Yes, I can confirm that ZYP has been adult and gold leaning since the 80's. That used to make more sense back then in the 80's and 90's with the Huntsville radio make up the way it was, before Huntsville got four other stations playing the same music. Now, it is just pointless, especially with their own "Journey 93.3" sister station playing "totally 80's and 90's". Why then, are they stepping on their own toes and playing 80's and 90's music on ZYP? There are also two other 100,000 watt A/C stations in town that play the 80's through today (and not to mention an adult hits station playing 70's and 80's), so again, what is the point of being an adult leaning, gold and recurrent driven CHR when there is so much of that to choose from and NO other station in town playing today's pop/top 40 hits? I think the adult audience is covered plenty enough.
I can also confirm they usually remain top 5, but again we are talking about a heritage 100,000 watt stick here with no other competition or choice to turn to playing today's top 40 hits so its more by default. Don't be misled. If today's younger 12 to 34 population had a real good CHR choice to listen to, ZYP's numbers would fall drastically. Adults would turn to the real A/C stations while younger adults would turn to the real CHR station, and ZYP would be left in the cold still trying to fit in to both.
jsu, I'm sure they are well aware of Kiss in Florence. That's funny about your request for Rita Ora. Of course you were lied to. He had no intent on playing it because they aren't allowed to mess with the songs that come up in rotation on the Scott Studio's system, and I guarantee you Rita Ora isn't on it. It's not top 15 yet so they are ignoring it as usual, unless it plays on the Gawd awful Perez Hilton show or Rick Dees top 40 countdown on Saturday mornings. Gotta have enough room for the garbage songs! Can't be playing too much current stuff!! I agree that local shows are better, in my opinion, but they still have to be good. Mojo's show is bland and boring and it always has been. I'll give them credit, it isn't as bad since he came back from Birmingham as it was before he left, but its still not good. Even though I prefer local, I'd rather listen to a syndicated show that is good than a boring local one that's just going to put me to sleep. Now they are competing with two other local shows on both the other A/C stations. They've got to do better than that. I got to listen to the new local show on Star 99.1 today for the first time and it was better than Mojo and Lite 96.9's show from what I got to listen to.
Ron, I'm going to start looking into what might be the best way to do this because I for one am fed up with it. Huntsville deserves way better. If anyone has any good ideas I'm all ears because nothing will ever be done to better Huntsville radio until the people of Huntsville stand up and make their voices heard. Besides, if Cumulus can program a CHR in Birmingham on 99.5 The Vibe as good as it sounds musically and image wise, why can't they do that here?
