iHM is getting ready to do what Entercom or Cumulus should've done YEARS ago...

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

I would not be surprised to see a short lived "96Rock" stunt over a portion of Memorial Day weekend. It also would not surprise me to see a "Breeze" launch later that same weekend.

In the very unlikely chance 96Rock does make a long-term return, I'd like to see a playlist much closer to what Project played than what 96Rock played. That station sounded very, very stale its last few years on the air

 

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

I would not be surprised to see a short lived "96Rock" stunt over a portion of Memorial Day weekend. It also would not surprise me to see a "Breeze" launch later that same weekend.

In the very unlikely chance 96Rock does make a long-term return, I'd like to see a playlist much closer to what Project played than what 96Rock played. That station sounded very, very stale its last few years on the air.

hmmm, you maybe on to something! A “rock”stunt then the reveal of “the breeze.”

 

[A_b_m_90]

I, too, am suspecting a Memorial Day weekend stunt of whatever on both the 96.7 dial. Is the Breeze still on 94.9 HD 2/3? When I think about it, putting it on 96.7 seems more likely than 96.1.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

There's zero chance that iHeart displaces Power from the 96.1 frequency. CHR is iHM's specialty, and they wouldn't stand for placing the format on a second-rate signal, to say nothing of causing listener / branding confusion. While the pandemic has been unkind to Power - and I'm not optimistic about its prospects in morning drive - it has historically performed well enough to earn its keep.

Soft AC doesn't make much sense on either of the 105s, given their directional signals. I suppose they could slap it on 105.3 and improve marginally upon the current 6+ ratings, but the demos would likely skew quite old and make billing difficult.

As noted above, The Lake is a considerably better gambit. I'm unclear as to why no one in Atlanta will run a straight-ahead 80s hits format. At the absolute most, B98.5 *maybe* plays 4-5 80s titles over a 24-hour period - there's no reason for them to adjust, but they leave a gaping hole in the market. I would submit that Star's long-term prospects would be stronger if they had pivoted to Adult or Classic Hits rather than their current format, but...that's another discussion.

Prior to its format change, Star did a perceptual with 3 formats, Adult Hits, Soft AC and Rhythmic AC. What it got back was that Rhythmic AC had the best chance for success.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

105.3 is really an Urban signal. It does well until you get north of the Perimeter. (Stays strong in cars for a while after that.) I always thought Clear Channel/iHeart was foolish to have Spanish on 105.3 and Alternative on 105.7, which has a strong signal in Gwinnett, the fastest-growing Latino area. Finally, they moved the Latino format to 105.7 last year.

 

[jabba17]

I'm seeing a lot of reproduction 96 Rock material (shirts and car tags) these days, and there's a local cover band called 96 Rewind. I doubt iHM is involved with any of that, but I could easily see them doing a 96 Rock stunt for jollies or a headfake. Folks like Kaedy Kiely and SSS mention 96 Rock a surprising amount on their respective current shows, so it would have some currency.

Unless iHM thinks Rock100.5 is vulnerable, there's probably not room for another AOR station besides 100.5 and River. 100.5 seems to have found the sweet spot with current/recent active rock and older 70s-90s harder rock, and not being a 99X alt retread.

 

[jabba17]

105.3 is really an Urban signal. It does well until you get north of the Perimeter. (Stays strong in cars for a while after that.) I always thought Clear Channel/iHeart was foolish to have Spanish on 105.3 and Alternative on 105.7, which has a strong signal in Gwinnett, the fastest-growing Latino area. Finally, they moved the Latino format to 105.7 last year.

Soft AC or Variety Hits would work on 105.7, but that would mean giving up an ideal Latino signal. 105.3 would not work near as well.

 

[davideduardo]

Soft AC or Variety Hits would work on 105.7, but that would mean giving up an ideal Latino signal. 105.3 would not work near as well.

Good point. Good analysis.

I would ad that we have to remember that most Hispanic buys come from separate budgets and, many times, even separate ad agencies (or separate divisions of a large shop).

So if an account is buying Hispanic in Atlanta, they buy very differently. While they may coordinate a general market buy for the stations not in Spanish but highly cumed by Hispanics, the Spanish language buy will have separate creative (as, on many occasions highly idiomatic English creative can not be translated) and budgets.

