April Ratings

[davideduardo]

David, that's all true. But The River debuted prior to when former oldies stations started calling themselves classic hits. With The River, the classic hits positioner was intended to mean, "We play older rock-oriented music without the hard stuff." And it was in effect a rock 40 from previous decades. Over the years, The River evolved into a classic rock station, but they owned the classic hits positioning and still continue to use it. But they also air sweepers about Georgia's largest classic rock library.

This would not be the first case of a station using a term that the industry, via other stations, later redefined. This is a good example, too, of on-air positioners not being the same as the accepted industry names for formats.

Obviously, stations that play current hits don't position as "Current Hit Radio" (with or without a sonic or explosive SFX at the end), but the industry knows what the term does and does not mean.

Going back, it is interesting that Beautiful Music (with caps) is understood clearly to be a now-dead format. But many stations with the format did not use the term on the air, and many more did... so it became a positioning statement versus being a format descriptor to the listener.

"All day... all night... all nice... Peach... 94 point 9... FM"

I think, with a few more moments of time, I could come up with a number of on-air positioners that even contradict the name the industry gives for their format.

 

[CTListener]

This would not be the first case of a station using a term that the industry, via other stations, later redefined. This is a good example, too, of on-air positioners not being the same as the accepted industry names for formats.

Obviously, stations that play current hits don't position as "Current Hit Radio" (with or without a sonic or explosive SFX at the end), but the industry knows what the term does and does not mean.

Going back, it is interesting that Beautiful Music (with caps) is understood clearly to be a now-dead format. But many stations with the format did not use the term on the air, and many more did... so it became a positioning statement versus being a format descriptor to the listener.

"All day... all night... all nice... Peach... 94 point 9... FM"

I think, with a few more moments of time, I could come up with a number of on-air positioners that even contradict the name the industry gives for their format.

The River up here in Vermont is WWOD 93.9 Woodstock, which runs a AAA format. It is nothing like The River in Hartford, WHCN 105.9 (classic hits) or WRVE 99.5 Albany, a hot AC.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

The River up here in Vermont is WWOD 93.9 Woodstock, which runs a AAA format. It is nothing like The River in Hartford, WHCN 105.9 (classic hits) or WRVE 99.5 Albany, a hot AC.

. . .or The River in Memphis, which is AC. How about Kiss? Used by both CHR and Urban AC stations.

 

[101tm]

99% sure Cox would have used “Eagle 97.1” had WYAY not been using it. Every other station they own with this format has used the “Eagle” branding.

 

[CTListener]

99% sure Cox would have used “Eagle 97.1” had WYAY not been using it. Every other station they own with this format has used the “Eagle” branding.

The "Eagles" I've encountered over the years have all been either country or classic rock.

 

[RadioDoogie]

. . .or The River in Memphis, which is AC. How about Kiss? Used by both CHR and Urban AC stations.

Or the River in Nashville which is CHR.

 

[CTListener]

Or the River in Nashville which is CHR.

Pretty sure all these cities with Rivers on the FM dial also have actual rivers running through or near them. That may be the determining factor on which cities get an FM with that branding, not the format.

 

[secondchoice]

99% sure Cox would have used “Eagle 97.1” had WYAY not been using it. Every other station they own with this format has used the “Eagle” branding.

I believe when Cox started 97.1 The River their main target was 96 Rock which IIRC was listed as "classic rock". From what I remember of 96 Rock it was a "heritage" Rock / Classic rock hybrid with the Regular Guys doing their best to alienate the female audience. The 97.1 frequency was at one time called "Fox 97 good time great oldies" when Cox bought it and it had the WFOX call letters too. Whether they could have "evolved" into an Adult hits like WCBS etc. we will never know because IMHO Cox made one of the worst programing blunders in Atlanta Radio when they tried to take on V103 with a tower on the wrong side of Atlanta from the zip codes with a huge percentage of the urban P1 listeners. After Jamz failed, I guess they were afraid the "Fox" name would be associated with 55+ demos and the Eagle was on 106.7 so they got a little creative and did "The River". I wonder if they were hinting about races. Most of money demo folks are too old to remember "the raft races" in The Chattahoochee which were huge radio promotions but that another topic.

