Hot 97 Lost Its Mojo

[radioville]

In my opinion, Hot 97's morning show is way better and more entertaining than the Breakfast Club on Power 105.1.

 

[Brooklyndon]

as book after book their numbers slip...

a couse adjustment is needed this trend has been going strong since march of 2009.

 

[kilamanjero]

as book after book their numbers slip...

a couse adjustment is needed this trend has been going strong since march of 2009.

Exactly, an adjustment should occur, but not a change will not because corporate (Emmis) isn't going to allow that.

 

[Jersey Maiden]

Hot 97 still does really well in the city. It's the outlying areas and suburbs where they have lost their grip on the audience if I'm not mistaken.Incidentally,this is where NOW has their best numbers.

Can I ask where you read or heard this?
I remember 10-12yrs ago as a teen in upper Westchester with 90+% white people, almost every guy I knew listened to Hot97. Some listened to WBLS as a 2nd choice back-up. I didn't hear much about Power. Many females did too, but most listened to Z100. K104, WSPK's signal came in clear, and a lot of male and females listened to that, as well. Typically though, Hot97 and Z100 were the go-to stations. No one listened to PLJ
What do you think would have caused the decline of Hot97 in suburbs? Could it be that the music has changed? It seems like, if anything, they've shifted a little more mainstream to appeal more to hispanics and whites. They have a jewish guy named Rosenberg in the morning. On his midday show in DC, he would talk about wrestling a lot and seemed kind of corny/nerdy.

I'm searching for the post where it shows Hot 97 declining and NOW surging in the suburbs but I'm not finding it. Someone on here who has access to those numbers might be able to confirm whether that is the case. I read this about a year back so it might not still be true.Being that Hot 97 is listed as a Rhythmic,it's not too far off to think that NOW has converted some of Hot 97's audience or at least pulled in potential new listeners that might have gone to Hot 97 or even Z 100.

Many people think that the lack of good product on Hip Hop radio is the cause of declining ratings or that music taste has shifted towards other genres. That's all debatable and everyone has a different perspective on it.You can say that the PPM's have something to do with it. You can also say that labels are putting music out that is more likely to be PPM friendly.Where this will lead is to early to tell but we are definitely going through a generational shift. And I haven't even factored in outside factors like Pandora and YouTube which probably have the most influence on what radio is doing today.

If that happened, it's probably not recent. For New Rock's last book, it beat 92.3 in Long Island. But I do remember reading a year ago that Hot 97 wasn't billing well despite good ratings. Maybe I wonder if that's still true (calling David Eduardo).

Personally I agree that rap is not as good now as it was in the 90's but there were still plenty of bad recent songs that crossed over to CHR (cough, What's My Name, cough).

 

[FM RadioGuy]

That's the issue with a lot of the Heritage Hop Hop stations, the jock's who were there when they flipped or signed on nearly 20yrs ago. ARE STILL THERE!! But that demo is hard to keep them listening from 12+ today.. They don't need to connect with the jock, now 18-34 will..

 

[Brooklyndon]

That's the issue with a lot of the Heritage Hop Hop stations, the jock's who were there when they flipped or signed on nearly 20yrs ago. ARE STILL THERE!! But that demo is hard to keep them listening from 12+ today.. They don't need to connect with the jock, now 18-34 will..

I agree the problem is more the jocks than the music.

 

[Wildstyle K]

Not sure who mentioned this, but lets say Hot 97 started to sprinkle in a little bit of dance would that alienate or help them?  Kind of like a Party format, Hip-Hop and Dance, similar to what Party 105 was doing in its early days.  Hot 97 NY's Party station.  Just a thought.

If it's urban sounding dance like Pitbull and Flo Rida or dance by established former urban or urban and rhythmic crossover artists like Rihanna, Ne-yo, Chris Brown, Will-I-Am from Black Eyed Peas, etc. Being sprinkled in it may help. Look at what Power 106 Los Angeles is doing. But in New York's case it may be best to keep that sound limited to mixshows. The other suggestion would be to play more trap music and other southern sounds but I seriously doubt New York stations would have much success trying to use the same formula as Atlanta urbans
.

