Country music lover Shirley Gross of Crittenden took a bite from her sandwich at a fast-food restaurant in Florence and considered the appeal of country music upstart WYGY-FM (96.5).

        It's all about Bubba Bo, she said, referring to the drive-time morning radio personality who was inside the Arby's on this weekday morning gripping a few more hands en route to a goal of 96,500 handshakes in 2001.

        “I used to listen to him when he was on B-105 until he left. He's just a good little ol' guy,” said Ms. Gross, a committed country music fan who owns a season pass to Dollywood and makes seven or eight pilgrimages to Nashville each year.

WYGY-FM (96.5) radio personality Bubba Bo shakes the hand of truck driver Ray Miller of Middletown as part of his effort to shake 96,500 hands by the end of the year. (Dick Swaim photo) | ZOOM |

        Out on the front lines of the Tristate's country-music radio war between WUBE-FM (105.1) and WYGY-FM (96.5), Bubba Bo (whose real name is Eric Boulanger) was making one of three weekly personal appearances for parent company Salem Communications Corp., which owns or operates 70 radio stations in 32 markets.

        Fans like Mrs. Gross are the targets whenever competing radio stations in the same musical format go head-to-head.

        Mrs. Gross said she's been a committed fan of personality Bubba Bo for years — and now by extension WYGY — and she doesn't expect to change allegiance any time soon.
       

Moved up quickly

        Salem, which focuses on religious formats, bought WYGY-FM from AMFM Radio before its merger with Clear Channel Communications last year. At the time, the country music station lagged far behind country monolith WUBE-FM in Arbitron ratings.

        But Arbitron ratings for the first quarter of 2001 show that WYGY and WUBE, now owned by Infinity Broadcasting, a division of Viacom Inc., are in a virtual dead heat for listeners. WUBE is ranked 10th in the market, followed by WYGY at 12th.

CONTENDERS

WUBE-FM (105.1)    Founded 1949    City of license Cincinnati    Owner Infinity Broadcasting Corp., the radio division of Viacom Inc., which owns 180 stations in 22 states.     Rank in market 10    Estimated 2000 revenue $14.7 million WYGY-FM (96.5)    Founded 1958    City of license Hamilton    Owner Salem Communications Corp., 70 radio stations that generally present family and religious programming in 32 markets.     Rank in market 12    Estimated 2000 revenue $3 million    Source Investing in Radio 2001 by BIA Research Inc.

        The estimated $30 million spent on WYGY-FM by Salem looks like a great investment compared with the estimated $100 million plus spent for WUBE by Infinity/Viacom.

        “Salem made an outstanding buy,” said Robert K. Riggsbee, president of Inside Media, a Mount Adams-based multimedia management firm. “That investment will pay off handsomely.

        “WYGY is targeting the same demographics as WUBE and is in a fight for the coveted 25-54 money demographic.”

        The fight is intense for that age group, he said, because they make most buys at grocery stores and buy most easily advertised commodities such as salted snacks and cookies.

        “It's known as the grocery demographic,” he said.
       

No truce soon

        Don't expect a truce in this radio war for the foreseeable future.

        WUBE, named top country station in the nation in 1998 by the Country Music Association, is gearing up for a summer of marketing and music, and Bubba Bo figures he will be out on the fast-food front lines for at least the rest of the year.

        “These two stations could be on the battle lines for a while,” said George Toulas, senior vice president at Salem, a media company based in Camarillo, Calif. He is also a former general manager at WUBE from 1990-96.

        “When you're the underdog — the little guy — and try to eat at Godzilla's table, well, you're not really a welcome guest,” he said. “Our staff had a lot of faith and worked it really hard.”

        The boost for WYGY came with a price tag, however.

        In October, the company touted that it would have a 10,000-song commercial-free marathon. At four minutes per song, that equals about 28 days and nights or a month's worth of lost advertising revenues.

        The television advertising campaign for the ad moratorium was also costly. The company spent about $300,000 on the advertising campaign in the last quarter of 2000 through first quarter 2001, said Terry Dean, general manager at WYGY and WBOB-AM (1160), also a Salem station. It has ended, but other initiatives are under way.

        “It is our intention to continue to aggressively market the station,” said Mr. Dean.

        Marketing pushes may not show a station's reach in a true light over the short term, said Joe Correnti, director of research for Wayne Hummer Investment, a media analyst at the Chicago-based investment firm

        “The Arbitron ratings can be inflated,” Mr. Correnti said. “Advertising buyers then have to consider if this was a blip or a trend.”

        A senior executive at WUBE's parent company agreed.

        “When you advertise a product to the extent they did, people are going to check you out,” said Mike Fredrick, director of sales for Infinity Broadcasting of Cincinnati. “B-105 has been the dominant station for the past 30 years and that's 120 ratings books.

        “Commercial-free gives you a huge competitive advantage and going back to commercials is almost like a format change, and it will have that kind of impact on your audience.”

        Mr. Fredrick said Infinity will more aggressively market the station but would not talk about details of that strategy.

        “You can count on Infinity stepping up to the plate,” he said.
       

Formats cool off

        Another couple of trends may be in play, said Mark O'Brien, executive vice president of BIA Financial Network, a Chantilly, Va., broadcast consulting firm.

        Overall, country music as a format is waning in popularity with 2,200 radio stations playing the format today, down from 2,800 two years ago. “Formats don't stay hot forever,” Mr. O'Brien said.

        He said that it's likely Salem studied the local radio picture before choosing to compete in country.

        “Though waning in popularity, country is still hot,” he said. “Then a new station comes along, they go into a market, see where the audience is located and look for weaknesses.

        “An 800-pound gorilla moves slowly. This looks like a good job of market reconnaissance.”

        Tim Closson, program director and operations manager since 1990 at WUBE said he believed the dip in ratings was because WUBE did not market to men with game broadcasts of the Cincinnati Bengals. “We lost 50 percent of presets on car radios and that made our numbers slide,” he said.

        But Mr. Riggsbee isn't sure that the Bengals have much impact on weekday listenership. “It can be a nice little spike, but only on Sunday. There's not enough weight to make a difference through the rest of the week,” he said.

        “And just because a station happens to carry the Bengals doesn't mean they are going to convert Bengals' listeners who like, say, adult contemporary. People who follow the Bengals listen to an array of music.”

        Mr. Boulanger, a 15-year veteran of WUBE who left that station in January, thinks his handshake goal is attainable. “I can get 10,000 handshakes from one day at a Kentucky Speedway race,” he said.
       

Stakes huge in vote by pilots
Where Comair, pilots stand on talks
A new voice for businesses
Two country stations target same audience
BYCZKOWSKI: New Economy
Producing software for cities
Taxes
Today's fur, tomorrow's bear
Industry notes: Real estate
Business Notes
What's the Buzz?