93.1 A new brand or just a tweak

[d21ofnj]

Sampling 93.1 this morning for a good 20 minutes and no mention of "Amor" anymore. One of their promos had a snippet of Rihanna, Omega, Pitbull, and Maroon 5. Is 93.1 becoming a clone of X96.3 with the selection of upbeat Tropical and today's hits?

 

[Barry]

Given WPAT FM's slide in the ratings down to 1.8, putting them near the bottom among full signal commercial FM's, they needed to do something.
They had already made changes last year, scrapping many of the soft ballads and regional tunes from various Latin American countries.
Listening this morning, I heard the dj call it a new station. But the website and HD radio display still use the term, "93.1 Amor".

 

[TonySantiago]

Cut the Latin material out, replace it with dance and you can have something!

 

[ansky212]

Cut the Latin material out, replace it with dance and you can have something!

Make it a full english language station. There is already spanish/latin oriented music on 96.3, 97.9, and 92.7. Is there really room for 4 spanish speaking stations? Maybe that is part of the issue with the low ratings...

 

[d21ofnj]

Given WPAT FM's slide in the ratings down to 1.8, putting them near the bottom among full signal commercial FM's, they needed to do something.
They had already made changes last year, scrapping many of the soft ballads and regional tunes from various Latin American countries.
Listening this morning, I heard the dj call it a new station. But the website and HD radio display still use the term, "93.1 Amor".

I heard that too, but he also said a new radio station in dos mil doce, which is 2012 but didnt mention a specific date.  Wonder how long the stunt is going to last until an official brand is announced.  

Cut the Latin material out, replace it with dance and you can have something!

Well, they played "Loca People" by Sak Noel and just found out that hoochie coochie lyric, "Hotel Nacional" by Gloria Estefan, along with "In The Dark" by Dev, and "Danza Kudoro" from Don Omar within the hour. Perhaps a "Latin dance/rhythm station" may be occuring?

 

[TonySantiago]

Well, they played "Loca People" by Sak Noel and just found out that hoochie coochie lyric, "Hotel Nacional" by Gloria Estefan, along with "In The Dark" by Dev, and "Danza Kudoro" from Don Omar within the hour. Perhaps a "Latin dance/rhythm station" may be occuring?

I'm going with ansky on this one I guess for now keep it Latin dance/rhythmic so that you don't blow people out of the water, then eventually phase out the Latin side and make it English with rhythmic/dance by incorporating the Top 40 aspect of CHR, which has mainly been rhythmic/uptempo, add the dance brand in there and there you go. Kinda in the way that when Hot 97 left dance back in 1992, they threw in hip-hop gradually until they fully became "Where Hip Hop Lives".

That would make sense.

 

[Barry]

My guess is that SBS, owner of WPAT FM, is not going to make any radical changes from the way it sounds now, at this time. It is a sort of Hispanic WLTW. They may be figuring there should be room in this market for a Spanish A/C, given the more youth oriented programming on WSKQ and the competing X96.3. I think they may give it some time. If SBS is having financial difficulties (I do not know how well they are doing), then a sale could be a possibility down the road.
As for 92.7 Que Buena, that serves a different market-People from Mexico and Central America. They often enjoy different music than what is on the other local Hispanic stations.
I am curious what may end up on WSKQ 97.9 HD2, as One Caribbean Radio is apparently off the air.

 

[Morpheux]

I mentioned sometime last year on the Dance board that WPAT would be a suitable spot for a dance station given their declining ratings.However,SBS has minimal experience with a dance music format.

What SBS seems to be doing is using WPAT to siphon of listeners from X 96.3 and give La Mega more dominance in the battle for share of the Spanish speaking radio listeners.They could also gain some of the Latino listeners from 92.3 NOW who also listen to Urbana music. Sort of what they have done in LA with KXOL.

 

[d21ofnj]

During my afternoon shift, I heard stingers say "your music variety 93.1". One part of the hour was Spanish A/C and Spanish soft rock, the other half was a little of reggaeton, Rihanna, Cobra Starship, and Don Omar.

 

[Identnut]

During my afternoon shift, I heard stingers say "your music variety 93.1". One part of the hour was Spanish A/C and Spanish soft rock, the other half was a little of reggaeton, Rihanna, Cobra Starship, and Don Omar.

I don't think they're tweaking the genre, since they already did that a while ago to Rhythmic A/C. They're just changing the name; it's not definitely not like its former cousin in Miami, WRMA, anymore.

