Last Night, I was listening to Big 103 when I heard promos for the station but I didn't hear the station's nickname on the air. So I am wondering if there might be a format chance to that station in the near future.
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Is it me or is one of the Boston Classic Hits Stations about to change format?
- Thread starter cartman2002
- Start date
WROR and WBGB brand as classic hits while ZLX brands as classic rock but maybe gets into some classic hits territory. If 103 were to change..to what? Owners are Beasley, Audacy, and iHeart, respectively.
Actually 103 can be called adult hits but
that could just be classic hits with a different name.
ZLX doing talk in AM drive with Rich and some wondered if they might try to do sports--but Pats re upped with Sports Hub--a chance Red Sox may try to do their rights in-house and who knows if they'd try to place themselves on ZLX. It would be a gamble to be a third sports station and ZLX may be doing too well to justify that.
As for 103, who knows if they'd change or maybe just do a new nickname.
Actually 103 can be called adult hits but
that could just be classic hits with a different name.
ZLX doing talk in AM drive with Rich and some wondered if they might try to do sports--but Pats re upped with Sports Hub--a chance Red Sox may try to do their rights in-house and who knows if they'd try to place themselves on ZLX. It would be a gamble to be a third sports station and ZLX may be doing too well to justify that.
As for 103, who knows if they'd change or maybe just do a new nickname.
Why would there be two industry terms for the same thing? "Big 103" is Variety Hits (or Adult Hits by some). The differences are usually a wider playlist, usually more Rock leaning, and in some implementations can include currents or recurrents.
Keep in mind that formats are specifically for one purpose only: To determine the target demographic of a station. WROR is mostly 35+ with a focus on 45-64. WBGB is slightly younger skewing focusing on 35-54.
WZLX is not flipping to Sports. And it is doubtful WBGB is flipping too.
MassMusicMan
Banned
Big punches at or above its weight in the ratings while paying for nothing other than a music license and an imaging guy.
Maybe you heard one of their irreverent quick sweeps that doesn't have the call letters in them. They run those all the time. That doesn't portend a format change.
This thread might be the RDest one I've seen: Question based on the flimsiest of premises, non-answer with three tangents from Raccoon, informed answer from Lance.
Maybe you heard one of their irreverent quick sweeps that doesn't have the call letters in them. They run those all the time. That doesn't portend a format change.
This thread might be the RDest one I've seen: Question based on the flimsiest of premises, non-answer with three tangents from Raccoon, informed answer from Lance.
WROR Classic Hits, WZLX Classic Rock and WBGB Adult Hits are all distinct formats. Do they share some songs? Sure. When Taylor Swift and Harry Styles release something new, Top 40, Hot AC and AC stations all play it. All three formats share some songs. But that doesn't make them interchangeable.
WBGB is virtually JACK-FM without paying for the rights to use the Jack name. Like JACK-FM, Big 103 doesn't use DJs, has no morning show, it has the same snide voice making the same sarcastic remarks. And WBGB's playlist is pretty much the same as KCBS-FM and other Jack stations. That playlist is very specific for Jack stations. It isn't just some rock-leaning hits from the 70s, 80s and 90s. I'm a fan of Jack and there is a formula to its playlist.
WROR #2 (and the top music station in Boston)
WZLX #9 (and the #5 music station)
WBGB #11 (and the #6 music station - Boston has five spoken-word stations in its top ten!)
Why was WBGB not using "Big 103" in its promo? Good question. You don't usually make a mistake like that. But I just heard the station say "Big 103" multiple times over the last half hour.
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Sunday night? They may have been running a generic format from another location. Depends what you mean by a promo.
I wouldn't base anything on Sunday night. Z100 was running a K-pop show Sunday night. They're not flipping formats.
MassMusicMan
Banned
I say it all the time: CHR today is for the children and grandchildren of immigrants.
Hell, you could say that about early Kiss 108 and their massive Italian-American appeal.
MassMusicMan
Banned
I'm guessing the OP meant "sweeper" in saying "promo." No, the major market radio station did not neglect to include the call letters in the copy for a promo which aired at the end of a music sweep, and before a stopset. That's a degree of incompetence that would keep you out of this level of radio in the first place.
Sometimes, the element between songs on Big 103 is a quick one-liner from Fitzy, which would be completely derailed by using the call letters before or after the joke. You deliver the line, you let it hit, you move on to the song.
103 may be Variety Hits but Audacy says
"BIG 103 Boston is the station that plays Classic Hits for Boston"
"BIG 103 Boston is the station that plays Classic Hits for Boston"
Format descriptors and marketing statements are not the same thing. I can put that RadioDiscussions is "America's #1 Puppy Training Academy" on the banner at the top of the site. It doesn't make it what it is.
All iHeart CHR runs the K-Pop show from what I know. Regardless of whether they like it or not. There's a distinct fanbase of mostly teenagers that they are trying to get attention from.
As for WBGB, they might have been running some cookie cutter image elements and forgot to drop the station name in there based on how this was described.
Also, listeners have been hearing "classic hits" mentioned on radio stations for several years, as "oldies" has become a forbidden word. AFAIK, the phrases "variety hits" and "adult hits" have never been spoken on air on any station with a format described as such.
MassMusicMan
Banned
Newbury Comics has a K-Pop display at every location I've been in (at least three in recent memory).
That's a brand which should be imitated by radio...and has been for decades.
MassMusicMan
Banned
It's market #10, and the entire frickin' format is predicated upon image elements. They didn't and don't use "cookie-cutter" anything.
"Forgot to drop the station name in there." Jesus Christ, how incompetent do you think Boston radio pros are?
You'd be surprised at how much cookie cutter imaging these companies use. Basically generic liners and then they add a station name into it with the same VO, either in the production or the automation. Obviously it's more commonly used in smaller markets. Clear Channel did this on their CHR stations for a long time, didn't matter how big the market was. iHeart still does it.
If it was generic imaging, or a generic promo, human error or an automation error could have caused it.
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I'm the first one to call out cookie-cutter radio stations and BIG 103 isn't one of them. What the 3 Boston operators have made clear is how little they care about nights, never-mind Sunday nights. I'm sure it was just human oversight made by an ever shrinking staff.
I haven't heard it lately, but in the past, I'd swear WBZ-AM's TOH-ID in at least the 12-3am period was sporadically "...and WXKS-FM-HD2, Harrisburg" (a few times it sounded like Fitchburg or Pittsburg)! Then I would try to catch the next TOHID and it would clearly be "...-HD2, Medford (which sometimes sounds like 'Bedford')". It is easy to mishear Bedford for Medford, but H-, F- or P-burg? I thought it might be an automated ID assembly error.
Audio or it never happened.
Big 103's playlist, in my opinion, could be accurately described as either classic hits or variety hits.
To suggest the station cannot legitimately be labeled "classic hits" is off the mark. Your analogy, although clever, is misleading when applying it to this specific example.
I am not seeing any songs more recent than 20 years of age.
The vast majority of artists on that playlist are heard on my local Audacy classic hits station. Out of the 40 most recently played artists, at least 38 are played on WOMC, a station everyone would agree is classic hits.
WROR was a top 5 station in June in both A25 to 54 and A18 to 49. While I suspect you are correct their strongest AQH share comes from 45 to 64, I am skeptical that is what they primarily tout for ad sales purposes.
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I think "Variety Hits" is the appropriate term... and if I'm not mistaken is how it's listed on Neilson? Just for fun I decided to click the song history link...
Donna Summer's Last Dance into Metallica's Enter Sandman
And a few hours later...
50 Cent's In Da Club into Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams
Not going to find that on ROR.
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