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Big 98.1

TheBigA said:
You can call it anything you want. Format names don't matter to anyone.

I keep saying these old classifications are obsolete. People just want what they want.
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Format names matter to us, even if they don't matter to the average listener. We use format names to indicate what the station is doing. What music is it playing and what audience is it aiming at.

This website has a whole section that LISTS format names for topics of discussion. There are literally 26 format names to choose from. They're not obsolete or they wouldn't be included here.

Big A, please don't always use snark as a response. It isn't appreciated. We can debate without implying everyone around us isn't as smart as we are.
 
Gregg. said:
I was listening to Big 98.1 today. Folks, this is clearly a prelude to a FORMAT CHANGE. No other Classic Hits station would air this playlist, even for a "Special Weekend."

I heard the morning guy Coop do a giveaway just after 9 a.m. He had played Salt N Pepa, followed by Bobby Brown. Then he put a caller on the air. "You have your choice of Lady Gaga tickets, Rod Stewart or Crowded House. Which do you want?" That was followed by Ace of Base, TLC and Beyonce. I had to laugh to myself. The concert ticket giveaway artists were all white. The DJ and caller were apparently white. But most of the music played was by African Americans. OK, the members of Ace of Base are Swedish but their music is danceable. Clearly the giveaways were chosen before recent station changes.
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Right, and nobody likes to listen to Lady Gaga AND Beyonce, or Ace of Base AND Bobby Brown. Horsefeathers. We're a long way from the de facto segregation of the early MTV years. The popular music of the past 25 years would be unrecognizable without the presence and wide appeal of black artists and rhythmic genres. I don't see anything wrong with what 98.1 is playing, even if they're not programming for 70-year-olds like me. The playlist looks like it would hit a sweet spot with 20-somethings to 40-somethings with no problem at all, especially among white listeners.
 
Gregg. said:
Big A, please don't always use snark as a response. It isn't appreciated. We can debate without implying everyone around us isn't as smart as we are.
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I call it like I see it. You call it snark. I call it honest. Nothing personal. I like you and always respond to you. That's good. You're getting reaction.

WOGL stopped being traditional classic hits when it replaced a lot of the pop with the rock songs maybe ten years ago. The fact that it's evolving again is just what local radio does to adapt to the market. Not confined by a format name.
 
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This looks to me like a roadmap of the future for the station. Someone on Discord mentioned some of this weekend's songs having been played on Eagle 106 and the CHRs of the time, and I feel like that tracks- WOGL is no longer trying to replicate he likes of WFIL, they've moved on to WEGX and WIOQ
 
Audacy likes the classic hip hop and “rhythmic throwbacks” formats despite it not doing that great on a lot of stations they’ve placed it on. Perhaps they’re testing the waters in Philadelphia for a more “gold based” rhythmic throwbacks format like they have in Atlanta.
 
101tm said:
Audacy likes the classic hip hop and “rhythmic throwbacks” formats despite it not doing that great on a lot of stations they’ve placed it on. Perhaps they’re testing the waters in Philadelphia for a more “gold based” rhythmic throwbacks format like they have in Atlanta.
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Another example is The Block, WXBK in NYC. The station has a limited signal and has underperformed with a very solid on-air team.
 
Gregg. said:
Format names matter to us, even if they don't matter to the average listener. We use format names to indicate what the station is doing. What music is it playing and what audience is it aiming at.
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And often the format does not matter to advertisers and agencies.

Unless a station is making an ethnic buy, the format is otherwise not generally relevant. What matters are the demos to agencies and the response to direct accounts.

Of course, some direct accounts will buy based on whether they like a station format or not. But that is simply a bad business decision.
Gregg. said:
This website has a whole section that LISTS format names for topics of discussion. There are literally 26 format names to choose from. They're not obsolete or they wouldn't be included here.
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They are relevant within the industry. Listeners either "like the country station" or not. They don't think about who is Adult Contemporary or Adult CHR or whatever terms we use that listeners don't know and do not care about.
Gregg. said:
Big A, please don't always use snark as a response. It isn't appreciated. We can debate without implying everyone around us isn't as smart as we are.
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I did not see BigA as being snarky; he was just pointing out that format names really don't matter... listener delivery does.
 
