Branding for sale

Fybush tipped us off to what might be a horrific new trend in radio branding. The idea is revolting, truly heinous even by the standards of the biz. In addition to selling product placement, endorsements, sporsorships, ads, mentions, flickers, blips, spots, live reads and placements we can now sell the brand itself. Somone please stop us.


Clear Channel like many obese radio chains has been in hot pursuit of Non-traditional revenue sources. As a matter of fact, Google that Phrase and see how many radio services pop up. It's a sign of the epidemic.


So CC's Rochester cluster has been trying some very new non-traditional revenue sources on 107.3 WCRR a tiny class A in South Bristol Township. the station is to the distant south of Rochester, almost audible in Corning, NY. It's spent most of this summer as "Labatt Blue Country 107.3," having co-opted it's own branding in the name of a beer sponsor. I cant decide if this is a money maker or just sad. I 'm leaning toward sad. http://www.mycountryfm.com/


Their low standards became evident last year when they stunted with the "Wheel Of Formats." Durring the stunt they used the brand "Huge 107.3" co-branding with a local automobile dealership. After six days of thsi horror the wheel stopped on CHR/Pop. Gag.

Way back in the 1950s WCRR (as WVBT) they were a part of the Rural Radio Network. It was the first all radio, no wireline radio network in the world. It was meant to serve the agricultural areas of upstate New York. It was broken up and sold off in the early 1980s. More on that tomorrow.

For the record, WCRR-FM has relation to college radio 1600 WCRR-AM http://wcrr.fit.edu/

The HD Radio Brand

I read just this week at Bridge ratings that HD radio awareness has actually decreased this year. I know I'm a nattering nabob of negativity but read it here. It reminded me that HD radio is a meaningless term. Like the fake syndromes that marketing companies come up with to sell drugs that people dont actually need. Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) meet HD-2 Digital Radio!

The HD radio Brand came from HD television. Now HD television is actually high defintion. HD radio in many cases will be low def. Multicasting can lower audio quality. In radio the codec is IBOC, and owned by Ibiquity exclusively. So they have some control over branding you could say. But they seem to suck at it.

Here are some radio spots they did. You can actually hear listeners get more confused. Stations between the stations? Huh? Why would that require a special radio? A mascott named "Anne Tenna? Oy vey. The branding is just unfocused in general and with the highly technical nature of the product it's difficult to explain no matter what the metaphor.
Number 1
Number 2
Number 3
Number 4
Number 5
Number 6
Number7

It's somthing they need to straighten out soon. IBOC debuts on the AM band at night which is creating a furor among sober engineers. Mexico is concerned enough to write the FCC, going so far as to suggest the interference will be so bad as to violate international treaty.

The Radio Brand Name Game Part I

Radio Stations have brand names like any other product. At the Top of the hour the DJ never says "You are listening to WJRD 1150AM" Ok, Public Radio uses a full legal ID. And bless them for that, I always know who I'm listening to as I travel.

Regardless above 91.9 on the FM dial the DJ gives a Brand name: "Power 92, B103, 95Rock, Star 102, Mix96 etc. This is different from a slogan. Jack is a brand name. "We play anything" is a branding statement also called a slogan. It's not that different from other product slogans Coke and Pepsi for example: Gotta have it... The Joy of Cola... Can't Beat the Real Thing
More Slogans for brown fizzy water here: http://www.geocities.com/colacentury/

The most over-used Radio Brand names are as follows:
Hot: Anything Hot. Hot Jams, Hot beats, Hot 93, Hot flava, Hot Country. Everything is hot apparently.
Hits; Hits 96, Best hits, Greatest hits... they're selling the best of collection.
Kiss: Kiss FM, Kissing, Kissin', Kiss Country, Kissing Country, Kiss rock... they are very affectionate.
Lite: Lite rock, Lite FM, Lite Miami, Lite Mix, Lite Radio, Lite 100. All low calorie
Magic: Magic 101, Magic FM, Majic, Majik, Magik AC, Soft ac a couple Smooth Jazz
Mix: The Mix, The Mixx, Go Mix, Mix 93, Lite Mix, Favorite Mix, My Mix...
Oldies: Your Oldies, Jammin' Oldies, Oldies stations refer to themselves almost exclusively as Oldies + frequency; Oldies93, Oldies 93.3, Oldies94... there's one for every slot on the dial.
Power: Power 101, Power Jamz, Power 98... always Rap or R&B. Rock stations never have power for some reason.
Rock: Rock 92, Rock 101, 93 Rock, Z-rock no variation here at all, just rock.
Star: Star 100, Star FM there must be 3,000 of these.
Sunny: There is one of these in Philly. To me they seem endangered with the growth of the Jack format. These are universally AC and Soft AC.
The Beat: The beat Jams, 100.3 The Beat... dance CHR, Urban in some markets.
The Buzz: always The Buzz. bad speakers buzz.
The Eagle: Rock and country. They probably boycotted the dixie chicks 6 years ago.
The Edge: just like the buzz except edgier...
The Fox: The Fox Rocks, I cant watch Fox TV. It's like getting your news directly from Dick Cheny. It's just not a reliable resource.
Wild: They're always wild. Rotation is stale but they feel wild. That's whats important.

There is a glut of lesser but still probably licensed brands: The point, The Peak, The Mountain, The Bull, The Hawk, The Zone, The Rooster, The Rocket, The Source, The Score, the Ticket, The River, The Planet, The Lake, The candle, The Club, The Choice, The Core, The Frog, The Coast, The Cat, The Bone, The Bear, The Bay , The Arrow, Praise, Live, Kool, Bob-Tom-Dave-Frank-Jack-Simon-Joe-Mike-Sam-Ben... the whole glut of Jack-like stations.

Then there is a slew of single letter brand names: 99X, La M, J105, B101,K-rock, Z95, Q 92, V103... not terribly imaginative there's a whole set of K's for some reason K-Bull, K-Frog, K-rock, K-Day, K-Dove, K-Hits, K-Earth, K-Happy, K-Jazz, K-Lite, K-Love....

There are a few very orignal brands out there:
KHIP: The Hippo-http://www.thehippo.com/
KFNK: Funky Monkey http://www.funkymonkey1049.fm/
WMJC: The Island, http://www.island943.com/
KEDA-AM: Jalepeno Radio, http://www.keda1540.8k.com/
WMOJ: Mojo 94.9 http://www.mojo949.com/
KMEZ: Old School102, http://www.oldschool1029.com/
WYUU: Outlaw 925, http://www.925country.com/
WQBW: the Brew. http://www.973thebrew.com/main.html
KSOP: The Cowboy, http://www.ksopcountry.com/
KYOT: The Coyote, http://www.kyot.com/