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Just a very dumb question - format holes
- Thread starter Retro
- Start date
The main issue is will it sell. Companies don't program to format holes. Otherwise you wouldn't have two country stations and no urban stations in Boston. They program for advertisers.
When a station looks for a format opportunity, they generally do some kind of "appeal and satisfaction" research where they find out how many people like samples of a variety of kinds of music. The objective is to find out whether a particular kind and blend would be like and whetether a listener might change current listening to hear it.
This is done with samples of a bunch of music blends. People are asked if they know of any station doing that, whether they like it and whether they would use that kind of station. It's often referred to as "Awareness/Trial/Usage" testing and determines passion for a possible format. You'll never see the results of such a test released as the data is proprietary and the people seeing it often even have to sign confidentiality statements.
The best scoring blends are analyzed by other things like age span, use of current stations, ethnicity, etc. The final format picked, as BigA said, will be both mass appeal and have advertiser appeal.
Some years back, such a test revealed to us a huge format hole in a large, large market. But the appeal was to a group that advertisers did not want to reach, so we took the second best performer. So you can see that BigA's point about advertiser appeal is very valid.
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Harvey_Dogg
Guest
The golden rule is he who has the gold makes the rules.
as said above, it is all about money, you can have a great format like solid gold oldies, but although people may love it, the 55 to dead demographic is not going to bring in the money that is needed to justify the effort in most cases.
I have always told people that music and talk is what is played between commercials to keep you listening until the next commercial plays, and that they would play the sounds of whales humping if they thought it would get people to listen and advertisers to buy spots.
I have always told people that music and talk is what is played between commercials to keep you listening until the next commercial plays, and that they would play the sounds of whales humping if they thought it would get people to listen and advertisers to buy spots.
Now that you mention it, that would be a format hole in Boston. By any definition.
Hey, iHeartRadio/97.7!
"Oldies" is 65-death at best! 60 is really pushing it.
It's like time has frozen for some baby boomers, isn't it? Oldies stations started transitioning to classic hits by dropping all '50s and most '60s titles nearly 20 years ago. Between 2005 and 2010, just about all of them, except for stations in lesser markets and a few major-market independent operations, made later '70s and '80s titles their focus. Yet the idea that "oldies" might actually have a measurable audience of 55-year-olds lingers in post after post a decade or more later.
What's a format hole for Boston specifically on 97.7 that could have the potential to sell? Every hip hop and urban contemporary type of format thats been tried on 97.7 hasn't even lasted a decade on the station. The simulcast with WAAF lasted longer than any of the other formats that have been tried before that like hot 97.7 (1999-05) and wild-fm (2005-06) for example.
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Groove1670
Guest
The next shift will be more 90s-early 00 titles. I think the transisition will be slower because many titles in those decades still don't test well. To put it in perspective most of The Backstreet Boys are in their mid to late 40's.
The new HD-2 that WERS just launched is aimed at that hole. As I said in that thread, I don't expect it to get any ratings. But that's OK, since it's run by a non-com. They're in a better position to play the format hole game.
The transition may have happened by now if hip-hop hadn't proven to be so divisive. Even today, while it is popular among many younger, suburban, white listeners, it has nowhere near the crossover appeal that '60s and '70s soul and '70s and early '80s funk had. The gap between somewhat conventionally composed music and what is basically unsophisticated street rhymes set to a beat with bits of sampled music from the past as enhancement is a bridge too far for many, even 30-some years since rap first broke into the popular music mainstream.
Can the two genres ever coexist in a profitable, advertiser-desirable radio format targeting the 40-year-old listener? I have my doubts.
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Groove1670
Guest
Music in general was fragmented. Grunge, hip hop, new jack, sleepy ballads (Bolton, Dion). Very difficult to combine on a single channel. I'm not sure you can find 250-300 songs from the 90s that test extremely well. The 00s could fare a little better. I think in time this will change, but not like the impact the 80's had, but it was also the generation of MTV, and FM being accepted. A lot of AC stations are still visiting the 80s gold library, some 90's and heavy on the 00's
That's the ultimate question, and why I always say that format creation shouldn't be built around genres, but lifestyles. What music do the people you want to reach listen to? The answer can be found by studying streaming charts and studying target audiences. I think there may be new yet-undiscovered formats out there, but they won't be based on genres.
Country makes a lot of money, and it's why you have two country music stations in Boston. The percentage depends on the market, and I think country makes more money than AC in Boston.
Do you remember over 25 years ago when they said that Boston wasn't big enough for 2 Country stations? Things change and people do too.
Interesting! I have heard through various conversations that they wished that there was an early 90s station that focuses on early 90's R&B dance/pop. trying not too generic or cliche, but a lot of the underlings of such artists as Paula Abdul, MC Hammer, Mariah Carey, Boys to men, the vast many so-called phenomenal one hit wonders, etc.
The problem with formats built around song lists is they get tired very quickly as that song list gets overplayed. That's what we're seeing with The Breeze. There needs to be something else going on or else it's a short term solution to a long term problem.
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