Amber Miller exits Alt 104.5

[atthestars]

Former AllAccess Alternative director Shawn Alexander reports on his new venture. Her position was eliminated.

Sounds like middays outside of Jaxon's show was straight automated today. No word if someone else takes the daypart at the moment.

Amber Miller Exits WRFF (ALT 104.5)/Philadelphia - #HAPPENS

iHeartMedia Alternative WRFF (ALT 104.5)/Philadelphia APD/middayer Amber Miller exits after […]

happens.vip

 

[wibgradio99]

I wish Mike Jones is close behind....give WMRQ a try plenty of 90s retro all the time

 

[Jstnpspck]

Ooof, between this and other recent news it sounds like it’s time once again for a seasonal iHeart bloodletting. Very curious to see if Jaxon’s midday role is expanded with him tracking a few more hours from DC (or potentially repackaging breaks from his morning show there to use in afternoons on 104.5)

 

[MarkW]

Gee - who was the fella who recently wrote it was silly to give Philly radio stalwart Jaxon only one hour daily, thus splitting Amber Miller's air shift in the process? 😉

I strongly suspect Jaxon's on-air time will be expanded, which if it happens, is the correct move.

 

[wprt949]

Gee - who was the fella who recently wrote it was silly to give Philly radio stalwart Jaxon only one hour daily, thus splitting Amber Miller's air shift in the process? 😉

I strongly suspect Jaxon's on-air time will be expanded, which if it happens, is the correct move.

Here ya go

 

[myke25]

IMO, 104.5 is the worst its ever been... all started the day of the rebranding to Alt and adding that trainwreck of a morning show from the west coast. Woody does not fit for Philly. I miss the days of Radio 104.5 with with Wendy, Mike, commercial free mornings with Johnny, Amber Miller got the ax undeservingly. The music was better. It was not this cookie cutter crappy format. I heard a song last week that would have been considered top 40, dance leaning and thought to myself... when did 104.5 simulcast Q102? It's god awful. Hell, at this point, let's flip it back to Sunny or Alice or bring back The Breeze 2.0.

 

[atthestars]

IMO, 104.5 is the worst its ever been... all started the day of the rebranding to Alt and adding that trainwreck of a morning show from the west coast. Woody does not fit for Philly. I miss the days of Radio 104.5 with with Wendy, Mike, commercial free mornings with Johnny, Amber Miller got the ax undeservingly. The music was better. It was not this cookie cutter crappy format. I heard a song last week that would have been considered top 40, dance leaning and thought to myself... when did 104.5 simulcast Q102? It's god awful. Hell, at this point, let's flip it back to Sunny or Alice or bring back The Breeze 2.0.

Alternative has a history of playing dancier tracks. Think artists like BT, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and more charting (and charting well) at Alternative.

Philly as an Alternative market has always leaned more female, even during Y100's "Philadelphia's New Rock" days. Mainly because of WMMR, WYSP (when it existed), WMGK, and WIP eating up the male listeners.

Sunny/The Breeze isn't coming back as the demos are too old. Alice would battle Ben FM head to head and is there enough advertising $ to go after that? (Kind of like how no one has taken on WXTU because is it worth getting only a portion of that advertising demo?)

 

[wibgradio99]

IMO, 104.5 is the worst its ever been... all started the day of the rebranding to Alt and adding that trainwreck of a morning show from the west coast. Woody does not fit for Philly. I miss the days of Radio 104.5 with with Wendy, Mike, commercial free mornings with Johnny, Amber Miller got the ax undeservingly. The music was better. It was not this cookie cutter crappy format. I heard a song last week that would have been considered top 40, dance leaning and thought to myself... when did 104.5 simulcast Q102? It's god awful. Hell, at this point, let's flip it back to Sunny or Alice or bring back The Breeze 2.0.

Their first 10 years with Johnny's music intense mornings and Wendy afternoons plus a Pistols, Ramones, Flys and S Trees type retro tracks gained them over a 4.0 for years from right out of the box. Then they put this moron on mornings added a few super plastic jocks kept the repitious music safe and bang 2.0 and going down, Kaplan is a joke....

 

[radiofan2023]

Is Kaplan programming it from NY like he did with KROQ?

 

[MarkW]

In fairness, 104.5's music direction (and ratings share) stunk long before Kaplan arrived.

If anything, the musical direction has improved a bit since his arrival. Indeed, the station does have a Modern AC lean, just as it did during the Radio 104.5 era.

