This week Emmis announced a deal to turn over programming and sales of KMVN, MOViN 93.9, to Grupo Radio Centro. In a week the station will abandon Rhythmic AC and switch to Latin pop. So ends the company’s three year attempt to make a mark with MOViN. In 2000 Emmis bought then Country KZLA from Bonneville International, and after declaring they couldn’t make money with a two share in Country, launched MOViN. Since then the station hasn't managed to achieve the two share it abandoned as a Country station.
The story is full of ironies. Emmis tried to sell the station back to Bonneville International at the beginning of 2008, but Bonneville instead re-entered Los Angeles by buying the struggling one share KRBV. The company blew it up, and launched The Sound. Since then The Sound has dwelled in the sub-one share netherworld. (Click graph for a larger view.)
Both Emmis and Bonneville are highly successful companies with many wins to their credit. Both companies have highly accomplished programming people. Yet both stations have struggled. Why did MOViN fail, and why is The Sound shaping up to be a failure? Because both companies tried to create new products that no one wanted to listen to.
While the two stations sound very different, they share one critically important characteristic. They are both hybrids. They combine elements of two or more formats that are normally found on different stations. In the case of MOViN, the creators combined rhythmic oldies with CHR dance songs. The Sound mixes Classic Rock with Alternative.
A hybrid can work in a smaller market with no other stations playing the same songs, but these stations are trying to attract an audience in the most competitive market in the country. There are multiple stations playing a portion of each station’s playlist. Under these circumstances, a hybrid will never gain traction.
Hybrid stations have a long and inglorious history. Countless stations have tried to make hybrids work, and with very rare exceptions, they have all failed.
Curiously, most hybrids are highly researched. The earliest hybrid we can recall was one created back in the 1980s by the leading research company of the time. This company did a format search in a large southwest market and found that AC listeners liked the Country music cluster and that Country listeners liked the AC cluster. They recommended that the station play a 50:50 mix of Country and AC. The station failed.
The market had very strong AC and Country stations, and while many listeners liked both AC and Country, they preferred listening to the two bodies of music on separate stations. Both MOViN and The Sound probably did extensive research. Both station’s probably tested their music. Both stations can probably produce reams of data to prove the viability of their formats, but time ran out for MOViN and the clock is ticking for The Sound.
One of the alleged benefits of PPM is that format changes will register faster. As an Urban station KRBV averaged a 1.3 12+ share (in diaries). The Sound debuted in PPM with a 0.8 and eight months later is at 0.9 share. That’s about half the share that KZLA had when Bonneville sold the station.
We have on many occasions used this space to encourage stations to experiment and try new things. We have decried the lack of innovation and the cautiousness of station operators. But innovators must understand that each radio format must make sense in the context of its market. The station must fit. There was no place in Los Angeles for MOViN, and PPM thus far suggests that there may be little space for The Sound.
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