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WMJI Entering Into The 90s

snowdog88

snowdog88

Surprised that no one has mentioned this yet, but WMJI is slowly throwing in songs from the early 90s, which means that songs from the 70s may eventually fade from their playlist in the next several years, resulting in songs only from the 80s and 90s.

The few 90s songs that I've heard so far were Alannah Myles Black Velvet (Late 1989, though more prominent throughout the 90s), and Tom Cochrane's Life Is A Highway (1991). There have also been some later 80s songs thrown in as well, like Tracy Chapman's Fast Car (1988).

WMJI still maintains their classic rock/hits format, but could they shift more towards soft rock as time moves on?
 
TheBigA said:
They're adding 90s to improve the demo. Adding soft rock would do the opposite. The softer the music, the older the demo.

Most classic hits stations around the country have been playing 90s for a while.
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Mainstream soft AC, like what was heard on WDOK throughout the 2000s. WAKR tends to be too soft at times and is mostly limited to the 70s and 80s, but tries to keep an upbeat tempo. I don't know how well classic rock and mainstream 90s music would mix well together, as that would probably reduce listenership.

BTW, I'm in my mid 30s, and I listen to soft AC from the 70s up to the end of the 2000s. Have been since 2007. The vast majority of music that people my age listen to does not appeal to me, and my music library caps off at 2010, as everything after that is just noise and no talent. I moved from WDOK to WHOF in 2012 after they dropped the soft ac format, and then eventually to WAKR. The problem is that both WAKR and WHOF are rimshots where I'm at, so it's WMJI when I travel away from their transmitters.

tblanks said:
"Drift Away" by Uncle Kracker (2002) is #21 on the current WMJI playlist. How times have changed.
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Just checked their playlist, and that was played at 2:40 PM today.

Should I expect to hear *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears anytime soon?
 
snowdog88 said:
I don't know how well classic rock and mainstream 90s music would mix well together, as that would probably reduce listenership.
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As I said, people listen to songs, not genres. So if they like Sweet Home Alabama and Gangsta Paradise, it doesn't matter how well they mix together.

snowdog88 said:
BTW, I'm in my mid 30s, and I listen to soft AC from the 70s up to the end of the 2000s. Have been since 2007.
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You are the exception to the rule.

Statistically, the average age for Soft AC is 51. It's also 62% female. Which is why they often run Delilah.
 
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I’ve heard them playing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” (1997) for a few years now.

They’ll continue adding 90s songs, just at a slower rate so they don’t completely cannibalize the Lake.
 
WMJi's audience is not getting any younger - they have to start bringing in 90s given the fact that was 30 years ago! Truthfully the 90's had some very good music I am kind of surprised more "classic hit" stations don't start moving towards that. Feels weird that growing up what people called "oldies" was only 30 years old and now technically the 90's fits that classification if you count by years.
 
snowdog88 said:
WMJI still maintains their classic rock/hits format, but could they shift more towards soft rock as time moves on?
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Classic Rock and Classic Hits are quite different (despite some of the Cox Classic Rock stations that use the 'Classic Hits' moniker). WMJI is Classic Hits and WNCX is Classic Rock and although they share a large handful of titles the two formats could not be more different.

WMJI had always trailed a bit behind most major market Classic Hits stations on moving out of one phase (the 70s) into another (the 80s and now the 90s) primarily because of The Lake. But since Keith Abrams was let go a few years ago they have aligned much more with most other Classic Hits stations (and also have become more dependent on some of the iHeart Premium Choice logs). If you look at some of the Audacy Classic Hits stations like WCBS, KRTH or Sunny FM in Orlando you'll see plenty of 90s and early 2000s picks that still make WMJI quite musically conservative in comparison.

Over the past decade the difference between Classic Hits and Variety/Adult Hits has narrowed substantially. I'm curious to see how Majic and The Lake continue to coexist with each other as the years go on.
 
I pretty much stopped listening to new music in the mid 90s. I was in my late 30s at the time and I was getting tired of constantly hearing All I Wanna Do (Sheryl Crow), The Sign (Ace of Base), Macarena and a few others. I started putting together tapes and later CDs which I listen to now if I want to hear music.
 
we radio/music people think too much of decades and tight in the box thinking for formats. I could totally see why "Drift away" by uncle cracker would be a thing on some classic hits stations depending on the year.

Depending on the station and the market, id also look at the overall sound/mood/tempo.

In Wyoming, we play the proclaimers from 1993.. love is as well... two princes.. but we dont play whomp there it is.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
we radio/music people think too much of decades and tight in the box thinking for formats. I could totally see why "Drift away" by uncle cracker would be a thing on some classic hits stations depending on the year.
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Just as an off topic note: Drift Away is such an iconic song that the melody was lifted and new lyrics added for a country song about driving around in a Chevrolet. And it became a #1 song. Again. For the third time.
 
The WMJI audience will certainly know the song Drift Away from Uncle Kracker. As with all other classic hits stations, when they stopped playing the 1973 Dobie Gray version, they simply substituted with the 2003 Uncle Kracker version. It obviously tested well right away.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
we radio/music people think too much of decades and tight in the box thinking for formats. I could totally see why "Drift away" by uncle cracker would be a thing on some classic hits stations depending on the year.
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It's interesting that the whole "decades" thing is a construct. In the areas I have worked, referring to decades promotionally has no value at all.
 
DavidEduardo said:
It's interesting that the whole "decades" thing is a construct. In the areas I have worked, referring to decades promotionally has no value at all.
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... oops i didnt finish my sentence. "depending on the years the station is focusing on and their intended audience"

But again, working in Laramie, WY I also learned to think about overall sound.. and not harp/focus on one particular song/outlier.. its part of the bigger picture!~
 
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