jason1589 said:
WPRO/Providence AND WNTQ/Syracuse are both Cumulus, and they have Thrift Shop in power rotation - WHTS/Grand Rapids is spinning it 59x a week
Don't see any difference between this and CBS keeping Ho Hey and Some Nights from #1
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Cumulus CHR's are the worst I've ever heard
- Thread starter bchristi
- Start date
WPRO/Providence AND WNTQ/Syracuse are both Cumulus, and they have Thrift Shop in power rotation - WHTS/Grand Rapids is spinning it 59x a week
Don't see any difference between this and CBS keeping Ho Hey and Some Nights from #1
So they're equal. You can't blame CBS from holding tracks back when Cumulus is doing the same thing.
The more I read this stuff, I like Clear Channel CHRs even more...
The more I read this stuff, I like Clear Channel CHRs even more...
I agree. Of the big companies, I think CC does the best job with CHR because most of their stations keep a nice balance of rhythmic, "bubble gum", and pop-rock. If you want to hear a great CC station, listen to WNCI/Columbus. IIRC They were a format leader for tracks like Ho Hey, Home, and It's Time. Plus they're spinning local band Twenty One Pilots (currently around the top 20 at Alternative). Do any corporate-owned CHRs play local artists before going for adds anymore?
Talking about larger markets, why does nobody here mention Cumulus's KCHZ in Kansas City? It's a somewhat large PPM market and they're losing. A couple of years ago, they used to net a 5 or more share, now it's down to almost a 3 and mainstream CHR KMXV has solidly overtaken them and has a solid top 3 position with 6 shares or above. They also failed in Indianapolis (worse than CBS has done with any of their stations) and are still failing even after morphing that station in to Hot AC, and the one in Nashville never took hold either (even when they owned it)...
WNCI in Columbus has always been one of CC's more adult friendly stations and does a very good job. I'm not a fan of how canned some of their smaller market stations are (like WNOK in Columbia, SC), but even they sound very good musically.
WNCI in Columbus has always been one of CC's more adult friendly stations and does a very good job. I'm not a fan of how canned some of their smaller market stations are (like WNOK in Columbia, SC), but even they sound very good musically.
carolinaradio said:
Probably because KMXV is already rock-leaning, so you've got two stations going after the exact same audience - in that market, Cumulus probably should've gone with a more rhythmic-leaning station
Also, Clear Channel is more flexible that CBS or Cumulus, but they still "filter" adds and prevent PDs from adding certain tracks that are collectively not agreed upon
For example, if you look at the stations playing "Sail" by Awolnation, every single one of them is independently owned
It used to be Rhythmic-leaning before Jan's top-down strategy started IIRC. Exactly why the one-size-fits-all approach doesn't always work, especially when there's competition that will compete for the same audience head-on (just like if Power in Atlanta would adjust to even the typical CC CHR sound, Q100 would be in trouble)...
Is KMXV as adult as they used to be? They look like they've moved a little more towards the center, they used to have a little more of a Hot AC sound...
Is KMXV as adult as they used to be? They look like they've moved a little more towards the center, they used to have a little more of a Hot AC sound...
So, turning this topic from a negative to a positive I'll mention the following
Personally, I'm loving the following CHR/Pop outlets on the panel:
Kiss 98.5 Buffalo - new music leader, good local DJs, nice bunch of Recurrents, and the station doesn't overplay its powers.
Hot 100.5 Norfolk
KJ 103 Oklahoma City
101.1 WIXX Green Bay
Radio Now 99.7 San Francisco
Power 96.1 Atlanta
Mix 107.9 Mcallen
97.1 ZHT Salt Lake City
99.5 ZPL Indianapolis
106.9 K-Hits Tulsa
Q-102 Philadelphia
Y-100.9 Santa Rosa
107.3 The Q Columbus
B-97 New Orleans
104.5 SNX Grand Rapids
103.7 Kiss FM Milwaukee
K-104 Hudson Valley
93.3 FLZ Tampa
Channel 96.1 Charlotte
106.1 Kiss FM Dallas
Z-100 New York
Y-100 Miami
98.9 Magic FM Colorado Springs
101.3 KDWB Minnepolis
There's obviously other CHRs I lke, but those are my faves.
A CHR that's improving:
Now 105 Norfolk - new name, ad-free hours, improved playlist, good midday personality (Alex)
Just added to the Mediabase panel:
WXZO Planet 96.7 Burlington
Personally, I'm loving the following CHR/Pop outlets on the panel:
Kiss 98.5 Buffalo - new music leader, good local DJs, nice bunch of Recurrents, and the station doesn't overplay its powers.
Hot 100.5 Norfolk
KJ 103 Oklahoma City
101.1 WIXX Green Bay
Radio Now 99.7 San Francisco
Power 96.1 Atlanta
Mix 107.9 Mcallen
97.1 ZHT Salt Lake City
99.5 ZPL Indianapolis
106.9 K-Hits Tulsa
Q-102 Philadelphia
Y-100.9 Santa Rosa
107.3 The Q Columbus
B-97 New Orleans
104.5 SNX Grand Rapids
103.7 Kiss FM Milwaukee
K-104 Hudson Valley
93.3 FLZ Tampa
Channel 96.1 Charlotte
106.1 Kiss FM Dallas
Z-100 New York
Y-100 Miami
98.9 Magic FM Colorado Springs
101.3 KDWB Minnepolis
There's obviously other CHRs I lke, but those are my faves.
A CHR that's improving:
Now 105 Norfolk - new name, ad-free hours, improved playlist, good midday personality (Alex)
Just added to the Mediabase panel:
WXZO Planet 96.7 Burlington
Sorry to get back to the original topic, but I had a thought...do you all think it might be easier/cheaper to get widespread advertising if Jan Jeffries presents all his stations as adult-leaning, i. e. getting a lot of the same advertisers nationwide since all the stations have the same target audience?
carolinaradio said:
Last I heard, KMXV was right down the middle and has evolved into a balanced mainstream CHR. KCHZ used to be a full blown Rhythmic. They used to be positioned musically right between KMXV and Urban KPRS, which has never been afraid to play certain Rhythmic crossover type songs that most Urbans wouldn't touch. When Cumulus bought KCHZ, they were more of a rhythmic pop station and eventually evolved to where they are now.
KCHZ hasn't had a morning show ever since they released "Shorty & The Boyz" right before the format tweak. And that was at least three years ago. I don't think it makes any difference with Cumulus stations, since Jan Jeffries is the one that is really calling the shots and the people invovled are all handpicked by him, but KCHZ changed program directors a few months back as the old PD got moved to KLIF.
The last time I listened to KMXV you'd swear they were the Cumulus station, not KCHZ. Of course, they probably don't wait as long as Cumulus does for adds, but the presentation sounds more like a Cumulus station. I honestly think if I lived in that market I would listen to KCHZ, I think they're a better station. I thought KCHZ and its program director picked the adds for not just them, but all stations that have competition?carolinaradio said:
bobdavcav said:
Yeah, the Cumulus stations that have competition are programmed differently from the stations that don't :
KCHZ has the standard Cumulus playlist, with Jan Jeffries controlling the adds, and you think it's the better station - so apparently all that matters to you is the presentation, not the playlist? Sorry, but that's pretty crazy...
In this case yes. However, in my market, KQMV has the better playlist but KBKS has the better presentation. In that case, KQMV is the far better station KBKS has gotten kind of boring lately. Personally, I think a station of any format but especially CHR needs to be re-imaged every couple of years at least. It really depends though, I think KPLZ currently has the better playlist, but the problem I have with them is they can go sometimes 4 songs without playing a sweeper. However, when KLCK first launched they sounded really good, reminded me of WRQX with an edge. Since then however, they've tweaked their music half a dozen times and now doesn't sound quite as good as it used to. Since we are talking about CHR, let me bring up KIXZ/Spokane. I'm not sure how long sweepers take to make, but it sounds like the producer of the KIXZ sweepers just picked the most boring effects he could. This is added to by the fact that they also use generic sweepers a lot and I haven't even mentioned yet that they are on Premium Choice which isn't the best CHR format to begin with. There is a lot that goes into a great radio station and I know one when I hear one. Some of the stations mentioned here I also like, those would be KHKS and WXSS. For good small-market CHR I would recommend the following 2 stations,
KXIX/Bend, OR
KFFM/Yakima, WA.
