The WBUZ Thread

[macattack]

As Chicago is lacking in rock radio, I've been finding myself streaming WBUZ 102.9 for casual listening in the mid-day and late night around my work shifts. I find their programming solution to a question that has been confounding rock programmers throughout the 2010s fairly interesting and I'm wondering if their station is a model that can emulated elsewhere, especially after Boston will lose its final modern rock station on the 22nd. Nashville is not a particularly rock-friendly place, the market is dominated by country and urban stations along with a dominant AC station in WJXA. Yet WBUZ has preserved for decades at this point, often as the only game in town for rock and alternative, while contemporaries nationwide (as well as attempts to compete against WBUZ in Nashville) have fallen.

WBUZ is an oddball of a station. Zigz, the longtime PD at the station, apparently declared WBUZ as an Alternative to Mediabase and Billboard in 2013, but did not change the station's branding, so they still call themselves a "rock" station. They also still report to Nielsen as an Active Rock station despite their placement on the Alternative panels. The daytime and nighttime playlists are different beasts, with the daytime playing like a melodic Active rocker but nighttime sounding like an edgier Alternative, complete with a current spam hour at 3 in the morning that they recently started. They've also begun shuffling the 90's rock to a specialty hour at noon, leaving only the biggest hits of the 90's in the daily rotation.

It is a station that plays AC/DC, Pearl Jam, and I Prevail alongside Twenty-One Pilots, AWOLNATION, and Best Coast, sometimes all in the same hour.

How does the WBUZ model manage to hold up over time, while other rock and alternative stations struggle and fall? Their latest share is a 3.6, a fairly decent performance, though not worldbreaking.

 

[The Rimshot]

I listened to 102-9 The Buzz in the early 2000s when I was stationed at Ft Campbell. Your testimony proves that the Buzz hasn’t changed. Back then, you could hear Wheatus’s “Teenage Dirtbag,” followed by a random AC/DC song, followed by White Zombie’s “More Human than Human.”

Bethanne Donahue hosted the Top 8 at 8, and mocked most of the songs.

I met most of the jocks at the karaoke side of “Outer Limit,” and most of them seemed nice.

 

[b-turner]

Actually Nashville has a long heritage of being a place where rock was welcomed. It's just that country gets center stage. Radio Lightning FM 100 was once rather cutting edge in Nashville, perhaps not so much now. I recall a rimshot Southern Rocker that lasted quite a while. There's been some interesting formats. The Phoenix was sort of a singer/songwriter & Americana blend. There was a station branded as Rockin' Country with classic rock fused with uptempo young country. I've heard nothing more about YoCo 96.7 but it was an interesting attempt as far as a format goes.

WBUZ is a success story for sure in a very competitive market with too many signals to grab much of the advertising pie.

 

[firepoint525]

I recall a rimshot Southern Rocker that lasted quite a while. There's been some interesting formats.

I thought that you were referring to "Rockin' Country" here, until I saw your later sentence. More about that in a moment, but I don't (otherwise) remember this "rimshot southern rocker" that you are referencing here.

There was a station branded as Rockin' Country with classic rock fused with uptempo young country.

We also had 95.5 the Wolf, as WSM-FM was known at the time, during the early 2000s. They, too, played a mix of rock and country. They played Fleetwood Mac, Firefall, Rod Stewart, and even the Commodores.

 

[b-turner]

My Nashville radio listening was mostly confined to visits to my parents home. I cannot recall the station that was playing a more Southern Album Rock styled format but I recall it was a rimshot, somewhere around the middle of the dial and that the signal was not so great on the north side of the metro although I could pick it up near I-40 and Charlotte Pike.

Although I was born in Nashville, we moved by the time I was 5 years old. At some point, several years later, a comment from my mom stuck in my head. As we had moved to a new city when my dad got a promotion, neighbors would ask where we were from. When the answer was Nashville. Country music became the topic. My mom always remarked she felt Nashville was more of a rock and roll town than a country and western town. That was say, 1965 to about 1970 when I recall her saying this. I recall at the time WKDA and WMAK were in a heated battle to be the king of top 40 radio in Nashville. A few years later WLAC would switch to top 40.

