Cumulus CHR's are the worst I've ever heard

[TheMusicMan]

Why add Emeli Sande and not Mumford & Sons/OM&M? Seriously?! "I Will Wait" and "Little Talks" got pretty screwed over on the charts.

And, just to add, there are PLENTY of small southern towns (& Republicans, lol) where Mumford & Sons are popular. I am thinking that perhaps Jan thought they and Of Monsters & Men were a little too folksy for his CHR's.

Thanks for bringing this up. I'm disgusted that "Little Talks" and "I Will Wait" were stifled by Cumulus. We get it, the sound is a little afield from the center-lane pure pop that Cumulus sticks to, but tell that to the 2 million-plus people who have bought Babel in just over half a year, or to the millions of buyers who kept "Little Talks" in the iTunes Top 30 for months.

Better yet, tell it to the CHR PDs and listeners who sent these two records to the CHR Top 20 without any support from the 30ish Cumulus stations on the panel.

 

[bluestar4]

Have you guys heard the new Avril Lavigne song? It's really impressive - I'd say a definite Top 5

It's awesome.

Speaking of Here's To Never Growing Up, one Cumulus station has already started playing it. Unfortunately, it's WHTS, who, like KKMG, is free from Jan's playlist restrictions. Nonetheless, hopefully the rest of the Cumulus stations follow suit.

 

[atlantaboy]

Why add Emeli Sande and not Mumford & Sons/OM&M? Seriously?! "I Will Wait" and "Little Talks" got pretty screwed over on the charts.

And, just to add, there are PLENTY of small southern towns (& Republicans, lol) where Mumford & Sons are popular.

It doesn't matter - he's worried about the conservative small town listeners that dislike Mumford/OM&M, not the ones that like them

"Next To Me" has high callout across the board 12+, so does Fall Out Boy (check Rate The Music.com) - Mumford and OM&M don't have high average callout - the assumption I'm making is that some people love them and others hate them

http://www.allaccess.com/top40-mainstream/rate-the-music?format=H1&demo=12+

Again, what Jan's doing here is ridiculous, and it completely ruined the chart runs of those songs - I'm just trying to explain the process that must be going on

 

[chrocket87]

Thank you very much for showing me this nifty little tool!
But, yeah, that would explain "Next To Me" being added, it's rating well, especially with the upper part of the demo.

 

[bchristi]

They still play it probably a couple of times per day.

And when verified with Mediabase, it turns out that KKWD played that song exactly twice last week.

Nonetheless, that isn't a song that should be in regular rotation period in 2013.

Maybe you're right, but the song got 182 spins nationwide (in Mediabase monitored markets) last week, and only 34 were from Cumulus stations. Most notably, Cox played it 14 times at WBHJ and 10 times at WPYO, and Cox is well-known for researching their records to death.

The point is, it's not possible to look at one single record and determine that a station is failing. One record may be symptomatic, but it could also be that the song just happens to test in that market. I'm not defending Cumulus in any way, just pointing out that singling out a particular song loses the forest for the trees.

Agree with you. That song is symptomatic of the problem with KKWD. Too much of the station's playlist is obscure dated hip-hop (like "How Low") that everyone else has forgotten about, yet they ignore newer stuff. The station does seem to have improved slightly over the past few weeks but is still too tight with their playlist of currents and gold and still plays stuff regularly that shouldn't be played in 2013 except as maybe a throwback. With the ratings where they have been, it would make sense they would either try something different or flip it.

 

[atlantaboy]

They still play it probably a couple of times per day.

And when verified with Mediabase, it turns out that KKWD played that song exactly twice last week.

Nonetheless, that isn't a song that should be in regular rotation period in 2013.

Maybe you're right, but the song got 182 spins nationwide (in Mediabase monitored markets) last week, and only 34 were from Cumulus stations. Most notably, Cox played it 14 times at WBHJ and 10 times at WPYO, and Cox is well-known for researching their records to death.

The point is, it's not possible to look at one single record and determine that a station is failing. One record may be symptomatic, but it could also be that the song just happens to test in that market. I'm not defending Cumulus in any way, just pointing out that singling out a particular song loses the forest for the trees.

Agree with you. That song is symptomatic of the problem with KKWD. Too much of the station's playlist is obscure dated hip-hop (like "How Low") that everyone else has forgotten about, yet they ignore newer stuff. The station does seem to have improved slightly over the past few weeks but is still too tight with their playlist of currents and gold and still plays stuff regularly that shouldn't be played in 2013 except as maybe a throwback. With the ratings where they have been, it would make sense they would either try something different or flip it.

Did you see that KKWD is UP 0.6 this book (to 3.2)? This is the highest ratings have been since Winter 2012

How high was the share when Cumulus bought it out?

 

[bluestar4]

Some Cumulus stations (WPRO, WJBQ, WIOG) have started playing Avril Lavigne's new single! Looks like Cumulus is showing the love for that awesome song. They've also started playing the new will.i.am song.

 

[mrtallman]

I guess if Cumulus thinks OM&M and Mumford and Sons, why is 92.5 (Zimmer Radio) in Joplin playing Of Monsters and Men, but ignoring Mumford and Sons (which is #17 on the charts, while Monsters and Men has so far only reached #25)? This doesn't even make sense.

