• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

92.3 Now's fall

T

TonySantiago

No question that WNOW took a tumble in the last books, as they are 19th place.

And to be honest, as much as I would want for this to be a dance based station as much as XCountry285 wants this to be an alternative, for what the music is already they are keeping up with CHR. Yeah, Z-100 has been here forever and that's not helping Now. But I think the REAL reason Now tumbled, and with all due respect to them since I know a few....the on-air personality presentation.

When the station started out, love him or hate him you KNEW who Nick Cannon was. TicTack was funny and people either loved or hated Chunky. Either or, you had these strong personalities on there. Once they left, that fell. And what replaced them changed the entire character of the station. ONCE AGAIN with all due respect, outside of Ty Bentil somewhat, 92.3 Now just sounds like a bunch of giggling high pitched college girls running the show. From what 92.3 Now started out with to where they are now is a 180 degree turn.

The club DJ's such as Toro, Jay Dabhi, Yonny, David S, etc are fine. At least their mixes present that energy into the format. I still listen to the station but the character is NOWHERE NEAR where the station was when it first launched. And perhaps people are feeling that, which is why the station took such a hit.

I don't hate 92.3 Now. I do listen. And what I'm feeling is just my opinion. NO disrespect to anyone there, but at the same time I have to say what I feel here.
 
Aside from Dance what could they really do with this station? They don't do Alternative very good. They have done FM Talk and failed miserably. They have the Fan on 101.9. No true need to move either of the news stations to FM. I would wonder if they would do a "Jack" station like they should have done with K-Rock when Howard left. Play a few newer country songs to mess with Nash FM, some Hot AC tunes to steal from PLJ, maybe toss in some lighter music to skim off of Lite FM...CBS could actually help "Fresh" by doing so. They are too dumb though...they would be more likely to do a second country station or something like that...lol.
 
If it can chip away a couple of ratings points from the other pop chr rhythmic stations, it is doing well.
 
Rhythmic music is on a downswing right now. Look at the Grammys for your proof. How many urban/rhythmic artists were there??

And before Tony says I'm bashing dance and/or rhythmic music, these things go in natural cycles. Right now, we're on the down side of the cycle, that's all there is to it.

The Lumineers, Mumford and Sons, Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift, Fun, Muse etc. are all on CHR right now. Sure there will always be the rhythmic stuff mixed in there, like Justin Timberlake (though that's a lot more throwback sounding), Rhianna, etc. but it isn't like 5 years ago where it was wall to wall and barely any guitars, much less a BANJO (!) were on top 40 radio.
 
Of the top 20 artists on Mediabase's top 40 7-day published chart, 3 aren't rhythmic based: Maroon 5, Taylor Swift, and Mumford and Sons. For the record, Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift incorporate quite a bit of electronic beats into their music lately.

The other artists in the top 20? Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Pink, Macklemore, Justin Timberlake, Pitbull, Calvin Harris, Demi Lovato, Sweedish House Mafia, Olly Murs, Krwella, Icona Pop, will.i.am, Britney Spears, and Justin Bieber.

Muse, Fun., and Fall Out Boy are all on their way up, but I wouldn't say rhythmic is on a downswing right now. I think there's just more variety in the playlists.

The genre on the natural downswing is hip hop.
 
I do like 92.3 Now and I do listen but I feel as though it's not working for them at all. CBS could do alternative well by pulling a page out of CC's book with Radio 104.5 type of a station. CBS's alternative were way too hard much like CC's 94.5 The Buzz.
 
musiconradio.com said:
If it can chip away a couple of ratings points from the other pop chr rhythmic stations, it is doing well.
Click to expand...

I think Z-100 went up in the books. I have to check.

And to WNTI, there actually is a difference between rhythmic and dance. But strange enough with this post I'm not pushing on dance though that could help Now. I think for what they present in terms of CHR, it's fine. It's just that other factor I think.

If anything I would think in the beginning women may have been turned off by the way Chunky or TicTack may have come off, I dunno. Now it's the opposite. That's just my take and thought on it.
 
CBS still does alternative very well at KROQ/Los Angeles which is one of the top-ten billing stations in the country, and is currently running ahead of its local CC competitor KYSR by a widening margin. The core music at alternative has become more pop-oriented, and less reliant on vintage tracks, since K-Rock/NY went down (think back to WRXP in its final, encouraging, days under Merlin management), and the format’s prospects are generally looking up. (Look at Philly, for a nearby example.) I respect the desire of some for a dance format, such as the Evolution format launched by CC on some HD/low-powered signals in other markets, but in conventional terms the biggest gaping format hole in the NY market is alternative/contemporary rock. Would CBS actually flip 92.3 back to alternative so abruptly? Maybe not ready to abandon ship quite yet, given the good to excellent results CBS is currently having with CHR elsewhere….KAMP/LA and KMVQ/SF, for example….but then, again, other recent CBS flips to CHR including in NYC aren’t faring so nicely......
 
