Greenville, SC AC WSPA playlist - interesting

[carolinaradio]

My local AC station that I listen to the most, WSPA, made some rather drastic changes in the past couple of months. They used to be a straight foward AC and were mainstream in sound, but now they have refreshed the playlist to almost an adult hits sound - I don't care much for it, and I thought I'd post a couple of hours and see what you all thought from 2-4:15PM 5/30

Uncle Kracker - Follow Me
Bill Medley - I've Had The Time Of My Life
Lady Antebellum - Need You Now
Plain White T's - Rhythm Of Love (break)
Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A.
Anna Nalick - Breathe
Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror
Rob Thomas - Her Diamonds
J.Geils Band - Centerfold(break)
Kelly Clarkson - Because Of You
Creed - With Arms Wide Open
Blondie - Heart Of Glass
The Band Perry - If I Die Young
Tim McGraw - It's Your Love
Survivor - High On You
Norah Jones - Don't Know Why(break)
John Cougar - Ain't Even Done With The Night
Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music
James Blunt - You're Beautiful
Irene Cara - Flashdance
Rascal Flatts - My Wish(break)
The Tubes - She's A Beauty
P!nk - Who Knew
George Michael - Father Figure
Uncle Kracker - Smile
Outfield - Your Love
Miley Cyrus - The Climb
Train - Marry Me

Of course, the whole station can be seen on yes.com. The station is listenable (looks better on paper than it sounds), but they will pop these songs out occasionally that just puzzle for AC. They update the playlist once a year and play only 5 currents at a time, but rotate them very heavily (one an hour). They are trying to compete with WMYI, who is very traditional and safe for AC (and was #3 12+ in the last book while Magic sunk). They seem to have a love/hate relationship with the 70s - used to play 70s frequently, then cut back, started playing more 70s again, and have now cut back again. They're playing a lot of recent music lately.

Thoughts? I have listened to quite a few AC stations, and this one tends to leave a lot to be desired. I would think the way they make drastic changes to their playlist yearly could be alarming to some listeners.

 

[satech]

That looks almost like a very simple three-step rotation: an '00s song, followed by a '90s song, followed by a '70s/'80s song... and repeat the pattern. This can be a very effective approach for AC stations which place more emphasis on variety than on trying to play all the current hits until they've been burnt to a crisp.

 

[carolinaradio]

Yep. They have two very strict music schedules, and rotate them every other hour (except for mornings and John Tesh). Personally, I like the idea. Some AC's do it, some don't.

I have hoped for ages that this station would be able to take WMYI over, who seems to just have success handed to them sometimes - crummy presentation and personality, but in a music-driven format like AC, they have such an edge musically. The older lean and wider variety helps them I think. WSPA tries too hard to be different a lot (although they did have a solid book once last year). I wish they'd play more AC staples from the 80s like "Time After Time", "Higher Love", "In Your Eyes", "Broken Wings", "Careless Whisper", etc....I think songs like that can co-exist with more classic rock songs. Oh well. I've never felt AC was one of Entercom's strong formats, in most cases.

Is it common for an AC station to go a whole year and not update their playlist (at ALL) with the exception of adding currents occasionally?

 

[satech]

Is it common for an AC station to go a whole year and not update their playlist (at ALL) with the exception of adding currents occasionally?

One of my local ACs pretty much does that. They seem to keep their selection of older songs constant for months at a time, and then suddenly change it out for an entirely different set of songs.

It's a bit jarring, because you abruptly go from hearing some of the less-overplayed '80s/'90s songs (like "In the House of Stone and Light" by Martin Page, or "The Promise" by When In Rome) every single day to not hearing them at all for a long time, until they suddenly reappear again in daily rotation 6 months or a year later.

But for some reason they don't change around the '70s songs in that manner, so I think they've played "Night Fever" and "Dancing Queen" three times a day, every single day for the past 15 years... and meanwhile '70s gems like "Year of the Cat" (Al Stewart) and "Everytime I Think of You" (The Babys) are forgotten forever more.

 

[carolinaradio]

Is it common for an AC station to go a whole year and not update their playlist (at ALL) with the exception of adding currents occasionally?

One of my local ACs pretty much does that. They seem to keep their selection of older songs constant for months at a time, and then suddenly change it out for an entirely different set of songs.

It's a bit jarring, because you abruptly go from hearing some of the less-overplayed '80s/'90s songs (like "In the House of Stone and Light" by Martin Page, or "The Promise" by When In Rome) every single day to not hearing them at all for a long time, until they suddenly reappear again in daily rotation 6 months or a year later.

But for some reason they don't change around the '70s songs in that manner, so I think they've played "Night Fever" and "Dancing Queen" three times a day, every single day for the past 15 years... and meanwhile '70s gems like "Year of the Cat" (Al Stewart) and "Everytime I Think of You" (The Babys) are forgotten forever more.

Yeah, I know what that's like - WSPA has been pulling some unique songs from the 80s out lately; such as T'Pau's "Heart & Soul", Survivor's "High On You", Tubes' "She's A Beauty", and Nu Shooz's "I Can't Wait." Same with the 90s, with songs like "What Might Have Been" by Little Texas and Tim McGraw's "It's Your Love." Songs like that are nice to hear, but not for a year. That's why I support playing more 'evergreens' (such as "Time After Time", "Broken Wings") if you aren't going to update the playlist much. Those don't burn out as quickly. That's just my opinion. WMYI in my market updates differently, they change more often but don't overhaul, so it's not as obvious and they are more conservative.

This station does a pretty good job with the 70s - they have a wide variety of the decade, and usually refresh with the rest of the playlist. Problem is, they only play one an hour currently (sounded much better with two) and some times you go ages not hearing some of the songs because of the light rotation they give the decade and wide variety of songs from it in said rotation.

 

[vchimpanzee]

This is pretty bad unless you're lucky enough to be in WHLC's listening area (which I won't be). I have fond memories of what this station once was.

Or you can choose to be put to sleep by WMUU. That's really my only choice this week, except during the day when I have country.

 

[andrewduong77]

WSPA has a pretty decent playlist, it's not too bad at all. I believe Entercom AC's have a very unique playlist of their own. WLMG/New Orleans and KOIT/San Francisco are also good Entercom AC stations.

 

[vchimpanzee]

This is pretty bad unless you're lucky enough to be in WHLC's listening area (which I won't be). I have fond memories of what this station once was.

Or you can choose to be put to sleep by WMUU. That's really my only choice this week, except during the day when I have country.

Actually, at night I don't even have WMUU because of the preachers. Oh, well, I'm back home and Jeff Rollins knows what I like.