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96.1 sounding more mainstream

My vote if The Beat changes its name is 96Hits or 96-1 Hits-FM. However, I doubt that The Beat handle is going anywhere anytime soon.

I've just realized something:

Did you know that this marks the first time that Charlotte has had 2 Mainstream CHRs going after each other since 1988? I think the last 2 were WROQ and WBCY, that battle was dashed when Kiss 102 signed on and kicked both stations butts in the ratings in one book. Afterwards, WROQ headed toward a Rock 40 sound and WBCY reimaged itself as "B-108" (and left the format alltogether one year later).

I didn't count the first 6 years that The Beat was on since they were strictly Rhythmic and Kiss is CHR/Pop.

Robyn
 
This is really sad because I liked the sound of the Beat when it was a true rhythmic. It seems like rhythmics all over are either flipping or going mainstream. Urban has become what rhythmic once was. I guess its a sign of the times.
 
WIBT has also been moved from the Rhythmic to the TOP 40 Airplay panel so it's officially a CHR/Pop any way you look at it The station has a Slight and I mean Ever so slight lean Rhythmic, but it could still be evolving.
 
Several months before the shift, The Beat was playing a select handful of Pop titles. One of which was Train's "Hey Soul Sister", although it was dayparted to middays only. When I've first heard it, I assumed that it was a mistake on the music log, but when I heard it again a day or two later the only conclusion that I could come up at the time was that song was one they just couldn't ignore so they played it in limited rotation (at the time, Train's song was in the Top 5 nationally).

I've checked their music log on the station's website several months ago and was surprised that Def Leopard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" was played at one point! (Of course it could had been played as part of a bit, but I thought it was freaking unreal.)

Robyn
 
This is really a surprise. Two CHR's in Charlotte, NC. I have always liked KISS 95.1 great playlist and mix. We shall see how 96.1 The Beat does. And changing the name to B 96 is a bad move as a couple people have said. Not bad for KISS 95.1 or CBS Radio Charlotte. As people would want to check out the website but end up at B 96 Chicago also a CHR owned CBS Radio.
 
Sigh.... What I'd give to see at least one substantive discussion by actual radio professionals on this board.
 
Would they then try to get the WNOW-FM call letters? I did think at one time 92.3 Now FM out of New York were going to get those calls. Just to add 92.3 Now FM is a sister station to KISS 95.1 Charlotte.
 
carolinaradio said:
How about "96.1 Radio Now?" They're using that name in Memphis and Milwaukee, I believe. There may be more.
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You could call it 96.1 Ralph, and it wouldn't make a difference. These labels you're assigning to formats might mean something to radio "insiders" (said firmly with tongue in cheek) but not to listeners. Beat, Mix, Now, Max, Jamz, Power, Q, Y, Z. It makes no difference.

Can we move on now to something that's actually worthy of discussion?

Thanks.
 
yugoidar said:
Sure, Jo Jo. Being the big time radio professional that you are, why don't you kick it off?
Click to expand...

Let's talk PPM.

Go.
 
Okay, let's talk PPM. What's your point? I'm sure you have one since you've raised PPM before. Let us know what your thoughts are. It's up to you to get the party started!
 
yugoidar said:
Okay, let's talk PPM. What's your point? I'm sure you have one since you've raised PPM before. Let us know what your thoughts are. It's up to you to get the party started!
Click to expand...

I already started that discussion. Take it away. ;-)
 
I guess you're looking for someone to recognize the great job you're doing hosting the morning show on K-104.7.  Rumor has it that the station has shown up very well in the new PPM preliminary ratings.

Jojo, sorry but I suspect the new rating technology has more to do with it than any role that you might have played.  Anyone who has read anything about PPM knows that certain formats perform better with PPM than they did with the previous diary methodology.

How's that? ;-)
 
yugoidar said:
I guess you're looking for someone to recognize the great job you're doing hosting the morning show on K-104.7. Rumor has it that the station has shown up very well in the new PPM preliminary ratings.