Classic Throwbacks is probably a more correct name for OGL now, They have DAS in the crosshairs, This does open up a lane for a more traditional 80s 90s Classic Hits station now. Play the biggest pop rock and soul hits from those decades that mesh well together. Ben FM could easily make the transition. Format designations are important for ad agencies when a sales rep is telling a station's story.
 
Gregg. said:
I was listening to Big 98.1 today. Folks, this is clearly a prelude to a FORMAT CHANGE. No other Classic Hits station would air this playlist, even for a "Special Weekend."

I heard the morning guy Coop do a giveaway just after 9 a.m. He had played Salt N Pepa, followed by Bobby Brown. Then he put a caller on the air. "You have your choice of Lady Gaga tickets, Rod Stewart or Crowded House. Which do you want?" That was followed by Ace of Base, TLC and Beyonce. I had to laugh to myself. The concert ticket giveaway artists were all white. The DJ and caller were apparently white. But most of the music played was by African Americans. OK, the members of Ace of Base are Swedish but their music is danceable. Clearly the giveaways were chosen before recent station changes.

I'm guessing when the weekend is over, WOGL will go back to the mix of classic hits, some mainstream, some rhythmic, that it was playing until today. But where will the station be this summer? I doubt we will still call it "Classic Hits."
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Agreed. I think they have ventured further down the rap rabbit hole than CBS FM.
 
XCountry285 said:
Too current of songs to be played. Leave that to 96.5 or 101.1.
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Totally agree. Classic Hits stations have generally waited for a song to be 25 years old before a song was added. That puts us at 2000. I would make an exception for Drift Away from 2001 because the sound fits the station and features Dobie Gray with Uncle Kracker
 
Very little 80s played at all in the last few hours. They even played Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” from 2007, Jay-Z, 50 Cent - something tells me Audacy is pleased with how their classic hip hop or “rhythmic throwbacks” stations in larger markets must be billing, because it sounds like they’re heading in the same direction in Philadelphia.
 
101tm said:
Very little 80s played at all in the last few hours. They even played Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” from 2007, Jay-Z, 50 Cent - something tells me Audacy is pleased with how their classic hip hop or “rhythmic throwbacks” stations in larger markets must be billing, because it sounds like they’re heading in the same direction in Philadelphia.
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I would agree.
 
If Audacy were to launch such a format on a full-time basis in Philly, wouldn't it make more sense to put it on 96.5 than on 98.1?

Seems to me completely blowing up 98.1's Classic Hits format would help 95.7 Ben-FM significantly, which in turn would be harmful to B101. Not to mention, a similar format was tried on 106.1 not long ago and generated only middle-of-the-pack ratings (at best) once the post-launch surge wore off.

Thus, I cannot see a scenario where WOGL abandons Classic Hits for either Rhythmic AC or Classic Hip-Hop actually playing out. You don't throw a decently billing station down the drain for something risky / speculative. I think WOGL will stay the current course of integrating some rhythmic crossover product into its normal playlist, with maybe more "throwback" holiday weekends to follow. WOGL has had a strong classic rock lean for a while; the current weekend programming is a way of getting people to notice that WOGL is no longer following that formula.
 
If WOGL kept this Rhythmic product as strong next week as it is this weekend, there would be a very clear separation between it and Ben-FM and WBEB. I read this entire thread and didn't see anyone mention that. You can at least say it's different than what others are doing in this market... If they did go that direction, I wouldn't be upset. If I wanted more of that classic hits feel (Yes I know Ben is technically Adult Hits), I'd go to Ben. If I wanted more Rhythmic (which Ben doesn't play), I'd go to WOGL. Before this, Ben and OGL at one point were playing a lot of the same thing, with certain songs playing on Ben that WOGL didn't play. In other words, I'm down. So down.
 
Andy Travis said:
It was one of the most polarizing eras for CHR. There's far fewer consensus hits than the 70s or 80s.
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It brought huge changes in country music and country radio as well. Many boomers and Gen Xers who couldn't get into grunge or hip-hop became country fans as younger performers with rock, pop and folk influences pushed the older generation aside. In the late '80s and early '90s, this brought more listeners in their 30s and 40s to country radio. In a few short years, the sounds coming out of Nashville started to appeal to teenagers and 20-somethings, leading to what we're seeing today -- radio's younger demos divided among pop, urban and country formats instead of just pop and urban, with rock completely marginalized. You think the '90s are hard to fit into a classic hits format? Wait till you try to do it with '10s music!
 


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