Warm 106.9 is being "contemporized"...

[Rob Piotrowski]

So says this job opening ad for a morning show producer: http://www.allaccess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=62723

"Help us build the new Allan & Ashley morning show as we 'contemporize' this iconic Mainstream AC brand in one America's iconic cities. This position includes assisting with daily content preparation, research, promotions, marketing, social media and public appearances. Radio experience required, plus strong editing and production skills, including, but not limited to VoxPro and Adobe Audition."

First line of the ad? "This is a good one". Sure it is!

 

[Bongwater]

So says this job opening ad for a morning show producer: http://www.allaccess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=62723

"Help us build the new Allan & Ashley morning show as we 'contemporize' this iconic Mainstream AC brand in one America's iconic cities. This position includes assisting with daily content preparation, research, promotions, marketing, social media and public appearances. Radio experience required, plus strong editing and production skills, including, but not limited to VoxPro and Adobe Audition."

First line of the ad? "This is a good one". Sure it is!

You know, I was listening to Allan & Ashley the other day and I was kinda wondering when they were finally going to move up from studio orchestras playing "Darktown Strutter's Ball", 78 RPM records and stiff formal announcing of call letters, city of licence, wavelength, studio location, physical location of the transmitter, height of the transmitting tower and maximum effective radiated power.

I see good things here. Kudos to Allan & Ashley.

 

[KXA]

So says this job opening ad for a morning show producer: http://www.allaccess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=62723

"Help us build the new Allan & Ashley morning show as we 'contemporize' this iconic Mainstream AC brand in one America's iconic cities. This position includes assisting with daily content preparation, research, promotions, marketing, social media and public appearances. Radio experience required, plus strong editing and production skills, including, but not limited to VoxPro and Adobe Audition."

First line of the ad? "This is a good one". Sure it is!

And your problem is???

 

[KXA]

You know, I was listening to Allan & Ashley the other day and I was kinda wondering when they were finally going to move up from studio orchestras playing "Darktown Strutter's Ball", 78 RPM records and stiff formal announcing of call letters, city of licence, wavelength, studio location, physical location of the transmitter, height of the transmitting tower and maximum effective radiated power.

I see good things here. Kudos to Allan & Ashley.

Good one Larry. Just stirring the 'pot' eh?

 

[Rob Piotrowski]

And your problem is???

No problem here - your problem is?

 

[PPMARY]

So says this job opening ad for a morning show producer: http://www.allaccess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=62723

"Help us build the new Allan & Ashley morning show as we 'contemporize' this iconic Mainstream AC brand in one America's iconic cities. This position includes assisting with daily content preparation, research, promotions, marketing, social media and public appearances. Radio experience required, plus strong editing and production skills, including, but not limited to VoxPro and Adobe Audition."

First line of the ad? "This is a good one". Sure it is!

I didn't know there was even anyone even on that station anymore. You can't comtemporize that turd, time to flush it down. Problem is it's old. It's stale. In the publics mind it's the boring soccer mom in a mini van station that isn't cool and it does nothing to stand out. What does the brand mean? It's not Seattle's at work station anymore either. It's time to pull the plug and kill that hot mess once and for all. It's clear that no one has a clue on how to turn it around as evidence from the shit show that has been on display there for far too long.

 

[installLSC]

I didn't know there was even anyone even on that station anymore. You can't comtemporize that turd, time to flush it down. Problem is it's old. It's stale. In the publics mind it's the boring soccer mom in a mini van station that isn't cool and it does nothing to stand out. What does the brand mean? It's not Seattle's at work station anymore either. It's time to pull the plug and kill that hot mess once and for all. It's clear that no one has a clue on how to turn it around as evidence from the shit show that has been on display there for far too long.

Well how about some constructive criticism for once? Are you seriously saying a major market FM should just go off the air?
My thoughts are there's got to be room for a true AC station in Seattle, now that Star is just a top 40 station in AC drag and the Mountain and KWJZ long gone. That gives the over 30 crowd that doesn't like dance music or hip hop with nowhere to go. Think stuff like John Mayer and Jack Johnson. Yes this music has never been cool--but when was AC ever cool?

 

[davideduardo]

Well how about some constructive criticism for once? Are you seriously saying a major market FM should just go off the air?

You are right. Particularly since 106.9 is essentially tied for 4th in billings and is #2 on average in 25-54 women and overall #4 in 25-54.

 

[bobdavcav]

What I don't understand is the rise of Classic Rock titles on AC radio. I've heard I Love Rock and Roll on both KKCW and KRWM, and Living On a Prayer on KKCW. Both those songs belong on their respectice Classic Hits or Classic Rock stations, which in the case of KKCW, both are sister stations to the AC. I have heard John Meyor on AC recently, KRWM played Daughters when I was recording them one day in November.

 

[semoochie]

What I don't understand is the rise of Classic Rock titles on AC radio. I've heard I Love Rock and Roll on both KKCW and KRWM, and Living On a Prayer on KKCW. Both those songs belong on their respectice Classic Hits or Classic Rock stations, which in the case of KKCW, both are sister stations to the AC. I have heard John Meyor on AC recently, KRWM played Daughters when I was recording them one day in November.

It would appear that 40 year old women like those songs. By the way, they're also playing "Cryin" by Aerosmith.

 

[Gregg.]

Well, this is the problem that all formerly Soft AC stations face. The under-45 crowd apparently doesn't want soft music anymore. It's something that I don't understand, that the target audience doesn't need music to be soft while they are working, relaxing, have their minds on some other task. So no radio station wants to call itself "Easy Rock," "Lite," "Magic" or "Warm" if it can help it... unless it is so identified by that name for such a long time that it CAN'T give it up. (How long has it been since KRWM was "Warm," which the call letters imply?)

