Buzz Montgomery
What’s the BUZZ in Montgomery? Bluewater Broadcasting has introduced a new information portal called www.buzzmontgomery.com that hopes to become your one stop place to find out what’s going on. This is just one part of Bluewater’s new web initiative to turn the stations websites into destination sites versus informational sites. They are putting some money and making a major commitment to this project when they hired Greg Rickaby as their Chief Technology Officer and moved him up from Dothan.
Now is the time where I pay homage to Greg…he is a wordpress expert. In case you didn’t know this site was built using an engine called wordpress. Greg has taken wordpress to another level and is even a certified thesis designer (thesis is a template base used for over 20,000 sites world wide). Look for great things to be happening over at Bluewater when it comes to their websites.
Alright, take some time and check it out – www.buzzmontgomery.com. It’s worth the look and loaded with information.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Finally! After almost a year and a half since Montgomery locals were turned up on Direct. Picture quality is great. ...
Now for a prediction:
WMBZ 96.1 FM
“The Buzz”
Montgomery’s New Rock Alternative.
The Buzz site is awesome. I know that my prediction may not happen but I would be surprised if it did.
Hope this site will have continued success. It still rocks!
Thanks Dan!
I doubt the Buzz will happen though on 96.1. Rick really likes the format there and according to the financial reports I saw this evening, it appears to be doing pretty decent.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by arieliondotcom, Greg Rickaby. Greg Rickaby said: It's not everyday someone pays homage to me: http://bit.ly/b5ae5K [...]
Alt Rock is a format that will never happen in Montgomery, especially on a station owned by rick peters.
this market is too micromanaged to allow any “outside the box” format like alt rock to even have a chance, and peters can’t even see what a waste of a good signal he has with WBAM.
WBAM should return to it’s heritage as a Top 40 Flamethrower (and i don’t mean that in the adam lambert type of way…) and give WHHY run for it’s money. instead, peters is set in stone that what he and ops manager Mike Alan are doing will be successful…give or take 20 yrs based on current arbitron/neilson ratings.
even if an alt rock format where to suddenly appear, it will not be as successful as the tiger was when it held the 104.9 freq. nor will it do anything but strengthen the numbers for WXFX unless this new alt rock station could pull Rick Hendrick away from cumulus (HA HA HA…like that’ll ever happen.)
Man it will be great when school is back in session and the kids have something better to do than to pretend they know one damn thing about the economics of this business. By the way, you do understand that this is a business don’t you? This is not some type of internet radio station run by someone whose highest rung on the radio ladder was driving a station van or running a board for a syndicated show.
WBAM is a solid success and bills more than a million dollars a year- which is about 3 times what it was doing before Bluewater bought it.
Alt rock is at best a fringe station in markets under the top 50- just not enough tattoo shops and strip bars to support it.
I will pass on taking the easy shot at WXFX’s ratings. It ain’t Rick’s fault.
So, before you want to throw stones at people like Rick or Mike why don’t you start by building your case with some facts, not some stupid crap you made up. And by the way, if you want to do something “outside of the box”, go get your own box and knock yourself out.
I’m getting close to being 40 years old myself. Enjoy listening to the radio but wish we had more variety that we do. I understand that Montgomery is a small market and has all the major bases covered with the formats.
I have this one question though, if my hometown had something like a River 97.5/101.5 FM and/or WDJC 93.7 FM type of station, do you think it would work? My hometown has less than 50,000 residents.
Been trying to get that type of station going, for many years now. So far I’ve haven’t had any success.
It’s great that Moody and AFR has a presence here in West Central Alabama but too much talk can and will lead to boredom. Wish we had Christian Rock type of station here, in my area. I believe that if we had something like this, it would be a potential goldmine in an underformatted city like Selma Alabama.
The point of Buzz Montgomery was to create a “digital town square” where all info about the River Region was consolodated in one place. It’s not a teaser for a new format, boys. And while Alternative Rock is a “fringe format” at best, it sounds great, commercial free on the Buzz stream (mp3 and WMA). If you haven’t listened you should check it out. Also, commercial free CHR – let Y102 compete against that (oh, and commercial free Classic Rock too)all in 128k stereo streams.
Working in the digital space has been fascinating and rewarding ad allows us to expand and extend our brand into mobile and net spaces. Guess this old dog can learn a new trick or two.
As to the state of the cluster current formats – we are perfectly happy with the mix and contribution from each station. Bluewater will cash flow almost a million dollars this year thank you very much. Appreciate the attention though.
rick peters
CEO Bluewater Broadcasting
Publisher – Buzz Montgomery.com
Thank you for the kind words! I’m very pleased with how Buzz Montgomery is turning out, not only are we tracking toward 100,000 page-views in our first month (June), we’re seeing a ton of positive response from local businesses, charities, and of course residents here in Montgomery. Still (and always will be) a work in-progress.
I’d like to weigh in on the “Alt Rock” issue:
I’m from Appleton/Oshkosh Green Bay WI (markets 134 & 187 respectively) – and there are 5 or 6 rock stations in those markets. All of which suck, except two: WAPL-FM and WZOR-FM. Both are owned by Woodward Communications and combined, make up a 15 share in both markets. Here is why I think they are successful:
WZOR-FM – Active/ALT Rock (21,000 watts, 300 foot stick, 15+ years with the same format) lots of tattoo shops, strip club, tinting/after market care advertisements. This station covers your 18-34 demo.