 

[wibgradio99]

In fairness, 104.5's music direction (and ratings share) stunk long before Kaplan arrived.

If anything, the musical direction has improved a bit since his arrival. Indeed, the station does have a Modern AC lean, just as it did during the Radio 104.5 era

agreed but that was after johnny left and the music changed direction, the first 15 years were not the 104.5 era as you say..

 

[atthestars]

Their first 10 years with Johnny's music intense mornings and Wendy afternoons plus a Pistols, Ramones, Flys and S Trees type retro tracks gained them over a 4.0 for years from right out of the box. Then they put this moron on mornings added a few super plastic jocks kept the repitious music safe and bang 2.0 and going down, Kaplan is a joke....

They pulled good ratings right out of the box because the loss of Y100 was still fairly fresh, WYSP was fumbling in it's Hot Talk era, and Alternative as a format hadn't become as fractured musically as it is today (although it was starting to get there). Today, the target demographic doesn't care about the Pistols, Ramones, or the one hit wonders the Flys and Screaming Trees because they weren't born when the songs were released. Sure 104.5 is starting to lean on the 90s again as it's harder to get kids to listen to the radio so they're trying to shore up the demos that still do tune in.

 

[mjb1124]

It seems like they're evolving into something similar to SiriusXM's "PopRocks" channel, by including stuff like Avril Lavigne and Gym Class Heroes that would have been played on Hot AC/CHR and not Alternative when it was new. (And before anyone asks, these were both during the midday hours today, within 90 minutes of each other.) I can see how maybe this is what their target audience would like (perhaps they listened to it in middle/high school), but it makes me wonder if they should just drop the "Alt[ernative]" positioning at this point and embrace the "Pop Rock" label or something similar. That branding seems to work well for SiriusXM, and it's seeming like the term "Alternative" doesn't have much meaning or relevance at this point. But maybe that's just my old-school Alternative fandom talking, and younger people have no problem calling the pop-rock stuff by that term.

On another note, not sure how long this has been a thing, but they also have a midday lunch block called "Postmodern Radio", which is the same branding Kaplan used for a weekend retro show at Audacy. I noticed they also didn't seem to be using the "Alt" branding during that hour, at least not as much - a sweeper said "Postmodern Radio, 104.5", which made me wonder if they had changed branding and shifted to full-time Classic Alternative for a moment. But they were back to the normal branding after 1.

 

[lanceventa]

It seems like they're evolving into something similar to SiriusXM's "PopRocks" channel, by including stuff like Avril Lavigne and Gym Class Heroes that would have been played on Hot AC/CHR and not Alternative when it was new.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but both artists were played at Alternative when their songs broke. And formats and core artists evolve. In the 1980s, Prince and Duran Duran were CHR artists. In the 60's the Beatles and Beach Boys were Top 40. By your logic those stations should be the only ones playing them today.

 

[mjb1124]

Prince and Duran Duran did get played at Alternative, more than Avril or Gym Class Heroes did anyway. The latter two might have gotten a few spins here and there, but they never had real hits at the format - it was CHR and Hot AC that embraced them. (Admittedly Avril did get a AAA hit with "Complicated", but that format was more open to that brand of pop-rock back then.) Also, Classic Hits and Oldies stations have always been primarily based on what top 40 and CHR stations played back in the day, so I don't see how them playing the Beach Boys or Duran Duran is the same idea as an Alternative station playing something that would have been considered too pop for them back then.

That said, I did express that I'm open to the fact that maybe this is what WRFF's core audience wants to hear nowadays. It's more a question of whether the "Alternative" label still fits. WOGL doesn't still call itself "Oldies" after all.

 

[lanceventa]

Prince and Duran Duran did get played at Alternative, more than Avril or Gym Class Heroes did anyway. The latter two might have gotten a few spins here and there, but they never had real hits at the format - it was CHR and Hot AC that embraced them. (Admittedly Avril did get a AAA hit with "Complicated", but that format was more open to that brand of pop-rock back then.) Also, Classic Hits and Oldies stations have always been primarily based on what top 40 and CHR stations played back in the day, so I don't see how them playing the Beach Boys or Duran Duran is the same idea as an Alternative station playing something that would have been considered too pop for them back then.

That said, I did express that I'm open to the fact that maybe this is what WRFF's core audience wants to hear nowadays. It's more a question of whether the "Alternative" label still fits. WOGL doesn't still call itself "Oldies" after all.