 

[firepoint525]

My Nashville radio listening was mostly confined to visits to my parents home. I cannot recall the station that was playing a more Southern Album Rock styled format but I recall it was a rimshot, somewhere around the middle of the dial and that the signal was not so great on the north side of the metro although I could pick it up near I-40 and Charlotte Pike.
Although I was born in Nashville, we moved by the time I was 5 years old. At some point, several years later, a comment from my mom stuck in my head. As we had moved to a new city when my dad got a promotion, neighbors would ask where we were from. When the answer was Nashville. Country music became the topic. My mom always remarked she felt Nashville was more of a rock and roll town than a country and western town. That was say, 1965 to about 1970 when I recall her saying this. I recall at the time WKDA and WMAK were in a heated battle to be the king of top 40 radio in Nashville. A few years later WLAC would switch to top 40.

If that was in the 1965 to 1970 time frame, that would have been well before I moved here!

 

[b-turner]

It seems to me the Southern Rock heavy album oriented format was around the middle to late 1980s. In fact, thinking harder, it may have been a format utilized prior to the birth of WRLT, Radio Lightning or if WWTN was around then, perhaps the pre-talk days.

 

[Radio Nashville]

I'm guessing that was Rebel 100

for which i have the format listed as "Alternative", though that format means a lot of different things to different people. In 1985, 100.1 became "lite rock" then, "Lightning" in 1990.

 

[b-turner]

I think you have it, Rebel sounds familiar.

 

[Tibbs4]

I think you have it, Rebel sounds familiar.

Rebel 100 was not this format. It was alt-rock, with a slight local lean.

I think you are referring to 102.9's version of southern rock & country that was on the air for a few years, as WYCQ Rockin' Country. That was before they went more country (Moo102) and then Power Country, which for a while had Coyote McCloud on the air. This was all prior to the Buzz going rock a few days after KDF went country (approp. on April Fool's Day, 1999.)

 

[b-turner]

I recall Rockin' Country playing mostly uptempo country with things like Eric Clapton's Knocking On Heaven's Door thrown in (I recall that specifically). Rockin' Country has more of a hits oriented presentation. The station I recall had a presentation like an album rock station but I heard lots of Creedence, Allman Brothers, 38 Special and other Southern Rockers being perhaps 25% of the mix. The DJ delivery was more AOR-like and music was played in sets without liners. I was only in town a week that visit but I recall it had few commercials and gathered it was a recent move in. I'm sure the format was short-lived. Rebel sounds real familiar. Could it have been a short-lived format before going Alt-Rock?

 

[Tibbs4]

I recall Rockin' Country playing mostly uptempo country with things like Eric Clapton's Knocking On Heaven's Door thrown in (I recall that specifically). Rockin' Country has more of a hits oriented presentation. The station I recall had a presentation like an album rock station but I heard lots of Creedence, Allman Brothers, 38 Special and other Southern Rockers being perhaps 25% of the mix. The DJ delivery was more AOR-like and music was played in sets without liners. I was only in town a week that visit but I recall it had few commercials and gathered it was a recent move in. I'm sure the format was short-lived. Rebel sounds real familiar. Could it have been a short-lived format before going Alt-Rock?

Interesting. Remember exactly what year your are remembering the format was on the air? 100.1 did go through a bit of a shuffle of formats before the Ned Horton and/ or Lester Turner period. I can ask them if they remember.

 

[b-turner]

I can't really say for sure what year it was. I have to recall by radio jobs. I know when I'd visit Nashville I'd record a bunch of stations.

When I was moving last year I found an old cassette of what was oldies 790 WAJN in Ashland City. I think that would have been pre-Corky. If I remember correctly that was in 1989. So, I know I got a vacation in 1989. I think that was the year I visited WDKT 730 in Huntsville during the short-lived "Power D 73" days.

 

[davideduardo]

Zigz, the longtime PD at the station, apparently declared WBUZ as an Alternative to Mediabase and Billboard in 2013, but did not change the station's branding, so they still call themselves a "rock" station. They also still report to Nielsen as an Active Rock station despite their placement on the Alternative panels.

Keep in mind that format classification for Mediabase and BDS is not determined by the station but by a panel that analyzes the playlist and makes a determination.

The weight of each station on the total panel is determined by AQH persons.

Stations are given a list of formats to define a station in Nielsen's radio ratings services. If another station objects, the case will be reviewed. Otherwise, the station self-defines. That is just for the "tag" listing format that is in the Nielsen data and it does not determine the format that is listed in the online web listings of ratings results; that is done by each site itself.

 

[briancraig]

My Nashville radio listening was mostly confined to visits to my parents home. I cannot recall the station that was playing a more Southern Album Rock styled format but I recall it was a rimshot, somewhere around the middle of the dial and that the signal was not so great on the north side of the metro although I could pick it up near I-40 and Charlotte Pike.

Although I was born in Nashville, we moved by the time I was 5 years old. At some point, several years later, a comment from my mom stuck in my head. As we had moved to a new city when my dad got a promotion, neighbors would ask where we were from. When the answer was Nashville. Country music became the topic. My mom always remarked she felt Nashville was more of a rock and roll town than a country and western town. That was say, 1965 to about 1970 when I recall her saying this. I recall at the time WKDA and WMAK were in a heated battle to be the king of top 40 radio in Nashville. A few years later WLAC would switch to top 40.

I’ve seen a lot of articles from that era where the writer was surprised that country wasn’t anywhere close to being the number one format in Nashville.

WMAK had a 22.3 rating in the Fall of 1970 and a 21.2 in the Spring of 1972. WLAC would go top 40 in the Fall of 72 ending MAK’s total dominance of the market.

Nashville really didn’t become a strong country radio market until the mid 1980s. WSIX-FM had double digit numbers in the late 1970s but they were a strange hybrid of beautiful music and country back then. WENO and WKDA had poor signals that didn’t do a good job of covering the whole market especially at night. WSM played pop music during the day until October 29, 1979. I always got the idea their overnight country programming was much more geared towards the sky wave audience than Nashville.

 

[TheBigA]

I always got the idea their overnight country programming was much more geared towards the sky wave audience than Nashville.

I think what you're saying was furthered in the Ken Burns documentary. I think what helped WSIX in the 90s was their incredible air staff, starting of course with Gerry House. And Gerry made the music more acceptable to Nashvillians regardless of their personal taste.

Today the #1 slot is often held either by Jack or Mix rather than any of the country stations. Although when a country station rises above the pack, it tends to be the one that plays more 90s hits than currents.

 

[macattack]

Chris Atticus' second month as PD got WBUZ a 4.1 which is the highest share that they've gotten in a while (yes the numbers are not reliable I know). Not a bad start for the new PD, though I wonder how much of it is due to introducing a wider variety of classic rock to the rotation.

Currently rolling with Cage the Elephant, KennyHoopla, and Weezer as heavies, with Highly Suspect, Ozzy, Pretty Reckless, Twenty One Pilots, and All Time Low also getting a noticeable amount of spins.

 

[davideduardo]

Chris Atticus' second month as PD got WBUZ a 4.1 which is the highest share that they've gotten in a while (yes the numbers are not reliable I know). .

The numbers are just as reliable as they ever were.

The issue is that fewer people are going to work, so there is less in-car and at-work listening. While at home, there is often less radio usage due to streaming and the video alternatives that show the demonstrations and riots and marches.

What we know is that the deepest hit cost music stations between 40% and 60% of their listening, while news and talk did slightly less horribly. But essentially all stations have far fewer AQH listeners than before because listening is lighter.

So, if you look at WBUZ in that month, the 4.1 AQH persons share is lower than a 3 share AQH listeners prior to the pandemic.

 

[macattack]

The numbers are just as reliable as they ever were.

The issue is that fewer people are going to work, so there is less in-car and at-work listening. While at home, there is often less radio usage due to streaming and the video alternatives that show the demonstrations and riots and marches.

What we know is that the deepest hit cost music stations between 40% and 60% of their listening, while news and talk did slightly less horribly. But essentially all stations have far fewer AQH listeners than before because listening is lighter.

So, if you look at WBUZ in that month, the 4.1 AQH persons share is lower than a 3 share AQH listeners prior to the pandemic.

That's kind of what I meant, just trying to say it in far fewer words, sorry.

The dissonance between branding and what they actually play continues as WBUZ has an event with KennyHoopla planned at 4 PM today. I am a bit surprised KennyHoopla has apparently scored a local hit in Nashville but good for him, he has a lot of potential to be a great "stable" artist for the format in the upcoming decade.

 

[BeachBaby]

It does help they have the format all to themselves. The greatest problem any rock station faces is when their PD thinks their taste is the demo's taste - and they're wrong. Their success goes back to Troy Hansen, what? 8 years ago?