Hot 95-7: One Year Later

[mr.ric]

Since its been too quiet on this board lately, i decided to break the silence. ;D

In case you didnt know, it was one year ago today at 3pm that Hot launched on the airwaves. How do you guys think it has been throughout the year? Do you think it still has a great chance of beating KRBE some more? Do they need to make any changes to anything, or have they changed enough? Just wanted to know what you guys think...

 

[DJboutit3]

95.7 sucks there rotation is set to 70min you will hear the same song 9 to 12 days a day there main playlist for the week is about 25 tracks that is heavy rotation & mid rotation kinda makes them sound like there using a fm talking house transmitter with about 150min of music looped. Another thing they could be doing is using a 512mb mp3 player set to rotate I gave the station about 2 more yrs then it will be fliped. Top 40 stations are some of the worst programed stations they played to worst of the worst top billboard tracks & they have the smallest playlists. Back in the day mid 90s KRBE top 40 station was done right good size playlist & they playlist good tracks artists 95.7 will never be the level KRBE was

 

[radio po boy]

I would love to understand what you're saying, but I just can't figure out where the damn periods, and commas go! Even then I don't know if that would help!

 

[SportsDotCom]

95.7 sucks there rotation is set to 70min you will hear the same song 9 to 12 days a day there main playlist for the week is about 25 tracks that is heavy rotation & mid rotation kinda makes them sound like there using a fm talking house transmitter with about 150min of music looped. Another thing they could be doing is using a 512mb mp3 player set to rotate I gave the station about 2 more yrs then it will be fliped. Top 40 stations are some of the worst programed stations they played to worst of the worst top billboard tracks & they have the smallest playlists. Back in the day mid 90s KRBE top 40 station was done right good size playlist & they playlist good tracks artists 95.7 will never be the level KRBE was

That's no different than any terrestrial station in America right now.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

95.7 sucks there rotation is set to 70min you will hear the same song 9 to 12 days a day there main playlist for the week is about 25 tracks that is heavy rotation & mid rotation kinda makes them sound like there using a fm talking house transmitter with about 150min of music looped. Another thing they could be doing is using a 512mb mp3 player set to rotate I gave the station about 2 more yrs then it will be fliped. Top 40 stations are some of the worst programed stations they played to worst of the worst top billboard tracks & they have the smallest playlists. Back in the day mid 90s KRBE top 40 station was done right good size playlist & they playlist good tracks artists 95.7 will never be the level KRBE was

I disagree. Darn good station - the right station for the right audience. Most people don't listen to the radio for 70 minutes at a time - if that long. Jump in the car, listen for 20 minutes, hear just songs you like, etc.

If you want more variety or listen for a longer period of time, then the criticism is well founded and Hot is not the station for you. That is where KRBE tends to pick up.

Top-40 stations were programmed like this 40 years ago, in case anybody has forgotten the glory days of AM top-40 radio. Old songs were taken out of rotation, the 45's had a hole punched in the label and melted. It was years before any sort of variety in the form of "solid gold weekends" were introduced by astute programmers that realized some people still liked the songs after they went off the chart. And --- that idea evolved into oldies stations. But I digress. Hot is true top 40, the way it originally was done, and the formula still works even decades later. No matter when you tune in, you hear a song you like. It is tailor made for button pushers in the car, and counts on the fact that listeners will push the button right back realizing there will be a song they like and don't want to miss.

 

[mr.ric]

95.7 sucks there rotation is set to 70min you will hear the same song 9 to 12 days a day there main playlist for the week is about 25 tracks that is heavy rotation & mid rotation kinda makes them sound like there using a fm talking house transmitter with about 150min of music looped. Another thing they could be doing is using a 512mb mp3 player set to rotate I gave the station about 2 more yrs then it will be fliped. Top 40 stations are some of the worst programed stations they played to worst of the worst top billboard tracks & they have the smallest playlists. Back in the day mid 90s KRBE top 40 station was done right good size playlist & they playlist good tracks artists 95.7 will never be the level KRBE was

you're not really a big top 40 fan huh?

 

[DJboutit3]

I hate top 40 stations most of the music that has come out in the last 5 to 7 yrs is garbage & stations that still to playing this music suck

 

[ChuckTiller]

The destruction of the English language continues.

 

[michaelshiloh]

Disagree Mr. Carter. Anyone who remembers "true Top 40" remembers that it was based on "true" diversity. There was old- and new-style country music mixed in, there were strange novelty songs, there was old-style "pop," there was hard and soft rock, black, white, brown, whatever colors you want pigeonhole people with, there was an emphasis on the big stars with a light mix of up-and-coming and -- gasp -- even local acts and instrumentals. And my favorite -- there were even comedians mixed in just for fun and a surprise. That's the way it was until the late '80s (leaving out instrumentals, which died in the '70s). THAT's "true top 40" as it always was. That was what we now call diversity.

