. Country music is hot, recent research says it's the most listened to format in the nation. Without a strong competitor, Y-108 is cleaning up in ratings and revenue.
The emergence of The Fan and the success of Y-108 have, together, made doing business much more difficult at CC. No doubt, it would be cheaper to go with a Country format on 104.7, but the contracts with the syndicated talk hosts are likely holding things up.
Flipping to sports makes some sense on WXDX. Who knows how strong revenue is at The X? CC could move the lineup to The X from 970 ESPN and keep Madden, maybe put him in mornings, but I wonder if The X is doing well enough as a hybrid music/sports station as is.
My opinion is: something will happen this year. Most likely, it will be the end of Talk on 104.7 in favor of Country. CC has talent it can pipe in from other markets inexpensively and it's reasonable to assume they could get enough ratings with a hot format and make money doing it.
Another, less likely, possibility is CC flipping 104.7 to an Urban AC format to reach an underserved market.
My prediction is: no matter what the suits at CC do, they're reacting to developments and successes at CBS, following, not leading.
Thanks for your analysis, p6. Always appreciated. So what are Quinn and Rose’s options? A lot of the well-known talk show hosts are not as good, IMHO. They want to play it safe. Limbaugh is one of the best, but he never says the things Q&R are not afraid to say. I was always surprised that such a democrat town as Pittsburgh tolerated the conservative lineup on WPGB, although I always remember it as more family-friendly and traditional. My Pittsburgh-born (South Side) mom was very conservative, but she was a democrat until her dying day! Those of us in Pa flyover country sure do miss them!