Las Vegas is "93.1 The Mountain" crumbling?

[Ryan Williams]

My intuition is that sports on FM won't really really set the world on fire in Vegas even on a full power signal. Too many residents from somewhere else. Too much focus on non-traditional elements like betting. Too transient.

That said, I expect someone will eventually try it. And also expect the results to be more WQAM than WBZ-FM.

 

[KC8UOK]

that new format on 93.1 playing literally everything, so that comparing may not be necessary to "sunny 106.5" (unless it's for just in case that "sunny 106.5" playing christmas music on nov to dec)

And I thought 106.5 had a wide variety. Pretty much 80s to chart music. I've been stuck on the ham bands for a few days so I'll have to give this a listen.

 

[CTListener]

My intuition is that sports on FM won't really really set the world on fire in Vegas even on a full power signal. Too many residents from somewhere else. Too much focus on non-traditional elements like betting. Too transient.

That said, I expect someone will eventually try it. And also expect the results to be more WQAM than WBZ-FM.

But with teams in three of the four major US pro sports, the number of "outsiders" who transition to being fans of the Knights, Raiders or A's will increase steadily. Some will also continue to follow their old home teams and cheer for both when they're not playing each other. For instance, I eventually became a Hartford Whalers fan during my 40 years in Connecticut, but never stopped following my hometown Boston Bruins. When they played each other, of course, I cheered for the Bruins. I know a lifelong Detroit Red Wings fan who has lived in Nashville and Tampa over the past couple of decades who also follows the Predators and Lightning.

What Vegas doesn't have is big-time college football. UNLV was relevant in basketball several decades ago, but not recently. But a city can support sports talk radio without being a good college sports town. Boston and New York City are prime examples of that.

 

[Ryan Williams]

But with teams in three of the four major US pro sports, the number of "outsiders" who transition to being fans of the Knights, Raiders or A's will increase steadily. Some will also continue to follow their old home teams and cheer for both when they're not playing each other. For instance, I eventually became a Hartford Whalers fan during my 40 years in Connecticut, but never stopped following my hometown Boston Bruins. When they played each other, of course, I cheered for the Bruins. I know a lifelong Detroit Red Wings fan who has lived in Nashville and Tampa over the past couple of decades who also follows the Predators and Lightning.

What Vegas doesn't have is big-time college football. UNLV was relevant in basketball several decades ago, but not recently. But a city can support sports talk radio without being a good college sports town. Boston and New York City are prime examples of that.

Th Knights are an interesting example. Certainly the franchise's early success on the ice helped a lot and they seem to be doing pretty well. Middle of the pack on attendance, but Vegas is also on the smaller side of the NHL markets. Fanbase seems very passionate. However that has not exactly led to great success for any of the Lotus sports stations, ratings wise. Maybe the kill on billing though....

I wonder how many of the local Knights fans are new to hockey? Certainly the Raiders getting out of the NFL basement and the Athletics chasing a penant once they arrive will create more and new interest in the teams, but....

Las Vegas just seems to not be very interested in spoken word formats. Talk underperforms. Sports underperforms. Even NPR underperforms compared to adjacent western markets like Reno and Phoenix.

 

[davideduardo]

Th Knights are an interesting example. Certainly the franchise's early success on the ice helped a lot and they seem to be doing pretty well. Middle of the pack on attendance, but Vegas is also on the smaller side of the NHL markets.

Remember that the casinos will comp tickets to the different sports that play in Las Vegas to their sports fan players. That helps fill up the venues.

 

[billalm]

Would have loved to have seen a classic alternative as a throwback to "103.5 The Edge" KEDG in the early to mid 90's. That station was a leader in the format and was a very popular station in Vegas. iHeart could probably sell to the same audience they're targeting with Neon without too much overlap with Sunny.

 

[K.M. Richards]

With Classic Alternative, the viability depends on a heritage station's presence ... either one that has remained Alternative as that music genre evolved (KROQ, for example) or which shifted from current to classic (think 91X). From that perspective, the mid-1990s was 30 years ago ...

... and KXTE knocked them out how long ago? 1999?

