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KCKC FM - Large Playlist Success ?

kfbkfb

kfbkfb

I first noticed that KCKC 102.1 FM was sometimes playing ~45 year old songs (some Disco) in 2020, they still mention having a large playlist.

(when I switch on my car radio, I select 94.9 1st, if no interesting songs/ads, then to 102.1)

Is this an anomaly or are stations with the KCKC type format successful with large playlists?


Kirk Bayne
 
Looking at the KC beauty pageant numbers, I don't see KCKC as any kind of success. Its last four books have been 2.6, 2.4, 3.2, 3.2. It's getting beaten consistently not only by the market's Hot AC but its Christian AC. It's also being beaten by the CHR and two of the market's three country stations, which makes it a distant trailer among the stations targeting female listeners in the demographic sweet spot age-wise. Forty-five-year-old songs and assorted hits that the competition hasn't played in many years pretty much assures KCKC will never amount to anything more than it is today. Why it hasn't flipped to being a more focused, conventional AC is a mystery. All I can think of is the Kansas City just isn't much of a market for AC -- after all, the market's Hot AC only does mid-4s and low-5s compared to the better performances of CHR and country -- and management can't find a format hole worth the trouble of a flip.
 
kfbkfb said:
I first noticed that KCKC 102.1 FM was sometimes playing ~45 year old songs (some Disco) in 2020, they still mention having a large playlist.

(when I switch on my car radio, I select 94.9 1st, if no interesting songs/ads, then to 102.1)

Is this an anomaly or are stations with the KCKC type format successful with large playlists?
Click to expand...
That station usually ranks about 16th to 18th in the principal sales demo cells and is not in the top 10 billers.

AC stations often touch on a few late 70's songs that still test well. Most of KCKC's spins are 1978 to 1992 songs, and it is 85% gold. A few currents and recurrents, but very focused on the 80's for the gold, although there is a bit of the rest of the 90's but very little from the 2000's except the few currents. .
 
DavidEduardo said:
That station usually ranks about 16th to 18th in the principal sales demo cells and is not in the top 10 billers.

AC stations often touch on a few late 70's songs that still test well. Most of KCKC's spins are 1978 to 1992 songs, and it is 85% gold. A few currents and recurrents, but very focused on the 80's for the gold, although there is a bit of the rest of the 90's but very little from the 2000's except the few currents. .
Click to expand...
Ah, 35-year-old songs rather than 45-year-old ones, and lots of them. Just what listeners want to hear from an adult "contemporary" station.
 
CTListener said:
Ah, 35-year-old songs rather than 45-year-old ones, and lots of them. Just what listeners want to hear from an adult "contemporary" station.
Click to expand...
There are quite a few flavors of AC. That one is gold based and seems to be sitting on the side of KCMO (FM) which is a classic hits station.

Kansas City has an odd lack of AC / Hot AC stations. Here are the Top 10 25-54 stations listed by format:

Classic Hits
AOR
News / Talk
Alternative
Classic Rock
CHR
Country
Alternative
Urban Contemporary
Country
 
CTListener said:
Ah, 35-year-old songs rather than 45-year-old ones, and lots of them. Just what listeners want to hear from an adult "contemporary" station.
Click to expand...
I don't know why more programmers don't program ac stations like kckc. Most are such worn out hits that it's very uninteresting to listen to. Who wants to hear Harry styles for the thousandth time? When I turn to kckc, I at least can stay on the station and not be bored.
 
tall_guy1 said:
I don't know why more programmers don't program ac stations like kckc. Most are such worn out hits that it's very uninteresting to listen to. Who wants to hear Harry styles for the thousandth time? When I turn to kckc, I at least can stay on the station and not be bored.
Click to expand...
KCKC is not a top 10 biller and is below 15th in 25-54 audience. That is a huge under-performance compared with the market's true gold / classic hits station.

For the moment, that is not a station or a playlist that one would want to emulate. Remember, "variety" does not mean "more songs". It means "no bad songs".
 
DavidEduardo said:
There are quite a few flavors of AC. That one is gold based and seems to be sitting on the side of KCMO (FM) which is a classic hits station.

