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106.1 the breeze

All things considered, moving more head to head directly against the B seems foolish. Appealing but foolish. It’s nowhere near like the Jerry Lee era, but still more likely a losing proposition compared to staying with the soft niche.
 
101tm said:
Looks like WISX kept their soft lean. Looking at the playlist today, still very soft for an AC and definitely softer and older than B101 stlll. So no after Christmas tweak to mainstream AC as even I had speculated.
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I'm not sure why anyone thinks The Breeze (or any station, actually) would be successful going head-to-head with B101.1. The Breeze is finding some success with what they're doing because today's Adult Contemporary has become "hot" to the point of leaving out songs that "don't fit" but which a fair amount of listeners still like to hear. In recent years, Soft AC is probably the only format that could have been a viable addition to the Philly airwaves. If The Breeze decided to compete directly in the Mainstream AC lane, they lose their niche/edge. And they would surely lose the race, as has every station that came along trying to slay the B.
Also: If iHeart were looking to make any changes in the cluster, I would think 104.5 would get a tinkering long before 106.1.
 
Miguelito said:
I'm not sure why anyone thinks The Breeze (or any station, actually) would be successful going head-to-head with B101.1. The Breeze is finding some success with what they're doing because today's Adult Contemporary has become "hot" to the point of leaving out songs that "don't fit" but which a fair amount of listeners still like to hear. In recent years, Soft AC is probably the only format that could have been a viable addition to the Philly airwaves. If The Breeze decided to compete directly in the Mainstream AC lane, they lose their niche/edge. And they would surely lose the race, as has every station that came along trying to slay the B.
Also: If iHeart were looking to make any changes in the cluster, I would think 104.5 would get a tinkering long before 106.1.
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B101 is still a leader, but they have slipped under Audacy compared to the Jerry Lee days. Or maybe it’s pressure from The Breeze and WOGL + BEN on top of it.

I think iHeart is smart to keep The Breeze on 106.1 even if it proves to not be a long term smash success. It’s a low overhead format and like you said, there isn’t a whole lot they could do they haven’t already tried. I’m just glad to see some stability on the 106.1 signal. iHeart has the benefit of having a ton of large market AC’s that are very successful, and really in all market sizes. Audacy has been less successful with the AC format. It’ll take a lot to royally screw up B, but I think a lot of what made it unique will continue to disappear.

Listening to The Breeze today; they haven’t changed much since before Christmas, but I feel like they’ve positioned themselves fairly well to not sound so “old”, but still have a softer lean with some non-offensive currents mixed in with 80s ballads and some softer 70s songs. They also play some 90s ballads a lot of AC’s won’t.
 
101tm said:
B101 is still a leader, but they have slipped under Audacy compared to the Jerry Lee days. Or maybe it’s pressure from The Breeze and WOGL + BEN on top of it.

I think iHeart is smart to keep The Breeze on 106.1 even if it proves to not be a long term smash success. It’s a low overhead format and like you said, there isn’t a whole lot they could do they haven’t already tried. I’m just glad to see some stability on the 106.1 signal. iHeart has the benefit of having a ton of large market AC’s that are very successful, and really in all market sizes. Audacy has been less successful with the AC format. It’ll take a lot to royally screw up B, but I think a lot of what made it unique will continue to disappear.

Listening to The Breeze today; they haven’t changed much since before Christmas, but I feel like they’ve positioned themselves fairly well to not sound so “old”, but still have a softer lean with some non-offensive currents mixed in with 80s ballads and some softer 70s songs. They also play some 90s ballads a lot of AC’s won’t.
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B101's (or, actually, More FM's) slippage seemed to occur the minute the station was sold. WOGL and BEN-FM were around, in their current formats, before and after the sale and The Breeze didn't yet exist so I don't think any of the three contributed to the lower ratings.

