Great move by iHeart. There was a hole in the market. In addition, there were simply too many CHR stations. The problem with My 93.9 is that despite the occasional "throwback" song, the station had no "Miami sound." In fact, the station could have been an Omaha station and I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. Hopefully, the new format will be successful.
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93.9 WMIA Back to Rhythmic AC
- Thread starter ScottBurns
- Start date
I agree. WMIA had better success with Rhythmic AC, so I expect that it will do moderately well.
It's good but it's not nearly as good as the first 939 MIA. They really should bring that back, it was by far the best and the most listened to station in South Beach. Evey business was blasting it daily.
G
Groove1670
Guest
This was a smart move. With a three or four way battle for CHR in the market, this will capture older demos. I agree, they will need to add some some South Florida flavor (like KTU does in New York).
How many installed PPM households are there in SoBe?
I didn't used to listen to it, but will probably listen more now. How did it used to be better, John? Thanks.
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Groove1670
Guest
93.9 and 104.3 are miles away from being musically the same. Different audience, and demographic.
First i would point out the old MIA used very "upbeat" liners. It sounded "exciting" to listen to them. Right now it's "We're 939 MIA, the rhythm of Miami" in a very bland boring read. In the beginning it was "939 MIA, Move to the Music!" It was higher pitched and they did actual jingles like "939....(939 939 939).... M.....I.....A!!!!!!!" and it was awesome.
Second, all the songs were dance. There was no question it was Rhythm based, it was poppy, dancey and fun. They had a better mix...not sticking to any "era" but playing dance hits from basically the 70s to now. I could hear "Good Times", "Catch me I'm falling", "What is love" and "Just Dance", along with a mix of dance hits you rarely hear, all in one segment. It was pure dance heaven. Couldn't help but notice how the current playlist features a lot of "My 939" songs that some I wouldn't say had any rhythm at all. Not to mention, I have noticed every single song is faster than it should be.
A word to IHEART, your listeners notice the speed of the songs...that gets real annoying real quick.
Third, the first MIA had a real feeling. It was "MIAMI"'s dance station and there was no question. I mean, look at the logo differences! The current logo is just a number and a name. The first one was on top of a disco ball. How easy was it to see how dedicated to Dance they were?
Anyway, I'm not trying to be a debbie downer or pretend I know things more than IHEART, but seriously...I don't see much of an effort into this. It's like they said "Ok well, our numbers suck...let's try and do what we did before but continue to do this "new music" stuff and keep the CHR and well...throw it together and good luck"
Now, to David: I have no clue and i really don't care. I've told you before, I don't care for PPM's and I personally think they are stupid. Consultants and ratings have destroyed radio. It should be more about talent, product and care for the listener. In a small market, the station i worked with remained #1 because of our commitment to the community, our desire to involve the listener and our dedication to the radio lifestyle. I see major markets only care about what the numbers say and I truly believe that is why they fail over and over and over. We can agree to disagree if you want, but that is just how I feel about it.
As far as my statement...as a former resident of South Beach, I walked down Ocean, Collins and Lincoln Road plenty of times. During the time MIA first launched and for at least 9 months afterwards, I could count 18 businesses that played MIA on their speakers daily. It was popular and it was promoted by those who were diehard fans. That is all.
Also, for everyone questioning what this new MIA will do to the Beach....Nothing! They are two different styles of dance. The Beach features the classics, 70s through 90s and fits that demo perfectly. MIA is skewing itself to the 80s through Now demo, which doesn't really exist yet (in my opinion). I could see a 80s through 2000's, but the 2010's don't really match up like previous generations. It just doesn't flow right.
Thoughts from you guys?
I would not have offered any comment in this thread, but that is cute.
You are welcome! Radio has always been my passion, even if I'm no longer in it.
Those are interesting points and worth discussing.
Here is how I see it.
In the larger (meaning "rated") markets, advertisers are confronted by so many stations that they can not tell which has listeners and which may work for their consumers. So ratings serve the principal purpose of giving a metric for advertisers to use to set prices and select stations to advertise on.
I've been in a huge market (currently Top 15) where for a number of years in the mid-70's we had no ratings at all. Advertisers said, "Here's $20 a spot. Take it or leave it". And we had to take it. We eventually got The Pulse in the market, and rates doubled and tripled in a few years. Programming improved, spot loads were lower and salaries improved. And advertisers bought more radio.
So ratings tend to improve a market. They tell owners when things are working and not working, and they guide advertisers.
