WTSS ratings been in a downward spiral since the spring
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Star 102.5
- Thread starter CassChopper96
- Start date
Gee, let's see....what happened in the spring? Could it be...COVID?!!!
Of course. This is a national format problem. The Hot AC format lost on average 41.5 % of it's audience since April. It's still suffering.
Why? Lack of hot new music. You want a hot format? You need hot new music, and the Hot AC music world has been on hiatus since April.
And that is the station where GM Jerry Ryan and his crew created the "All Christmas" format beginning, at the time, right after Thanksgiving.
I can tell you a number of Hot AC stations that are doing well despite overall listening being down. Maybe it’s just a fluke
Are you paying your PD a living wage? On Call 24 hours a day, doing Music Logs at 3am, and he still has a second full time job! "Work Smarter, not Harder" is a good strategy. Being more efficient and organized is always helpful. No reason to be creating logs at 3am. Is he also doing all the production and traffic?
Most PDs have little control over programming these days. They oversee multiple stations in several markets. I agree that the programming suffers because of this, but it's not because the PD is lazy. They just follow orders to stay employed.
I agree with you that most Radio these days is generic. That's been the case for a long time. Local PDs have little input into playlists. It's been said by the experts that the listener is the "product". Programming is just "filler" before the next stop set...
Except for new music, PDs should not have input into the playlist, local or anywhere else. Listeners should.
If you are judging by share, that does not mean they are doing well. You can only judge "well" today by looking at AQH persons or rating, not share.
Why bother with "Curated Content" then? JACK formats say they "Play what WE want", not what "You" want.
A well programmed AAA format can expose listeners to songs they may like. That takes a skilled programmer and someone knowledgeable. People who watch movies didn't write the script, cast the actors, or direct the film...
If Star is holding Top 5 Women 25-54, Women 25-49 and in combo with Kiss potentially being in the Top 5 Women 18-49, it's all good. Except for the few people here who have access to the full ratings report, it's all speculative because we see only Persons 12+.
It would be fair to ask: Is there really any need for "staying til 5 in the morning" to program any kind of music. These things can be done from home, and parameters can be set in Music Master or Selector to accomplish a near perfect mix.
The Breeze last year had a more tradition approach to All Christmas. Star, being Hot AC, was more contemporary, although not so much that listeners didn't hear the dreaded Holly Jolly Christmas more than a few times.
Will Star and Breeze battle each other for All Christmas supremacy this year? Which station goes first? Will Classic hits WHTT join the fray? WWSW, the Classic Hits station in Pittsburgh has for years gone All Christmas with notable success. Stay tuned.
Most PDs in Buffalo are responsible for more than one radio station. It's doubtful that any of those PDs are "lazy." More likely they're spread too thin. There are only so many hours in a day. PDs are dealing with staff reductions and slashed research and promotion budgets. Having one PD per station is a luxury and those days are rapidly vanishing. Some PDs handle entire clusters. Some handle multiple markets.
Word is Entercom slashed their KissMas concert, Kiss the Summer Hello and Starry Night promotions, and the salary cuts first enacted as temporary have been made permanent. Radio is on life support. Most PDs are doing their best and working beyond expectations to keep their stations competitive. Programming has never been a 9 to 5 job, and it's most assuredly not these days.
Curation does not involve the selection. The selection of songs is done by getting listener feedback. That is technically called "research".
Even with new songs, we use a lot of looking at an artist's history, play in other markets, and as soon as possible, research.
The Jack positioning is puffery, the reality is different.
The number of new songs played per week by most stations is minimal. Even CHR's and Urban and Regional Mexican formats that are where most songs are broken only add a couple of songs a week.
Oh, and in case you have not checked, AAA is a nearly dead format. Even legendary stations like the ones in Denver and Portland have changed to much less esoteric systems of music play. In fact, only 11 AAA stations in the US bill over $1 million, and 2/3 of them bill under $500 thousand a year. Even your oft-demeaned 107.7 does a bit more than that!
There are, in fact, nearly 30 times more commercial country stations in the US than AAA ones now.
No, they can't. I've never seen either put out a perfect log that does not need editing. I always thought that it took about an hour per log in the best of cases to get what a PD wanted (that is, by the way, the curating part). With CHRs and other 50% current or better formats, if you do it right and schedule your powers and B's first, then check that and then go back for recurrents and gold, it can take longer than that.
And if you are kicking off something like all-Christmas and have not done it before, then you will need to spend several days to get the blend you want, adjusting rules.
After a music test, I have taken as long as a week with a Jack-like format to get the categories and characteristics flowing right.
A computer can't program music. it can only follow the specific steps you have set it up to do, and can not compensate totally for feel and flow. That requires a person... even the algorithms of some of the streaming services just can't get it right despite the expenditure of millions of dollars.
Oh, and a computer can't pick a hit, either.
I think a lot of new music has been released since March. But a lot of Hot AC stations are including more 90’s and 2000’s songs in their playlists recently
Can't argue the point. What I meant and should have more clearly written is, this process can be done "away from the station," as it's being done in so many markets by so many people today.
Can't argue the point that you can press F9 (or whatever the "schedule" key is these days) and expect the perfect mix. Nope. Logs need to be massaged regardless of format, whether its for unscheduleds or to improve song, jingle, promo sequences.
As to Jack/Mike/Bob formats... how can you tell the difference?
Hey! That's a joke. Those formats might be the most difficult to schedule.
Oh, I don’t know if that’s true - just for grins I set up an oldies (‘56-82 give or take) using StationPlaylist with 8 categories and only minimum separation & artist protection rules and it sounds remarkably good with no log massaging.
You missed the sarcasm. Of course, JACK is puffery. It's supposed to be mocking corporate playlists with the "witty voice guy". It's rather lame.
Ask Buddy how much 107.7 FM is bringing in. It's practically nil.
AAA requires effort which explains why very few groups will try it. It requires skilled programming and quality salespeople who are willing to target a certain niche. Just as WECK is reaching a certain demographic, so can a well run AAA format. With every passing year, fewer people care about Radio- So it may be moot anyway...
And even when you get a skilled programmer, with quality salespeople, you end up with an audience mainly over 65. If that's the goal, might as well play oldies.
More like 45-65 year old College Educated demographics.
1990 was 30 years ago, so artists like Pearl Jam, R.E.M., The Cure, and many others are now Oldies. Classic Hits formats are "Oldies", they just don't use the name.
There is a difference between 60s pop hits and Album Rock. AAA can bring the Byrds, Tom Petty, R.E.M., Wilco, The Decemberists, and countless others under one umbrella when done right...
They're college educated, but over 65. It won't work in Buffalo. Even at a non-com.
You're not going to change older listeners' habits by launching a AAA format in Buffalo. Those listeners cling to 97 Rock and 104... maybe Jack and the Canadian FMs for a little variety. If older listeners want new rock they get it from WYRK because today's Country sounds a lot like re-cycled 70s and 80s rock.
http://https://ratings.****************/content/arb037
Wow! WEBR subscribes to Nielsen and it debuts with a point five. Nowhere to go but up.
http://https://ratings.****************/content/arb037
Wow! WEBR subscribes to Nielsen and it debuts with a point five. Nowhere to go but up.
That's because that software and its similar products are very basic and not terribly sophisticated.
If you just like random music blending like wheels in a watch, they are OK. Otherwise, they are not what you'd use in any significant radio market.
But, I suppose, if a station has MusicMaster or RCS and does not spend time setting it up and massaging the log each day, any software would be good.
It's like saying that shaking stuff in a paper cup is as good as a KitchenAid.
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