                            COUNTRY 105 RADIO







                           MANAGEMENT 685

                             Dr. Lukens

                          December 9, 1995















                                   I.  DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS
     Country 105 is a one of a kind radio station on Florida's Emerald Coast
playing the perfect mix of country and western favorites from the 70's, 80's
and the 90's.  The call letters of Country 105 is WYZB-FM, Frequency 105.5.
Country 105, like many country and western stations to pop up on the air
within the last three years, is a conversion station. The original old format of
country 105 was oldies and the station was known as COOL105. Despite the
industry's long held belief that most markets can't sustain a country and
western station, 42 of the top 100 markets now have a country and western
station format with at least a 1.0 on the Arbitron rating scale.  According to
the M street Journal, there are now 1,703 country and western outlets
operating in the country, making the country and western format the third
most common format.  Three years ago there were just 545 country and
western stations.  In terms of listening, country and western stations claim
6.5% of the nations audience in the summer according to the
Billboard/Arbiton national format ratings.  As further evidence of country and
western growth, in recent months there have been several examples of
markets where upstart country and western stations have dethroned their
incumbent.
A.  External- Industry
  1.  Customer Profile
     Country 105 considers the entire population of the Emerald Coast their
customer base.  The primary audience listening to Country 105 is the 25-54
age group. According to a 1993 Simmons report, country and western music
is the chosen format for both the young professional (19% of those surveyed)
and college student (15% of those surveyed). The survey also indicated that
20% of all adult who identified their buying style  as "Ad Believers" picked
country as their favorite format.  
  2.  Industry Structure
     a. Potential Entrants
       Entry to the country music business in the Emerald Coast arena
appears to be limited. The three main players; Country 105, K-92, and
Country 102.7 seem to provide adequate coverage and support for the
listening population. Although these are not the only country stations in the
area they are the strongest and look at each other as the main rivals. Since
country music is "hot" at this time and these stations all play the favorite
artists and service their clientele adequetly, it appears the strongest threat of
a new entrant will come from another station converting their format to
country.
     b.  Intensity of Rivalry
       The rivalry among the country stations is county based. Country
105 and K-92 who are located in the Okaloosa county major metropoliton
areas of Fort Walton Beach and Destin respectively, vie for the same market
share on a daily basis. Country 102.7 is based in the Pensacola area and
compete mainly with the few smaller stations in their local area and the
neighboring Alabama cities such as Mobile, Foley, and Gulf Shores. 
  3.  Competitors Profile
       The competition to Country 105 in the Emerald Coast mainly
practise defensive strategies to maintain their current market position and
shares. Country 105 and K-92, which operate in the same local often go 
head-to-head to try and win market shares from the other. The current focus
is on  "Ours is better than yours" with the prime strategy being less talk and
more air time for the music. Each station continues to try different radio
personalities together in an effort to capture certain markets such as the
morning show or the drive home audience. All of the stations carry on
advertising campaigns to promote not only their station, but also the
personalities (disc jockeys) they feel bring in the listeners.     , tower height
345 feet, and 25,000 watts of power.  This 25,000 watts of power not only
covers the metro area of Okaloosa county (Ft. Walton Beach, Destin, Mary
Esther, Niceville-Valparaiso, and Crestview), but also serves Walton and
Santa Rosa Counties.
  Country 105 is a full service radio advertising facility.  It has computerized
rating analysis, including reach and frequency studies comparing radio, TV,
and newspaper to maximize the target customers and improve the media mix. 
B.  Internal Audit
  1.  Management
       Country 105 organizational structure consists of a General
Manager who has the overall responsibility to manage the smooth and
efficient running of the radio station.  Although the managers of each
department have the run of managing their own department, any problems
are brought to the General Manager's attention to be solved within, or brought
to the owner's attention, if it requires further action.  All in all, everyone works
together and the managers have created an open door policy so that any
ideas, big or small, whether it's sales promotion, radio image promotion, or
inter-office improvements, it can be discussed and evaluated of its beneficial
effect on the radio station. Many employees perform dual roles to stream line
the workforce. The management strategy is for all employed to be involved
in the stations overall strategy and this was echoed throughout each
department. The management style seemed to be the collaborative approach
and kept all workers (those we encountered) upbeat and geniuely postive
toward the promotion of their station.
  2.  Operations
     a.  Production
          The production department consists of the Operations Manager,
Production Manager, and the on air personalities.  The Operations Manager
oversees the smooth operations of the department, the Production Manager
ensures that all commercials and broadcasting materials are produced and
ready to go on the air, and the on-air personalities provide the entertainment
to the listening audience.  The Creative Department which includes copy
writers and production engineers perform the task of taking the message and
making it come alive on the radio.  It also has direct access to research
facilities of the Radio Advertising Bureau for promotional ideas, industry
trends, and background, as well as Co-Op research to uncover
manufacturers money due to an advertiser to help pay the cost of a radio
marketing campaign.
     b.  Marketing
          The market profile of Country 105 based on the surveyed area
of 152,200 people covering Okaloosa and Walton counties provided the
following:
     Top 10 Employer Industries                   % of Workforce
     Eating and Drinking Places. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12.8%
     Health Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10.7%
     Engineering and Management Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1%
     Special trade Contractors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4%
     Business Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2%
     Hotels and Other Lodging Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.0%
     Food Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.9%
     General Merchandise Stores. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8%
     Miscellaneous Retail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5%
     Automotive Dealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4%

