Cumulus' 95SX

[deejaywestbrook]

Now mind you I listened to this station back in the 80's. 95sx was in direct competition with Q107, also a great station from Charleston. Anyway we visit Edisto Beach there every year and I noticed 95SX is so much lite-er this time around. They sounded like Cumulus stations from the mid-2000s when they were all VERY hot AC. I've been pretty impressed with Cumulus stations since 2015 as they have really evolved and started playing more hip-hop and whatever's on the charts. I live in Atlanta and our Cumulus flagship, Q997 relentlessly leaned HotAC for years before finally getting a clue by 2010 (moot point when iHeart thankfully brought us Power961)

Anyway Charleston thanks for hanging in with me. But what I'm trying to get at is I was quite surprised this time around that 95sx sounded so safe and reserved. Not once did we hear any of the hip hop that's on the charts… Not one! And why in the world is 'Youngblood' by 5 Seconds of Summer in heavy rotation, in August2020?? Lol

Thank god for the Grade-B coverage from 97.3KISS FM in Savannah! Still, I can't believe by this point Charleston doesn't have a iHeart top 40 station to go head to head with 95SX… Anyway my trip to Edisto was very chill as always but my radiogeek side was just curious about 95SX leaning more hotAC then… at least think I've heard in many years. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.

 

[charlestondxman]

95SX has been like that for years. They play it VERY safe with their playlist. Keep songs on it for 6 months to a year. As far back as the mid 2000s. They haven’t had a real top 40 competitor in the market since 92.5 flipped to urban in 2006! 95.9 plays a lot of the same music. 95SX’s ratings are low too. Below a 3 last book.

Yesterday’s playlist: https://onlineradiobox.com/us/wssx/playlist/1

Compared to 95.9... https://mix959.com/recently-played/

 

[Kent]

With the caveat that, unless you count flying over, I‘ve never been to South Carolina, WSSX has had the reputation of being an adult skewing CHR for at least the last 30 years. When the CHR doldrums started in the early-90’s, it even wimped out to hot AC altogether. It briefly took over 94.3 and launched CHR “Fly 94” when it first ran scared from being a CHR, but Fly 94 didn’t last long.

So, it’s not all that surprising that 95SX would continue to sound like it always has. After Mary Berner took over Cumulus, she started allowing local PD's more autonomy over their playlists. My understanding is that local PD's still have to report their adds and their moves to their brand manager, but their brand manager now offers suggestions rather requires specific adds and moves. Plus, Berner sacked Jan Jeffries, who always had a reputation for preferring a more adult sound. Also, during the Dickey era, Cumulus CHR's that had competition routinely lost their battles. That’s why you've seen a lot of Cumulus CHR's start to sound like CHR's again. More local autonomy plus accountability means people are going to try harder to win in their markets, and the new brand manager is likely providing different advice in a different manner. 95SX, however, is probably continuing to do what it’s always done, and it has routinely won with an adult sound.

 

[charlestondxman]

Yep. They’ve been doing that as long as I can remember in the Charleston market. Back to 2000 and earlier. They had 94.3 as competition when they were the Beat, but they leaned more urban before they went news-talk in 2004.

Two Girls and a Guy started way back then. They eventually moved over to 95.9, but that morning show helped to make 95SX more of an adult station.

B92 was their last true competitor in the market. Apex realized they could lead the huge Urban market in this town though, so they flipped it to the Box.

Considering close to 1/3 or more of the radio listening in this market goes to either Z93, Star, Magic, or the other urban/gospel stations, that’s a big market to hit. Star alone was nearing a 10 share the last time their ratings were in the book.

Now with Saga, they pretty much give autonomy to their stations, and let them and Cumulus battle it out, while iHeart here keeps trotting out their old standbys that haven’t changed in years (WEZL, Q, 102.5).

 

[vchimpanzee]

When the station at 96.9 dropped AC, WSSX invited that station's former listeners to listen. That's not something a true CHR would have done.