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Rubber City now ahead of some Cleveland stations....

skiwest said:
Their target demo doesn't listen to radio. Soft hits would do better.
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The target demo of CHR is women 18-34 in some markets, 25-44 in others. The target of Hot AC is usually somewhere around women 25-44 as well. As we see in LA with iHeart's "wall of women" the AC, Hot AC and CHR formats all have considerable overlap and a good bit of cume sharing as well. But the demo is so attractive to advertisers, that is actually a plus for iHeart there.

Soft hits, appealing mostly to those over 55, is not going to do better unless the market has a considerable local business direct sales advertiser base.
 
If I had the keys to Kiss I'd dump anything less than a year old. Playing 20 year old Beyonce songs up against a very limited assortment of CHR hits is just stupid. Either go full rhythmic friendly hot a/c or go back to mainstream CHR. Play the entire top 20 and with repetition. One of the best CHR liners I ever heard: Which would you rather hear, your favorite (insert popular artist) song a few times every day, or some old piece of S*** from Dick Marx? This was obviously a hit at the neighboring hot a/c that several years after Richard Marx lost fame on the CHR, was still playing Right Here Waiting 3-4x a day. CHR has lost its edge, and its personality.
 
MediaLover said:
KISS-FM and Z107.9 are also weaker because of less local programming. Both stations have more voicetracked and syndicated shifts that are making the two unlistenable.
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Just about every highly rated station in the Cleveland Nielsens is voicetracked most of the time. The reason, again, is simple. Young people (the target demo of these two stations) have moved away from broadcast radio to streaming and their personal files.
 
Les Talk said:
If I had the keys to Kiss I'd dump anything less than a year old. Playing 20 year old Beyonce songs up against a very limited assortment of CHR hits is just stupid.
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Devils advocate is that you'll get the millennials now in their late 30s and 40s to listen because they remember all the throwbacks from when they were new. Without the throwbacks you won't get the 35-49 crowd and you aren't necessarily getting the 18-29 either way.
 
radiofollower said:
Just about every highly rated station in the Cleveland Nielsens is voicetracked most of the time. The reason, again, is simple. Young people (the target demo of these two stations) have moved away from broadcast radio to streaming and their personal files.
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As I have posted over and over, the target demo for CHR for the last four decades has been 25-44 women with a secondary target of women 18-34
 
chrocket87 said:
To be fair, the definition of “young” is quite ambiguous. In my line of work, 50, and even 60 year olds are considered “young”.
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In this context, I am talking about under 35. People born after 1991 who experienced the internet and streaming their whole lives. and never experienced broadcast radio at the peak of its powers with strong personalities and independent music policies.
 
MediaLover said:
There are probably lots of reasons why WAKS doesn't have a great showing. That station hasn't had good ratings for a while, but iHeart won't flip because it's "heritage station."
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WAKS a "heritage station"? Arguably. "Since 2001" (on 96.5). Before the "Great Freq Swap" it was on pea shooter 104.9 :cool: I was one of the first employees at KISS @ 1049, spreadsheet wise.
 
radiofollower said:
Just about every highly rated station in the Cleveland Nielsens is voicetracked most of the time. The reason, again, is simple. Young people (the target demo of these two stations) have moved away from broadcast radio to streaming and their personal files.
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Stations are VTd due to cost, ie lack of $$$. Simply that. WMJI, long one of the top revenue generators (was) has been VT'd for over 20 years, pm drive and middays. Then later the bland syndicated Martha Quinn. So sad what's happened to MJI, and many other stations.
 
ProgrammingVet said:
Stations are VTd due to cost, ie lack of $$$. Simply that. WMJI, long one of the top revenue generators (was) has been VT'd for over 20 years, pm drive and middays. Then later the bland syndicated Martha Quinn. So sad what's happened to MJI, and many other stations.
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I wouldn't call Martha Quinn bland, she sounds way better than Nina Blackwood!
 
Martha's show is too much talk for what I'm looking for on a Classic Hits station outside of morning drive. I'd rather have a generic iHeart tracker.

I caught some of Nina's 'Absolutely 80s' a few weeks ago, which is just repackaged shows from the early 2000s at this point. But she was voicing a spot that was part of the show that was at least current-ish. To hear her voice even then versus now is night and day.
 
vw86 said:
I caught some of Nina's 'Absolutely 80s' a few weeks ago, which is just repackaged shows from the early 2000s at this point. But she was voicing a spot that was part of the show that was at least current-ish. To hear her voice even then versus now is night and day.
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Don’t tell me her voice got worse!
 
ProgrammingVet said:
Stations are VTd due to cost, ie lack of $$$. Simply that. WMJI, long one of the top revenue generators (was) has been VT'd for over 20 years, pm drive and middays. Then later the bland syndicated Martha Quinn. So sad what's happened to MJI, and many other stations.
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Yes, VT is a cost-cutting move driven by the diminishing audience of broadcast radio over the past several years, primarilly those individuals under 40 or so. It is also an attempt by these huge "Wal-Mart like" corporations to diminish the power of the individual air personality and lock step all of their stations across the country.
 
davideduardo said:
The target demo of CHR is women 18-34 in some markets, 25-44 in others. The target of Hot AC is usually somewhere around women 25-44 as well. As we see in LA with iHeart's "wall of women" the AC, Hot AC and CHR formats all have considerable overlap and a good bit of cume sharing as well. But the demo is so attractive to advertisers, that is actually a plus for iHeart there.

Soft hits, appealing mostly to those over 55, is not going to do better unless the market has a considerable local business direct sales advertiser base.
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"Soft Hits" is what WAKR has/is/was billing themselves as but I have definitely heard some recent songs on there that would never have been considered a soft hit when they were first released and what I still wouldn't call a "soft hit" today. Matter of fact, I've heard some that wouldn't have been out of place on a "classic rock" format.
 
radiofollower said:
Yes, VT is a cost-cutting move driven by the diminishing audience of broadcast radio over the past several years, primarilly those individuals under 40 or so. It is also an attempt by these huge "Wal-Mart like" corporations to diminish the power of the individual air personality and lock step all of their stations across the country.
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That is not true. Principally, live on air staff has been reduced due to the huge decline in radio revenue in the last two decades. Additionally, this is due to a change in listener preferences where too much... or even any... DJ talk is not ´preferred.
 
Yabadabado1 said:
"Soft Hits" is what WAKR has/is/was billing themselves as but I have definitely heard some recent songs on there that would never have been considered a soft hit when they were first released and what I still wouldn't call a "soft hit" today. Matter of fact, I've heard some that wouldn't have been out of place on a "classic rock" format.
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Soft Hits/Soft Favorites formats can be a catch-all genre. I remember when I was listening to "Soft Favorites/WDOK" 20-some years ago, and had to do a double take when I heard them play "Hotel California" by The Eagles, then 2 songs later, they played Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings".

I can't quite grasp Hotel California as being a "soft" favorite with that loud guitar solo in the back half of that song.
 


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