KROQ is spinning currents into the ground

[MarkW]

In a typical Kevin Weatherly move, the station is now playing some currents every 2 hours (or even less).

The annoying Glass Animals "Heatwaves" song that has already been played to death for a few months now is one such example.

This is the same failed strategy that got KROQ in trouble the first time he was there. It works when new music is in ample supply, widely popular, and the playlist turns over frequently. It doesn't work well with the music product that is currently available.

 

[mjb1124]

"Heat Waves" isn't even really a current, nor is it a case of an old song suddenly resurging in popularity like "Running Up That Hill"... it's really just a "power recurrent" being taken to an extreme. And presumably such rotation of recurrents is the *result* of a lack of reliable new product. Obviously it must test really well with the target audience in order to be getting this treatment. I'm not exactly a fan of the practice (or the song), but it's better than trying to force trending TikTok songs on an incompatible audience.

Also, did *any* kind of thinking on Weatherly's part really "get KROQ into trouble"? The ratings only got worse after he left. And a lot of the issues can be chalked up to the general state of the format, along the loss of their popular long-running morning show, and the presence of direct competition (KYSR) where it didn't used to exist.

 

[TheBigA]

In a typical Kevin Weatherly move, the station is now playing some currents every 2 hours (or even less).

That's not what Mediabase shows. Playing a song every two hours means 84 times a week.

KROQ has four songs in the "heavy" category, which is 60 spins a week. Heat Waves is one of those four songs. It moved from medium to heavy this week, which means it went from 30 spins a week to 60 spins a week. So perhaps the perception is they're playing it every two hours.

If you compare KROQ to KYSR, you'll see KYSR is playing Heat Wave 68 spins a week. Last week, they played it 67 times a week.

But my question is: Why is KYSR playing Harry Styles in heavy? They doubled the number of spins this week. KROQ is not playing Harry Styles at all.

KROQ is playing the 35 year old Kate Bush song in heavy, KYSR is playing it in medium.

Meanwhile, over in NYC, Audacy's Alt station plays heavies 35 times a week.

"Heat Waves" isn't even really a current, nor is it a case of an old song suddenly resurging in popularity like "Running Up That Hill"... it's really just a "power recurrent" being taken to an extreme.

Perhaps because of the drought? It's big news in LA.

 

[macattack]

But my question is: Why is KYSR playing Harry Styles in heavy? They doubled the number of spins this week. KROQ is not playing Harry Styles at all.

My best guess is that the answer is found at iHeart’s corporate office. Over the last couple of weeks the majority of their Alternative outlets (the notable exceptions I’ve caught are WXDX and KTBZ, who lean Active) have started playing “As It Was” whether they announced Harry as an add or not.

 

[TheBigA]

My best guess is that the answer is found at iHeart’s corporate office.

It's #37 on the iHeart Alternative Top 40. Right below Kate Bush.

Alternative Top 40 | iHeart

The 40 biggest Alternative hits this week.

news.iheart.com

Heat Waves is #2 on the iTunes chart.

 

[MarkW]

Looking at TuneGenie over the past couple days, Heat Waves has been getting spins about every two hours.

I won't be surprised if the 60 weekly spins BigA observed increases when the next report is issued.

Good observations regarding KYSR. I've hated that station's music direction for a long time so I no longer follow it closely. Just a matter of personal taste.

 

[macattack]

It's #37 on the iHeart Alternative Top 40. Right below Kate Bush.

Alternative Top 40 | iHeart

The 40 biggest Alternative hits this week.

news.iheart.com

Heat Waves is #2 on the iTunes chart.

I didn’t say the iHeart stations in question were playing Harry Styles in heavy rotation; although KYSR definitely is ahahahaha.

At this point it looks like things are rapidly reverting to the old LA paradigm of KYSR leaning pop while KROQ is leaning towards rock and indie.

