A Rose By Any Other Name
Written Jun. 2, 2008 by Larry Rosin in Content + Internet Radio with 1 Comment
A major change that is about to occur on the Infinite Dial was announced late on Friday. Virgin Radio, one of the UK's few national commercial radio brands and one of the most streamed radio stations in the world, was sold to a combination of the Times of India company and Absolute Radio.
What makes this so intruiging is that what is being sold is 'Everything But The Name.' The content and programming are all going to the new owner, but the name and, importantly, the URL, are being kept by Richard Branson's group.
Already the Times of London has commented to the effect that only a fool would buy the assets without the name. But what's in a name? Would American men watch ESPN any less if all the same programs and presenters remained but by some decree it was forced to change its name? Would all of Oprah's fans abandon her if she were to marry and take the surname of her new spouse? While not denying the confusion that would need to be confronted and overcome, clearly the loyalty is to the content, not the name. We at Edison have researched this question and an overwhelming majority say that a name-change would not change their listening.
In fact, there is a possible opportunity, in that if handled correctly there is a chance to re-introduce consumers to this station through the name change. Several years ago, Saga in Milwaukee entirely revitalized what was then "Lazer" by re-imaging as "The Hog".
The bigger challenge is the change of the URL. Virgin has had tremendous success with its stream. It's one thing to tune to a radio frequency (or television channel) and all-of-a-sudden have a different name on the same programming. It's yet another thing to have a bookmark to a stream and have new programming show up. The new owners will have to engage in particularly create approaches to keep the stream-only listening.
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I always enjoy these columns, even though I don't work in radio. (Long time reader First time poster.) Living in Milwaukee, I feel I can speak to the Lazer situation with some authority. To be honest, I don't think that change was handled as well as it appears on the surface. For me, as a listener to longtime listener to Lazer, the flip finally convinced me to get satellite radio. More specifically, I believe the "problem" Lazer had more had to do with a fluke combined with a spate of bad marketing that could have been corrected.
At first, a little review. After the Brew debuted in Milwaukee, Saga seemed to go almost into a tizzy, trying to reposition its two stations (WKLH and WLZR). The problem was (IMHO) they didn't think the repositioning through. WLZR was positioned absolutely atrociously, emphasizing its 80's, 90's and now mix. This proved hilarious particularly when they subsequently launched into a Led Zepplin or Jimi Hendrix tune. (They did this many, MANY times.) It was also clear the morning team was apathetic to the music being played. (I can only offer anecdotal evidence. The morning team in previously years avidly (and constantly) talked about country artists. They did this to the point, that it was actually mentioned in the station relaunch.) Meanwhile, the Brew was beating them with the very music that WLZR had brought to Milwaukee when it was new. Despite the Brews success, there was (again IMO) a problem with their mix. The Brew sounded like a good 80's rock station, not like a good MILWAUKEE rock station.
If you look at the WLZR/WQFM playlists of the era you will see that these stations particularly in the late 80's early 90's were proto-typical Active Rock stations in an era where "Active Rock" was not a distinctive part of the "Album Oriented Rock" format.
The point of all this, was had Lazer simply shed the "80's, 90's, now" imaging, and the few currents it was still playing I believe the station would have taken off anyway. I seem to recall LZR Arbitrons (posthumously) trending upwards for the period "before" the flip. It suggests the Brew already was at a peak, and vulnerable. (For the record, the GM of the station considered Lazer "cutting edge and believed re-imaging was necessary". He obviously disagreed.) Anyway, thanks to the flip I can tell you, my listening to the re-imaged has certainly decreased from its previous incarnation.