The Breeze is the current-day version of Sunny 104.5: A cheap-to-run station that adds to the bottom line without needing to be a huge hit. The difference is that B101 was a powerhouse during the Sunny days and now that they are showing a least some vulnerability, it was the perfect time for iHeart to re-launch a Soft AC to pick up some of that audience.
 
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The timing was remarkable. I’m always leery of drawing a correlation to something so immediate. Not impossible, just questioning. Maybe Jerry Lee saw writing on the wall deep in his data.

At first, I honestly didn’t detect a difference that would easily explain driving away listeners. The station sounded effectively the same; more noticeable differences came later, exacerbated by the pandemic naturally.

The name change was immediate, that’s clear. Did a return to the old brand hurt? I honestly gave Lee credit for making the move to More, much as he did from the heritage EZ to B. The move back, while heralded by some, always struck me as a lazy rerun. I just don’t think that alone did it. The personalities didn’t change immediately, apart from dropping overnights pretty quickly (which Lee’s team had done previously). The music didn’t seem to change immediately from an amateur listener’s ear. The contests and stationality took time to change.

It really is fascinating just how it lined up.
 
B101.1’s playlist now seems to fall in line roughly with what Audacy is doing nationwide with AC, although Audacy does offer a little more autonomy to all of their AC’s than iHeart tends to, but larger markets like Philadelphia are an exception.

My understanding was always that B/More 101 was very heavily researched locally. I highly doubt this is done under Audacy, or to the level it was during the Jerry Lee days.

The Breeze has been the most stable format on 106.1 since jazz. The Mix era wasn’t horrible, but I guess it’s not really a Hot AC market. 97.5 experimented with Hot AC as well, although briefly. 96.5 also toyed briefly with Hot AC.
 
101tm said:
B101.1’s playlist now seems to fall in line roughly with what Audacy is doing nationwide with AC, although Audacy does offer a little more autonomy to all of their AC’s than iHeart tends to, but larger markets like Philadelphia are an exception.

My understanding was always that B/More 101 was very heavily researched locally. I highly doubt this is done under Audacy, or to the level it was during the Jerry Lee days.

The Breeze has been the most stable format on 106.1 since jazz. The Mix era wasn’t horrible, but I guess it’s not really a Hot AC market. 97.5 experimented with Hot AC as well, although briefly. 96.5 also toyed briefly with Hot AC.
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Mix 106.1 was on for seven years. Then it became classic hip hop Real 106.1 for a little over a year. Then 106.1 the Breeze launched the same weekend as 98.7 the Breeze and 92.5 the Breeze.
 
They play a few upbeat songs. The other day I heard “So Emotional” by Whitney Houston. That really isn’t a “soft relaxing favorite” and I hope they pick up the pace and play a few more “faster” songs to keep listeners tuned in and not fall asleep at the wheel. But I’m sure they’ll steer clear of anything that’s too hot ac-ish. They’ll keep it under 80 degrees MTL. !
 
For me, that's the opposite of what I'd want.
B can play the upbeat stuff and leave the slower stuff for 106.1.
This way you got both ends of the AC covered.
John
 
RockTheRadio said:
They play a few upbeat songs. The other day I heard “So Emotional” by Whitney Houston. That really isn’t a “soft relaxing favorite” and I hope they pick up the pace and play a few more “faster” songs to keep listeners tuned in and not fall asleep at the wheel. But I’m sure they’ll steer clear of anything that’s too hot ac-ish. They’ll keep it under 80 degrees MTL. !
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They played apologize by Timberland today. They also inserted some new promos. The one I heard, “This is 106.1 The Breeze, playing relaxing favorites from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s plus new songs to keep you moving!” Then they played “Break My Heart” by Duo Lipa. I’m in enjoying the new mix of music. Also, I heard Rod Stewart like 3 times today. They are picking up the tempo. I think “relaxing favorites” will change to “playing all your favorites” soon.
 
I believe B101/98.1 have trouble on their hands since The Breeze is playing a mix of both stations. Tying the hands of Audacy, because they can’t complete with either of their stations by mixing the same music on both stations.
 