25 years is an eternity for people to remember a defunct station, especially when the station that destroyed them still exists.

 

[Saladressing]

I have a feeling another major commercial FM stick in Vegas will also flip in 2026. I'd wager on KXTE being that station.

Unfortunately I agree. I love the hard alternative format of Xtreme Radio X107.5 (they're playing stuff no one else is on radio and trying to introduce compelling new rock to the market/world), but it's no longer 2003 and clearly the Vegas market doesn't agree with me according to the ratings.

As far as Neon 93.1, other than the occasional Queen or ACDC cut it's sort of Classic CHR (if CHR had done what it should have done all those years and play a balance of pop, r&b, dance, rock, alt rock, hip hop) in an Adult Hits imaging wrapper. I personally wish they would have gone with jingles and a hi-nrg presenation like Z93/Dayton (a true 80s/90s Classic CHR) but they might be going for a slightly more modern audience without the kitsch imaging. Classic CHR should be a viable format. Other than the imaging, Neon bears minimal resemblance to a typical Adult Hits/Variety Hits format. Additonally they are playing hits as recent as 2021 and possibly newer than that.

By way of comparison to a standard Variety/Adult Hits station:

102.7 Jack FM Baltimore
5:25 AM - Steppenwolf "Magic Carpet Ride"
5:28 AM - Bryan Adams "Summer Of '69"
5:32 AM - Blind Melon "No Rain"
5:44 AM - 3 Doors Down "Kryptonite"
5:51 AM - Alice in Chains "Man in the Box"
5:56 AM - Aerosmith "Love In An Elevator"
6:00 AM - Whitney Houston "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"
6:04 AM - Alien Ant Farm "Smooth Criminal"
6:07 AM - Fine Young Cannibals "She Drives Me Crazy"
6:23 AM - Nirvana "Come As You Are"
6:27 AM - Prince "Kiss"
6:30 AM - Tom Petty "Runnin' Down A Dream"
6:38 AM - Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"
6:50 AM - Lady Gaga "Poker Face"
6:54 AM - Scorpions "Rock You Like A Hurricane"
6:58 AM - Michael Jackson "The Way You Make Me Feel"
7:07 AM - The Rolling Stones "Start Me Up"
7:19 AM - Matchbox Twenty "Unwell"
7:23 AM - Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine"
7:27 AM - Huey Lewis & the News "The Power Of Love"

