94.7 The Block

[101tm]

I always found WCBS closer to sounding Classic Rock than AC. If it went to adding upbeat music, then it may hurt New 102.7.
I know Lite AC, first thing comes to mind is Easy 93.1 in Miami. But there's plenty of modern soft hits. I can think of Michael Buble, John Mayer as an example that many in their 30's-40's love.

Well there’s the case of Audacy LA having KRTH and KCBS, with KTWV likely sharing some of the demographic as well.

 

[Barry]

Soft A/C may be a decent choice for 94.7.
It could be given a very different sound in terms of music and presentation than the other Audacy stations. The music may also appeal to a reasonable portion of Country fans, especially if some Country crossover tunes are included.

 

[davideduardo]

Soft A/C may be a decent choice for 94.7.

Why are we talking about a station that is in the top 65 billling stations in the US out of over ten thousand commercial radio station?

To say it another way, it is in the top 0.6% of all stations in the US in revenue.

It could be given a very different sound in terms of music and presentation than the other Audacy stations. The music may also appeal to a reasonable portion of Country fans, especially if some Country crossover tunes are included.

Yes, let's add country to a format that mostly appeals to over-55 listeners in a market that is extremely agency driven. LA is not a country market, and is getting less so every year. Over two-thirds of the market is ethnic where country magnificently under-performs, and then another 10% is first generation immigrants who are not Asian, Black or Hispanic and who have no cultural link with country.

That's like doing a country format in Tehran, New Delhi, Ouagadougou, or Buenos Aires.

 

[davideduardo]

I always found WCBS closer to sounding Classic Rock than AC. If it went to adding upbeat music, then it may hurt New 102.7.
I know Lite AC, first thing comes to mind is Easy 93.1 in Miami. But there's plenty of modern soft hits. I can think of Michael Buble, John Mayer as an example that many in their 30's-40's love.

But not necessarily Hispanics and in a market like LA or Houston or the like, one has to take that huge group into account. Just look at the English language music played on AC stations in Latin America to see which artists are shared by Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites.

 

[victorres43]

I always found WCBS closer to sounding Classic Rock than AC.

Not sure if I agree. WCBS-FM seems to be playing a bit more 80s/90s pop/soft AC hits as of late.

Ccmpare it to KRTH in LA, which is so addicted to 80s New Wave and Alternative, it's not even funny. Or WLS-FM in Chicago, which does lean towards classic rock; the old WLS 89 was not only "safe", but it also was less receptive towards R&B records.

 

[inorm99]

They should have put Alt on 94.7 and put The Block on 92.3

Why?

 

[MVB13]

Why?

Alt is a suburban format while The Block is an urban format.

 

[TheBigA]

Alt is a suburban format while The Block is an urban format.

The 94.7 coverage area is urban. Go to Newark and take a look around. You have to go out to Morris County for suburbs,

 

[MarkW]

92.3's 70 dBu covers more people.

 

[TheBigA]

92.3's 70 dBu covers more people.

Blowing up two stations at the same time is never a good idea.

It will take time for any format change, especially a drastic one like this, to have an effect.

 

[MVB13]

The 94.7 coverage area is urban. Go to Newark and take a look around. You have to go out to Morris County for suburbs,

Morris County is better covered by 94.7.

 

[MarkW]

I agree, BigA. I definitely would not swap those two formats right now.

I was one of the proponents of doing a "throwbacks" format on 94.7; I liked the move.

 

[victorres43]

Morris County is better covered by 94.7.

There may be less of a focus for Morris County though, in the future.

 

[Jeffrey]

Soft A/C may be a decent choice for 94.7.
It could be given a very different sound in terms of music and presentation than the other Audacy stations. The music may also appeal to a reasonable portion of Country fans, especially if some Country crossover tunes are included.

I think it's pretty obvious that Audacy isn't trying to appease country music fans nor would it add country songs to a soft AC format. Especially since they clearly have no interest in trying to appeal to a soft AC demo!

 

[Jeffrey]

Again, "Urban", when used as a descriptor for formats principally appealing to Blacks, can be a label for quite a number of formats ranging from Black CHR to Black AC to Black Gold and even multi-ethic "Crossover Black Music". And then there are other formats with African American appeal, such as Black Gospel and even Jazz.

I see this "not all in the same bag" situation with stations in Spanish where there are the equivalents of CHR, Country, Churban, AC, Adult Hits, Gold and Dance among many other formats where most of the programming is in Spanish. Does anyone call most US stations "English Format"?

The original poster stated that perhaps New York didn't have room for 4 urban stations. I disagreed and noted that many cities had 4 or more so your response seems to agree. Urban stands for many different formats appealing to blacks..

 

[davideduardo]

The original poster stated that perhaps New York didn't have room for 4 urban stations. I disagreed and noted that many cities had 4 or more so your response seems to agree. Urban stands for many different formats appealing to blacks..

And in many Eastern markets, we have to realize that there is a significant percentage of Blacks who also checked "Hispanic" on the Census.

 

[MVB13]

The 94.7 coverage area is urban. Go to Newark and take a look around. You have to go out to Morris County for suburbs,

I am well aware Newark is urban my husband grew up there.

And in many Eastern markets, we have to realize that there is a significant percentage of Blacks who also checked "Hispanic" on the Census.

Its what the person identifies as.

 

[davideduardo]

Its what the person identifies as.

We have to remember that the Census does not consider "Hispanic" to be a race, as there are white Hispanics, Black Hispanics, Indigenous Hispanics and Asian Hispanics. That's whey "Are you Hispanic, Latino/a or... (list of national origins)?" is a separate question than the "race" section of the Census form.

"Hispanic" is a geographic/cultural question, not one of race.

 

[101tm]

Shouldn’t the bigger concern over what’s on 94.7 be how terrible Audacy’s automation software is as a company?

Songs straight in to commercials, liners crashing in to vocals, 3 liners playing in a row, RDS doesn’t work half of the time, dead air, etc.

I’m not sure if this is happening in market #1, but it’s happening in Greenville-Spartanburg, Winston-Salem, and Norfolk. I’ve heard glitches on some other random stations as well. The Greenville-Spartanburg stations literally play commercials on top of each other at times. What the heck are they using? Almost every other company’s software sounds a million times better, of course iHeart is the gold standard and sounds great across the board, but Audacy sounds sloppy in too many markets, enough for it to look like a trend.

 

[Jeffrey]

Shouldn’t the bigger concern over what’s on 94.7 be how terrible Audacy’s automation software is as a company?

Songs straight in to commercials, liners crashing in to vocals, 3 liners playing in a row, RDS doesn’t work half of the time, dead air, etc.

I’m not sure if this is happening in market #1, but it’s happening in Greenville-Spartanburg, Winston-Salem, and Norfolk. I’ve heard glitches on some other random stations as well. The Greenville-Spartanburg stations literally play commercials on top of each other at times. What the heck are they using? Almost every other company’s software sounds a million times better, of course iHeart is the gold standard and sounds great across the board, but Audacy sounds sloppy in too many markets, enough for it to look like a trend.

I've never heard anything like that on any Audacy station in NYC.