If iHeart has good income from the station, and the costs are reasonable, that format is a keeper.

Oh, and an example of a non-translatable campaign, think of the insurance ad with the camel walking through an office proclaiming that "it's hump day". That idiomatic expression has no dromedary-related translation. I see, daily, many ads that a native, white, American will understand that first or second generation immigrants and many members of ethnic groups will not understand.

 

[qwertyuiop56]

My location recently got the distant Soft AC station in late 2016, like 50 miles away which surprisingly comes in better than ever lately... Too bad that's only one out of like five AC/Hot AC stations for me so it's good that Soft AC is coming. The question is not if but when it will properly compete with the main AC/Hot AC...

 

[davideduardo]

Prior to its format change, Star did a perceptual with 3 formats, Adult Hits, Soft AC and Rhythmic AC. What it got back was that Rhythmic AC had the best chance for success.

That is a fairly normal procedure.

Then, once the general format is determined, people who specifically like songs and/or artists that are core to the sound will be recruited to do a full library test... as many as 1000 songs might be brought in.

Such a test would use the sample pod used in the format search along with variants. For example, the rhythmic pod might be presented in several versions that represent a spectrum of harder core rhythmic, rhythmic with some up tempo pop, and rhythmic with up tempo pop and ballads by artists that are familiar to core sound listeners. A person who would "definitely listen" to at least two of the three pods and is in the right age range and gender gets invited to the test. There will be age quotas, gender quotas, ethnic quotas, etc. And, generally, the candidates have to use radio and be medium to heavy radio users.

(Roddy: I know you know this! I am just amplifying because we have lots of site users who are not familiar with the process).

And when a format is being searched for, usually more than three different formats are tested unless the station owner knows they have to fill a particular slice of the market for cluster balance.

In one test I worked on, we tested 17 different formats, including variations of existing leading stations. The idea was to see if leading stations were winning by default. We went from the equivalent of country to hard rock, from rhythmic CHR to soft AC and all kinds of blends. The top score was a format that our sales team believed would have "zero to a negative number" of acceptance at the agency level so we went with the second highest scoring format... which was, at the time, not duplicated by any other station.

That sort of test is sometimes called an °AWT" for Awareness-Trial-Usage. First, you want to know if there is such a station in the market. Then, you want to know if the interviewee would try out such a station or change from an existing such format for a new station and, then, how likely would you be to regularly use such a station if it was, otherwise, well done. Naturally, questions are asked about current favorite stations, time spent with radio and other things that will help determine if a particular format would do well.

 

[jabba17]

105.3 is really an Urban signal. It does well until you get north of the Perimeter. (Stays strong in cars for a while after that.) I always thought Clear Channel/iHeart was foolish to have Spanish on 105.3 and Alternative on 105.7, which has a strong signal in Gwinnett, the fastest-growing Latino area. Finally, they moved the Latino format to 105.7 last year.

I wonder if iHM would be willing to trade 105.3 to Urban One for WAMJ 107.5. 107.5 would be good for either a Latino or suburban format. It probably wouldn't be an even trade (I would guess WAMJ is worth more), but it could be combined with cash or other-market signals.

 

[Ktownradioman]

I've gotta ask about 96.7. How does the Asian formated translator on 96.7 affect the signal of ihearts 96.7? I don't see it being and issue if they plan to always leave 96.7/105.7 paired. If they were to do a separate format on 96.7, does the translator cause signal issues in important areas?

 

[BIGSTICK]

Blah Blah Blah,, I have had it with terrestrial radio. So many thousands of stations, commercial free, on various apps, who needs local radio any more loaded with lame commercials.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

I wonder if iHM would be willing to trade 105.3 to Urban One for WAMJ 107.5. 107.5 would be good for either a Latino or suburban format. It probably wouldn't be an even trade (I would guess WAMJ is worth more), but it could be combined with cash or other-market signals.

That's a good thought. Majic 107-5 does simulcast with 97.5 on the south side.

 

[Kidd Casio]

...and that's bringing Soft AC (or a relatively soft AC) to the FM dial! So speculates a well-known subscription web site.

