KCKC FM - Large Playlist Success ?

[davideduardo]

Not really. They're more of an adult hits type station and the songs aren't really that out of the ordinary for that format.

Yes, they are absurdly out of the ordinary. Jack and friends lean rock, and many of the songs and artists you have mentioned are out of that scope entirely... Taylor Swift, "ABC" by Jackson Five, several ABBA songs, Donna Summer, Steam, and Miami's own K.C. and the Sunshine Band.

And they have about 12% current spins.

 

[TheBigA]

Maybe KCKC FM is showing its desperation by playing way out of format songs sometimes, hoping for some kind of breakthrough in the rating/demographics.

ABC's problem in the 60s was lack of money. It was the last network to go color. Things started to turn around in the 70s with Happy Days and other hit comedies, plus the strength of its sports department.

KCKC may operate from a similar financial disadvantage in that they may not have access to the best research.

 

[tall_guy1]

ABC's problem in the 60s was lack of money. It was the last network to go color. Things started to turn around in the 70s with Happy Days and other hit comedies, plus the strength of its sports department.

KCKC may operate from a similar financial disadvantage in that they may not have access to the best research.

Their sister station kmxv is at the top though.

 

[davideduardo]

Their sister station kmxv is at the top though.

They own billers #1, #6 and #8 in the market as well as #11. The company has 27% of market revenue, while Audacy has 38%, Cumulus has 19% and nobody else has over 8%

 

[Delete My Account]

KMBZ (FM) is programmed by Alan Furst and is an excellent radio station. They've largely avoided angry partisanship, and in the wake of Trump, actually backed away from discussing politics, particularly on Dana and Parks (afternoons.)

In my book, KMBZ (FM) along with KIRO in Seattle and WWL in New Orleans are among the very select few stations that have successfully done FM talk with a range of opinions and a highly local focus and managed to not get stuck in the "angry white guy" mode. I find it refreshing.

 

[Gregg.]

And there are a handful of "FM Hot Talk" stations doing well, where political topics are rarely discussed, such as WHPT Tampa and WTKS Orlando. But talk stations that stay away from angry white guy politics are expensive. You have to have local hosts in most dayparts. Other than Dave Ramsey and Coast to Coast AM, there's not much syndicated talk that is outside of politics. KMBZ-FM runs local hosts during the day while its AM sister, 980 KMBZ, carries the syndicated conservative shows.

Back to the Original Topic... Some markets just don't have much interest in AC. I'm not sure why. AC is often #1 in NYC, LA and Houston. But Minneapolis and Louisville have no AC stations.

Kansas City is a market with three healthy Country stations where most markets have one or two. And two Top 40 stations where most markets have one. So maybe some otherwise AC listeners are spending time with Top 40 or Country?

 

[vchimpanzee]

Things like adore you and blinding lights are painfully boring in 2022, but I live in KC where that opinion looks to be common.

Interesting that I was just reading about the Young Turks.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Not really. They're more of an adult hits type station and the songs aren't really that out of the ordinary for that format.

I remember when 98.7 Simon Greensboro NC played "Shout" by The Isley Brothers. This is a station that would occasionally do rap, metal or grunge because "we play everything". I haven't tried it lately. Actually, I did hear metal in the DMV office when renewing my license, along with Olivia Newton-John. I think I'm remembering that right.

 

[tall_guy1]

Seems like a small town station that copied kckc is "the rewind 104.3" in Joplin kcar. A lot of it sounds almost identical!

 

[davideduardo]

Seems like a small town station that copied kckc is "the rewind 104.3" in Joplin kcar. A lot of it sounds almost identical!

It's not uncommon for stations that can't afford research to copy ones that do get listener feedback. The biggest problem, though, is that the competitive array in a small market is less than a larger one, and playlists developed for big markets may be too specific for a small market.

 

[tall_guy1]

It's not uncommon for stations that can't afford research to copy ones that do get listener feedback. The biggest problem, though, is that the competitive array in a small market is less than a larger one, and playlists developed for big markets may be too specific for a small market.

I don't think this one is too specific lol

 

[davideduardo]

I don't think this one is too specific lol

By "specific" I mean that music tests are done with ones own listeners and partisans of music your listeners like. If the local audience is fragmented by more stations, your partisan group will be more narrow and restrictive.

