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Change coming Now (or Soon?) to WTDY?

tvk5195 said:
It's one of the factors driving generation Z to streaming.
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Where they stream the same 10 pop songs over and over. If you compare the playlists of these two stations with the streaming chart, they look very similar.

Comparing playlists, WIOQ has about 100 songs, and WTDY has about 65 songs. The difference is that WIOQ plays the Top 10 songs more frequently (127 vs 116 spins a week). WIOQ also sticks with recurrents longer, and most of those additional songs on their playlist are recurrents. Might explain why their 18-34 numbers aren't so good.
 
To perhaps throw a little water on these flames, thanks to the good people of the WTDY instagram page, the message in the post was translated- "styody pg yjr di,,rt 3-32" is "artist of the summer 2021" (with each keystroke shifted to the left). This could be a vote/contest tied into a rebranding... I guess we'll see at some point today (or TDY)
 
Jstnpspck said:
To perhaps throw a little water on these flames, thanks to the good people of the WTDY instagram page, the message in the post was translated- "styody pg yjr di,,rt 3-32" is "artist of the summer 2021" (with each keystroke shifted to the left). This could be a vote/contest tied into a rebranding... I guess we'll see at some point today (or TDY)
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Well, you had it correct! It was prepping the launch of their "Artist of the Summer 2021" contest Looks like TDY stays TDY for now!
 
tvk5195 said:
Cue the "they should try this format" comments. I totally agree though there has to be something better than the same 10 pop songs played over and over again.
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Lately, playing the same 10 country songs over and over again has proven increasingly successful. When a genre gets hot, no playlist is too tight, no repetition too much. Who was complaining about CHR and its song rotations in the mid-'80s?
 
I'm surprised no one else suggested this, but I almost wonder if 96.5 could actually make a dent if they went country. Skewing younger/more pop-country than WXTU or even going the polar opposite with a best of the 90s/2000s style country to sell alongside the rest of their cluster seems like it would be a smoother road than trying to compete as a pure CHR.

If Boston can support 3 country stations, you'd think Philly could handle 2.
 
andygradel said:
I'm surprised no one else suggested this, but I almost wonder if 96.5 could actually make a dent if they went country.
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Audacy owned WXTU for a few years and got to see the numbers close up. When they bought B101, they sold it back to Beasley. So I don't know why they'd now want to get half of that market when they already had the whole thing.
 
andygradel said:
I'm surprised no one else suggested this, but I almost wonder if 96.5 could actually make a dent if they went country. Skewing younger/more pop-country than WXTU or even going the polar opposite with a best of the 90s/2000s style country to sell alongside the rest of their cluster seems like it would be a smoother road than trying to compete as a pure CHR.

If Boston can support 3 country stations, you'd think Philly could handle 2.
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There are really only two in Boston -- WCTK gets listeners in the far southern suburbs, but it is sold as a Providence-market station and its advertising reflects that.

I'm wondering if it's even possible to skew younger with a country format these days. As I mentioned in another thread, the playlists of legacy WKLB and "hot" upstart WBWL in Boston are practically identical. Country music seems to be in a very comfortable place right now -- a mix of pop-influenced, rock-influenced and traditional-influenced music that it hasn't had in many years. Anyone wanting to take on WXTU may have to lean "more country," which isn't a great idea in a Northern market like Philadelphia and would probably bring in more 55+ listeners who were fans of the New Traditionalist country of the late '80s and early '90s. No radio station looking to make money wants that!
 
TheBigA said:
How much younger do you want? From time to time WXTU does pretty well 18-34. I don't think they've ever been #1, but they usually get close to Top 5.
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My point exactly. I was responding to andygradel's idea about taking WTDY country and going younger/more pop than WXTU. I would expect that most of the country stations that have been surging in 12+ lately are adding to their share of 18-34 without sacrificing the slightly older demos to do so.
 
TheBigA said:
Audacy CHR changes affecting WTDY were announced today:

www.insideradio.com

Exclusive: Audacy Implements Regional CHR Programming Structure.

Audacy is implementing a regionalized CHR programming leadership model under the direction of Format Captain Brian Kelly. Kelly will be supported by a team of Regional VPs of Programming and
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com
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Interesting to see how it shuffled out. Nathan Graham moves off-air to focus solely on programming with Julia tracking middays from Chicago. Bennett stays in afternoons on TDY (plus tracking 10-Noon on B101). And Bru takes over tracking nights. No word if LA who was hosting nights handles anything off-air.

WTDY is in a weird place where they get decent 18-34 numbers, but overall, they're in the cellar. Will this model be able to do anything against Q102?
 
I'm glad to hear that most of those affected seem to be staying with the company. I wonder how "Audacy will continue to deploy research, airplay and streaming data to program music in each of the individual markets" while they're "nationalizing" everything. Will the jocks be talking around different songs depending on the station? (So they'll never mention title/artist, nor a station by name?)

You all know I really dislike the idea of putting the same thing on disparate stations, regardless of conditions on the ground, but I guess this is what Audacy sees as the future of radio in America. Interesting to see iHeart deciding simultaneously to go in the opposite direction. Could at least be interesting to hear it all shake out. (Though I probably won't since I listen pretty exclusively to Amazon Prime Music stations these days.)

Also: Kinda like yesterday's discussion of WRFF and WIOQ, I suspect that Audacy is packaging B101 and WTDY ad sales, in this scenario with B101 of course being the main course and WTDY being the gravy.

I wonder if a re-brand is coming Monday along with the changes. Re-branding is expensive though. Maybe it's not worth it.
 
Perhaps I'm feeling especially pessimistic, but I seriously do not see how "julia's lifehack of the day" and "dirty in 30" whatever the hell that's all about, is gonna do much in the way of boosting ratings? None of this is new, unique or connecting with the pop listening audience. Especially considering we live in the spotify age, perhaps trying to...play more music...and lean off the gimmicky crap might prove a better move. But what do I know? I'm just their exact target age, but in all fairness I never listen to pop radio.
 
radiodx10 said:
But what do I know? I'm just their exact target age, but in all fairness I never listen to pop radio.
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There's no point in programming to people who don't listen. I don't know that this is meant to "boost ratings" It's meant to redistribute their resources. They used to spend a lot of money in one place. Now they're taking a broader view of things. The growth area is off air, and that's where their attention is going. Podcasts, online content, and local events.
 
Really more rock in this town/ We've got a classic rock, and alt rock a mainstream rock and a AAA, just how many more rock stations do you think could survive? yeah... i'm going with no. While CHr on 96.5 might not be doing well rock would not be the format to try. Look what happened to WYSP when they tried to splinter the rock audience even further? Yes I loved WYSP, but its easy to see why that didn't pan out in the end. Besides, does ratings = billing? If not then 96.5 could do CHR forever, in spite of how bad the ratings are. as long as they make money from billing, that's what mattters. By them nationalizing the on-air lineup as they have, that sure makes them have to pay less money out for the tallent that was on there previously.
 
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