 

[jabba17]

I believe when Cox started 97.1 The River their main target was 96 Rock which IIRC was listed as "classic rock". From what I remember of 96 Rock it was a "heritage" Rock / Classic rock hybrid with the Regular Guys doing their best to alienate the female audience. The 97.1 frequency was at one time called "Fox 97 good time great oldies" when Cox bought it and it had the WFOX call letters too. Whether they could have "evolved" into an Adult hits like WCBS etc. we will never know because IMHO Cox made one of the worst programing blunders in Atlanta Radio when they tried to take on V103 with a tower on the wrong side of Atlanta from the zip codes with a huge percentage of the urban P1 listeners. After Jamz failed, I guess they were afraid the "Fox" name would be associated with 55+ demos and the Eagle was on 106.7 so they got a little creative and did "The River". I wonder if they were hinting about races. Most of money demo folks are too old to remember "the raft races" in The Chattahoochee which were huge radio promotions but that another topic.

96 Rock was hanging on, about to flip to active rock Project 961. Z93 had already flipped to AAA Dave FM.

Fox 97 had run its course, hanging on to low ratings with "good times and eight oldies".

I'm surprised Cox didn't keep the WFOX callsign when they sold the station that they moved the callsign to after 97.1 became WSRV. I always wondered if a Fox O&O would have liked it.

97.1 Jamz was just another example of Cox Atlanta's urban man crush on V-103. Of course, after years of trying Cox finally got the best of WVEE.

The Ramblin' Raft Race was sponsored by WQXI (790 and 94Q).

 

[101tm]

96 Rock was hanging on, about to flip to active rock Project 961. Z93 had already flipped to AAA Dave FM.

Fox 97 had run its course, hanging on to low ratings with "good times and eight oldies".

I'm surprised Cox didn't keep the WFOX callsign when they sold the station that they moved the callsign to after 97.1 became WSRV. I always wondered if a Fox O&O would have liked it.

97.1 Jamz was just another example of Cox Atlanta's urban man crush on V-103. Of course, after years of trying Cox finally got the best of WVEE.

The Ramblin' Raft Race was sponsored by WQXI (790 and 94Q).

So many fails on Cox’s part during that time. While not as big of a fail as 97.1 Jamz, 95.5 The Beat was another one that didn’t make sense. There wasn’t much place for it, and even though it was Rhythmic CHR the other side of the metro would have been more ideal. The 97.1 and former 95.5 patterns were not for these formats. 105.3 and 104.1 are. Look at WALR - massive ratings and it doesn’t even cover all of the market well, but it covers where much of their target audience spends most of their time.

 

[victorres43]

So many fails on Cox’s part during that time. While not as big of a fail as 97.1 Jamz, 95.5 The Beat was another one that didn’t make sense. There wasn’t much place for it, and even though it was Rhythmic CHR the other side of the metro would have been more ideal. The 97.1 and former 95.5 patterns were not for these formats. 105.3 and 104.1 are. Look at WALR - massive ratings and it doesn’t even cover all of the market well, but it covers where much of their target audience spends most of their time.

True, though 95.5 The Beat targeted white suburbanites who liked hip hop. The Beat played some pop even though they branded themselves as "#1 for Hip Hop". And there are times when WBTS had beaten WSTR and WWWQ in the ratings despite 95.5 being a rimshot during that time.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

So many fails on Cox’s part during that time. While not as big of a fail as 97.1 Jamz, 95.5 The Beat was another one that didn’t make sense. There wasn’t much place for it, and even though it was Rhythmic CHR the other side of the metro would have been more ideal. The 97.1 and former 95.5 patterns were not for these formats. 105.3 and 104.1 are. Look at WALR - massive ratings and it doesn’t even cover all of the market well, but it covers where much of their target audience spends most of their time.

Not agreeing with you here. As victorres said above, The Beat was not targeting black people. While I don't recall them ever beating Star or Q, I consider them successful. It came down to a matter of Cox protecting their flagship, WSB. The AM ratings were eroding, and they needed an FM. The Beat was the lowest billing station in the cluster, and that made them the obvious choice to be the FM side of WSB.