It's becoming increasingly clear why iHM has slashed spending for its CHR/Pop brand; looks like it's potentially about to be booted from 96.1 FM to either 105.3 or 105.7 to make room for a new Adult Contemporary station.

Now, Atlanta needs a Variety Hits station! I'd be perfectly content with Power going away completely to pave the way for Variety Hits. Current hits and recent hits with a rhythmic lean are well covered by Q100, Star 94, and to a lesser degree, B98.5.

So, out in Texas like a lot of places it does pay to know folks. They always know something, if you just ask them like most places these days. I did some digging and found out, iHeart Media owned Power 96.1 is the Atlanta frequency to soon flip to 96.1 The Breeze, a Soft Adult Contemporary programming station just like other iHeart Media owned stations with “The Breeze” branding in San Francisco Bay, Philadelphia, Sacramento and etc. They’ve even already been busy registering the domain names. It could launch in less than a week.

Power will be moving to down the radio dial to 96.7 FM.

Hope this helps!

 

[Kidd Casio]

...and that's bringing Soft AC (or a relatively soft AC) to the FM dial! So speculates a well-known subscription web site.

It's becoming increasingly clear why iHM has slashed spending for its CHR/Pop brand; looks like it's potentially about to be booted from 96.1 FM to either 105.3 or 105.7 to make room for a new Adult Contemporary station.

Now, Atlanta needs a Variety Hits station! I'd be perfectly content with Power going away completely to pave the way for Variety Hits. Current hits and recent hits with a rhythmic lean are well covered by Q100, Star 94, and to a lesser degree, B98.5.

 

[A_b_m_90]

Unpopular opinion: I think ATL radio will change for the better when Power moves or completely flips (which is very unlikely) and the Breeze takes over. Soft AC and Variety Hits is what we need right now. It works well in Charlotte but the demographics are different than in Atlanta. Personally, I have enjoyed listening to the Breeze on the app and the music CHR plays these days are pure garbage. Who is listening to CHR these days? It seems like it is becoming less popular these days.

 

[jabba17]

the music CHR plays these days are pure garbage. Who is listening to CHR these days? It seems like it is becoming less popular these days.

Is CHR now considered to be in one of its periodic doldrums? How much of that is due to artists sitting on product due to COVID and no touring?

The doldrums of CHR (and to a lesser extent country) seems to be the main driver of a domino-effect format shuffle.

 

[MRFLASHPORT]

I find it hard to believe iHeart would put soft A/C on a bigstick like 96.1. Just don't see it. Heck, WSB took soft A/C off their longtime staple of 98.5 HD2 and replaced it with a "hotter" A/C version of Star 94 HD2's "Star94 throwback". Just don't see any of these corporate conglomerates doing anything miraculous.

I've been paying for SXM for years, and more and more everyday, don't find much reason to turn on terrestrial. And I'm a radio guy who owns a dozen "specialty" radios (most of them HD capable). Occasionally, 88.5's HD3 is interesting. But the humdrum "carefully selected" playlists of the same 30 washout songs followed by 5 minute stop sets of scammy commercials, self
promotions and blabber turn me off. As does piss poor engineering. No one cares about quality anymore. The online streaming from some obscure station in East Hampton, Long Island run by a couple of college kids blows away the nonsense on our FM dial. Why can they make soft A/C work, sound good, and classy with their lowly 6Kw from the East Hamptons sound so good (at least online) with a decent spectrum of music, well placed spots (most of them for local businesses), and good audio quality?

I just don't have much hope. iHeart is known for aural flatus and not high quality radio. Yeah, I'm jaded. Go ahead and tell me to "enjoy SXM and STFU". But part of me WANTS local radio here like WELJ. We USED to have it before everything went corporate.

 

[TheBigA]

But the humdrum "carefully selected" playlists of the same 30 washout songs followed by 5 minute stop sets of scammy commercials,

Keep in mind that ANY station that uses a curated playlist will fall prey to what you describe. The only advantages to Sirius is (1) lack of commercials, and (2) ability to switch to another similar curated playlist when the one you're listening to becomes predictable. As far as their engineering, that's another story.