Jojo, sorry but I suspect the new rating technology has more to do with it than any role that you might have played. Anyone who has read anything about PPM knows that certain formats perform better with PPM than they did with the previous diary methodology.

How's that? ;-)
Click to expand...

You assumption is wrong. I did not ask to have a discussion about me. I asked for your thoughts on people meter. It's a test, really. To see if you or anyone else on this board know anything other than industry names for radio stations and how some people pigeon hole them into format definitions.
 
Oh! Advertisers supposedly demanded a better, more accurate radio ratings system than the diary the industry has lived by for years. The knock against the diary was that survey participants often filled out the diary (a week's worth of listening) the night before it was mailed back to Arbitron. It didn't necessarily recognize actual listening, but often which stations did the best job of marketing - driving the station's call letters, slogan, etc into the the respondents mind.

So Arbitron came up with PPM, a system of electronic measurement. Respondents wear an electronic device that monitors and records actual listening minute by minute.

I guess the question becomes, as a survey participant with a PPM device on my belt, am I actually listening to a station that is playing in the convenience store when I stop for a minute to pick up a quick cup of coffee. Should I be counted as "listening" to that station?

What if I forget to put the PPM device on one day. I'm still listening in the car, at the office or on the job, but since I don't have the device with me - none of my listening gets recorded that day.

The point is while the PPM might be an improvement over the diary system in some ways - it seems to be a tradeoff, the new system has some flaws as well.

By the way, we're a long way from the title of this thread - "96.1 sounding more mainstream".
 
yugoidar said:
Oh! Advertisers supposedly demanded a better, more accurate radio ratings system than the diary the industry has lived by for years. The knock against the diary was that survey participants often filled out the diary (a week's worth of listening) the night before it was mailed back to Arbitron. It didn't necessarily recognize actual listening, but often which stations did the best job of marketing - driving the station's call letters, slogan, etc into the the respondents mind.

So Arbitron came up with PPM, a system of electronic measurement. Respondents wear an electronic device that monitors and records actual listening minute by minute.

I guess the question becomes, as a survey participant with a PPM device on my belt, am I actually listening to a station that is playing in the convenience store when I stop for a minute to pick up a quick cup of coffee. Should I be counted as "listening" to that station?

What if I forget to put the PPM device on one day. I'm still listening in the car, at the office or on the job, but since I don't have the device with me - none of my listening gets recorded that day.

The point is while the PPM might be an improvement over the diary system in some ways - it seems to be a tradeoff, the new system has some flaws as well.

By the way, we're a long way from the title of this thread - "96.1 sounding more mainstream".
Click to expand...

Bravo! An intelligent post!

Yes, it's certainly a tradeoff. One of the things that's most puzzling to me is why they stuck with 1/4 hour crediting. Here we now have actual listening down to the nanosecond. This whole 1/4 hour thing dates back to when old time radio had 15 minute dramas.

Time will tell which is better. They're still tweaking. As for the respondant leaving the device home on aparticular day, I'd imagine there's some system in place for them to notify Arbitron and some sort of weighting would be used to compensate.

Again, like you said, it's a tradeoff. The only way to get more accuracy would be to build PPM into every radio receiver, and it would take years to replace all the receivers out there. On the good side though, PPM does seem to be more consistent from week to week and month to month instead of the wild swings we'd get under the diary method, which as you said could be influenced by marketing.

Lastly, regarding drive-by listening, I don't have a real problem with this. The panelist never controlled the radio exclusively anyway. In fact, with drive by listening, they can't switch stations when the one they're hearing goes into a stopset, so I'd think agencies probably like this as a better representation of who's hearing commercials.

Your thoughts?
 
yugoidar said:
Sure, Jo Jo. Being the big time radio professional that you are, why don't you kick it off?
Click to expand...

By the way, I think you can come up with something more mature than "Being the big time radio professional".

Just sayin' ;-)
 
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