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106.5 The Buzz Sacramento - America's first FM 90s Station

C

CHRles

http://90sbuzz.com/

I'm sure many of you have already had a chance to check an inetrnet-only all 90s station, or 90s On 9 via satellite radio. It looks like the first FM station featuring this format debuted today in Sacramento. The music mix is quite good, imo.
So which other markets do you see jumping on the bandwagon soon? Some of the Movin/Rhythmic AC stations? Perhaps some of the markets that have an overabundance of FM signals? The few 80s stations still found around the country? Smoothy Jazz stations? Other struggling Modern Rockers? Oldies-based stations? Struggling Jack FM stations?
Salt Lake City and San Diego come to mind seeing as how they have so many signals. Columbus, Oh is about to get some move-ins, and it was among the first to get an all 80s station. 101.5 The Point would have been a good candidate, but its ratings are quite good. Then again they're playing a lot more 90s titles these days. Albany, NY perhaps? 102.3 Kiss FM's ratings are well below Fly 92 and Jamz 96.3. They can keep Elvis Duran in the morning and play all 90s the rest of the day. Las Vegas maybe? Party 93.1 seems to be really struggling with its Rhythmic AC format. Albuquerque? Denver?
 
I seriously doubt that a station playing music ranging from Nirvana to the Notorious BIG to the Backstreet Boys is destined for a long stay in this universe!
 
If you're a 90s based station and you're NOT playing Nirvana and Notorious B.I.G. than you're not destined for a long stay in this universe. Anyone whose lived through the entire 90s decade and watched MTV will get this station immediately. A lot of markets didnt have a CHR/Pop station - many markets had Adult leaning CHRs, a Modern Rocker, and maybe a Rhythmic CHR. But MTV played all the big hits, had a youth lean, and a bit of a Rock lean. If you're a typical 30 year old these are the records you'll likely remember most from the 90s, and that's exactly what you're getting here! The station is also playing all the major records that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and on the CHR/Pop chart. Basically, it's playing a lot more than just Hip Hop and Grunge, and it's being programmed by the PD of Sacramento's CHR/Pop station 107.9 The End, Dan Mason (who also did a fine job programming 96.5 kiss FM Cleveland, and was okay at Y-100 Miami).
Music logs from the past 12 hours, and I gotta say they're pretty much dead on:

2 Pac "California Love"
Natalie Merchant "Kind & Generous"
Black Crowes “Hard To Handle”
Big Mountain “Baby I Love Your Way”
Nirvana “Lithium”
Shawn Mullins “Lullaby”
Warren G “Regulate”
Guns N Roses “Live & Let Die”
Sheryl Crow “My Favorite Mistake”
Notorious BIG “Juicy”
Extreme “More Than Words”
702 “Where My Girls At”
Beastie Boys “Intergalactic”
Sarah Mclachlan “Angel”
The Fugees “Ready Or Not”
Depeche Mode “Policy of Truth”
Lenny Kravitz “It Aint Over Till Its Over”
Pras “Ghetto Superstar”
Joan Osbourne “One of Us”
311 “Down”
Santana “Smooth”
En Vogue “Giving Him Something He Can Feel”
Lit “My Own Worst Enemy”
Hootie & The Blowfish “I Go Blind”
Red Hot Chili Peppers “Other Side”
Mariah Carey “Always Be My Baby”
Aerosmith “Crazy”
Dr. Dre “Nuthin But A G Thang”
Natalie Merchant “Jealousy”
Creed “Higher”
Technotronic “Pump Up The Jam”
Green Day “Brain Stew”
Smash Mouth “Walkin On The Sun”
Notorious BIG “Big Poppa”
Nirvana “The Man Who Sold The World”
Sixpence None The Richer “Kiss Me”
Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch “Good Vibrations”
Tonic “If You Could Only See”
Toni Braxton “You’re Makin Me High”
Sheryl Crow “Everyday Is A Winding Road”
Red Hot Chili Peppers “Give It Away”
Tom Petty “Free Fallin”
Usher “You Make Me Wanna”
Natalie Imbruglia “Torn”
Beck “Loser”
Fugees “Killing Me Softly”
Roxette “It Must Have Been Love”
Lenny Kravitz “Fly Away”
TLC “No Scrubs”
Offspring “Self Esteem”
Oasis “Wonderwall”
Blackstreet “No Diggity”
Alanis Morisette “You Learn”
Blur “Song 2”
Mariah Carey “Dreamlover”
Hootie & The Blowfish “Let Her Cry”
Skee Lo “I Wish”
Macy Gray “I Try”
Wallflowers “One Headlight”
En Vogue “Hold On”
Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Gin Blossoms “Hey Jealousy”
Snoop Doggy Dogg “Who Am I”
Bush “Glycerine”
Natalie Merchant “Carnival”
Boyz II Men “I’ll Make Love To You”
The Cure “Friday “I’m In Love”
PM Dawn “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss”
Shania Twain “You’re Still The One”
The Smashing Pumpkins “Today”
Marcy playground “Sex & Candy”
MC Hammer “U Can’t Touch This”
Craneberries “Dreams”
2 Pac “How Do You Want It”
Cracker “Low”
Fugees “No Woman No Cry”
Meredith Brooks “Bitch”
Green Day “Good Riddance”
Next “Too Close”
Kid Rock “Cowboy”
U2 “’One”
Prince “1999”
Michael Jackson “You Are Not Alone”
Alanis “Head Over Feet”
Pearl Jam “Daughter”
Notorious BIG “Hypnotize”
B-52’s “Love Shack”
Depeche Mode “Personal Jesus”
En Vogue “Free Your Mind”
Nirvana “Come As You Are”
Jesus Jones “Right Here Right Now”
TLC “Waterfalls”
Faith No More “Epic”
Natalie Merchant “Wonder”
LL Cool J “Around The Way Girl”
Tal Bachman “She’s So High”
White Town “You’re Woman”
Dr. Dre “The Next Episode”
AC/DC “Money Talks”
Goo Goo Dolls “Iris”
Destiny’s Child “Say My Name”
No Doubt “Don’t Speak”
Dave Mathews Band “What Would You Say”
Dr. Dre “Nuthin But A G Thang”
Sheryl Crow “All I Wanna Do”
Smashing Pumpkins “1979”
Johnny Gil “Rub You The Right Way”
Everlast “What It’s Like”
Eric Clapton “Layla”
Coolio “Fantastic Voyage”
Nine Inch Nails “Closer”
Alanis “You Oughta Know”
UB40 “The Way You Do The Things You Do”
Notorious BIG “Mo Money Mo Problems”
Shania Twain “Man I Feel Like A Woman”
Live “Lightning Crashes”
All Saints “Never Ever”
Nirvana “All Apologies”
Aerosmith “Janie’s Got A Gun”
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince “Summertime”
Soundgarden “Black Hole Sun”
Paula Cole “I Don’t Want To Wait”
Color Me Badd “I Wanna Sex You Up”
Green Day “When I Come Around”
Hootie & The Blowfish “Only Wanna Be With You”
The Smashing Pumpkins “Today”
Matchbox 20 “3 AM”
En Vogue “Hold On”
Sheryl Crow “My Favorite Mistake”
Duran Duran “Ordinary World”
Fugees “No Woman No Cry”
Cardigans “Lovefool”
Jon Bon Jovi “Blaze of Glory”
Next “Too Close”
Guns N Roses “November Rain”
Shawn Mullins “Lullaby”
Prince “1999”
 
Having the best testing records out of that group as "oh wow!" records on a CHR or HAC is one thing. But an entire radio station made out of them? Yes, it sounds good on paper, but the excitement will soon wear off and it will likely be relegated to the ratings scrap heap.

If you're going to be a 90's station, you're correct in assessing that the songs they're playing are, for the most part, the right ones. The point isn't about whether they're doing the 90's right or not. The point was that doing 90's-only AT ALL is the failed proposition, regardless of how well it's programmed. How many historically SUCCESSFUL 80's stations are there? I applaud them for trying something different, but how is this different than putting on a failed 80's station in the late 90's?
 
Roger, I don't necassarily see this lasting for years and years to come, but it could be a hot format in the coming years. It could generate revenues as this format targets a coveted demographic. In a few short years some of these station could become a 90s and 2K type of station playing the best of this decade (we are, after all, in 2009) and the last one. There's a higher musical correlation between 90s and now music versus 90s and 80s music, don't you think?
 
The 80's stations failed because they only specified on 80's rock and new wave while leaving out the dance songs of the 80's, while theses 90's stations have more variety, with 90's alternative, dance, hip hop. If jack fm is doing good, why can't all 90's?
 
I like this idea. Maybe a more modern variety "jack" sound. I am a lover of my 90's CD collection and music from 1998 is much closer in style and sound to today than it is to 1988. 90's & Today could work well.
 
All 90's format? I guess it was inevitable. Let's face it, "Oldies" are getting younger and younger. Every decade of music becomes someone's "back in the day" music. The only thing I wonder is if a single decade of music can generate a big enough audience for a station to thrive. It seems to me that any type of Oldies format, needs to cover a couple of decades of music in order to pull in the numbers. Traditional "Oldies" now cover 60's and 70's hits, "Classic Hits" cover 70's and 80's, and "Adult Hits" cover 80's and 90's. All (only) 90's hits may be too narrow but we shall see.
 
::) Max 106.3 was never a 90s station. They were known as a 90s and now station, though they were mainly a Modern AC at the time.
106.5 The Buzz is indeed the first FM station in the country to go all-90s.
 
Love the playlist! I think it has more variety and includes a few more "fringe" records than XM/Sirius 90s on 9.

Could be the next "fad" format, but we will probably see less 90s stations than we saw 80s stations within the last decade. As a whole, 80s pop tests better and is not as fragmented as 90s pop.

I could see it popping up in a few more medium sized markets, but not much more than that.
 
Yeah, probably best to test the sound on HD/Internet stream stations before going all 90's. I still think HAC's with 90's and today sound much better than HAC's with a lot of 80's. My wife and I are really beginning to be in the HAC demo and think 80's (especially 85 and earlier) is too much our parents' sound.

90's is the "back in the day" music for demos between 25-35. That's why many stations have retro lunches that have plenty of late 80's to late 90's music. Before the reinvention of Mariah Carey and Britney Spears, my high school students had really never known them other than those "crazy" stars and equated them with Paris Hilton.

I personally think of 50's/60's music similar to Big Band...very dated and irrelevant to my high school radio station. Elvis and, yes, The Beatles have less relevance to today's pop listeners than ever. It is even hard for me to think that today's 15 year old was born in 1994. That means anything Nirvana is as old to them as Michael Jackson's Thriller was to me when I was 15 (I'm now 25). A few of them get into it, but for the most part the hallways are full of Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Panic! At The Disco and Flo Rida fans. They can definately relate better to the 90's than I could have ever to the 80's.
 
CHRles said:
If you're a 90s based station and you're NOT playing Nirvana and Notorious B.I.G. than you're not destined for a long stay in this universe. Anyone whose lived through the entire 90s decade and watched MTV will get this station immediately. A lot of markets didnt have a CHR/Pop station - many markets had Adult leaning CHRs, a Modern Rocker, and maybe a Rhythmic CHR. But MTV played all the big hits, had a youth lean, and a bit of a Rock lean. If you're a typical 30 year old these are the records you'll likely remember most from the 90s, and that's exactly what you're getting here! The station is also playing all the major records that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and on the CHR/Pop chart. Basically, it's playing a lot more than just Hip Hop and Grunge, and it's being programmed by the PD of Sacramento's CHR/Pop station 107.9 The End, Dan Mason (who also did a fine job programming 96.5 kiss FM Cleveland, and was okay at Y-100 Miami).
Music logs from the past 12 hours, and I gotta say they're pretty much dead on:

2 Pac "California Love"
Natalie Merchant "Kind & Generous"
Black Crowes “Hard To Handle”
Big Mountain “Baby I Love Your Way”
Nirvana “Lithium”
Shawn Mullins “Lullaby”
Warren G “Regulate”
Guns N Roses “Live & Let Die”
Sheryl Crow “My Favorite Mistake”
Notorious BIG “Juicy”
Extreme “More Than Words”
702 “Where My Girls At”
Beastie Boys “Intergalactic”
Sarah Mclachlan “Angel”
The Fugees “Ready Or Not”
Depeche Mode “Policy of Truth”
Lenny Kravitz “It Aint Over Till Its Over”
Pras “Ghetto Superstar”
Joan Osbourne “One of Us”
311 “Down”
Santana “Smooth”
En Vogue “Giving Him Something He Can Feel”
Lit “My Own Worst Enemy”
Hootie & The Blowfish “I Go Blind”
Red Hot Chili Peppers “Other Side”
Mariah Carey “Always Be My Baby”
Aerosmith “Crazy”
Dr. Dre “Nuthin But A G Thang”
Natalie Merchant “Jealousy”
Creed “Higher”
Technotronic “Pump Up The Jam”
Green Day “Brain Stew”
Smash Mouth “Walkin On The Sun”
Notorious BIG “Big Poppa”
Nirvana “The Man Who Sold The World”
Sixpence None The Richer “Kiss Me”
Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch “Good Vibrations”
Tonic “If You Could Only See”
Toni Braxton “You’re Makin Me High”
Sheryl Crow “Everyday Is A Winding Road”
Red Hot Chili Peppers “Give It Away”
Tom Petty “Free Fallin”
Usher “You Make Me Wanna”
Natalie Imbruglia “Torn”
Beck “Loser”
Fugees “Killing Me Softly”
Roxette “It Must Have Been Love”
Lenny Kravitz “Fly Away”
TLC “No Scrubs”
Offspring “Self Esteem”
Oasis “Wonderwall”
Blackstreet “No Diggity”
Alanis Morisette “You Learn”
Blur “Song 2”
Mariah Carey “Dreamlover”
Hootie & The Blowfish “Let Her Cry”
Skee Lo “I Wish”
Macy Gray “I Try”
Wallflowers “One Headlight”
En Vogue “Hold On”
Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Gin Blossoms “Hey Jealousy”
Snoop Doggy Dogg “Who Am I”
Bush “Glycerine”
Natalie Merchant “Carnival”
Boyz II Men “I’ll Make Love To You”
The Cure “Friday “I’m In Love”
PM Dawn “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss”
Shania Twain “You’re Still The One”
The Smashing Pumpkins “Today”
Marcy playground “Sex & Candy”
MC Hammer “U Can’t Touch This”
Craneberries “Dreams”
2 Pac “How Do You Want It”
Cracker “Low”
Fugees “No Woman No Cry”
Meredith Brooks “Bitch”
Green Day “Good Riddance”
Next “Too Close”
Kid Rock “Cowboy”
U2 “’One”
Prince “1999”
Michael Jackson “You Are Not Alone”
Alanis “Head Over Feet”
Pearl Jam “Daughter”
Notorious BIG “Hypnotize”
B-52’s “Love Shack”
Depeche Mode “Personal Jesus”
En Vogue “Free Your Mind”
Nirvana “Come As You Are”
Jesus Jones “Right Here Right Now”
TLC “Waterfalls”
Faith No More “Epic”
Natalie Merchant “Wonder”
LL Cool J “Around The Way Girl”
Tal Bachman “She’s So High”
White Town “You’re Woman”
Dr. Dre “The Next Episode”
AC/DC “Money Talks”
Goo Goo Dolls “Iris”
Destiny’s Child “Say My Name”
No Doubt “Don’t Speak”
Dave Mathews Band “What Would You Say”
Dr. Dre “Nuthin But A G Thang”
Sheryl Crow “All I Wanna Do”
Smashing Pumpkins “1979”
Johnny Gil “Rub You The Right Way”
Everlast “What It’s Like”
Eric Clapton “Layla”
Coolio “Fantastic Voyage”
Nine Inch Nails “Closer”
Alanis “You Oughta Know”
UB40 “The Way You Do The Things You Do”
Notorious BIG “Mo Money Mo Problems”
Shania Twain “Man I Feel Like A Woman”
Live “Lightning Crashes”
All Saints “Never Ever”
Nirvana “All Apologies”
Aerosmith “Janie’s Got A Gun”
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince “Summertime”
Soundgarden “Black Hole Sun”
Paula Cole “I Don’t Want To Wait”
Color Me Badd “I Wanna Sex You Up”
Green Day “When I Come Around”
Hootie & The Blowfish “Only Wanna Be With You”
The Smashing Pumpkins “Today”
Matchbox 20 “3 AM”
En Vogue “Hold On”
Sheryl Crow “My Favorite Mistake”
Duran Duran “Ordinary World”
Fugees “No Woman No Cry”
Cardigans “Lovefool”
Jon Bon Jovi “Blaze of Glory”
Next “Too Close”
Guns N Roses “November Rain”
Shawn Mullins “Lullaby”
Prince “1999”
Click to expand...

This type of format sounds very good to me - but as a listener. I'd enjoy this and probably remain interested in this type of format for a while. I'd prefer more of a 90's and now format rather than just a pure 90's style though.
 
I streamed the station for quite a bit this weekend and I thought it was ok, but I wasn't overly impressed. I personally, like Sirius/XM's "90s on 9" quite a bit better. First off, the production is really pretty minimal and boring. (But that's the case with many stations these days ::) )

But as far as the music goes; I was dissapointed to find that, just like the 80s stations did, they seem to focus heavily on one type of music and one time period. The station is definitely rock leaning and definitely leans toward mostly early and mid 90's. The rhythmic records in the mix seem to be more "oh wow" type songs that only account for about 20 or 30 percent of the music (and are mostly hip hop based). This begs the question; where are the pop/dance records and where is the late 90s boy band and tween type music? (Stuff like La Bouche, Fun Factory, C&C Music Factory, Captain Hollywood Project, Haddaway, etc. Also, how about the boy band/tween stuff like Backstreet Boys, N'Snyc, 98 Degrees, O Town, LFO, early Britney Spears and Christina Aguilara, etc.) Both of these types of music were huge parts of the 90's and are very not well represented on the new station. (XM/Sirius's 90's on 9 does much better at presenting a real balanced 90's format). The Buzz seems to be primarily focused on 90's Modern AC type stuff (Goo Goo Dolls, Third Eye Blind, Matchbox 20, Gin Blossoms, etc. with a few hip hop and rhythmic "oh wow" records every 20 min. or so). This is the same path that the 80's stations followed when they focused only on New Wave and Hair Band rock and ignored rhythmic pop, and late 80's dance and freestyle.

Don't get me wrong, I like having an all 90's station and I will certainly stream them from time to time, but I would truly prefer a more 50/50 balance of musical styles and time periods from the decade. Maybe, radio is just so niched (which began in the 90s) that they just don't think it would work on one station. Also, as I've pondered in posts about the rhythmic AC format before, why is it that rock based music can do well as oldies, but rhythmic product is almost considered "disposable". Am I the only one who likes hearing 10 and 20 year old rhythmic hits just as much as I do the rock leaning ones? Why doesn't rhythmic gold test or do well like rock does? Is it considered too "outdated" or "trendy" and viewed as momentary ear candy? Oh well, I've never really gotten that. (Also, I really love the rhythmic AC format, but I think I must be the only one :-\ ) Anyway, just my thoughts on the new 106.5 The Buzz. Basically, ok, but I would prefer more balance in styles and years, and also better production with more appropriate 90's sound drops, etc.
 
BRH, you gotta keep in mind a few things here.
Firstly, Dance music was never big on MTV. Modern Rock music on the other hand, along with some Hip Hop, were all the rage on the channel during the 90s. 106.5 The Buzz capitalizes on the 90s sound of MTV. It definitely doesn't sound like a Modern AC station to me - they're playing a lot of great songs that were played at a time when Modern Rock radio didn't lean on Nu-Metal.
Second of all, keep in mind that 106.5 The Buzz is customized for Sacremento. Throughout much of the 90s, there was no CHR/Pop found on the dial, as was the case with many markets situated in the West and Southwest region (as well as many of America's biggest cities). The only CHR game in town was FM 102 (KSFM), which was a Rhythmic CHR. Unlike the Rhythmics found in the Bay area, KSFM didn't play a lot of Dance music, though it did occasionaly play big crossover Pop records by the likes of Celeine Dion.
As for Teen Pop, most of it is considered overly disposable, much moreso than the huge Rhythmic/Hip Hop hits of the era. That's why the Hip Hop records test well while most of the Boy-band/girlie-girl music doesn't. The trend towards Teen Pop didn't catch on until the late 90s, and was by and large biggest with tweens/millenials, and some of the soccer moms...meaning the 90s generation actually weren't the target
 
Just dying to see which music from the 00's will get played when we hit 2020 or so. If I hear Soulja Boy or Hurricane Chris, or many of Lil Wayne's songs, I might just decide to never listen to back in the day music again!

And then I guess by around 2030, all the classic and old school hits will be auto tuned. It will be almost like how planet rock, don't stop the rock, and egyptian lover type records all sound the same to us today with the electronic voices, except in a lot worse way.

Id like to see people try to lean the 00's towards an alternative direction, when this decade was clearly a hip hop decade. I don't know about the reggaeton, but the hip hop will have to be recognized as the big thing because alternative and rock definitely did not dominate the charts during the 00's.

You see how people loved to make fun of the 80's and now the 90's music and style? Well just wait until we start looking back on the 00's.....
 
KDM, if you're going to bring up the year 2020 then you need to think ahead like a visionary. Think of all the technological advances we're seeing, and you'll come to realize that by 2020 there's a good chance that all local radio stations will be easily available anywhere with the right Wi-Fi equipment. In your home, office, cell phone, or car. Therefore, a station offering the listener a choice to listen to a specific decade will be able to make it an interactive experience - you'll be able to pick a specific genre (or subgenre), as well as a specific year, or even month. Maybe you'll even be able to tailor it according to the playlists of popular local radio stations operating between 2000-2009.
The commercials will still be the same on all these platforms, so whether you're listening to the Rhythmic hits of 2004, or the CHR/Pop hits of June 2007, you'll likely get to hear the same stopsets, and perhaps the same voicetracked disc jockey. In realiity, it'll be a new form of mass customization...
 
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