Champaign's Variety Hits? Not The Chief!

[szorn]

I reported early on here that Champaign, IL got a variety hits station in 92.5 The Chief. Not really! Simply a reworked version of their 60's and 70's oldies format from before.

BUT, we do have the true JACK flavor every lunch hour and every weekend on MIX 94.5. They do "Whatever Lunches" and "Whatever Weekends". Probably the best presentation of this format that I've heard. Real variety with dance hits from the 80's and 90's, disco, r&b, plus all the pop and rock from the late 70's to today. They don't lean classic hits/rock like most JACKs do. It's not 24/7 but it represents about 33% of their weekly programming. Funny thing is the same owners put on THE CHIEF "playing what the chief wants to play". I guess the chief really likes the previous oldies format and isn't much of a friend to Jack.

Question: which Jack's/Bill's/Mike's whatever...sound like MIX 94.5's weekends and lunches as described above instead of the classic rock/hits lean? The format has a potential long-term future IMO if they would NOT ignore the rhythmic side of music. Just wondering what stations do this.

 

[LouPickney]

> I reported early on here that Champaign, IL got a variety
> hits station in 92.5 The Chief. Not really! Simply a
> reworked version of their 60's and 70's oldies format from
> before.

So it's more of a Classic Hits station you think? Looking at the website, it looks like a Classic Hits station with Variety Hits positioning statements. Do they play any 80s (or later) songs? I might have to remove their listing on VarietyHits.com<P ID="signature">______________
Lou Pickney
Tampa, FL
RadioHotTalk.com & VarietyHits.com</P>

 

[szorn]

> > I reported early on here that Champaign, IL got a variety
> > hits station in 92.5 The Chief. Not really! Simply a
> > reworked version of their 60's and 70's oldies format from
>
> > before.
>
> So it's more of a Classic Hits station you think? Looking
> at the website, it looks like a Classic Hits station with
> Variety Hits positioning statements. Do they play any 80s
> (or later) songs? I might have to remove their listing on
> VarietyHits.com
>

Funny thing. Saga owns them. They own "Classic Hits" eXtra 99-1, and they own the "Whatever Lunches and Weekends" Mix 94.5!!! Can you say too much overlap!!?? The Chief is really an oldies stations that plays a lot of 60's, 70's, and a very small sprinkle of 80's music, usually in the rock genre, but definitely not the "Good Times, Great Oldies" sound from the 50's (like they used to be years ago). They sound nothing like JACK stations. Mix 94.5 fits the JACK format at noon and on the weekends much more than the Chief. eXtra 99-1 sounds more like Jack than the Chief but really sounds more like Classic Rock with 80's rock and some 90's rock mixed in than anything else. Put the three together and we have the ultimate Jack format!

Short answer: I would NOT consider the Chief a variety hits station as is defined by the Jack formats -- they just have the moniker statement that fits what other Jacks say -- musically, not even close.

To make a long post longer: if Mix 94.5 would simply do their "Whatever stuff" 24/7, they would be one of the best sounding Variety Hits stations around. Great mix of rhythmic hits and rock hits and pop hits from disco to today. The weekends sound great!

 

[LouPickney]

> Short answer: I would NOT consider the Chief a variety hits
> station as is defined by the Jack formats -- they just have
> the moniker statement that fits what other Jacks say --
> musically, not even close.

Okay, thanks for the update. When I get some time later today I'll update the site and remove them from the big list... and explain why.<P ID="signature">______________
Lou Pickney
Tampa, FL
RadioHotTalk.com & VarietyHits.com</P>