KWTS To Debut All-90s Format In October

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/223569/kwts-to-debut-all-90s-format-in-october/

This is a cool concept for a 90's radio station format. I remember 106.5 FM Sacramento attempted to launch a format like this back in 2010 but the situation at the time was that there were plenty of AC's stations still using 90's songs in the process. More recently some of the classic hits stations were starting to insert 90's songs in the mix because of demographics reasons like KRTH 101 in Los Angeles.

WTS The One 91.1, West Texas A&M University’s student-run noncommercial radio station, will shift to an all-’90s format Oct. 1.

“When we say ‘all-’90s,’ we mean all of the ’90s — ’90s rock, ’90s Top 40, ’90s country, ’90s hip hop and R&B. And not just the hits, either,” said KWTS adviser Randy Ray, director of broadcast engineering and associate lecturer of media communications.The impending format change—timed to celebrate the station’s 50th anniversary—was announced April 8 during “Psychotic Reaction,” a weekly radio show hosted by Dr. Marty Kuhlman, WT’s Jenny Lind Porter Professor of History.

Ray and Kuhlman also detailed plans for the station’s birthday party, set for 2 to 6 p.m. Oct. 1 on Homecoming Day in the KWTS studios inside the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex.

“For each hour, we’ll be playing music from the ’70s, the ’80s, the ’90s, the 2000s and the ’10s, so we’d love to get some old DJs to come back and go on the air for those decades,” Ray said.

The party also will offer alumni the chance to see KWTS’ still fairly-new facilities, Ray said.

 

[ZantennaG1]

“When we say ‘all-’90s,’ we mean all of the ’90s — ’90s rock, ’90s Top 40, ’90s country, ’90s hip hop and R&B. And not just the hits, either,”

That is a peculiar format, and actually it might be pretty cool!

 

[TexasTom]

Seems like a good format for a non-comm, since the commercial version of this format would inherently be much narrower and would end up playing just a few hundred songs due to the need to build a larger audience.

 

[fordranger797]

I’ve been extremely critical of the expansion into the 90’s (and occasionally 2000s) for classic hits radio stations. I think it just makes more sense to leave the primary focus of a classic hits radio station on the 1980’s because music in the 1990’s is segmented. Any music that would fit on a classic hits radio station from this decade is likely already there. I see it being increasingly difficult to hold listeners if the music deviates too far from what listeners expect to hear. I don’t think you can go from Phil Collins to 90’s R&B very easily. If we’re talking about a transition from Phil Collins to Matchbox20, it’s an completely different story.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

I’ve been extremely critical of the expansion into the 90’s (and occasionally 2000s) for classic hits radio stations. I think it just makes more sense to leave the primary focus of a classic hits radio station on the 1980’s because music in the 1990’s is segmented. Any music that would fit on a classic hits radio station from this decade is likely already there. I see it being increasingly difficult to hold listeners if the music deviates too far from what listeners expect to hear. I don’t think you can go from Phil Collins to 90’s R&B very easily. If we’re talking about a transition from Phil Collins to Matchbox20, it’s an completely different story.

Same here but at the same time the people managing classic hits stations are under pressure to lower the median demos.

 

[TexasTom]

I’ve been extremely critical of the expansion into the 90’s (and occasionally 2000s) for classic hits radio stations. I think it just makes more sense to leave the primary focus of a classic hits radio station on the 1980’s because music in the 1990’s is segmented. Any music that would fit on a classic hits radio station from this decade is likely already there. I see it being increasingly difficult to hold listeners if the music deviates too far from what listeners expect to hear. I don’t think you can go from Phil Collins to 90’s R&B very easily. If we’re talking about a transition from Phil Collins to Matchbox20, it’s an completely different story.

I remember seeing similar comments objecting when these stations expanding into the 70s a couple decades back, and then later on again when they started expanding into the 80s. Some of these stations started out playing oldies from the 50s and 60s 35 years or more ago, and they're now focused on the 80s (with a little 70s and 90s mixed in). If these stations are still around in 30 year as oldies, classic hits, or whatever name the format gets called, they'll be playing Lady GaGa, Lil Nas X, Adele, Ed Sheeran, and Justin Bieber.

That's going to happen as long as advertisers are chasing the 25-54 demographic. I don't like it myself, but I do understand why it is happening. Given a choice of having a core audience in their sixties versus dealing with putting together a format from a more fragmented era that appeals to slightly younger listeners, they'll go with the latter. And if it doesn't work, they'll change formats.

 

[fordranger797]

I remember seeing similar comments objecting when these stations expanding into the 70s a couple decades back, and then later on again when they started expanding into the 80s. Some of these stations started out playing oldies from the 50s and 60s 35 years or more ago, and they're now focused on the 80s (with a little 70s and 90s mixed in). If these stations are still around in 30 year as oldies, classic hits, or whatever name the format gets called, they'll be playing Lady GaGa, Lil Nas X, Adele, Ed Sheeran, and Justin Bieber.

That's going to happen as long as advertisers are chasing the 25-54 demographic. I don't like it myself, but I do understand why it is happening. Given a choice of having a core audience in their sixties versus dealing with putting together a format from a more fragmented era that appeals to slightly younger listeners, they'll go with the latter. And if it doesn't work, they'll change formats.

You’re absolutely right about that (and unfortunately so). I still try to listen to the radio as much as I can now, because I know I probably won’t be listening to it ten years from now when the demos shift up. I’m 27 right now, but I prefer the sound of classic hits from the 80’s and have little interest in much of “new music” formats available on the radio. I predict classic hits will be more like what an AC station sounded like around 2008 by the time I reach 35-40 years of age.