     Top Occupations                           % of Workforce

     Technical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31.5%
     Managerial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27.4%
     Service Worker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18.0%
     Precision Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11.4%
     Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.9%
     Farm workers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.8%

     c.  Other
          Other aspects of Country 105's internal functions are the
Administrative and Sales Department.  The sales department sells air time to
advertisers.  The Sales Manager oversees the sales department to ensure
they reach their sales quotas and provide morale support.  Once they receive
an order, this is brought to the attention of the Traffic Manager, who enters
the data and schedules the commercials to air.  Thereafter, the production
order for the sale is given to the copywriter to write a script for, if needed,
then passed on to the production department.
  The administrative side of the radio station, such as the Office/Traffic
Manager and secretary do not get affected by sales quotas or Arbitron
ratings.  But performance and attitude are evaluated.  Because they deal with
the public, such as contest winners, advertisers, and listeners, as well as with
the sales and production staff, positive attitude, personality, and the ability to
perform their job efficiently are evaluated.
II. STRATEGIC DATA BASE
  A.  Significant Trends and Events
       For a positive community image, Country 105 along with sponsors
tie-ins concerns itself with Public Service projects each year:  "Hurricane Erin
and Opal Relief," "Operation Raise the Flag to Honor our Desert Storm
Heroes," major sponsor of American Cancer Society Fundraisers, and the
Special Olympics Fundraisers are a few of the many community activities the
radio station participated in the last few years or so.
  B.  Current Strategic Position
     1.  Strategic Concepts
       a.  Goal
          Country 105 has as a goal to be the most listened to radio
station in Northwest Florida. According to the 93 spring Arbitron ratings,
Country 105 was the choice of adults along the Emerald Coast, reaching
28,400 different persons 18 and older every week and ranked #1 during the
time frame of Monday-Friday, 6 am, to 7 pm.  Which comes to 21% of the
population in Okaloosa County Metro tune into Country 105.
     b.  Mission
          Their mission is to provide the best country music, news
reporting, and community service to their audience.  
     c.  Strategies
          Country 105 strategy to stay the market leader is through
technical advancement in their station equipment. Conversion to computers
enabling the station to communicate on the Internet broadens greatly their
market reach. They also use the Arbitron ratings survey analysis which
comes out each spring to rate their effectiveness.  Even though Country 105
ranks high with the younger listening audience (25-54 age group), its target
demographic are the "baby boomers" or persons 35-64 years of age. 
According to the Prosper Business Develop Corportation this age group
spends more than any other age group. Country 105 understands the
importance of this age group to retailers and they strive to win the businesses
over with their ability to reach this audience.  
  2.  Implementing Strategies
     a.  Program Strategies
          Country 105 organizes their program schedule based on the
audience mostly being reached at any given time. The morning shows are
geared to the working adults. The early evening shows attempt to attract the
younger genre (after schoolers, young non-working mothers). The night time
programs reach the young teenagers and require popular personalities to
keep this fickle listener tuned in. They also use mobile broadcasting
capabilities to augument their station and provide them more depth to service
their listening area. 
     b.  Specific Objectives
          Country 105 sets as objectives to provide outstanding service
and enhance the bussinesses that use the station through the use of the
following:  targetability where  their unique formats provide advantage of
delivering to the target consumer and ensuring the commercial reaches the
right people, assertiveness through repetitiveness, primarily entertainment
environment where the commerical will stand out, be heard, and generate
results, imagery by utilizing the power of visualization to create images
prospects will relate and react to. Listeners are impacted by their own
imaginations.
III.  SITUATION ASSESSMENT
  A.  External Appraisal
     1.  Opportunities
          Country 105's opportunities lay in their ability to stay on top of
the local market through technology, creative advertising, and ability to reach
the target audience more  efficiently, effectively, and with the right message
than their competitor. They know they can build a faithful listening audience
thus opening up opportunities for more businesses to use their services. Use
the Arbitron ratings, surveys, and computerized polls to identify the right mix
of talk versus music to bring in the most listeners making the station more
appealing to the local businesses for purchase of advertisement.
  2.  Threats
       The only real threat to Country 105 is the conversion of other
stations to their country format and these station bringing over a very large
faithful audience. This type of competition, especially if in the local area, could
threaten their market leadership. This type of move by another station could
also create a very competitive market and if the other station has a large
amount of resources could take an offensive stance casuing Country 105 to
retreat and regroup.
B.  Internal Appraisal
  1.  Strengths
       Country 105 is owned by Holladay BROADCASTING Co., Inc.
whose office is in Meridian Mississippi.  This company alos own 99 Rock and
an AM talk radio station in the local area. This umbrella of stations provide
Country 105 with the ability to trade strategies within the corporation and gain
advantage over individual stations. This umbrella, if the owner chooses to
supplement the stations with revenues of the other, could provide Country
105 the capital for expansion, innovation, and technological improvments that
would bolster its market leader position.    
IV.  DECISION ANALYSIS
  A.  Strategic Concepts
     1.  Mission Adjustments
          The Arbitron ratings survey analysis creates an impact
externally from advertiser's point of view.  Basically, the higher the listening
audience of a radio station, the better cost-per-point for an advertiser.  In the
same token, it makes a good selling tool for the sales person, if all else fails
to get the prospective client's attention.  Arbitron also create an impact within
a radio station.  A program, such as "The Larry King Show," may be taken off
the air and replaced with different programming if it received a very low rating. 

