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B98.5 90 minute commercial free blocks

jal41

jal41

In what is earth-shaking news (it being about B98.5), the station has begun airing 90 minute (an hour and a half) commercial-free blocks of music throughout the entire day. This comes on the heels of sister-station 97.1 The River going 52 minutes without commercials.

This is all-day long now...not just in the mornings. I wonder what prompted this change.
 
Probably 106.7

But I think they've got all the B listeners they're gonna get. In fact, I'm expecting 106.7 to be flat
or down in the next ratings. They're now having less 80's and less R&B Crossover than they had
just last month.........which I think is a mistake. They seem to have cranked up the 70's and Rock
& Pop (maybe in an attempt to go after the River). All I know is I listened a lot more last month
and this month it's hit or miss. One step up, two steps back.
 
UPDATE: The 90 minute commercial-free block is only at 4:25 PM. They still have the 98@9, but otherwise they are still 50 minute music hours in between.

I suspect this is a response to Q100 and Star 94's 5 PM commercial free hours. On wonders why B98.5 doesn't wait until 5 PM, and call it the 98@5?
 
jal41 said:
UPDATE: The 90 minute commercial-free block is only at 4:25 PM. They still have the 98@9, but otherwise they are still 50 minute music hours in between.

I suspect this is a response to Q100 and Star 94's 5 PM commercial free hours. On wonders why B98.5 doesn't wait until 5 PM, and call it the 98@5?
Click to expand...

Maybe they start it at 4:25 in order to get radios in the workplace tuned to B98.5. Radios in the workplace tend not to get changed often. And they have a chance of getting picked up by someone's portable people meter. Also, keep in mind that Star 94's commercial-free hour starts immediately following the 4:45 stop set.
 
Honestly, this station sounds like a mess to me - Billy Joel/Piano Man during the day, and then Nickelback/Photograph at night

Since their ratings are in a free fall, why not try actually following the AC chart (and playing Just The Way You Are more than 3x a week)?
 
Part of me wonders if B98.5 is the most vulnerable it's been in years, with Star 94 essentially duplicating the old B98.5 formula (hot AC + all-90s weekends), but moved it forward a decade or so.

Keep in mind that B98.5's all-80s weekends are as old (in years back) a playlist as Fox 97's was back in Fox 97's early-90s heyday, if not older. While there's definitely an audience there, especially for an adult-format station with throwaway time on the weekends, is that what you really want to position yourself as vis-a-vis Star 94?

It would be interesting if Star 94 found success challenging heritage B98.5 and not relative newcomer Q100.

B98.5 is getting hemmed in tight, with Star 94 on one side and WYAY on the other. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

River seems to be doing the same dance with Rock100.5, with both stations trying to feel out the right mix of classic rock. Although, Rock100.5 seems to be moving back in a somewhat newer direction (again), lately.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
jal41 said:
UPDATE: The 90 minute commercial-free block is only at 4:25 PM. They still have the 98@9, but otherwise they are still 50 minute music hours in between.

I suspect this is a response to Q100 and Star 94's 5 PM commercial free hours. On wonders why B98.5 doesn't wait until 5 PM, and call it the 98@5?
Click to expand...

Maybe they start it at 4:25 in order to get radios in the workplace tuned to B98.5. Radios in the workplace tend not to get changed often. And they have a chance of getting picked up by someone's portable people meter. Also, keep in mind that Star 94's commercial-free hour starts immediately following the 4:45 stop set.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't the drive home / rush hour time have anything to do with this?

And...

KDM 7000 said:
B98.5 better watch out! Although, I don't think it will affect them too much because, whether you want to admit it or not, B98.5 does have a "pretty solid playlist". In other words, B98.5 consistently seems to continuously play strong, recognizable hits. It may be somewhat boring, but at the same time, if you know and like the music, it can be pretty hard to "stray away" from them. There've been a few times when I've seen them play a large block of stuff that makes me think "If I was already there listening, I would not have voluntarily changed the channel for at least an hour". I do believe B98.5 can be toppled by a new comer, BUT, they will not be toppled easily or too quickly... |
Click to expand...

...Ok maybe I'm not the best at predicting or calling the future shots of B98.5.
I'm glad that entire thread I created back then "got the amount of attention it deserved" (as Conan would say after a failed joke followed with little to no emotional response/laughter from the audience).
 