 

[ScottBurns]

. . .or The River in Memphis, which is AC. How about Kiss? Used by both CHR and Urban AC stations.

And there's a Kiss country station in the Miami market.

 

[jt99]

Remember, Atlanta did not have a Mainstream CHR from 1992 to 1999. And when Z93 went in a Rhythmic direction for a brief time in the late 1980s, it was unsuccessful. And Star 94 and Q100 dominated the "mainstream hit music" market, the latter shifting towards Hot AC given that Jan Jeffries was fearful of the former's success. (95.5 The Beat, which was a regular Rhythmic CHR, marketed themselves as a hip hop station instead of a station playing "hit music" or the "hottest music". Despite The Beat doing well in the ratings, Q100 has barely kept them in mind during the late 2000s.)

So, it's not a stretch to say that Atlanta listeners aged 35-54 are less receptive towards rhythmic-oriented music, hence why The River is successful by not playing any pop or rhythmic-oriented music. It doesn't hurt The River that Atlanta, for the longest time, lacked a classic rock station. Atlanta is definitely different from New York and Miami, even though it's increasingly a transient town. In New York, WCBS-FM and WLTW (and sometimes WKTU) have beaten WAXQ in key demos. In Miami, WBGG is not on par with WFEZ, WLYF, maybe not even WMXJ.

WSB-FM and WSTR play a little 1980s music, but not very much. It seems 1980s pop does not test nearly as well in Atlanta as it does in other markets for whatever reason, with not even the AC station focusing on that decade. I'm unsure how well the CHR/Pop stations in Atlanta did during the decade or how they sounded like, but with the market having a lot of northern transplants as mentioned on this board in the past, it is possible that the transplants are coming from places where CHR/Pop was more rock heavy, which is why there is so little 1980s pop on the dial in Atlanta. The Rhythmic AC format currently on WSTR actually does well in 18-34, which is interesting given that it's probably a younger audience than Audacy was looking for with the station.

I think an Adult Hits station with a focus on the Modern AC music that made Star 94 such a success in the 1990s could work very nicely in Atlanta, while still playing the typical 1970s/1980s Adult Hits fare.

 

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

True, though 95.5 The Beat targeted white suburbanites who liked hip hop. The Beat played some pop even though they branded themselves as "#1 for Hip Hop". And there are times when WBTS had beaten WSTR and WWWQ in the ratings despite 95.5 being a rimshot during that time.

95.5 THE BEAT was very popular back in the day. I remember going to Mama’s Primetime and Wild Bills during there live nightclub broadcasts. They were similar to then sister HOT 98.1 in Greenville, SC. They intiially were “Atlanta’s New #1 Hit Music Station,” then started using “Atlanta’s New #1 for Hip Hop” in its later years. iHeart tried to relive the format with 105.7 The Groove then WILD 105.7/96.7.

 

[ScottBurns]

WSB-FM and WSTR play a little 1980s music, but not very much. It seems 1980s pop does not test nearly as well in Atlanta as it does in other markets for whatever reason, with not even the AC station focusing on that decade. I'm unsure how well the CHR/Pop stations in Atlanta did during the decade or how they sounded like, but with the market having a lot of northern transplants as mentioned on this board in the past, it is possible that the transplants are coming from places where CHR/Pop was more rock heavy, which is why there is so little 1980s pop on the dial in Atlanta. The Rhythmic AC format currently on WSTR actually does well in 18-34, which is interesting given that it's probably a younger audience than Audacy was looking for with the station.

I think an Adult Hits station with a focus on the Modern AC music that made Star 94 such a success in the 1990s could work very nicely in Atlanta, while still playing the typical 1970s/1980s Adult Hits fare.

Star plays a decent amount of late '80s tracks. I have recently heard Prince, Pebbles, Hall & Oates, and several other artists from that period.

 

[MarkW]

Wild 105.7 was a pretty good station.

 

[jabba17]

I'm unsure how well the CHR/Pop stations in Atlanta did during the decade or how they sounded like, but with the market having a lot of northern transplants as mentioned on this board in the past, it is possible that the transplants are coming from places where CHR/Pop was more rock heavy, which is why there is so little 1980s pop on the dial in Atlanta.