 

[davideduardo]

Sampling 93.1 this morning for a good 20 minutes and no mention of "Amor" anymore. One of their promos had a snippet of Rihanna, Omega, Pitbull, and Maroon 5. Is 93.1 becoming a clone of X96.3 with the selection of upbeat Tropical and today's hits?

It's been doing that for about 6 months... as another poster mentioned; the really soft, older-flavored AC cuts are gone, as are the soft Mexican regional songs (grupera and ranchera). They are playing reggaetón and bachata on the rhythmic side, and softer Spanish rock and lots of pop.

All they need to do to complete this is deep-six the "Amor" name which does not fit; they gave that name about a decade ago when they thought HBC was going to use the Amor name on 105.9 and duplicate the WAMR Miami formatics.

 

[davideduardo]

During my afternoon shift, I heard stingers say "your music variety 93.1". One part of the hour was Spanish A/C and Spanish soft rock, the other half was a little of reggaeton, Rihanna, Cobra Starship, and Don Omar.

In other words, just like nearly every Latin American Pop / CHR station.

 

[Identnut]

Sampling 93.1 this morning for a good 20 minutes and no mention of "Amor" anymore. One of their promos had a snippet of Rihanna, Omega, Pitbull, and Maroon 5. Is 93.1 becoming a clone of X96.3 with the selection of upbeat Tropical and today's hits?

It's been doing that for about 6 months... as another poster mentioned; the really soft, older-flavored AC cuts are gone, as are the soft Mexican regional songs (grupera and ranchera). They are playing reggaetón and bachata on the rhythmic side, and softer Spanish rock and lots of pop.

All they need to do to complete this is deep-six the "Amor" name which does not fit; they gave that name about a decade ago when they thought HBC was going to use the Amor name on 105.9 and duplicate the WAMR Miami formatics.

I wonder what they'll name the new Station. Will they use one of the brand names they've used in other stations?

I think Onda 93 would be a good name for it. Not a particularly succesful property in Puerto Rico and Chicago when it came out, but it fits.

Hey, if they could break the old "Cima" brand in South Florida...

 

[d21ofnj]

During my afternoon shift, I heard stingers say "your music variety 93.1". One part of the hour was Spanish A/C and Spanish soft rock, the other half was a little of reggaeton, Rihanna, Cobra Starship, and Don Omar.

In other words, just like nearly every Latin American Pop / CHR station.

In the beginning, I did say similar to X96.3, which is what you mentioned above. : But say this stunt is the format, how much of an impact will there be in terms of going head to head with X, at the same time try to protect La Mega.

 

[Barry]

Aren't Mega 97.9 and X96.3 very similar, in terms of their programming? If 93.1 takes away listeners from X96.3, can't it also draw them from La Mega?

 

[Identnut]

Aren't Mega 97.9 and X96.3 very similar, in terms of their programming? If 93.1 takes away listeners from X96.3, can't it also draw them from La Mega?

I'm wondering this as well.

 

[davideduardo]

te]

In the beginning, I did say similar to X96.3, which is what you mentioned above. : But say this stunt is the format, how much of an impact will there be in terms of going head to head with X, at the same time try to protect La Mega.

This is not a stunt, and has been the format for many months. It's a pop station, Latin America's equivalent to a Top 40.

It's not like X, it's not like Mega.

 

[Morpheux]

Aren't Mega 97.9 and X96.3 very similar, in terms of their programming? If 93.1 takes away listeners from X96.3, can't it also draw them from La Mega?

La Mega leans more tropical so you will still hear Salsa and Merengue as this is their heritage sound.Same thing for Equis 96.3

Amor stays away from the more traditional Salsa and Merengue and has a more youth driven Latin sound. Which right now is Bachata-especially the bilingual songs (think Romeo and Usher's Promise Me,any song from Prince Royce), Urbana music which is the updated Reggaeton sound evolved from the typical beats and sounds it was known for.Along with English Rhythmic hits.Very similar to what you will hear on these new crop of stations in LA,Miami and Orlando just to name a few cities.

 

[TonySantiago]

Maybe they are experimenting with different brands until they decide which direction to go?

Answeing on DavidEduardo, this may be the format for now. But I can't help thinking that something more may happen here. I don't think WPAT wants to be in the bottom of the PPM's forever. Just an instinct.

 

[davideduardo]

Very similar to what you will hear on these new crop of stations in LA,Miami and Orlando just to name a few cities.

And simply the formula that has worked in Puerto Rico (WKAQ / WKAQ-FM) since 1968, in Mexico since about 1960, Ecuador since 1963, etc., etc.