If you talk about a station that rarely if ever makes changes or diversify their playlist or claims that Kelly Clarkson's "Already Gone" and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" as currents, B98.5 is it. I have yet to find Katy Perry or Bruno Mars on that station.
 
... that time when he returned from being on the mountain after forty days and forty nights, and he descended from the mountain and said onto the Children of Israel ... "Kelly McCoy here".
 
KDM 7000 said:
I think they added Bruno Mars a while ago. "While" meaning over a few weeks.
Click to expand...

Just for confirmation, they did add the song and now is the 4th or 5th most played song for the week according to yes.com, becoming an overplayed song very soon. Right now, I'm sure 98.5 has hit rock bottom, and there's more chances for them to move up the ratings for the next book. There's blood in the water, and if Clear Channel wanted to redeem itself by switching one of their stations to an AC format to compete with 98.5, they can do it soon. But knowing Clear Channel in Atlanta, I have better chances being caller 10 (no reference to the creator of the hilarious jabs at 98.5) and win a prize at a local radio station than to see Clear Channel switching to an AC format.
 
thefirstgenesis said:
if Clear Channel wanted to redeem itself by switching one of their stations to an AC format to compete with 98.5, they can do it soon.
Click to expand...

...And THIS is why I'm very worried (or some may believe "paranoid" would be more accurate) about WWVA. I'm not really sure how long of a chance big companies like Clear Channel normally give a station to "prove itself" before flipping. I've never thought to "explore", or research that knowledge. I also don't know what is "acceptable" ratings-wise to big companies like ClearChannel (in other words, whether or not they allow formats with 1 or 2 shares continue to exist and be considered "ok" for a long period of time like I've seen some stations do). However, I do know for a fact that sometimes it takes a new format about two years (on a full power signal) to gain full potential , and.... well, "be all that it could be".

I'm not sure if Clearchannel's plan is to see if WWVA will reach a certain point in ratings & potential revenue with their current settings before moving them to a more powerful signal where they could achieve their full potential. Not sure what they have to achieve or prove, if even anything, to be considered "worthy of being tried on a 'less frugal' signal".

I wonder how long it took WHTA to reach full potential when they first came on the scene (before ppm, by the way)? Did they have any "struggles" at all? Did they have any trouble before moving to 107.9? Were they ever doubted? Does anyone know what WBTS's highest point in ratings were and around what time? What about WWWQ's first five years of history? And, wasn't 96.7 ONCE a lite rock / AC format after they gave up on WiLD back in 2001?

Lastly, while most people may not think much of it, we should not forget that WWVA did once have a 3 share DURING THE EARLY STAGES of the rhythmic format! Also keep in mind that this was reflecting the rhythmic format (or the later rhythmic crossover format transition into the early full rhythmic flip) and NOT the rhythmic ac time period! The ratings did fall big time in later 2010, BUT that was all around the time of the whole airplanes and playlist fiasco, which... to this day, I still cannot understand how and why it happened. As a matter of fact, this whole thing has been one of the strangest (after) format changed I've ever witnessed without stunting. It's like the JFK mystery of radio to me.
 
I just wonder if CC has too much pride to admit they made a mistake in blowing up Peach.

If Cumulus manages to put an afterburner on Kicks, that question will come up again.
 
thefirstgenesis said:
If you talk about a station that rarely if ever makes changes or diversify their playlist or claims that Kelly Clarkson's "Already Gone" and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" as currents, B98.5 is it. I have yet to find Katy Perry or Bruno Mars on that station.
Click to expand...

Holy crap! B98.5 is playing a Katy Perry's song. "Firework" is now the #1 song they played according to yes.com. I guess somebody from that station has all of a sudden started reading our blogs.
 
thefirstgenesis said:
Holy crap! B98.5 is playing a Katy Perry's song. "Firework" is now the #1 song they played according to yes.com. I guess somebody from that station has all of a sudden started reading our blogs.
Click to expand...

This is the same way I felt about "Rocketeer" by Fareast Movement being played IN THE DAY TIME, amongst other things! A lot of things... excite me about certain formats there when it comes to playing national hits, but most of the time, I just choose not to mention it.
 
B98 played Katy Perry? Does Neal know?

Well, so long as they don't go to Jazz flavors at night.
(you have to have been in Atlanta a while to get that one)
 
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