I know there's a difference between rhythmic and dance that we can pick up on, but I think to the average listener who doesn't eat sleep and breathe music, they get lumped together. Kind of like to someone who doesn't know the music all country songs are the same. We tend to pay a lot more attention to music than most.

Now's biggest problem is that they are going up against a competitor that his this format down to a science, has been doing it for 30 years and continues to do well.
 
I'm thinking that if it's a Pop station you want to be, you'd better be providing something people can't get on their iPods. iTunes does a pretty good job letting people know what's hot, so for a weekly expenditure of maybe $4, you can have a playlist that firmly competes with Now and with Z-100.

So it comes down to personality and presentation. On that score, Z wins, Now doesn't.
 
MarkO said:
CBS still does alternative very well at KROQ/Los Angeles which is one of the top-ten billing stations in the country, and is currently running ahead of its local CC competitor KYSR by a widening margin. The core music at alternative has become more pop-oriented, and less reliant on vintage tracks, since K-Rock/NY went down (think back to WRXP in its final, encouraging, days under Merlin management), and the format’s prospects are generally looking up. (Look at Philly, for a nearby example.) I respect the desire of some for a dance format, such as the Evolution format launched by CC on some HD/low-powered signals in other markets, but in conventional terms the biggest gaping format hole in the NY market is alternative/contemporary rock. Would CBS actually flip 92.3 back to alternative so abruptly? Maybe not ready to abandon ship quite yet, given the good to excellent results CBS is currently having with CHR elsewhere….KAMP/LA and KMVQ/SF, for example….but then, again, other recent CBS flips to CHR including in NYC aren’t faring so nicely......
Click to expand...

Speaking of KAMP out in LA, they signed on just around the same time as NOW and have always done better in the ratings. Take a look at the latest book. CBS seems to have spent alot more money and time investing in KAMP than WNOW. WNOW has a very small market presentation with jocks that sound about 16. I like the music and in terms of New York radio it is the only station that remotely comes close to my listening preference but the playlist is still too tight and they're slow to add new music. I do believe they have the opportunity to do well with some tweaking but CBS doesn't seem invested in it at all.........Even their sweepers sound like a college radio station. Strange.
 
You could say that about any unsuccessful station
Click to expand...

It is a numbers game. If this station is cutting into Key demos, it is doing what it is supposed to do.

Unless you have the book. Don't rely on what you see posted. They could show decent numbers 25-54 or in other key demos.

Nash is a great example. Not bad for a start. 1.9 or so posted in the latest ratings, numbers might be better in other demos.
 
A key difference between successful stations like KAMP and KROQ, and a bottom feeder like NOW, is the oversight of CBS programming maestro Kevin Weatherly at the L.A. end of things. My memory is vague on the subject, but I seem to recall that Weatherly was also brought in to help with WXRK's successful flip to alternative from classic rock back in 1996.
 
musiconradio.com said:
You could say that about any unsuccessful station
Click to expand...

It is a numbers game. If this station is cutting into Key demos, it is doing what it is supposed to do.

Unless you have the book. Don't rely on what you see posted. They could show decent numbers 25-54 or in other key demos.
Click to expand...

For the march ppms they didnt make the top 5 of any of these....

18-49:
1. whtz
2. wltw
3. wskq
4. wxny
5. wktu, wwpr, wbls

25-54:
1. wltw
2. whtz
3. wbls
4. wskq
5. wcbs-fm

18-34:
1. whtz
2. wtlw
3. wwpr
4. wqht
5. wskq, wxny
 
Tony Santiago said:
If anything I would think in the beginning women may have been turned off by the way Chunky or TicTack may have come off, I dunno. Now it's the opposite. That's just my take and thought on it.
Click to expand...

I know a few women in their early 20's who for a while were absolutely obsessed with 92.3 Now and its DJ's. Back then, they would insist the station was way better than Z100, and it was pretty much all they listened to. I'm not sure whether or not they still listen, but I know that their enthusiasm for the station has sharply declined since the departures of Cannon and Chunky. And these are hardly radio geeks, mind you - in fact, at first I tried to argue with them that there was little difference between them and Z100 musically, but after a while I realized it was the personalities that were drawing them in. Say what you will about Cannon and Chunky, but they were definitely bold personalities who appealed to the target demographic and helped the station stand out.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom