IT'S BYE-BYE BEETHOVEN, HELLO SHERYL CROW
CHANGING FORMATS ON PHILA. RADIO.

Section: LOCAL

Page: A01

By Peter Dobrin, Kevin L. Carter and Lesley Valdes, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
Inquirer staff writer Gregor Schmitz contributed to this article.

After the Rachmaninoff and Kreisler, after the teary good-byes, after listeners heard 50 years of classical music radio on WFLN-FM (95.7) drawing to a close, Greater Media Broadcasting honcho Tom Milewski gave a short valedictory.

Classical music is best suited tor a noncommercial radio station like WRTI, he asserted. And then, Friday at 6 in the evening, WFLN officially, emphatically changed personality.

The first two songs on what will ultimately be known as WXXM-FM (Max 95.7) were ``A Change Is Gonna Do You Good,'' by Sheryl Crow, and ``Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,'' by Cyndi Lauper.

The selections signify a couple of things: Greater Media is hoping that the $41.8 million investment in the former WFLN does it good and that it will separate as many of Philadelphia's female consumers from their discretionary incomes as it can.

And as for Philadelphia's classical-music lovers who want to experience their love full time, well, business is business.

Dennis Begley, the station's general manager, said Greater Media is expecting to spend $2 million on revamping the station, much of that in the first two or three months. As often is the case with new format changes, WXXM will have no DJs for the first two weeks.

The station is hoping to gross $13 million to $20 million a year within the next two to three years, compared with the $5 million WFLN billed during its last year as a classical station.

And the potential to make more money is why Greater Media bought the station and flipped its format. The change is just the latest consequence of Congress' 1996 deregulation of the telecommunications industry. What it means for radio is that large companies such as Greater Media have fewer restrictions on how much property they can own in a city and fewer restrictions on how much property they can own in general.

The new station is also the Philadelphia market's most instructive example of the continuing formatization and subcompartmentalization of radio. In practice, WXXM will employ elements of no fewer than four established formats, two of which are relatively new.

Begley said the new format at WXXM would be a mixture of modern rock and contemporary hits with a high-energy sound and delivery that aims for a younger demographic - what is called ``Hot AC.'' But many of the songs it plays will also appeal to an audience that remembers the pop hits of the '80s.

In a promo, recorded by an uncredited DJ, that went on the air after Milewski's speech, the station said it would be a place for Philadelphia's listeners to hear all of the latest hits, regardless of the category the music falls in.

There are several stations in this market whose formats lie near those of WXXM. WYXR-FM (104.5), for example, is a station that also lies between the adult contemporary and contemporary hits formats and has been known as a Hot AC (adult contemporary) in the past. WPLY-FM (100.3) is a contemporary hits station that plays a lot of modern rock. And rhythmic contemporary hits station WIOQ-FM (102.1) has a much younger female demographic than WXXM, but its high-energy DJs may have some influence on WXXM's sound.

Begley does not believe that his station will have too much in common with those that already exist. ``[WYXR] is a little more rhythmic than we're going to be, and 'PLY is a little harder-edged rock. That's why we feel there's a hole for it,'' he said.

Two stations that have formats similar to what the new WXXM plans on playing are KALC-FM in Denver and WPST-FM in Trenton.

KALC, known as Alice 106, ranked fifth overall in Denver, a high rating for a station that plays modern rock or alternative music.

WPST is the top-ranked station in Trenton, winning the quarterly numbers derby in the spring of '97. The station can also be heard in South Jersey and Philadelphia, and Arbitron figures show that its audience extends into this area as well.

A look at both stations' latest playlists shows many of the same songs and artists: Crow, the Wallflowers, OMC, Shawn Colvin, Verve Pipe, Third Eye Blind, Jewel, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Paula Cole.

All are artists who show up on Top 40 charts but have strong modern rock and alternative followings.

There will be at least a week in Philadelphia with no classical music at all on the radio - a week in which WRTI-FM (90.1), the Temple station that has agreed to add classical music to its jazz, will reinvent itself. Whatever 'RTI ends up being, it won't be full-time classical music.

And whatever WFLN ends up sounding like, advertisers aren't waiting around to find out.

``There's no reason for us to support a radio station with modern hits,'' said Richard Galassini, sales manager at Cunningham Piano. The company had been a strong supporter of WFLN in previous years, he said, ``because we wanted to push classical music.''

Galassini said he was still scratching his head about relocating the dollars previously spent with WFLN. ``We aren't decided yet on whether to switch to another radio station or increase the newspaper ads,'' he said.

Virginia Hendrixson, the owner of Hendrixson Furniture, in Furlong, Bucks County, also wants to rethink her advertising strategy. ``WFLN was our favorite,'' she said. ``We did usually four campaigns a year for our sales.''

The company started advertising on WFLN about 10 years ago and spent $6,000 to $10,000 a year. But now it's going to run its last advertisement this weekend. ``Our customers don't belong to the new young WFLN target group,'' Hendrixson said.

She said she would increase the advertising on other channels. ``We already did a bit there before, although less than on WFLN,'' she said. But she doesn't think of switching to Temple's WRTI, even though the station will pick up some classical programming. ``We don't have any experience with them,'' Hendrixson said.

Advertising on a public station takes the form of discreet underwriting announcements.

PNC Bank, which sponsored the Philadelphia Orchestra's broadcasts from the Academy of Music last season, is thinking twice about sponsoring the orchestra now that it would be appearing on WRTI. Before, the bank had full control over its commercial message. On public radio, however, there are restrictions about what an underwriter can say. No best this or biggest that. And no mentioning competitors.

``You're confined to a limited image-oriented vocabulary, which can help image to some unspecified degree, but makes it more of a challenge to sell products,'' said Don Haskin, a PNC Bank spokesman. ``We're working really hard to see if there is any role for us in the equation. It's just a real shame.''

At AIA Bookstore in Philadelphia, the disappointment about the end of a strong relationship with WFLN is deep. ``We started advertising there around eight years ago and worked out each year a Christmas campaign with their staff,'' Charity Marshall, the general manager, said.

That cost up to $9,000 a year, she said, ``and it was worth every penny.'' But Marshall doesn't expect the relationship to continue. ``Our clients really like classical,'' she said. ``They won't listen to the new WFLN.''

Marshall said she doesn't think she will advertise on other stations, either. ``They can't replace the old WFLN. Probably we are going to focus on print ads now.''

But listeners are, perhaps, the crowd that is most bitter over WFLN's format change. Many said they were angrier than when WHYY-FM (90.9), a public radio station, eschewed classical music in 1990.

In the hours before WFLN made the switch from Chabrier to Sheryl Crow, a stack of faxed messages from listeners gathered on a desk in the station's library, which movers were packing up and shipping out to a previous WFLN station owner in Miami.

``I've been listening to the station since the mid-1950s when I was a teenager, thanks for all the joy and pleasure,'' wrote Ken Johnson.

``My heart is broken that you are gone. I've been blue all week,'' wrote Karen K. Deasey, M.D.

``Did I hear correctly? WFLN is going rock? Then I've given up on our civilization,'' wrote Jackie Kerlyn.

But civilization isn't the concern of radio operators. Making money is. And Begley said several new advertisers had already signed up, including Electric Factory Concerts, which wanted to be the first advertiser on the air Friday night.

``We were only billing 25 percent of what any other FM in the market was billing,'' said Begley. ``We analyzed the classical format from top to bottom and felt the best solution was to put it somewhere else.''