 

[TheBigA]

Here's Billboard's analysis why Heat Waves took so long to peak:

https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/glass-animals-heat-waves-chart-record-hot-100-1235040223/

There's kind of a circular reaction going on between airplay and streaming where one affects the other.

The point is it's apparently not just KROQ that's playing the song a lot, and they're not playing it because of the PD.

 

[MarkW]

The PD chooses how hard to pound the powers, though.

Time will tell if this is a good move. My gut feeling is this is a somewhat polarizing song that is a better fit for KYSR's alt-pop playlist than KROQ.

I'd be curious to know how often a middle ground alternative station with a modest rock lean such as WEND is spinning it.

 

[TheBigA]

The PD chooses how hard to pound the powers, though.

And the previous PD chose to do the opposite, which led to complaints that he was burning old songs to a crisp.

The is more of the Goldilocks routine, where sometimes the porridge is too hot, and sometimes it's too cold.

 

[MarkW]

I thought Weatherly during his prior tenure was very guilty of burning songs to a crisp, both old and new.

 

[macattack]

And the previous PD chose to do the opposite, which led to complaints that he was burning old songs to a crisp.

The is more of the Goldilocks routine, where sometimes the porridge is too hot, and sometimes it's too cold.

When he was programming KROQ Mike Kaplan was spinning Heat Waves and the Kid LAROI song “Without You” almost 90 times a week over in NYC but for some reason he was less fond of doing that in LA. I don’t recall any heavies going higher than 50 during his tenure.

 

[macattack]

The PD chooses how hard to pound the powers, though.

Time will tell if this is a good move. My gut feeling is this is a somewhat polarizing song that is a better fit for KYSR's alt-pop playlist than KROQ.

I'd be curious to know how often a middle ground alternative station with a modest rock lean such as WEND is spinning it.

My primary listen is KPNT and I can safely tell you that they have never spun Heat Waves. Not even once. Not even now.

The other big Alt hit of 2021, Maneskin’s cover of Beggin’, did make medium on KPNT and still sees occasional recurrent airplay. I think the rock-leaning Alternative stations are choosing to play Beggin’ or All Time Low’s “Monsters” out of the 2021 crossover hit batch because they’re both way easier of a fit on their playlists than Heat Waves is.

It’s good when Alternative achieves multiple smashes in a year because that gives stations options. Alt had around seven minor-or-major pop hits in 2021 so that helps the format identify songs to keep around. Cage the Elephant winning the rock Grammy has also helped their most recent songs hang around despite the lack of pop crossover for them.

 

[TheBigA]

I thought Weatherly during his prior tenure was very guilty of burning songs to a crisp, both old and new.

This is partly why WNYL is running a morning show that plays no music at all. Too much Goldilocks syndrome.

When you're programming format radio, you play a specific group of songs. That's what makes it a format. This is different from the way people play music themselves. I never play the same song more than once when I'm listening to my own music.

When he was programming KROQ Mike Kaplan was spinning Heat Waves and the Kid LAROI song “Without You” almost 90 times a week over in NYC

As I mentioned earlier, the heavies at WNYL are now down to 35 a week. Part of that may be because the morning show doesn't play music.

 

[K.M. Richards]

A few important observations overall here.

One, it is never a good idea to post here inflated claims of how often songs play, because those of us who are active programmers have access to the databases that will disprove those claims. I certainly understand how it might "feel" like your perceptions are accurate, but emotionally-charged posts usually come off sounding like the old Chicken Little proverb.

Note that many, many times over the past decade or more, people have claimed that KRTH has played "Hotel California to death, yet their audience certainly seems to not share that view. Bottom line is that Weatherly is making the decisions on music rotations based on what he believes will turn KROQ around. In my opinion, four songs in a power current rotation is not uncalled for, and I had to chuckle when BigA's consulting the airplay database showed that KYSR played the song in question (on average) once more per day than KROQ.

