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Soft AC to a harder AC
- Thread starter JH_Radio
- Start date
Totally. I mean, how is creepy voice dude gonna say "Now back to Philly's relaxing favorites" right before "Firework" by Katy Perry starts? I wonder how many people in the listening area strap on their sleep masks every night and drift off to the dulcet tones of "Only Girl (In the World)" by Rihanna.
There's nothing more relaxing than listening to a (loud) country pop-rock song about vandalizing and destroying a car of an unfaithful lover!
Also, only one local presenter/jock in the station (Valerie Knight on morning drive), so it's not like the station is pumped up by iHeartMedia the same way a station like, say, WDAS is.
Perhaps relaxing means different things to different people. I find nothing non-relaxing about Firework.
But the likes of Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and the Jonas Brothers are less appealing to 40-54 listeners. It's evident by the fact that WFEZ in Miami has barely, if ever, touched these aforementioned artists, despite being more open to upbeat songs by the likes of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Maroon 5, Ed Sheeran, et al.
I’m a fluke because I’ll take every one of those artists. Regardless, if you don’t want as too heavy an audience, then you do what you gotta do.
Because radio is a song medium, not an artist medium. Listeners of AC radio don't care about who's singing, as much as they do about the song. So if the song fits the format, play it, regardless of the artist.
Not always, considering that R Kelly vanished from the radio. Plus, Ignition is no longer a staple for gatherings.
And a soft AC (or even a gold-heavy AC like WDUV) wouldn't be receptive towards teen pop made after 2002. Also, AC stations back in the day boasted about playing well-known, familiar superstars.
Give them a few years. Backstreet Boys had several AC hits, and at some point, you'll hear One Direction.
Maybe Story of My Life isn't too out of place when "loosening" up soft AC, but I'm not sure if the group had as many hits as the Backstreet Boys.
At the risk of being overly blunt, who cares/how is it relevant what AC stations boasted back in the day? We aren’t back in the day.
If there's really nobody who cares about what AC radio used to be, then radio companies wouldn't attempt to sell soft AC to older money demos (40-54).
Also, right now, older demos are the target for radio, as younger-leaning formats like CHR, Rhythmic, Urban, and Alternative are in the doldrums. Even Country radio is sagging, if only by a little bit.
I’m saying that what it used to be doesn’t matter. Period. Things are done differently. CHR is done differently. Lots of things are done differently. Just because something was positioned a certain way back in whatever bygone era doesn’t mean that needs to remain true forevermore. Moreover, turning 40 doesn’t immediately make one averse to liking “newer” artists (if one defines them that way).
I agree. The way songs were received upon their release could maybe matter if some station was trying to clone a particular station in order to reach the particular audience of that station at that particular point in time. (For instance, if someone wanted to right now create an Adult Hits station to reach only the people who were Eagle 106 P1's, it would matter how that audience reacted at that time to "Cherry Pie" by Warrant and "Let the Beat Hit 'Em" by Lisa Lisa.) But that's not a station anyone would create. It's obviously too limiting. One would have to look at how their intended audience reacts today to the songs in the library. That's what testing is for. No one creating a library in 2021 would care how any songs tested in 1989. (That mentality may, in fact, be what's behind the "creating one's own playlist" vs. "that's not what radio is for" undercurrent of late.)
Even if we think these songs sound odd on a station that bills itself as "relaxing," it's obviously their station to tinker with. And now that I think about that specific part of it (the "relaxing" positioning), it is what I find odd because the songs themselves all sound completely fine next to each other. Anyway, I can see what they're doing it. Trying to see if they can increase listenership in certain demos without causing too much erosion in others. All stations do it. (In the realm of local Soft AC, those of us old enough to remember the mid-aughts version of Sunny 104.5 can probably recall them doing a quite a bit of it, actually.) I'm sure that the seemingly "off" songs we've mentioned all test well with enough with the intended demos the station wants to reach--because otherwise, they wouldn't be adding them.
Even if we think these songs sound odd on a station that bills itself as "relaxing," it's obviously their station to tinker with. And now that I think about that specific part of it (the "relaxing" positioning), it is what I find odd because the songs themselves all sound completely fine next to each other. Anyway, I can see what they're doing it. Trying to see if they can increase listenership in certain demos without causing too much erosion in others. All stations do it. (In the realm of local Soft AC, those of us old enough to remember the mid-aughts version of Sunny 104.5 can probably recall them doing a quite a bit of it, actually.) I'm sure that the seemingly "off" songs we've mentioned all test well with enough with the intended demos the station wants to reach--because otherwise, they wouldn't be adding them.
I would probably have counted as an Eagle 106 P1 back in the day, pre-Lander at least. Most adult hits stations I’ve heard, the Jacks and their cousins, pretty much work for me today. Now, if you pretty much recreated Eagle, or Hot Hits before it, exactly as it sounded? Nah. Maybe as a novelty I’d give it a whirl for a day. But time marches on. Some songs I enjoyed back then would be a hard no today. Some go the other direction. And with a life spanning a longer time, I like a wider variety.
Now all that said, put the old “Electric 106 weather mix” jingle and music bed on a station and I’m all in. The only good thing to come from that short-lived dumpster fire. 🤣
Oh, I definitely was an Eagle 106 P1. I hated when they flipped to Smooth Jazz. But I actually became a huge fan of WJJZ and was pretty upset when they flipped too!
But yes, playing those same songs for me now wouldn't work. There were songs I liked so much back then that I would call in and request them...but I wouldn't want to hear them on the radio now! (Actually, by then I had figured out that requests didn't actually get your song played so I'd just ask the jock what time it was scheduled to come up and they'd always tell me!)
There's a Classic Hits station down in Tampa that was using a bunch of '80s imaging. Not all from the same package but all very recognizable '80s Top 40 jingles. I thought that was a pretty clever because they were creating a nostalgic feeling for the audience they were trying to reach without having to mess with the music library.
But yes, playing those same songs for me now wouldn't work. There were songs I liked so much back then that I would call in and request them...but I wouldn't want to hear them on the radio now! (Actually, by then I had figured out that requests didn't actually get your song played so I'd just ask the jock what time it was scheduled to come up and they'd always tell me!)
There's a Classic Hits station down in Tampa that was using a bunch of '80s imaging. Not all from the same package but all very recognizable '80s Top 40 jingles. I thought that was a pretty clever because they were creating a nostalgic feeling for the audience they were trying to reach without having to mess with the music library.
Are you talking about Q105? As a classic hits station, they used a lot of jingles from JAM, the same ones as the jingles during their heyday as a Top 40. Currently, however, they are using the Reelworld Kiss Boston 2006 package for their imaging and jingles; oddly enough, it kind of works despite the jingles being from 2006.
I don't think 107.3 The Eagle used jingles, but they are really a Classic Rock station that just happens to be branded as Classic Hits.
Now The Breeze will stop airing 70's Sunday Brunch their response is '' They're taking a break''.
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