Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2006 > May > 03
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
5/3: The River floods Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My usual source who feeds me Arbitron numbers is unavailable so I’m still scrounging around. You can get the 12-plus numbers on the link to the right. They cover winter 2006.
The big news story: the debut of the River at 97.1. It’s no. 4 overall and no. 3 25-54. It was huge, one of the biggest debuts in recent Atlanta radio history, outdoing the opening books for Praise 97.5 and Viva. Those two were filling wide open niches. Interestingly, 97.1 didn’t appear to be filling an obvious opening, rather was another rock station in a market that already had four (96rock, Dave FM, 99X and the Buzz).
But Cox’s Chris Wegmann said they had done research and thought Dave Fm was too eclectic for some. 96rock too male oriented (and talk heavy) and the likes of Lite FM too female. Basically, they are going for a similar demo to what Fox grabbed so well on the same radio position in the early 1990s—the 35 to 54 crowd. The ill-fated Jamz experiment is now a memory. The signal skews north where the River demos mesh perfectly.
So far, so good. The station launched with a flurry of advertising and no commercials. Even now, it only runs eight units an hour, less than other stations. And though the station plans to add a morning and PM drivetime shows, they are not going to be personality heavy. I presume the jocks will be along the lines of what Cox does with the Beat and B98.5. They’ll promote contests and mention what songs were played but not much else.
Clearly, the station is feeding those who don’t like a lot of jock talk but haven’t gone to iPods. Will it last given the station’s relatively modest playlist?
