Strangely enough, several months ago in KC, the Hot AC 99.7 KZPT sounded more rhythmic than KMXV the CHR did, as Mix played it ultra "safe" with their music choices while The Point played stuff like Astronaut in the Ocean and Work It by Missy Elliot. It has since reversed (Mix has become more rhythmic with newer material and The Point more cautious.)
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B96 WBBM-FM Rhythmic Gold-Leaning Top 40?
- Thread starter Gregg.
- Start date
Yes indeed. But seeing as though a lot of CHR and Hot AC target similar listeners now, now could be a good time for Hot AC stations that are competitive.
These are all heritage radio stations. Heritage CHR stations often do really well. There's some in smaller markets that get double digit ratings in the 6+ Elvis Duran, Ryan Seacrest, the Kidd Kraddick Show, Matty up until last year. These stations have been on since the 70s and 80s. A lot of them have older talent that the listeners grew up with, especially in the morning. They are popular among multiple demos. The last time KIIS did anything with their morning show was in 2004 when they replaced Rick Dees with Ryan Seacrest. The station was very successful after. John Ivey did a great job with it.
B96 is a heritage station. But it has been through a lot of changes with both the music and the talent. The most stable thing they had was Eddie & Jobo. They were a legendary show. They left in 2008. They kept that station going through Dance, CHR and Hip-Hop based formats. In the last decade, none of the heritage appeal was there. One morning show after another. I'm not saying they did bad the entire last decade. They actually got pretty decent ratings at times in the last decade. But they never had that heritage morning show or talent. They just had the station itself. So it's obviously not as strong as the others.
Yup that's the difference. The heritage brand "party radio B 96" is rhythmic hits, hip hop, dance, and the biggest pop hits that are complimentary.
Can it work with limited hip hop as to not press on 1043 Jams' toes too much?
Power is also forced to be more hip hop too since Hits 973 is on in Miami but it's not a sister station so the dynamic there is more adjustable.
B has been pretty much a mainstream CHR for the past decade, hasn’t it? Before the last reformat/adjustment I know it was “hits and hip hop” but that’s been long gone. I know the music was CHR under CBS and it continued under Audacy, definitely was not a rhythmic or a “party station” for a number of years. I’m not sure when Power 96 segued in to mainstream CHR either, but it seemed to be more recent.
Early 2010s. 103.5 followed by returning to a more mainstream playlist from a very strong rhythmic lean they added in the late 2000s.
When Fresh 105.9 went to the WBBM simulcast, they promoted B96 to get that audience to tune there.
The ratings were not all that bad. In the Spring and Summer of 2014 they had around a 3.9. 103.5 was beating them most of the time but only slightly (Around a 4.1) Nowhere near as bad as they were recently. They really took a turn for the worse during the Coronavirus. CHR had better songs at the time. Really went downhill after 2018
When Fresh 105.9 went to the WBBM simulcast, they promoted B96 to get that audience to tune there.
The ratings were not all that bad. In the Spring and Summer of 2014 they had around a 3.9. 103.5 was beating them most of the time but only slightly (Around a 4.1) Nowhere near as bad as they were recently. They really took a turn for the worse during the Coronavirus. CHR had better songs at the time. Really went downhill after 2018
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Maybe cause there is already a Rhythmic Hot AC there. B96 however probably has to avoid certain songs to avoid overlapping with the Jams station while still playing a mix of older and newer songs. Maybe Jams will no longer exist soon to eliminate the overlap between the two stations altogether.
I'm pretty sure 104.3 is also a factor. That said B96 is playing some 90s dance (La Bouche, Amber, etc) that 104.3 does not play.
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B96 in the 10s (under CBS) was sort of (to me) AMP without calling it AMP because they didn’t want to ditch the valuable brand. Sounded very similar, different branding.
I wonder if this will affect 100.3 any (Hubbard likely doesn’t care). She plays the 90s and 00s…with a fair amount of rhythmic material. I had to verify that’s the direction she’s in right now…
I wonder if this will affect 100.3 any (Hubbard likely doesn’t care). She plays the 90s and 00s…with a fair amount of rhythmic material. I had to verify that’s the direction she’s in right now…
There is nothing wrong with overlap. As several of us have stated, it is what you don't play that establishes the difference.
