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Christmas Music/Format Change Watch 2022

vw86 said:
Ok. But if you look at those stations, what are they doing that iHeart isn't? They seem to have live, local morning shows and then tracked/syndicated jocks in the remaining dayparts.
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102.7 has a better mix of music. Their playlist is not as limited as iHeart.
 
vw86 said:
Ok. But if you look at those stations, what are they doing that iHeart isn't? They seem to have live, local morning shows and then tracked/syndicated jocks in the remaining dayparts.
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To be fair, I measured success on the basis of "not bought out by a conglomerate," but the variety of music on 102.7 is better than anything on the Cleveland stations, and the same goes for 98.1 out of Akron. The major players here pretty much just play the same library of songs they started with, with few exceptions. Sure, KISS and Q will play your chart toppers - those will bring in the audience and the ad dollars - but stations like Star and The Lake are pretty much running on the same libraries that they started with. Also, I thought Mix 102.7 was all local?

I'll admit that Mix 102.7 does need to give poor Randy Hugg someone else on the morning show to bounce things off of, because one man going solo for upwards of four hours has to be rather tiring.

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On the subject of automation and poor timing, I'm betting that WAKR could probably be handled a bit better, and it's more than likely the software is to blame. I thought the programs that mostly-automated stations used nowadays were fine-tuned enough that things like that wouldn't happen, so maybe they're just using an older program? It's not unlike how the format-specific streams on iHeart Radio would play the same songs over and over because they'd flip between affiliates. I remember listening to the Halloween Radio stream a year or so ago, and I'd hear idents from affiliates all over the country, and the same songs would pop up more than once an hour, so I figured the stream was just bouncing between stations to keep the commercial-free nature of that specific stream going. I do know that those streams now aren't commercial-free anymore, so you just get one affiliate's stream on the app (I think iHeart 90s is based out of Syracuse NY), but it cuts off at times, too. Perhaps 100% automation isn't as finely-tuned as we'd all like to believe it is.

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Edit: I saw on RadioInsight that Audacy is flipping Alt 92.3 New York to a simulcast of a news station and - for now - keeping the music format on an -HD2 stream. The last time music left 92.3 NY was when CBS Radio was still around and killed off K-Rock for their Free-FM format. They wound up moving the entire format to 92.3 here, when K-Rock Cleveland became a thing, and it also left when CBS retired Free-FM and put it back in New York. I know that history repeats itself, so what do you think the odds are that "Alt 92.3" would also get moved here, much like its K-Rock predecessor did years ago? Yes, it'd require nuking another Audacy station to move The Fan onto, and I don't know how commercially viable having 'another' alternative music station in town would be versus classic rock on 98.5, top-40 music on 104.1, or the soft-AC that lives on 102.1, but that might be something to watch for as the new year approaches. "Q102" has a nice ring to it, so maybe shift top-40 over to 102.1 and put The Fan on 104.1? Would that give the sports talk a wider reach than it being on 92.3? Also, would putting alternative back on 92.3 make it a good competitor for whatever ratings 107.3 is pulling in, or would it wind up supplementing the coverage across town?
 
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Bouncing formats around frequencies comes with its own perils as average listeners, who have more important things to focus on than where stations they like moved to, stop listening and may not focus on finding where this-or-that went.

Alternative back on 92.3 would be a potential good competitor to 107.3, but would the ROI be worth it. I can see two Adult Contemporary stations on in the market, but two commercial Alternative stations? I'm afraid they might "eat-each other-up" with neither one billing enough to make it.
 
One down!

Star 102 should flip on 11/11 at 11:11am, but just act natural going into it. I know that they won't - Jen and Tim will talk about it the whole morning and then flip at 8:30am for the "non-stop hour of music to start your workday" as they do every year - but it's the perfect mix of that being on a Friday and the time/date being the same. Someone should flip at that time.

Chicago's 93.9 Lite-FM flipped to Christmas music, but kept the same name, unlike Z104. I tuned in and got to hear Delilah talking about romance backed by Christmas music. It's a different mix of songs, so I'm glad each station is pulling from somewhat of a different pool of songs as opposed to everyone just playing the same list. Now, will 105.7 and 102.1 wind up playing exactly the same songs like they seem to every year, or will 102.1 finally spice up their Christmas library and play some newer songs? Mariah and the Biebs need their duet version of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" to get some airtime, too!
 
My guess is Star and Majic will both play the same general playlist they play every year. They'll both probably flip within a day or two of each other sometime next week. Hollie Strano will join Mark Nolan in studio at Majic. And they'll both have big success.
 
Well, when they flip, so do I....my radio knob off. But most of the time I zip down to the left end of the dial and listen to 91.3 The Summit
 
MediaLover said:
WMJI has announced on Facebook they will go all-Christmas starting on Friday.
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That's another one! If 102 doesn't follow suit quickly, I'll be surprised. Aren't they usually one of the first of the major Cleveland market players to make the switch?
 
I noticed on Monday as I was up in the Cleveland area that iHeart has flipped Mix 98.9 in Youngstown to Christmas. My home market is Columbus, and we already have TWO Christmas FMs (Sunny 95 in Columbus flipped on 11/1 (an early flip for them) and the 93.3 The Bus (iHeart's FM) was flipped by the weekend.
 
MegaBlue said:
That's another one! If 102 doesn't follow suit quickly, I'll be surprised. Aren't they usually one of the first of the major Cleveland market players to make the switch?
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I feel like 102 usually goes first. I feel like in past years there have been times they have both gone on the same day. But iHeart seems to like the national rollout on Fridays now. They flipped all of the early birds this past Friday 11/4, and the rest flip tomorrow (with a few possible holdouts like WLTW in NYC flipping on Friday 11/18).

If I'm 102 and know Majic is flipping tomorrow at either 10am or 5pm, I do it today.
 
Well, the Christmas Connection is next weekend, and that's usually when 102 flips the switch - they'll get the Fox 8 folks to do a live shot from there on Friday morning, and they'll have the countdown at 8:30 to a literal switch flipping, which will coincide with when they play the first Christmas song on the station (I'd put money down on it being Mariah Carey) - so 105 doing it this weekend gives them a week up on the competition.

For the other Christmas stations out there on iHeart, is there a variation on the style of music they play, or are they all drawing from the same "Christmas hits" pool?
 
Yay! Time for the same 40 songs interpreted by 20 different artists/groups over and over and over again for the next month and a half. Sorry, but I'm outta here. I'll dig out my Christmas tapes I made off the radio back in the early 70s and listen to them. What a wide variety they had!
 
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