KXIX/Bend, OR
KFFM/Yakima, WA.
Funny you should mention this, as I was debating on starting a thread on this song. This week, "Sail" finally cracked the top 50 of Billboard's Hot 100. This song was charting on Alternative about 2 years ago to this date and while I found it whacky that it was finally starting to get in the top 50 of Hot AC spins a month or two ago (though it has since dropped off), I find it even more unbelievable that this song is just now reaching Billboard's upper half. Think this one has a shot of becoming the next Alt-rock crossover, though it's taken much longer than any of the past songs?atlantaboy said:
atlantaboy said:bobdavcav said:
Yeah, the Cumulus stations that have competition are programmed differently from the stations that don't :
KCHZ has the standard Cumulus playlist, with Jan Jeffries controlling the adds, and you think it's the better station - so apparently all that matters to you is the presentation, not the playlist? Sorry, but that's pretty crazy...
KKWD has competition that is killing it and it has the standard Jan Jeffries format for rhythmic leaning stations, which is basically no different than the regular playlist except they don't add rock tracks.
KKWD used to be a full blown Rhythmic CHR but now reports as CHR/Pop. I am not sure if the change took place before or after the Cumulus transition. The format remained similar to how it was under Citadel until late this past summer when it was switched to the Jeffries format. Since OKC doesn't have a true urban station, KKWD filled that niche nicely while not neglecting pop crossover hits like a lot of rhythmics do. By switching to the Jeffries playlist, a huge hole has been left in the market.
CC KJYO is a great sounding station that is very middle of the road. They have a pretty good rock/pop/rhythmic balance. They are currently number 1 in the market.
No it doesn't.bchristi said:
http://addboard.mediabase.com/AddsByStation.asp?c_let=KKWD&Submit=GO>>
bchristi said:atlantaboy said:bobdavcav said:
Yeah, the Cumulus stations that have competition are programmed differently from the stations that don't :
KCHZ has the standard Cumulus playlist, with Jan Jeffries controlling the adds, and you think it's the better station - so apparently all that matters to you is the presentation, not the playlist? Sorry, but that's pretty crazy...
KKWD has competition that is killing it and it has the standard Jan Jeffries format for rhythmic leaning stations, which is basically no different than the regular playlist except they don't add rock tracks.
Yeah, but KCHZ is in the same situation, and they play just as many rock tracks as any other Cumulus CHR
The only major difference I can see is that in markets with no Hot AC, or where Hot AC is very popular, Cumulus lowers the spin counts, apparently to service a Hot-AC workday, whereas in markets with a Hot AC, Cumulus raises the spin counts, apparently to stay sounding CHR throughout the day
And KKWD reports as Rhythmic, and has completely different currents than the CHR/Pop Cumulus cluster
One day when I was listening to "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore on KLIF-FM i93.3, the first verse was severely edited. Yeah, they're trying to filter out the swear words, but wasn't there an edited version already available for radio stations? Or does Cumulus have to dumb it down further? Much of the lines "...that's a cold-[...] honkey", and "P[...]ssssssssss...." were replaced with the beginning instrumental part...kinda ruined it IMO.
It depends on the station.texasstooge said:
WJBQ plays the regular clean version. WPRO plays an edit that has part of the instrumental cover the "piss" line. WBHT has an edit that takes out the lines you said, as well as some of the "damn"s. WNTQ has "piss" reversed (obviously a station edit), even though they leave in "Britney Bitch" on Scream & Shout, despite most Cumulus stations playing a version without it.
The CC Alternative in Cleveland, 99x (err, a translator relaying The Alternative Project) completely edits out the word "piss" by playing some sort of stammered noise, yet the CHR, WAKS, owned by CC plays the word "piss" with no censor. I don't get it one bit.
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