Atlanta Radio: PD Rick Vaughn OUT At CCM+E

Rick Vaughn

Clear Channel Atlanta has let Rick Vaughn go, the first program director for both WWPW Power 96.1 FM (debuted in late August 2012) and WRDA Radio 105.7 FM (debuted March, 2013).

He lasted 16 months, according to Rodney Ho at accessatlanta.com.

According to Ho, his problem: neither station was performing as well in recent months as they had been in their initial months of existence.

Clear Channel dumped its rock station Project 9-6-1 last year to bring Atlanta top 40 in the form of Power. Vaughn was put in charge. His bosses spent a boatload on billboards and TV commercials, flew in Justin Bieber to headline its nationally branded Jingle Ball at Philips Arena.

Ratings were solid the first few months, competing effectively with Q100 and Star 94. The station's sound has been assiduously younger and higher energy than its rivals. It plays its top 5 songs every two hours, more than any other station.

But it relied on a syndicated morning show led by Elvis Duran in New York which couldn't approach the Bert Show (WWWQ 99.7 FM Q100) in popularity.

Ratings began to slide earlier this year and the station quickly settled in behind B98.5, Star and Q100. For nine consecutive months, it was even losing the 18 to 34 year old demo to Star, which skews older in its sound. Its numbers have been decent (the station finished 9th overall in 2013 among 18 to 23 year olds) but clearly, Clear Channel executives were expecting more.

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