Gotgizmo said:
They played apologize by Timberland today. They also inserted some new promos. The one I heard, “This is 106.1 The Breeze, playing relaxing favorites from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s plus new songs to keep you moving!” Then they played “Break My Heart” by Duo Lipa. I’m in enjoying the new mix of music. Also, I heard Rod Stewart like 3 times today. They are picking up the tempo. I think “relaxing favorites” will change to “playing all your favorites” soon.
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I love Dua Lipa-that is gonna draw in some new listeners. I’ll bet in a couple years they’ll be Party Rocking in the house tonight….well maybe in 5 or 6 years.
 
One of the most appealing aspects about the Breeze was that it played music that no one else played anymore. As the Breeze shifts and adds more up-tempo music, I fear that they are losing what made them unique. To me, but probably not to many others, it makes the Breeze less compelling.
 
ScottBurns said:
One of the most appealing aspects about the Breeze was that it played music that no one else played anymore. As the Breeze shifts and adds more up-tempo music, I fear that they are losing what made them unique. To me, but probably not to many others, it makes the Breeze less compelling.
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Respectfully, I think this is a bit off the mark. They're adding some more upbeat and recent stuff that tests well. They're not gonna add something that their intended audience is turned off by. And by and large, the upbeat titles are a tiny minority of the library. The Breeze will not be defined by those titles; they will continue be defined by the softer/older stuff because no one else is playing much of it--and the station that may (WOGL) is playing it in a completely different context. What people associate with The Breeze are artists like these (below), who have been on the station within just the past few hours.

Richard Marx, Lionel Richie, Journey, Peter Cetera, Commodores, Savage Garden, Pat Benatar, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Celine Dion, Goo Goo Dolls, Hall & Oates, Tina Turner, and more Phil Collins than I can reasonably believe anyone wants to hear. The station will not be associated with Dua Lipa just because they have one or two of her songs in rotation (and probably briefly).
 
Miguelito said:
Respectfully, I think this is a bit off the mark. They're adding some more upbeat and recent stuff that tests well. They're not gonna add something that their intended audience is turned off by. And by and large, the upbeat titles are a tiny minority of the library. The Breeze will not be defined by those titles; they will continue be defined by the softer/older stuff because no one else is playing much of it--and the station that may (WOGL) is playing it in a completely different context. What people associate with The Breeze are artists like these (below), who have been on the station within just the past few hours.

Richard Marx, Lionel Richie, Journey, Peter Cetera, Commodores, Savage Garden, Pat Benatar, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Celine Dion, Goo Goo Dolls, Hall & Oates, Tina Turner, and more Phil Collins than I can reasonably believe anyone wants to hear. The station will not be associated with Dua Lipa just because they have one or two of her songs in rotation (and probably briefly).
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I respect your opinion, but notice I said, "To me, but probably not to many others, it makes the Breeze less compelling." As such, my comments apply only to my taste.

I have nothing against Dua Lipa and I like her music. But I can hear it in many other places. I can't hear Richard Marx, the Commodores, or Tina Turner in too many other places.

I hope you are right with your analysis, sir.
 
I believe they will find a great blend of soft AC and pop ac. I don’t think it will be a party station, but I do believe they’ll mix in more pop ac as the year progresses and they see boost to their radio listeners.

The change to Christmas this year and now the mix of soft AC with pop AC is a shotgun blow to Audacy and their two AC stations B101 and WOGL. Playing a mix from both stations. This reminds me of the time when they became Christmas 106.1 after they cancelled Real 106.1. They made B101 race to switch to Christmas like 3 weeks earlier than they normally do. Then changing that Monday afternoon to The Breeze, playing 10,000 songs in a row, after the Bee switched to Christmas. That hammer worked and brought some of the Bee’s listeners to 106.1 who didn’t want for hear Christmas in the first week of November.

This is going to be a fun year. Audacy can’t keep both 98.1 and 101.1 with a station mixing both of their stations on one station.
 
 
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