For this reason, stations like KRWM are adding I Love Rock & Roll and Living on A Prayer, and deleting Whitney Houston and Gloria Estefan titles. These days, the differences between AC, Hot AC and even Top 40, are getting smaller. It's more about how far back a station will go for its library, not what the tempo is. A few AC stations such as WLIT Chicago (notice the LIT used to mean Lite), KVIL Dallas, KYXY San Diego and WALK Long Island now consider themselves to be Hot AC, not AC anymore, although they really are on the AC/Hot AC line because they do go back to the 80s for some library material, like I Love Rock & Roll, a hit in 1982. Most Hot AC stations don't go back more than 20 years for library material, which today would be the 1990s. For the 30 year old woman, I Love Rock & Roll is a song her mother listened to, four years before she was born.

So will stations like KRWM and KKCW, both highly rated, successful stations, move so uptempo that they create an opening on their right? This week, iHeart, the nation's biggest owner, launched a Very Soft AC in San Francisco, 98.1 The Breeze, playing all those songs and artists that today's AC stations have deleted... Estefan, Houston, even Barbra Streisand and Michael Bolton. Other big markets, Miami, San Diego and Tampa, also have highly successful Very Soft AC stations. With the addition of San Francisco, that makes four markets in the top 20 with Very Soft AC outlets. Let's see if it catches on in SF and elsewhere.

 

[JakeMott]

Does the under 45 crowd not want soft music or are there no new and current artists recording soft songs? If my memory is right, the AC stations in the 80's and 90's played mostly soft songs by current artists and some older songs thrown in. Hopefully AC can get back to that.

 

[semoochie]

Does the under 45 crowd not want soft music or are there no new and current artists recording soft songs? If my memory is right, the AC stations in the 80's and 90's played mostly soft songs by current artists and some older songs thrown in. Hopefully AC can get back to that.

A lot of that consisted of songs for older people(Bette Midler had several of those.)and what 35-40 year olds wanted then.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

Wouldn't the "common sense" logic be that older folks (like me) slower to adopt new technology, so would be looking to radio to satisfy their programming desires? Younger are more inclined to gravitate to streams, on-demand, Personal playlists, etc. Therefore, finding programming to satisfy tastes of the potential audience may not be a BAD strategy move??

 

[TheBigA]

Wouldn't the "common sense" logic be that older folks (like me) slower to adopt new technology, so would be looking to radio to satisfy their programming desires?

Absolutely. Unfortunately the people who pay for the programming, namely the advertisers, want to reach younger folks. It's a quandary. But there's nothing we can do. Unless older folks want to pick up the costs somehow.

 

[Rob Piotrowski]

Today's money demo is 18-34 women. Those are millennial soccer moms who were barely out of diapers when James Taylor, Phil Collins and Gloria Estefan ruled AC radio. If you put a "traditional" AC on the air you'll have the same demo problems oldies radio had and conservative talk still has - it skews too old.

BTW - Warm has been "Warm" for many decades now - about as long as "Warm" in Rochester, NY.

 

[Bongwater]

Wouldn't the "common sense" logic be that older folks (like me) slower to adopt new technology, so would be looking to radio to satisfy their programming desires? Younger are more inclined to gravitate to streams, on-demand, Personal playlists, etc. Therefore, finding programming to satisfy tastes of the potential audience may not be a BAD strategy move??

I talked about this here years ago when radio was busy casting off the oldies and Smooth Jazz. I thought it was silly of stations to be dropping off older listeners to reach a demographic that is nearly completely out of their reach technologically. Radio is still an option with older listeners, not so much with younger ones. But it never will be an option for older listeners if you keep sending them off into cyberspace. Worst idea ever. Because once they're gone, they're NOT coming back once they've seen that cornucopia.

Older listeners can put up with someone else's curated playlist, commercials and voices breaking it up, younger people want to make their own playlists of wall to wall music of whatever their moods take them. This is a medium that is showing it's age. Badly. And time will only underscore that.

I have a feeling some VERY BIG changes are around the corner.....Lots of indicators are popping up.

 

[TheBigA]

I thought it was silly of stations to be dropping off older listeners to reach a demographic that is nearly completely out of their reach technologically.

First of all, you'd be surprised. The demographics for OTA radio are about the same as they were 30 years ago. So younger people use OTA. Just not as much as their parents did. A recent survey showed that the minute millennials have responsibilities, they no longer have the time to create their own playlists, and start looking for those "curated playlists" you mentioned. As a result, companies like Apple have been hiring curators to create those playlists. But the reality is that OTA radio is simply easier to use than Apple Music. So they tune in FM stations.

Second of all, there's no question that if it was simply a matter of reaching the biggest audience, radio stations would gladly program for people over 50. But someone has to pay for it. The advertisers have decided there are cheaper ways to reach boomers, so that's what they do. Plus boomers are vigorously opposed to long commercial breaks. So there's no way practically to do OTA radio aiming at older people.

 

[boombox4]

The fact that (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) such a large percentage of people over 40 do not have viable incomes (i.e., jobs) is possibly a factor here. People don't buy stuff when they don't have extra money. Hence, they are not money demos.

No wonder the advertisers go after the 18-34's. No one else is buying much stuff.

 

[TheBigA]

No wonder the advertisers go after the 18-34's. No one else is buying much stuff.

Except that's not the reason. Boomers have expendable money, but don't respond well to radio advertising. In fact they're mostly antagonistic about it. So advertisers reach boomers using other media, like TV or magazines. Even direct mail is more effective with boomers than radio.