Consultants are no different than seeing a specialist when your family doctor tells you that you need special treatment or a second opinion. Consultants collaborate with owners to help the local staff succeed. The good ones train and guide; few dictate procedure unless the station is in dire straits and needs emergency care. And like people in any field, there are good ones and not-so-good ones and ones that are nice to deal with and some that are A-holes.
In small markets, with few stations, it is much easier to judge a station's impact because in such situations the local retailer's cash register is the ratings book. If the station gets results, the station does well as the merchants on the air renew and other merchants notice that and join in. The formula may be community involvement or it may be just more music, but the local advertisers will be quick to tell you if the station is "working". But to say there are no ratings is not truly accurate.
Bigger markets have to use some kind of metric, or the industry as a whole will fail and today's advertisers will just use one of the other more quantifiable ad media.
I can say that today in 2016 I do not trust or believe the numbers from diary markets. This last book I saw a heritage country station, the only country station in the market, go from a 7 share to a 4.4. They had never gone below a 6 share before. Country listeners are pretty passionate about their music. How can a country station lose almost half their ratings? Is it realistic to think that in 1 ratings book the listening for country music went from 7 shares to 4.4?
With hot ac, chr, even mainstream ac and pop rhythmic stations you can understand changes in the ratings because there are various places to hear the same music and with these stations there is extreme overlap, they are all sharing like 70% of the same music. However, with only one country station it is hard to believe that so many listeners just went somewhere else or spent that much less time with the station. The country station didn't change anything. Same personalities and they are your typical country station that plays the country chart.
I remember when the ppm's first came out and thinking that this what I thought the ratings were all along. I always had felt that those low cuming stations didn't deserve the high ratings they were getting and that the high cuming stations deserved more than what they got. PPM came in and it validated that thinking. It has led to less variety in our choices as listeners but hey these are real numbers, real listening so the reality is that people don't want such diverse selections, there is much more commonality in the tastes of the overall market. To think that people would listen for 4 constant hours without interruption just because it was some beloved personality or show was silly. Also, you could not deny that people wanted to say they listened to the so called cool station and that adults didn't want to admit to how much time they truly spent listening to that kiddie pop station.
As for 939, they were getting killed against the 3 pop stations in the market so it was time to switch it up. there is a wonderful history of South Florida over the last 35 years with rhythmic and pop music so it would stand to reason that if a station can find that perfect mix of all those hits over the last 3 decades you would be able to produce a viable station with it. Iheart will do it on the cheap so it may not reach its full potential but if they get the music right it should be enough. IMO its about constructing a very familiar playlist of the high testing favorites but also to allocate a few slots per hour to play some oh wow cuts that no one else can touch which will separate the station from the rest(form a unique identity) and also to generate some true passion and thus loyalty to this 'mia as well.
With hot ac, chr, even mainstream ac and pop rhythmic stations you can understand changes in the ratings because there are various places to hear the same music and with these stations there is extreme overlap, they are all sharing like 70% of the same music. However, with only one country station it is hard to believe that so many listeners just went somewhere else or spent that much less time with the station. The country station didn't change anything. Same personalities and they are your typical country station that plays the country chart.
I remember when the ppm's first came out and thinking that this what I thought the ratings were all along. I always had felt that those low cuming stations didn't deserve the high ratings they were getting and that the high cuming stations deserved more than what they got. PPM came in and it validated that thinking. It has led to less variety in our choices as listeners but hey these are real numbers, real listening so the reality is that people don't want such diverse selections, there is much more commonality in the tastes of the overall market. To think that people would listen for 4 constant hours without interruption just because it was some beloved personality or show was silly. Also, you could not deny that people wanted to say they listened to the so called cool station and that adults didn't want to admit to how much time they truly spent listening to that kiddie pop station.
As for 939, they were getting killed against the 3 pop stations in the market so it was time to switch it up. there is a wonderful history of South Florida over the last 35 years with rhythmic and pop music so it would stand to reason that if a station can find that perfect mix of all those hits over the last 3 decades you would be able to produce a viable station with it. Iheart will do it on the cheap so it may not reach its full potential but if they get the music right it should be enough. IMO its about constructing a very familiar playlist of the high testing favorites but also to allocate a few slots per hour to play some oh wow cuts that no one else can touch which will separate the station from the rest(form a unique identity) and also to generate some true passion and thus loyalty to this 'mia as well.
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