Two, what Weatherly may or may not have done last time, and whether or not people here like or dislike his performance during that previous tenure, is pretty much irrelevant. This is a different time, the KROQ/KYSR competition is different now -- for a whole lot of reasons -- and Weatherly is likely one of only a handful of programmers who can turn things around there.

Three, out of market commenters cannot reasonably use whatever their local station of choice does as a basis for criticism. Different markets, different situations. For that matter, anyone who listens more than the normal patterns of 20 minutes at a time, several times a day, has a perspective which is irrelevant to any such discussion.

This thread is already quickly taking on the same tone that caused the last KROQ thread to be closed ... armchair quarterbacks raising questions for the professionals to answer, then arguing against the facts.

As a sidebar, "Running Up That Hill", mentioned in the course of discussion, was #1 on the U.K. charts this week, earning it a short feature segment on BBC World News this morning, which I just finished watching.

 

[TheBigA]

One, it is never a good idea to post here inflated claims of how often songs play, because those of us who are active programmers have access to the databases that will disprove those claims.

Mark makes a good point that the Mediabase numbers are weekly numbers that may have been diluted by lower airplay of that song earlier in the week. However, there are no songs in the database that get 80 spins a week, and no alternative station I know plays their heavies 80 times a week. So if they continue to play the song every two hours, that would really stand out.

It's not unusual for a station to spike a song for a short period of time. I see that over the weekend in some currents-based formats. For example a song may go from 13 spins a day to 24 spins a day over the weekend. That may be what's happening here, where it's gone from 9 spins a day to 12. The point though is the increase is not without basis. It's not just the personal whim of the PD.

 

[CTListener]

Mark makes a good point that the Mediabase numbers are weekly numbers that may have been diluted by lower airplay of that song earlier in the week. However, there are no songs in the database that get 80 spins a week, and no alternative station I know plays their heavies 80 times a week. So if they continue to play the song every two hours, that would really stand out.

It's not unusual for a station to spike a song for a short period of time. I see that over the weekend in some currents-based formats. For example a song may go from 13 spins a day to 24 spins a day over the weekend. That may be what's happening here, where it's gone from 9 spins a day to 12. The point though is the increase is not without basis. It's not just the personal whim of the PD.

Country airplay can be affected by iHeart's policy of pushing certain new singles (for money from the labels???) by playing them every two hours for a day or two, usually at the top of the hour. I recall it being done for the Jason Aldean/Carrie Underwood duet "If I Didn't Love You" last year on WWYZ Hartford and WRNX Springfield. Not sure if iHeart goes the saturation exposure route for new singles in other genres.

 

[TheBigA]

Two, what Weatherly may or may not have done last time, and whether or not people here like or dislike his performance during that previous tenure, is pretty much irrelevant.

Agreed. PDs don't play music based on personal taste. They do it to achieve results. Every time he did something at KROQ it was in collaboration with other managers, in order to achieve a certain audience demographic for sales. Anyone who programs for a living hates being typecast by what they did or didn't do in the past.

 

[K.M. Richards]

However, there are no songs in the database that get 80 spins a week, and no alternative station I know plays their heavies 80 times a week. So if they continue to play the song every two hours, that would really stand out.

I think 80 spins by a single station of any song, in any format, would stand out like the proverbial sore thumb in BDS or Mediabase. After all, there are only 168 hours in a week. (Simple math.)

But your final statement, which I did not quote, is an acknowledgement that there is a perception that music rotations are determined by some personal bias of the PD. I can assure anyone not in the business that this is not the case, because getting it wrong usually leads to no longer being the PD.

 

[inorm99]

In a typical Kevin Weatherly move, the station is now playing some currents every 2 hours (or even less).

The annoying Glass Animals "Heatwaves" song that has already been played to death for a few months now is one such example.

This is the same failed strategy that got KROQ in trouble the first time he was there. It works when new music is in ample supply, widely popular, and the playlist turns over frequently. It doesn't work well with the music product that is currently available.

That song would get me to switch the station. and take it off my pre sets