Neon 93.1 Vegas
9:28 PM - Shaggy "It Wasn't Me"
9:32 PM - No Doubt "It's My Life"
9:45 PM - The All-American Rejects "Gives You Hell"
9:48 PM - Justin Timberlake "Rock Your Body"
10:02 PM - Bruno Mars "The Lazy Song"
10:05 PM - Linkin Park "Numb"
10:09 PM - Taylor Swift "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)"
10:12 PM - Fugees "Killing Me Softly with His Song"
10:29 PM - Eminem "Lose Yourself"
10:33 PM - Bastille "Pompeii"
10:40 PM - Poison "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
10:48 PM - Rihanna "We Found Love"
10:59 PM - Panic! At the Disco "I Write Sins Not Tragedies"
11:02 PM - Zedd "The Middle"
11:06 PM - Wreckx-N-Effect "Rump Shaker"
11:10 PM - The Pussycat Dolls "Don't Cha"
11:14 PM - Imagine Dragons "Thunder"
11:17 PM - P!nk "So What"
11:28 PM - TLC "No Scrubs"
11:32 PM - MGMT "Electric Feel"
11:45 PM - Nelly Furtado "Promiscuous"
11:49 PM - The Outfield "Your Love"
11:53 PM - Pitbull "Time of Our Lives"
11:57 PM - Lenny Kravitz "Fly Away"
12:17 AM - Lady Gaga "Bad Romance"
12:22 AM - Tag Team "Whoomp! There It Is"
12:34 AM - The Killers "Somebody Told Me"
12:42 AM - The Verve Pipe "The Freshmen"
12:46 AM - Katy Perry "Dark Horse"
12:50 AM - Taio Cruz "Dynamite"
12:53 AM - Foo Fighters "Everlong"
12:57 AM - Bruno Mars "24K Magic"
1:01 AM - Filter "Take A Picture"
1:06 AM - The Notorious B.I.G. "Hypnotize"
1:14 AM - Nelly "Ride Wit Me"
1:18 AM - Santana "Maria Maria"
1:26 AM - Imagine Dragons "Bones"
1:37 AM - Taylor Swift "Blank Space (Taylor's Version)"
1:41 AM - The Verve "Bitter Sweet Symphony"
1:45 AM - Collective Soul "Shine"
1:57 AM - Linkin Park "In the End"
2:00 AM - Avicii "Levels"
2:05 AM - The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army"
2:13 AM - DNCE "Cake By The Ocean"
2:16 AM - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony "Tha Crossroads"
2:20 AM - DJ Sammy "Heaven"
2:28 AM - Daft Punk "One More Time"
2:31 AM - Rihanna "Diamonds"
2:39 AM - Alanis Morissette "You Oughta Know"
2:46 AM - Maroon 5 "She Will Be Loved"
2:50 AM - Twenty One Pilots "Ride"
2:54 AM - Jennifer Lopez "Love Don't Cost a Thing"
2:58 AM - Mark Morrison "Return of the Mack"
3:01 AM - Barenaked Ladies "One Week"
3:04 AM - Bruno Mars "Just the Way You Are"
3:23 AM - Boyz II Men "End Of The Road"
3:30 AM - The Weeknd "Blinding Lights"
3:38 AM - Destiny's Child "Bills, Bills, Bills"
3:42 AM - Fergie "Glamorous"
3:46 AM - Smashing Pumpkins "Disarm"
3:49 AM - Katy Perry "California Gurls"
3:53 AM - Blu Cantrell "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)"
3:57 AM - Imagine Dragons "Radioactive"
4:04 AM - Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way"

 

[K.M. Richards]

As far as Neon 93.1, other than the occasional Queen or ACDC cut it's sort of Classic CHR (if CHR had done what it should have done all those years and play a balance of pop, r&b, dance, rock, alt rock, hip hop) in an Adult Hits imaging wrapper.

We used to do CHR that way, but starting in the late 1980s we outsmarted ourselves and started doing genre-specific CHR formats. And therein lies the danger in doing Adult Hits the way Neon 93.1 is. Listeners to CHR back when these were hits only consider the songs that played on their "flavor" of CHR as currents to be their favorites.

And that's where the dilemma presents itself. The listener who likes the Poison song in the 10:00pm hour is not going to be as enamored with the Rihanna songs that followed it ... and the listeners that were around a few songs earlier for the Fugees would have left when Poison started playing.

It's a balancing act between decades where it's too easy to lose your balance. The Baltimore station has a narrower time span, and therefore a better chance at holding listeners even with genre shifts.

Stations with too broad a playlist almost always fail after a while. It has happened time and time and time (and time) again over the years.

 

[KC8UOK]

Stations with too broad a playlist almost always fail after a while. It has happened time and time and time (and time) again over the years.

Which makes me wonder how Sunny 106.5 is so popular. I'll listen but sometimes they get too modern and I switch back to KKLZ. Anything like chart music or the past 10-15 years I'm gone.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Which makes me wonder how Sunny 106.5 is so popular. I'll listen but sometimes they get too modern and I switch back to KKLZ. Anything like chart music or the past 10-15 years I'm gone.

Without looking, I suspect overlap between the two stations' libraries.

 

[KC8UOK]

Without looking, I suspect overlap between the two stations' libraries.

Sunny 106.5 and KKLZ are the top 2 stations in the area. I'd be interested to see ratings when they get released. And 106.5 is also plugging Neon so we'll see

 

[CTListener]

Without looking, I suspect overlap between the two stations' libraries.

It also seems that younger demos are more tolerant of older musical styles in their radio listening than the older folks are willing to listen to modern popular music (as KC8UOK indicates in his post). Hip-hop and other beat-driven, largely non-melodic genres created a huge chasm and sent a lot of boomers and early Gen X'ers fleeing CHR and taking refuge in country, softer AC or oldies/classic hits formats.