WAPL-FM – More classic leaning, but still plays some currents (100,000 watts, 1,100 foot stick, 30+ years with the same format) They present themselves as “Wisconsin’s Rock Station” and the “authority” on all things both “ROCK” and “MEN”. Most of the ads are from Jewelers, Car dealerships, Sporting Goods, etc…rare is there spot for a strip club or tattoo shop. This station gets your 25-54.
In small markets, you need to flank yourself in order to make any money. Can an active/alt rocker by itself make any money in Montgomery? Probably, but no enough to pay the bills. Only when flanked with a classic rocker could one company hope to hold any market share while being “sell-able”.
If you don’t believe me, then ask yourself – why does Clear Channel only have urban formatted stations in Montgomery?
You gotta find a niche and PWN IT!
You’re welcomed.
Thanks for sharing those thoughts with me.
The radio station I want to bring, would be a listener supported CCM type of station. (A.K.A. WAY FM type of broadcast)
Besides if I did a WDJC presentation and depended on local businesses to help me stay afloat, this station would be a total and complete failure. The Christian market is very small here anyway and I believe that a listener supported CCM station would stand a better chance of making it anyway.
Not too sure if my hometown would be able to support a third full powered Christian radio station but if God wants me to have this radio station, then He’ll help me get it going and then keep it afloat.
Not knocking Moody, AFR and/or WLBF at all. I understand why they do more of the talk and less of the music. That’s their meal ticket to success. Glad that I’m able to get them. Hope these broadcasters will have continued success with their present format(s) and will help lead many new people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and point them closer to the blessed Trinity.
…And to Hot 105.7 Troy/Montgomery and WMBV 91.9 FM Dixon’s Mills happy 22nd B-Day. Hope these two stations will have continued success with their format(s). When a station has been doing the same program for that many years, then I know they must be doing something right. As I’ve heard it once said, if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it. Kudos to those two stations for staying in their individual games for this long period of time. …And yes I do know the owner of WMBV radio. He was once my Sunday school teacher. Glad to see Mr. Rob Moore doing very well with that station, after being there for so long. May God’s blessings continue to shine down on that station and keep it going for many more years to come.
Dan, I think you hit the magical nail. You said, the format you want to put on the air would be unsuccessful to gain support from local businesses. If local business would be unwilling to support it, why would listeners? Maybe God has spoken, it just hasn’t been what you wanted to hear.
We have more radio stations now and the availability to listen to music in more ways than we ever have had before. Some formats that aren’t commercially successful, can be ran online for much less. Maybe you should consider focusing on that?
Thanks for the response. I’m still Praying for God’s will to be done. Wherever He leads me, that’s where I go. It might be that God wants me to have an Internet only station, after all.
Till something happens in that area, I’ll keep on communicating His Word through my up and coming writing career. Would like to establish a web site for People for Jesus, in the near future. Still Praying for that door to open too.
If anyone reading wants to check out my printed materials, (Bible Tracts) visit the Faith Rescue Mission Thrift Store on the Southern Blvd. and take as many copies as you need. I take some there twice a year, when I have to bring my father and brother to see Dr. Hamp Greene. They both have seizures and this is where they go for their checkups.
Still love this site. It rocks! Thanks again for the advice. I appreciate it.
Why don’t you put your CCR station online? Easy and inexpensive to do and could have a far reaching impact.
It looks like I may go that route after all. The signs seems to be pointing in that direction.
Thanks for your response and words of advice. I appreciate it very much.
for those who i have seen call me out on this board in the past week, The harshest criticisms always seem to come from those who truly have no idea what i’m doing, truly have no gifts of their own and they’re just plain pissed that i’m happy with my new position.
that being said, the above statements that someone assumes is me, i’m flattered that i am on your mind but that was not me. to greg rickaby and rick peters, i have nothing but complete respect for both, and i’m happy to see Buzz Montgomery become such a success in a short period of time.
Davenport…
I’m not sure what you are talking about. Is there something else going on behind the scenes? I haven’t seen your name mentioned at all here in this discussion.
Brian,
my name was not mentioned, abut a post about someone who’s highest rung on the ladder was board oping a morning show was kind of a cheap shot at me.
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/77592/tiger-communications-set-to-flip-wtgz-and-wqsi-fre
TIGER COMMUNICATIONS Alternative WTGZ (95.9 THE TIGER)/AUBURN, AL will flip frequencies with sister Classic Country WQSI (93.9 THE EAGLE) on JULY 12th. Longtime TIGER COMMUNICATIONS show “SPORTSCALL” will stay on 93.9 THE TIGER in the afternoons from 4-6p.
THE TIGER PD KEVIN JACKSON told ALL ACCESS, “We’re definitely excited about the move, as this will help us be more of a force in the MONTGOMERY area instead of just hitting parts of the area. We believe MONTGOMERY will love being able to pick us up consistently as well.”
As a result of the change, there should also be some more adjustments to THE TIGER lineup that will be announced in the near future.
93.9 Coverage Map:
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WQSI&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
95.9 Coverage Map:
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WTGZ&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
On a good day I can pickup 93.9 on seek here in Montgomery.