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CHR's best chance, fittingly it's Z100

D

DOB

Lot's to like, if you love radio then support it, if you do current based formats, copy it.
It starts with the undeniably 2nd best morning show with Elvis (Kyle and Jackie O are the best hands down, called Brekky but same time slot)
Exclusive content that's consistently good and been around forever so it's nostalgia and current relevant, who else can claim both? The show is wakeup routine for many. (Lots to unpack as it's own topic)
Now, they have something similar building in afternoons. It's different in that it's rightfully more music driven but it's exclusive content that's relatable.
Seacrest has pop culture cred, first on that or making a moment of it. He also brilliantly keeps up momentum with always plugging what's coming up, only Howard did that better
The music is quick on the new true hot songs like the new sam Smith. Plays the current recurrent mass Appeals, and is heavy on the best upbeat older songs going back the last 20 or so years.
Mistakes of the past can't be corrected. That ability to define the hits done properly is gone, could radio still have it if they did it properly when we had it? Yes, some places that did it better always haven't totally lost the privilege, but the ability is fading to varying degrees.

Like David reminded, it's about the target audience so please add your observations based upon looking through the lense of young adult mainly females.
I think if we are honest, even if Alt found a way to do this for a rock/alternative audience, it just couldn't work today for New York.
Kysr LA has a heritage of alternative on radio being relevant and defining trends built-in from the station they killed Kroq. They can't mold trends but they still got the cool cred that NYC never created as K rock was all Howard, never anything at all else.
 
I guess that DOB's point is that Z100's blueprint for its success works uniquely for that station and its CHR format, and that any attempt to use that blueprint on another station would be futile.
 
Current formats need to compliment the music with exclusive content from engaging personalities. The morning and afternoon drive format, with the differences, has worked well in Australia, now Z100 is making it work for them.

Please, tell me the format here in having to go into detail enough so that you don't get attacked by those that just want a strawman to use to make them feel superior for God knows why and not type more than 20 seconds of reading for tldr hooked on phonics seeking simpletons.

New York has about 2 years of Alt history, where as LA has 4 decades. So it's established there, and never really had been in NYC. That's so condensed it's silly, but it can't be summed up any other way.
 
I have lived outside the NYC market for a long time, but was a huge fan of Z100 and listened daily when I was in high school (late 90's/early 00s). I occasionally listen to their stream from here in Virginia and I like the more recurrent-heavy music mix they're playing these days. I'm pushing 40 years old so right in the middle of the 25-54 money demo. Perhaps the "heritage" factor will work in Z100's favor since younger listeners don't use radio as much these days.
 
They probably play more recurrents now cause the charts are so slow.
5 of the top 10 songs are on the chart 20+ wks.
 
Just read on another board that "Son of A," a country single by Dillon Carmichael, has finally reached the top 40 of the Billboard chart -- after 40 weeks on the chart, but outside the top 40! It still has the tiny bullet it's been lugging along for months and joins several other members of the 20+ Week Club in the nether reaches of the top 40. Why does this happen? Why are labels so reluctant to send new songs to radio when it's obvious that the current song is not only ancient but is not growing the number of stations playing it to any appreciable extent? I assume this is the same problem affecting CHR.
 
CTListener said:
Why does this happen? Why are labels so reluctant to send new songs to radio when it's obvious that the current song is not only ancient but is not growing
Click to expand...

Adding new songs is a commitment that radio stations make. They use the word "investment." So if they're going to add a song, it will be for a certain number of weeks. The problem is they don't all add at the same time. So if you look at the "adds" list, you'll see stations adding songs at different times along the way. There are also stations increasing or decreasing spins along the way. But I've seen labels stick with songs for a long time, even as you say it looks futile. This has been discussed at several radio conventions for the reasons you mention. Some stations will even play a song from an album if they feel the chosen single is wrong.

That's why whenever anyone brings up music on the radio, we need to talk about the role of the labels in that process. There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Not just radio.
 
Just for a goof i looked up the top 10 this wk in 1983 the yr Z100 started.
These are the number of wks in the top 40 at this point for each song.
Again big diff than like i mentioned 5 songs with 20+wks in this wks 2022 top 10.

1 islands in the stream - 8
2 total eclipse of the heart - 12
3 all night long (all night) - 5
4 true - 10
5 one thing leads to another - 8
6 making love out of nothing at all - 12
7 king of pain - 10
8 delirious - 7
9 telefone (long distance love affair) - 8
10 uptown girl - 4
 
Six in this week's country top 10, led by "Wishful Drinking" with 43 and "Don't Come Lookin'" and "Son of a Sinner" both with 34. The newest song is "Country On" with 17 weeks. And all these songs still have their bullets! Looking at the next 10, we find still-bulleted "Soul" at No. 20 in its 47th week, with 48-weeker "You Didn't" set to crack the top 20 (at some point in the next six months) at No. 21.
 
CTListener said:
Just read on another board that "Son of A," a country single by Dillon Carmichael, has finally reached the top 40 of the Billboard chart -- after 40 weeks on the chart, but outside the top 40! It still has the tiny bullet it's been lugging along for months and joins several other members of the 20+ Week Club in the nether reaches of the top 40. Why does this happen? Why are labels so reluctant to send new songs to radio when it's obvious that the current song is not only ancient but is not growing the number of stations playing it to any appreciable extent? I assume this is the same problem affecting CHR.
Click to expand...
Check out "Don't speak" from No Doubt which billboard lists as 52 weeks in the top 40.
Country though has always been different from chr in that songs take forever to reach the top, and then after 40 weeks of a slow climb, the song will get a coordinated one week stay at number 1. There's good reason why the country artists thank country radio.
I have always been in awe of country relationships. The labels, artists, radio, and the listener seem like one happy family dancing in synch like some honky tonk Partridge Family.
Incredible loyalty and respect. I really wish that I could enjoy the music. It's the one English format, outside of religion, that I would never go on air for since I believe that the listeners would feel my inability to be authentic. You can't do Country justice unless you love the music, beyond the impossible not to love lifestyle. So no roping up another 10 hicks in a row for me.
 
Another wierd stat is "blinding lights" was billboards #1 song of 2020 & yet still hung around long enough to be #3 for 2021.
 
November? I could be wrong but I think it was October when I played it at a giveaway event for the hot ac I worked for at the time where I was lambasted and told to stick to the hits that the station plays, no obscure music.
 
TheBigA said:
Adding new songs is a commitment that radio stations make. They use the word "investment." So if they're going to add a song, it will be for a certain number of weeks. The problem is they don't all add at the same time. So if you look at the "adds" list, you'll see stations adding songs at different times along the way. There are also stations increasing or decreasing spins along the way. But I've seen labels stick with songs for a long time, even as you say it looks futile. This has been discussed at several radio conventions for the reasons you mention. Some stations will even play a song from an album if they feel the chosen single is wrong.

That's why whenever anyone brings up music on the radio, we need to talk about the role of the labels in that process. There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Not just radio.
Click to expand...
I mentioned this once before, but we had a case at one of Cecil Heftel's stations where the label's cut was not fitting for our format. We picked another, and the label went all bat sh-t hysterical and even threatened legal action of we did not take the song off! We kept it on, and other stations picked up on it. The song was the artist's biggest hit ever.

So when you say "there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen" your are right on. In fact, some of them are not even cooking what the customer (the listener) ordered.
 
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