You're talking about "true Top 40"'s daughter, Contemporary Hit Radio.

There's a big difference. Country has long had a hard time breaking through into CHR for a long time, as has Christian, gospel, contemporary jazz and big band -- and how many new comedians get their break anymore on "true top 40" like the late George Carlin did, or like Steve Martin -- or especially in the 1960s when Bob Newhart had the top albums and comedy cuts on the charts?

I was a little kid back then, but I research. And don't you pay attention to the small car repair places and businesses where they still have just one radio and it's set on just one station most of the time? There are plenty of them right here in the Houston area. No Sirius XM, no MP3s. Radio is alive and well, it just needs more diversity.

 

[michaelshiloh]

And by the way, you're right Chuck, I left out the word "to," referencing "whatever colors you want (to) pigeonhole..."

I wanted to correct myself before you did. Trying not to destroy the English language. Just like when I worked for AP or -- Metro Source. I hate smiley-faces, but I'll put one in here for ya Chuck

Thinkin' and prayin', my man. You've been a good friend. Remember when I was one of Dayna Steele's last newsguys while you were producing the show? That was so great.

 

[foursider]

Hooray for diversity. The first station I worked at was a small market operation (at the time). Just about everything in the library was play-able. Each jock had his favorites, and his audience; but, we didn't run any small list of sings into the ground by playing them fifteen times a day.

Oh. And it was okay to throw a country gospel tune into the dayparts where we played country. You'd never see a country station in Houston doing that nowdays. It was also okay to play a comedy bit in the middle of a pop music daypart; and have a little fun.

I still believe listeners would enjoy that kind of radio. But, in about the mid-seventies, we started conditioning our listeners to accept the repetitive playlists. Actually, we more or less rammed it down their throats; which is why so many of them started putting cassette and CD players in their cars, and quit listening to radio.

Radio also went to great lengths to convince them that some of the junk they were listening to was actually the best that was available; which was a big lie. So many great locals never got a second of airplay. Who knows where the next Buddy Holly would have come from if we had just given the local groups and solo acts a single spin? Most everyone in radio would have loved to have been the "one" responsible for launching the career of the next "Elvis".

 

[mr.ric]

looks like top 40's daughter, CHR is all grown up now.

 

[ChuckTiller]

And by the way, you're right Chuck, I left out the word "to," referencing "whatever colors you want (to) pigeonhole..."

I wanted to correct myself before you did. Trying not to destroy the English language. Just like when I worked for AP or -- Metro Source. I hate smiley-faces, but I'll put one in here for ya Chuck

Thinkin' and prayin', my man. You've been a good friend. Remember when I was one of Dayna Steele's last newsguys while you were producing the show? That was so great.

Mike, my man, that post was in reference to the previous post to my post and one other in this same thread. I am not sure why Brian, also known as djboutit, runs all of his sentences together with major typos which make it difficult to read and sometimes understand. In his defense, I think he reads a post and hurries to answer it while it's fresh in his mind. In his haste to answer, he makes many errors. It probably reads fine to him.

By the way, Michael, email me.

 

[djmireles]

HOT 95.7 is a fresh CHR station...it's different. But, i've been listening to KRBE for 20 years. They have changed quite a bit over the last two decades, but they are still my favorite FM station in Houston! I wish they would revert to the 1998-2001 format. They were killer then. I wish both stations the best of luck! ;D

 

[Megacycler]

Large market CHRs in the 80s that I was familiar with usually had a tight playlist of 30 currents, a small handful of the strongest recurrents (15-30) and very select image gold going back no more than 3 years, but usually less. Those clocks were 70-80% current. The fastest rotations were in the 90min to 1hr50min range. The mediums played every 4-5hrs, the recurrents about 2x/day and the gold every 2 days or so. Very often, the currents that did not stay at a certain level on the chart for a certain number of weaks were dropped, never to be heard again. A CHR in the spring of 1985 would likely have been playing the top recurrents from Fall 1984 mostly, and the further back, the fewer songs. They would have at that time only included a few songs from 1983. Many but not all stations used listener callout research to indicate burnout on older songs.

 

[careful705]

Many but not all stations used listener callout research to indicate burnout on older songs.

That leaves the "older music" stations in quite a quandary since all they play is older songs... As Jimmy Kimmel said once "those 'oldies' stations need some 'new' oldies!" Which is an oxymoron in itself, but its so surprising how stale, boring and even overlapping The Arrow and K-Hits have become. Those stations could be the most diverse on the dial having the largest pool of material to play from the last 40 or so years. There is a huge gap in the music radio scene here in town that someone needs to fill. Let's at least try something fresh to see if it works. Jack kinda has the right idea, but something skewed more towards harder and classic rock. As MC5 says..."Kick out the jams MF!!!!!!!!" Let's break some rules cuz they've all changed.

CJ