 

[tall_guy1]

By "specific" I mean that music tests are done with ones own listeners and partisans of music your listeners like. If the local audience is fragmented by more stations, your partisan group will be more narrow and restrictive.

That makes sense. My point was living in a small town, this station sounds like it could fit (having a larger than a average playlist, a bunch of different music styles on it, ect. which are more common in small town stations than in something like KC usually.) It does seem a little different though...no 70s on the Joplin station, no currents, but more 00s and 90s, but otherwise similar.

 

[CTListener]

I've read that the ABC TV network was kind of desperate in its early years, up until Batman became a hit in 1966, that desperation led to ABC broadcasting some shows that CBS and NBC wouldn't (I don't have specifics).

ABC horribly overplayed its hand with "Batman" when it went to two nights a week with it. The show probably died a season or two before it should have.

Also, outside of "Monday Night Football," which premiered in 1970, prime time remained a disaster area for ABC until the mid-'70s and "Happy Days." It was only then that ABC began to lose its "third network" image.

 

[michael hagerty]

ABC horribly overplayed its hand with "Batman" when it went to two nights a week with it. The show probably died a season or two before it should have.

Also, outside of "Monday Night Football," which premiered in 1970, prime time remained a disaster area for ABC until the mid-'70s and "Happy Days." It was only then that ABC began to lose its "third network" image.

Well, remember--"Batman" premiered as a two-night a week show. The idea was the "serial" nature would play better if you didn't have to wait a week. They started in January so that was a half-season, did the full '66-'67 season as two nights a week, then went to one night in the third season.

All told, that was 120 episodes, or four seasons' worth played once a week. That's a pretty good run for that kind of show, and times were changing quickly. "Batman" got the ax roughly the same time (Spring '68) "The Monkees" (58 episodes), "I Spy"(82 episodes) and "The Man From UNCLE"(105 episodes) did.

After "Batman", though---its only real hits were "Bewitched" and "The FBI", both of which pre-dated "Batman". After that came "Marcus Welby", "The Mod Squad", "The Partridge Family", "The Rookies" and "Kung Fu"---but that was it, spread over six years until 1974 when "Happy Days" and "The Six Million Dollar Man" hit big and started the snowball that would eventually include "Laverne and Shirley", "Charlie's Angels", "Baretta", "Three's Company", "Welcome Back, Kotter", "The Bionic Woman" and "Barney Miller".

As I was looking this up, I was surprised to learn that "The Brady Bunch" never made the Top 30 ratings for any year of its initial network run. It took off in syndication, but was never a smash for ABC.

 

[Kelly A]

Well, remember--"Batman" premiered as a two-night a week show. The idea was the "serial" nature would play better if you didn't have to wait a week. They started in January so that was a half-season, did the full '66-'67 season as two nights a week, then went to one night in the third season.

Good Lord...Quite the swerve from the topic about a radio station's playlist to the 60's history of ABC prime.

 

[michael hagerty]

Good Lord...Quite the swerve from the topic about a radio station's playlist to the 60's history of ABC prime.

Happened a page back. I just dropped in to provide specifics.

Carry on.

 

[Kelly A]

Happened a page back. I just dropped in to provide specifics.

Carry on.

Ah, enabler. Got it.

 

[michael hagerty]

Ah, enabler. Got it.

Of course, none of it makes sense without context, so let’s examine NBC’s ratings in the same era…

 

[Kent]

Kansas City is a market with three healthy Country stations where most markets have one or two. And two Top 40 stations where most markets have one. So maybe some otherwise AC listeners are spending time with Top 40 or Country?

I suspect KCMO-FM is getting a lot of the AC crowd, too.

Funny thing is, I went to a summer camp in the KC area in 1987, and AC was just about everywhere on the dial. I listened to KCPW “Power 95” and K-Lite 106.5 that summer. 93.3 was KLSI after it was bought from Jimmy Swaggert and became KMXV around 1992, “Where MX stands for Mixed and V stands for Variety.” It flipped to CHR in ‘94 about a year after Q104 went country, and top-40 was exiled to a rimshot signal.

Granted, the 80’s ended more than 30 years ago, but I don’t think it has changed so much that a market that supported four or five AC's couldn’t support any today. I tend to think it's more of a case of other stations covering the target audience and serving it well enough that AC doesn’t have many inroad. I doubt KCKC's large playlist helps either. A large playlist has killed many a station.