Having grown up in Atlanta here is the history I remember:

CHR in the late 1970s was a two-horse race between Z-93 (which, as I recall, was getting 11-12 shares, although with many fewer FM signals in the market), and WQXI AM (790) and FM (94Q). Z-93 was a high-energy CHR, while 94Q was more of a Rock 40. There were some exurban CHR stations with some listenership like 97 FOX, WFOM 1230, and Wide 107. 96 Rock (AM and FM) had AOR all to themselves, not counting the college stations.

When the 80s rolled around, the BM/EZ stations (Peach 95, WSB Beautiful 98*, and WLTA 100) started moving to AC. When Fox and Wide 107 moved in, they also moved from CHR to AC. 94Q decided to grow up with their listeners and moved pretty rapidly from Rock 40 to AC. So, at one point, Atlanta had 6 ACs and only one CHR. I'm not sure if this was due to the infamous CHR doldrums of the early 80s, or advertisers chasing baby boomers at the expense of GenXers, or both, or a desire to get a foothold in the nascent AC format.

Z-93 had CHR all to themselves, but the energy level had dropped. Part of it was the market-leading Ross & Wilson radio show moving to NYC being replaced by the more staid Steve McCoy, part of it was the aforementioned CHR doldrums and AC becoming a bigger portion of the Billboard Hot 100. Z-93 played some rhythmic (Kool & The Gang, Gap Band, Dazz Band) but they pretty much left rhythmic to sister V-103. Z-93 added MTV hits c. 1983, but Z-93 wasn't the influence in the market they once were.

The big change was when WLTA (WARM Warm 100/99.7** by then) flipped to CHR as Power 99 mid-decade and brought a lot of energy as a CHR. They played a little rock; 96 Rock still had the AOR lane all to themselves, although in a boomer-chasing move they became much more classic rock ("Pure Rock 'n' Roll") and played very little rock by new artists, but I wouldn't have called Power 99 a Rock 40. When hair bands started hitting the Top 40 Power 99 played them, which forced 96 Rock to pick up more new rock. Z-93 moved rhythmic in response to Power 99's success and continued to lose share. Z-93 would throw in the towel by the end of the decade and flip to classic rock, which in turn caused 96 Rock to play more new rock, but eschewing alternative, which eventually led to Power 99 toying with alternative and eventually flipping to 99X (apparently without letting the folks in York, PA know!).

Net-net: No CHR in Atlanta in the 80s played rap/hip-hop unless it charted on the Hot 100 (e.g., Run-DMC with Aerosmith). And even then; you really didn't hear, say, the Sugarhill Gang, other Run-DMC, LL Cool J, etc. on Atlanta CHR.

*@David Eduardo "All Day, All Night, All Nice" was WSB 98's tagline, not Peach's.
**See Cox v. Susquehanna.

 

[101tm]

Let’s also not forget 106.7. was oldies/classic hits for 4 years from 2008-2012. Initially it was mostly 60s music, but once they started programming it locally it moved in to largely 70s or 80s. It did fairly well but couldn’t really get over a 3 share.

 

[RadioDoogie]

95.5 THE BEAT was very popular back in the day. I remember going to Mama’s Primetime and Wild Bills during there live nightclub broadcasts. They were similar to then sister HOT 98.1 in Greenville, SC. They intiially were “Atlanta’s New #1 Hit Music Station,” then started using “Atlanta’s New #1 for Hip Hop” in its later years. iHeart tried to relive the format with 105.7 The Groove then WILD 105.7/96.7.

Yes 95-5 the Beat was a mainstream CHR from September 1999-March 2001 (two months after Q100 started). It wasn’t an immediate transition to Rhythmic. I remember in March 2001, they played the full CHR/Rhythmic chart then I heard “Stronger” by Britney Spears and Matchbox Twenty “If You’re Gone” in the mix. Then shortly after that those mainstream hits were completely phased out. I remember the moniker change from Atlanta’s New #1 Hit Music Station to Hip Hop was a few years later. In fact, I recall early posts on this board asked how long will 95-5 the Beat call itself “new.” It was a great sounding Pop station during those first 18 months.