Kansas City has an odd lack of AC / Hot AC stations. Here are the Top 10 25-54 stations listed by format:

Classic Hits
AOR
News / Talk
Alternative
Classic Rock
CHR
Country
Alternative
Urban Contemporary
Country
Click to expand...
KZPT (our hot ac)has changed it's sound over the past months to better success. It now plays more rhythmic stuff like astronaut in the ocean, go crazy by Chris brown and him and I by g-easy, which aren't typically played on hot acs. When it actually sounded like a hot ac last December? They registered at a 2.4. Today? 4.5.
 
DavidEduardo said:
KCKC is not a top 10 biller and is below 15th in 25-54 audience. That is a huge under-performance compared with the market's true gold / classic hits station.

For the moment, that is not a station or a playlist that one would want to emulate. Remember, "variety" does not mean "more songs". It means "no bad songs".
Click to expand...
If I were them, I'd take it in a softer direction and lean more soft ac with their selections (since a lot of soft acs are gold based as well.)
 
tall_guy1 said:
If I were them, I'd take it in a softer direction and lean more soft ac with their selections (since a lot of soft acs are gold based as well.)
Click to expand...
And you'd get the old WDUV format.... 1st in 12+, 15th in 25-54 and 20th in billing.
 
The problem, IMO, is not the format but the market. As David has pointed out, Kansas City right now is not supporting AC in any shade. CHR, cratering elsewhere, is still doing well in KC. KC likes country so much that it can support three stations. What can an AC station like KCKC do to chip away at that huge, beautiful (sorry Donald) wall of female listeners? Short of turning into some pop/country hybrid, not much. And I've read speculation on the Pulse message boards that Nashville wants to break Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen at either CHR or AC, so maybe that's coming, but it's not a concept I can wrap my head around right now. Luke and Morgan just sound far too country, and making the production of their songs poppier doesn't change that. Shania Twain was from Canada, Taylor Swift from Pennsylvania -- that's the kind of country star you take pop, not aw-shucks types from Tennessee and North Carolina.
 
DavidEduardo said:
KCKC is not a top 10 biller and is below 15th in 25-54 audience. That is a huge under-performance compared with the market's true gold / classic hits station.
Click to expand...
Considering the market size, below 15th in that target demo is definately a bottom feeder. What TallGuy needs to realize is; just because you like a station, doesn't mean it's successful.
DavidEduardo said:
For the moment, that is not a station or a playlist that one would want to emulate. Remember, "variety" does not mean "more songs". It means "no bad songs".
Click to expand...
Exactly. That old saying holds true: Don't give your listeners a reason to tune-out.
 
Kansas City had a conventional AC for years - KUDL - that was performing poorly enough 10+ years ago to where Entercom chose to kill it off to place their talker on FM and decided to focus on KZPT instead.
 
I'm not sure what you call "conventional AC." Looking at the KCKC playlist, they play about 10-12 currents, and play them each about ten times a week. Then they rotate a pretty conventional group of gold songs such as Kokomo or Oh Sherry. It's pretty 80s heavy, and yet there's still room for the classic hits station in the market to be #1 25-54. The playlist may be a bit larger than most ACs, but not like crazy large.
 
CTListener said:
Shania Twain was from Canada, Taylor Swift from Pennsylvania -- that's the kind of country star you take pop, not aw-shucks types from Tennessee and North Carolina.
Click to expand...
Isn't Pennsylvania outside of Philly and Pittsburgh deemed "Pennsyltucky"?

And Dolly Parton, hailing from East Tennessee, has had global success. Jolene was only #60 on the US charts, but was a Top 10 hit in the UK, Ireland, South Africa, and New Zealand. Not to mention hit songs like 9 to 5 and Islands In the Stream.
 
TheBigA said:
I'm not sure what you call "conventional AC." Looking at the KCKC playlist, they play about 10-12 currents, and play them each about ten times a week. Then they rotate a pretty conventional group of gold songs such as Kokomo or Oh Sherry. It's pretty 80s heavy, and yet there's still room for the classic hits station in the market to be #1 25-54. The playlist may be a bit larger than most ACs, but not like crazy large.
Click to expand...
To clarify, by “conventional AC” I mean something like WLTW, KOST, WBEB, KODA, etc.

A station following a similar format to KCKC, although different (but does the going back 50 years) and more successful seeming is WKQC in Charlotte. “Southern Cross” and “Why Can’t We Be Friends” on an AC is rather odd.

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