Stop moving the goalposts since your argument is so flimsy. Your statement was that WRFF shouldn't play Avril and Gym Class Heroes because Alternative did not play them as currents. A) They did. B) I made the analogy to Prince and Duran Duran but easily could've been any artist of the 80s being played on other formats.

Pay attention to the macro to see what's happening on the micro. Nearly EVERY format is skewing older than in the past and playing more gold to keep their remaining older listeners. Oldies/Classic Hits in the 80s through 2000s focused on music that was usually 20-30 years old. Now they're focusing on music 30-40 years old. Top 40, Alternative, Classic Rock, R&B all are playing golds 20-30 years old. As I was just driving home Z100 kicked off the 3pm hour with Genie In A Bottle.

But also look at the micro. Alternative in Philadelphia was always a little more Pop/Alt skewing than elsewhere. Y100 evolved from a Scott Shannon consulted Hot AC and always kept a little of that sensibility. Radio 104.5 in its early days was heavy on crossover gold from the likes of Counting Crows, Barenaked Ladies, Third Eye Blind and The Cure. Even the songs they were responsible from breaking like Of Monsters & Men "Little Talks" quickly crossed over to Hot AC.

 

[TheBigA]

It seems like they're evolving into something similar to SiriusXM's "PopRocks" channel, by including stuff like Avril Lavigne and Gym Class Heroes that would have been played on Hot AC/CHR and not Alternative when it was new.

There's an interesting comparison to be done between what former WRFF PD John Allers is doing with this format in Dallas and what Mike Kaplan is doing now in Philadelphia. Very different approaches. In Dallas, Allers is getting criticism from longtime rock fans for playing songs that would have been played on KEGL. Here, Kaplan is getting criticized for adding some pop. What it says to me is the format is really searching for a base, because the genre itself isn't growing or developing the kind of massive stars it once did.

 

[andygradel]

Stop moving the goalposts since your argument is so flimsy. Your statement was that WRFF shouldn't play Avril and Gym Class Heroes because Alternative did not play them as currents. A) They did. B) I made the analogy to Prince and Duran Duran but easily could've been any artist of the 80s being played on other formats.

Pay attention to the macro to see what's happening on the micro. Nearly EVERY format is skewing older than in the past and playing more gold to keep their remaining older listeners. Oldies/Classic Hits in the 80s through 2000s focused on music that was usually 20-30 years old. Now they're focusing on music 30-40 years old. Top 40, Alternative, Classic Rock, R&B all are playing golds 20-30 years old. As I was just driving home Z100 kicked off the 3pm hour with Genie In A Bottle.

But also look at the micro. Alternative in Philadelphia was always a little more Pop/Alt skewing than elsewhere. Y100 evolved from a Scott Shannon consulted Hot AC and always kept a little of that sensibility. Radio 104.5 in its early days was heavy on crossover gold from the likes of Counting Crows, Barenaked Ladies, Third Eye Blind and The Cure. Even the songs they were responsible from breaking like Of Monsters & Men "Little Talks" quickly crossed over to Hot AC.

Yeah, Y100 always sat on the pop/alt fence. When I was doing PT work there in the late 90's, I remember playing a decent amount of Sheryl Crow, Barenaked Ladies and Smashmouth when I really wanted to be playing Nine Inch Nails, RATM and STP.

 

[lanceventa]

There's an interesting comparison to be done between what former WRFF PD John Allers is doing with this format in Dallas and what Mike Kaplan is doing now in Philadelphia. Very different approaches. In Dallas, Allers is getting criticism from longtime rock fans for playing songs that would have been played on KEGL. Here, Kaplan is getting criticized for adding some pop. What it says to me is the format is really searching for a base, because the genre itself isn't growing or developing the kind of massive stars it once did.

They're both playing to the market research. Allers and Kaplan in Philly followed the roadmap carved by their predecessors. Allers is doing the same in Dallas with what worked at 102.1 The Edge and in San Francisco with his relaunch of Live 105.

The most successful Alternative launch in quite some time has been the rebirth of 99X Atlanta. And there they just are replicating what the brand was in the 90s including the music AND airstaff.

 

[TheBigA]

Allers is doing the same in Dallas with what worked at 102.1 The Edge and in San Francisco with his relaunch of Live 105.

Keep in mind that Allers is in charge of both KVIL and KITS. If you look at the playlists, they're very different. So yes, he's following the local research. Not sure what you mean by 'doing the same,' because the playlists and music strategies of the two stations are different.