 

[atlantaboy]

I guess if Cumulus thinks OM&M and Mumford and Sons, why is 92.5 (Zimmer Radio) in Joplin playing Of Monsters and Men, but ignoring Mumford and Sons (which is #17 on the charts, while Monsters and Men has so far only reached #25)? This doesn't even make sense.

Because it's owned by an independent company - it can do whatever it wants

Of Monsters And Men peaked at #17 - no idea what chart you're using

 

[mrtallman]

I guess if Cumulus thinks OM&M and Mumford and Sons, why is 92.5 (Zimmer Radio) in Joplin playing Of Monsters and Men, but ignoring Mumford and Sons (which is #17 on the charts, while Monsters and Men has so far only reached #25)? This doesn't even make sense.

Because it's owned by an independent company - it can do whatever it wants

Of Monsters And Men peaked at #17 - no idea what chart you're using

http://www.at40.com/top-40/chart/25126 I guess from the last time I checked, it went up five spaces...but it's still behind Mumford at 17. Maybe it has been on the chart longer than Mumford has, but there are plenty of pure pop artists that are getting airtime, while M&S isn't. This one doesn't even make sense to me.

 

[marconis gallbladder]

Maybe it has been on the chart longer than Mumford has, but there are plenty of pure pop artists that are getting airtime, while M&S isn't. This one doesn't even make sense to me.

Maybe because in the grand scheme of things, charts don't mean much? Maybe -- just maybe -- the programmers who can make their own decisions know what's best for their station?

Here's an interesting exercise: go to AllAccess and in the post earlier this week about John Ivey's roast, watch the video highlighting the songs he never played on KIIS. Think Adele, James Blunt, etc.

Now, contrast John's playlist at KIIS with his playlists at Kiss 108 in Boston. Those two stations couldn't be more different -- Boston's Kiss was white-bread, slow on rhythmic stuff and they owned Boston. KIIS is Hispanic-targeted, has a rhythm lean, is very slow on singer-songwriter songs (if they EVER play them) and despite how strong AMP has come on, KIIS continues to own LA.

The lesson: there's more than one way to skin a cat and there are no hard and fast rules. The idea of the game isn't to play all the songs, it's to win. If one guy thinks linearly and says "I've gotta play Mumford cause it's #17" and someone else says "I'm not going to play Mumford cause it's the wrong fit for my station," I'll put my money on the second guy to win every time.

 

[atlantaboy]

I think it's pretty rare for a PD to watch the CHR charts and add songs solely based on their position - I would think that more important factors would be callout for their demo, requests, the current vacancy for new music that week on their station, whether competition is playing the track, whether there's a hole for that track in the market, etc.

For Cumulus, I think another issue is whether the add is a good longterm investment, and whether they think they'll be able to use it as a recurrent

 

[Dkampy]

Competition is definitely a factor into a chr playlist. Here in milwaukee...before WRNW(Radio Now)...WXSS(Kiss Fm) had a very heavy rhythmic lean. IMO Entercom was content with WMYX(the Mix) getting all the rock and singer songwriter stuff...while WXSS got all the Rhythmic tracks.

Once WRNW entered the picture WXSS began to test the waters by adding a few tracks that were not as rhythmic based. It must have been working for them...because today they only have a slight Rhythmic lean cause of all the old school hip hop that is played.

WXSS would have never had Imagine Dragons, Mumford And Sons, Of Monster and Men, Etc... in powers prior to WRNW.

WXSS is even one of the 1st stations on the CHR Panel to add "Radioactive"

 

[bchristi]

I think it's pretty rare for a PD to watch the CHR charts and add songs solely based on their position - I would think that more important factors would be callout for their demo, requests, the current vacancy for new music that week on their station, whether competition is playing the track, whether there's a hole for that track in the market, etc.

For Cumulus, I think another issue is whether the add is a good longterm investment, and whether they think they'll be able to use it as a recurrent

I think you are right on your second point with Cumulus. Anything they add they want to be able to keep in regular rotation for at least five years if not more. Citadel was big with fad songs. They would add cutting edge, put it into power for a few weeks and then if it wasn't a long-term chart topper, discard it. Cumulus refuses to do that.

 

[atlantaboy]

FYI Q100 is up this month, and is now beating out both Power and Star, which are both down

 

[jason1589]

I wonder what Cumulus is going to do with SAME LOVE. Too much for WZYP in Alabama? OK, no spins on any of our stations!

 

[Reeves Army]

I dunno, I like the Cumulus CHR on the Space Coast (Melbourne, FL). Then again, they're the only one in the area that still plays the original version of Ellie Goulding's "Lights".

 

[bchristi]

I wonder what Cumulus is going to do with SAME LOVE. Too much for WZYP in Alabama? OK, no spins on any of our stations!

Probably so. Cumulus stations are all programmed to the least common denominator with the exception of a select few stations which are exempt from Jan's formula. How they manage to escape it is beyond me.

 

[chrocket87]

I wonder what Cumulus is going to do with SAME LOVE. Too much for WZYP in Alabama? OK, no spins on any of our stations!

Then again, who knows what any CHR station will do with Same Love? Have any CHRs played that one yet?

 

[jason1589]

Yes. CBS CHRs like Now in SF and WODS in Boston.