• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

New format for Big 95.5?

They're not pre-empting the syndicated morning or evening shows, so that tells me they're staying country. It may be a broader range of country rather than the focus on currents. But iHeart doesn't do that kind of format anywhere else I'm aware of.
 
Alex_0490 said:
It looks like they will be doing a Top 1000 Country songs of all time. It is unclear though what will follow when the countdown ends. Will there be a new format (one would think so) considering they can't even get to a 2.0. Thoughts, ideas? What format holes is Chicago needing right now?

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/...top-1000-country-songs-of-all-time-this-week/
Click to expand...


Hard to say, 1,00 I ma sure they know what is planned but might be keep listeners in suspense of what they have planned. 1,000 songs is a lot of songs, and depending on the length of each country song they are playing, depends on when it does end.
 
Alex_0490 said:
It looks like they will be doing a Top 1000 Country songs of all time. It is unclear though what will follow when the countdown ends. Will there be a new format (one would think so) considering they can't even get to a 2.0. Thoughts, ideas? What format holes is Chicago needing right now?

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/...top-1000-country-songs-of-all-time-this-week/
Click to expand...


Looking at the article, and even The Big A said this they are still going to air their morning show and evening show, as songs are going to air daily from 9 AM to 8 PM, can't say for sure how many songs day will pay in these hours, but this looks like a weeklong stint that will wrap up assuming by 8 PM on Sunday. The Bobby Bones show airs in the morning, it looks their regular hosts are still working this week, and their regular format will start playing between the hours of 8 PM and 9 AM of the next morning. DOn't know if this is something to worry about but here is their announcement and so far what songs have been played in what order https://big955chicago.iheart.com/content/2020-02-13-the-top-1000-country-songs-of-all-time/ .
 
Alex_0490 said:
It looks like they will be doing a Top 1000 Country songs of all time. It is unclear though what will follow when the countdown ends. Will there be a new format (one would think so) considering they can't even get to a 2.0. Thoughts, ideas? What format holes is Chicago needing right now?

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/...top-1000-country-songs-of-all-time-this-week/
Click to expand...

Robert Feder has his report out on it this morning, but look for them to get to #1 sometime on Saturday afternoon, but I didn't see anywhere in his report that there would be a format change, other then this is the brain child of program director Lance Houston that also serves as their evening host.
 
It may be a broader range of country rather than the focus on currents. But iHeart doesn't do that kind of format anywhere else I'm aware of.
Click to expand...

103.7 WCKY-FM, which rimshoots Toledo, OH, flipped to gold-based Country in the middle of 2019.

That station, like 95.5, airs Bobby Bones in the morning.

98.1 KVET-FM in Austin, TX mixes newer & older country together. Plenty of songs from the 90's and even a few songs from the 80's in the playlist. It would not at all surprise me if 95.5 adopts a similar sound. There is a TON of artist repetition on KVET-FM, though, which I find annoying.
 
I love the "Outlaw" format that Saga is doing in western Massachusetts, Des Moines and a few other places in its small chain -- a mix of classic and recent country hits along with album tracks and even some alt-country. But I can't see it working on a big signal in a big market. Austin might be the only place it would attract enough ears to make it anything more than a placeholder on a marginal signal, and given the sea change in country music over the past 20 years, it still might repel more listeners than it attracts. I looked at the list "so far" at 95.5 and am shaking my head at some of the song sets the Chicagoland listeners must be dealing with -- and I'm a country geek the way some people are oldies geeks. I'm not sure Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Restless Heart, Taylor Swift, Don Williams and Ronnie Milsap can coexist on a viable commercial station's playlist anywhere.
 
Count me in with the group saying this will be a modification of the format and not a flip. There really isn't much Chicago is missing outside of Active Rock, and iHeart has 1. no interest in making new ones, and 2. does a terrible job of running the ones they still have.
 
There was an interview with PD Lance Houston in Country Aircheck. Here is a brief excerpt:

At its conclusion, WEBG will announce the launch of their Throwback Weekends, wherein the station will replace some existing gold titles with songs from the countdown and continue to highlight them and their place in history.
Click to expand...

So there you go. Throwback weekends.
 
Alex_0490 said:
I wonder if it will help there ratings...I say not a lot of change!
Click to expand...

The advertisers aren't interested in the weekend numbers, and anyone who gives the station a try on weekdays because he or she heard Dolly Parton or Don Williams on the weekend is going to be very disappointed in the standard contemporary country playlist they find there. I wonder how many dusty oldies per hour will be played on weekends.
 
The numbers throughout the week are so rotten, that considerable music changes should've been made in all dayparts, not just weekends.

At least SOMETHING is being done. Better than staying the course with zero changes.

WCCQ in the SW 'burbs plays a couple older tracks an hour:

https://www.wccq.com/recently-played/
 
Here's the official announcement for Throwback Weekends:

https://news.****************/articles/n38289/iHeartMedia-Chicagos-BIG-955-Debuts-Throwback-Weekends
 
TheBigA said:
Here's the official announcement for Throwback Weekends:

https://news.****************/articles/n38289/iHeartMedia-Chicagos-BIG-955-Debuts-Throwback-Weekends
Click to expand...

'80s and '90s hits only, then. That certainly makes more sense than throwing Patsy Cline and Don Williams into the mix. For the weekend, I guess, they'll sound like Nash Icon with more currents, rather than WSM(AM) blowing dust off old Hank Williams records.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom