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Big 95.5

scanman1 said:
Fingers crossed it goes in a more Active Rock direction if it has to change focus, and does something similar to what WZZN-FM 94.7 was doing before it switched to Oldies.
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It is what it is. Stations do not launch and then significantly modify the format or playlist.

About the only significant change that might happen, other than future air-staff additions and promotions, is doing another music test after the format has settled in for 90-120 days or so. That gives people time to be acquainted with the library, and also is enough time for those who tried but did not like to go away and not influence research.

Such a test might show some songs did well for a couple of plays-per-person, but don't hold well. And other "what if" songs may turn out to be valid additions to the playlist.
 
The playlist is a complete disgrace; I would be stunned if this station earns anything other than mediocre to abysmal ratings.
 
MarkW said:
The playlist is a complete disgrace; I would be stunned if this station earns anything other than mediocre to abysmal ratings.
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You are letting your personal music taste influence your views on radio stations.

Radio is a one-to-many medium, as is all "old" media like broadcast television, newspapers, magazines. Each tries to provide content that is liked by a significant audience. Today, what they provide must be good enough to be a viable alternative to self-selected music, news, entertainment and information sources.

This station is not targeting you. Obviously, they think that the particular blend of music you like is not as mass appeal as the one they designed.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Today, what they provide must be good enough to be a viable alternative to self-selected music, news, entertainment and information sources.
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What's interesting is when you look at personal playlists among people 25-54, you see that music choices don't fit into neat format boxes. They're all over the place. Moving forward, format creation is less about genre and more about reaching a target audience. In other words, it's a lot more work.
 
TheBigA said:
What's interesting is when you look at personal playlists among people 25-54, you see that music choices don't fit into neat format boxes. They're all over the place. Moving forward, format creation is less about genre and more about reaching a target audience. In other words, it's a lot more work.
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Back to the earliest days of music testing... somewhere at the start of the 80's... we discovered that there were songs that did not "fit the format" that had huge appeal among a station's core listeners.

Generally, programmers decided that those songs were liked, but not expected on "our station". In other words, let someone else play them.

Now we are seeing that this was probably wrong. There are occasional ones which we need to play. I call them "fireworks" songs because they are very visible and give an enhanced variety to the station. The one issue is that some of them behave like novelty songs... once they are over, they are really over.

But programmers are going to have to stop considering these as "crossovers" from country, rock or r&b or some other genre and think of them as in-format variety enhancers.
 
Re:

You are letting your personal music taste influence your views on radio stations.

Radio is a one-to-many medium, as is all "old" media like broadcast television, newspapers, magazines. Each tries to provide content that is liked by a significant audience. Today, what they provide must be good enough to be a viable alternative to self-selected music, news, entertainment and information sources.

This station is not targeting you. Obviously, they think that the particular blend of music you like is not as mass appeal as the one they designed.
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I'll look forward to reading your remarks, David and BigA, six months to a year from now when it's proven this mix of music is a complete ratings failure. There may be a few months' worth of decent ratings from sampling, curiosity, etc., but afterward the air will escape the balloon quickly. I suspect you gentlemen and the other reliable corporate radio apologists will come up with one or more reasons defending the subpar performance at the appropriate time (i.e. this station was never meant to a bread winner, it was only meant to be a flanker, etc.).

I am a rock radio P1 who graduated high school in 1997 and college in 2001, so if the station is not "targeting me," I find that to be a curious statement. The promotional video for Rock 95.5 seems to tout a rather hard edged, honest to goodness rock station. The actual programming is something largely different. What a disappointment!

But programmers are going to have to stop considering these as "crossovers" from country, rock or r&b or some other genre and think of them as in-format variety enhancers.
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iPod-type programming instincts often don't translate to success at FM radio. John Dickey tried a reverse crossover concept on his 96.3 KSCS in Dallas several years back; it was a complete FLOP!!

Remember when Q101 positioned as "Everything Alternative" and "Alternative on Shuffle" ? Yet another flop!
 
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I can live with some of that variety in the format. I like Rock, but rock has more then one path. Their are many genre's and sub-genre's that have good stuff too.

So unlike Mark, I can live with Metallica, Journey, System of a Down, Rod Stewart, etc...

At least we have a rock station again that isn't a heritage/classic rocker.

I would love to listen to 95.1 more, but it is hard to get sometimes down here in the western suburbs. So it's nice to have a major market stick that everyone can get that is in this format.
 
Got around to actually setting it as a preset when I was out and about tonight.

Their playlist in the half hour I was in the car was Def Leppard, Journey, AC/DC, STP, Limp Bizkit.

So I'm not seeing the error 404 that Mark is. I liked it.

What I don't like, is the sound quality. It sounds high and "tinny". Other stations I have on preset don't have this issue. WLS, 95.9 The River, WDRV, etc. When I get back on 95.5, it sounds like you cranked the treble all the way up and the bass all the way down. I even checked my EQ. It was the same setting as all the other stations (when you save a preset on this car, it saves the EQ setting you had on with the station).
 
MarkW said:
Barf.

Hey, maybe they should add Rod Stewart and Phil Collins, too!

Great stations with phenomenal reputations such as WRIF, KUPD and KISW would NEVER play Bryan Adams and Matchbox 20 in a million years. Nickelback? Perhaps in light rotation; certainly not 3x to 4x daily!
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Three to four times a day shouldn't be too much for a group that had massive hits in the 00's. Now if you're talking 20-30 X a day? Yeah, that would definitely be overkill.

Always nice to see a new rock station somewhere. We had a good one in Seattle open up three to four years ago... Showed some promise, flipped to country after a year and a half or so... Oh well.

Good luck to the station in Chicago. Bigger market, might last a while.
 
boombox4 said:
Three to four times a day shouldn't be too much for a group that had massive hits in the 00's. Now if you're talking 20-30 X a day? Yeah, that would definitely be overkill.

Always nice to see a new rock station somewhere. We had a good one in Seattle open up three to four years ago... Showed some promise, flipped to country after a year and a half or so... Oh well.

Good luck to the station in Chicago. Bigger market, might last a while.
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The average listener uses radio about 8 hours a week. A heavy P1 might listen to your station 10 to 12 hours a week. A song played 3 x to 4x daily would be once each 6 to 8 hours. The heavy listener might hear the song twice in a week. For a good song, that is hardly excessive.

What a number of posters don't understand is that stations play songs that are hits today. If a song from 1990 is a hit today with our listeners, it is played... not because of what it was but because of what it is today.

If this station was researched well, they have discovered that the target audience has changed a bit as it aged from when certain songs were new. The playlist reflects this.

Not all formats work. Even with the best research, formats, like toothpaste and laundry detergents, sometimes fail. Even P&G and Chevy and Chanel bring out stuff that does not work. We can't expect every format variation to work.

I don't know a good programmer... including yours truly... who has not had at least on bad concept or downright disaster. Mine was an adult hits format in '67 that stiffed badly. But since I owned the station, I was not fired... just embarrassed.
 
One of the things I keep hearing from people I know that have listened to it, is the inconsistency. I'm fine with it, because I chalk it up to them just not liking a particular artist/song.

I do have to say, I do like hearing Drowning Pool's Bodies at 8am on a weekday morning on a Chicago stick. I don't know that either Rock 103.5 (I don't remember if this song was out in their time), or 94.7 The Zone ever playing it.
 
CMNTMXR57 said:
One of the things I keep hearing from people I know that have listened to it, is the inconsistency. I'm fine with it, because I chalk it up to them just not liking a particular artist/song.

I do have to say, I do like hearing Drowning Pool's Bodies at 8am on a weekday morning on a Chicago stick. I don't know that either Rock 103.5 (I don't remember if this song was out in their time), or 94.7 The Zone ever playing it.
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The Zone played it as a recurrent/gold (they didn't become an Active until after "Bodies" finished its run). They also played "Step Up" to death.
 
CMNTMXR57 said:
One of the things I keep hearing from people I know that have listened to it, is the inconsistency. I'm fine with it, because I chalk it up to them just not liking a particular artist/song.

I do have to say, I do like hearing Drowning Pool's Bodies at 8am on a weekday morning on a Chicago stick. I don't know that either Rock 103.5 (I don't remember if this song was out in their time), or 94.7 The Zone ever playing it.
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96.7 beat the ever living crap out of that song when it was still Will Rock.
 
I couldn't remember the timing of "The Zone" in relation to that song.

I barely, barely, barely can get 96.7 up in Elgin. I could get it (very weak) at my house in West Chicago that I used the old TV antenna on top of the roof as my radio antenna.
 
Re:

New station is a TOTAL DISASTER!!!

Been on the air for almost a full month, and in market #3, it's only managed 2,100 Facebook likes. That is absolutely pathetic.

LOL x 10000000!!!
 
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