While in a different format, look at the overlaps between KIIS > KBIG > KOST in LA under the same ownership. But the playlists and rotations make each one different and, to the listener, unique.
I interned at a 5-station group where two of the stations were both Top 40. One played a percentage of hits in English, while the other only played the hits in Spanish. Same rotations, same jock style, just what one played and the other did not.
Yes they do
Amp leaned more rhythmic. There were periods where B96 would get more adult friendly at times.
When Amp launched in Los Angeles, they started playing around with Fresh 105.9 by tweaking the playlist toward CHR during the evening hours. They had just launched Fresh about a year prior, just getting the thing started and they were already messing with it. B96 was Hits & Hip-Hop at the time, they didn't want to tweak B96 just yet. It took a couple years for a full tweak back to Mainstream CHR to take full effect.
Here is an aircheck from March 2015. Again, the ratings were not very bad at the time. They were using 103.5's previous voice guy Dave Kampel
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From the Internet Archive, here were the ratings around the time this aircheck was recorded:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150315005940/http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb005
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Was checking out B96's playlist on OnlineRadioBox and was shocked to see some of the 90s dance hits they were once known for on the LAST PLAYED list. I must admit to underestimating B96 in regard to 90s dance I assume that the higher-ups would continue ignore the station's once-dominant dance heritage. I spotted Robin S's "Show Me Love", Ce Ce Peniston's "Finally", and La Bouche's "Sweet Dreams". I even spotted DJ Sammy's "Heaven", a staple of the old Energy 92.7/92.5 days of the early 2k as B96 was all hip hop/R&B during that period and that song was of the very few dance songs B96 played back then.
Since 104.3 Jams seems to be sticking around for the foreseeable future, how are they going to make sure 104.3 Jams and B96 don't overlap in regards to the rhythmic throwbacks? Does 104.3 get further tweaked to go urban instead of rhythmic? On a side note, could the DJ mixes return to B96 (although their old mixers are still on 104.3)?
Since 104.3 Jams seems to be sticking around for the foreseeable future, how are they going to make sure 104.3 Jams and B96 don't overlap in regards to the rhythmic throwbacks? Does 104.3 get further tweaked to go urban instead of rhythmic? On a side note, could the DJ mixes return to B96 (although their old mixers are still on 104.3)?
104.3 will not play Taylor Swift, Backstreet Boys, Morgan Wallen, Harry Styles, Jonas Brothers, any of the dance songs mentioned, or much in the way of 2010s and nothing new. It's strictly 90s and 2000s Hip-Hop with some R&B and some 80s mixed in. That's the difference. B96 is more Hot AC with a Rhythmic lean. 104.3 is strictly Classic Hip-Hop.
There's been rumors floating around that 104.3 could simulcast WSCR. That's probably the end goal. It's just not getting bad enough ratings or billing to happen just yet. If it does happen, they could easily tell their listeners to put on B96. They did the same thing when Fresh 105.9 went to the WBBM simulcast and B96 had already gone back to Mainstream CHR, mainstream enough that the Hot AC audience might be able to listen. They told the Fresh 105.9 listeners to listen to B96
There's been rumors floating around that 104.3 could simulcast WSCR. That's probably the end goal. It's just not getting bad enough ratings or billing to happen just yet. If it does happen, they could easily tell their listeners to put on B96. They did the same thing when Fresh 105.9 went to the WBBM simulcast and B96 had already gone back to Mainstream CHR, mainstream enough that the Hot AC audience might be able to listen. They told the Fresh 105.9 listeners to listen to B96
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Fair enough but I wonder what throwbacks 103.4 Jams plays that B96 will not touch. Just about everything 104.3 is currently playing could be played on B96, which does play throwbacks from Notorious BIG, Dr. Dre, 2pac and so on.
So far no Keith Sweat, Mystikal, Michael Jackson, DMX, Busta Rhymes, Bobby Brown, Sugarhill Gang, deeper tracks from the artists mentioned, etc. There is a lot of overlap, but there's some B96 is not playing. They're only picking the biggest tracks from those artists.
No, they are only playing the songs that research well.
Well in that case, the ones that test well just happen to be the biggest tracks from those artists, which is pretty typical. A lot of people complain about that but as people say, they test well.
My view on this is that radio is meant as a free sample. If you want to dig deeper, you should buy the music and support the creators.
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