       The Arbitron survey also has a effect on evaluations of employees,
on-air personalities are also evaluated by this survey.  If their time frame
received a low rating, there may be a turnover of personalities.  Even the
music format may be re-evaluated if, as a whole, the radio station received
a low rating.  the owner of a radio station evaluates the performance of the
production staff and makes the decision for any changes.  The owner also
evaluates the General Manager's performance and decision making.
     2.  Goals and Objectives Change/Addition
          Although the goal of Country 105 will probably remain the same
each department within the station must contribute to the overall station
performance to be successful. If for instance the Arbitron ratings indicate a
particular show is not getting the expected response then this program must
be changed. Since the the sales department is not directly affected by the
Arbitron ratings survey analysis it is affected by sales quotas.  Each sales
person objective is to meet their quota in order to be beneficial to the radio
station. Re-evaluations takes place when sales personal do not meet their
quota consistently.  The Sales Manager is evaluated by the performance of
his sales staff.
B.  Program Strategies
     Create unique entertainment that appeals to both young and old alike.
Provide complete coverage of the news and community events. Interface with
the listening public to become a valued member of the community.
V.  EVALUATION
  A.  Conclusions
       Country 105 seems to be faring very well in the country music
market in the metro area of Okaloosa, Walton, and Santa Rosa counties.
They are staying on the cutting edge of technogoly and strive to provide their
listeners with the most current country music from the hottest artists on the
country scene. They seem to have a pleasant and productive working relation
between the employees and the management of the station.  The owners
attitude seems to be a hands-off type of management unless absolutely
necessary. Overall I believe Country 105 is positioned well in their market
niche and their mission appears to support their overall goal. If they continue
to scan the market and the market consumers for inputs to adjust strategies
they should remain strong for years to come.
B.  Recommendations
     My recommendation to the staff at Country 105 would be to continue
in their current strategies and then add the "dare to be different" focus.
Through this approach they could  move ahead or in some instances move
further ahead of the competition. This different could also make them more
attractive to potential customers who are looking for new ways to market their
products. They should also thrive to exploit the value from the computer
information highway and use this powerful tool to enhance their market
position, gain a wider market area, and reach more people.  