 

[Wildstyle K]

Could Hot 97's demise simply be due to the lack of big name hip hop artists these days? Back in the 90's you had guys like Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, etc. that everyone knew. Now fast forward to today, who are the equivalent artists? I can't think of any.

I'm not sure about equivalency, but there are strong hip hop artists making hits like:
Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, Kanye West, 2 CHAINZ!!, TI, Lil Wayne, Drake, Tyga, Future, Wale, etc.

And I guess for R&B there is:
Frank Ocean, Miguel, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Ciara, Kelly Rowland, Tamar Braxton

 

[JayD]

I noticed Hot 97 playing Macklemore "Thrift Shop" in regular rotation which is so not a Hot 97 record... Perhaps a lil tinkering has started... They usually sound way too masculine while Power 105 has a nice balance of R&B with Hip Hop

 

[XMportable]

Hot 97 could do what KNRJ Phoenix IS doing; it probably work even better in NYC. The cumm has gone from a .7 to a 1.6 when they added the currents, but this is Phoenix. Sure to do better in NYC.

Drop the r&b and play classic hiphop with current hiphop hits and adding classics will bring 97 back.

 

[kilamanjero]

I noticed Hot 97 playing Macklemore "Thrift Shop" in regular rotation which is so not a Hot 97 record... Perhaps a lil tinkering has started... They usually sound way too masculine while Power 105 has a nice balance of R&B with Hip Hop

Macklemore "Thirft Shop" is getting major spins on urban radio now, thus Hot 97 is adding it as well. But I agree, that Power 105.1 is much more balanced and they ought to bring back "Power After Hours" as well. There are number of contemporary urban slow jams overlooked by WBLS and Power could spin at night.

 

[Barry]

AllAccess is reporting that WQHT 97.1 has added a weekly show called International Hour. It will air in the wee hours of Monday morning, from 2-3 AM. It is said to feature DJ's and urban music from the U.S. and around the world, and will be aimed at listeners in Asia and Europe.
This seems almost like an April Fools joke, but is apparently a straight news item.
Why would owner Emmis Communications be interested enough in overseas listeners to add a weekly show in the middle of the night?

 

[Brooklyndon]

The problem with Hot 97 is not the music and certainly not Mister Cee's or Funkmaster Flex's shows

The problem is Rosenberg and Martinez.
The problem is the 5PM mix show air horns that are like alarms reminding me to turn on my mp3 player.
The problem is the playlist that is so tight that after 5 consecutive days of half-hour-long listening all you see is signs everywhere.

I'm not even convinced classic hip hop is needed. Hot needs "urban" drivetime jocks (call me racist, whatever). Hot need to separate the "club-style" mix shows for weekend latenights. Hot needs to maybe open the playlist up just a little, like maybe 10% increments every book; I'm not sure tsl is the way out against NOW and to a lesser extent power, but it's something.

 

[kilamanjero]

Hot needs to take a note from the old KKBT, KMEL, and old WPGC playbook on being a "CHRurban". It's time open up the playlist a bit and counteract against Power with more contemporary approach to wooing its core audience. Enough of this whole "let's go back to the 90s dance in the mix" approach because it irks the core audience that has brought them to prominence. I will reiterate all one has to do is look at WPGC's struggle in DC along with Orlando's WJHM as proof of what happens when an urban-leaning station decide to push its core to the side for suburban CHR listeners. You lose your base and fall out of the top 10 of the overall 6+ for your market. It's foolish to play the advertisers' game when it was the ground game that put you where you are in this difficult time and place for urban radio stations.

 

[leethalweapon]

AllAccess is reporting that WQHT 97.1 has added a weekly show called International Hour. It will air in the wee hours of Monday morning, from 2-3 AM. It is said to feature DJ's and urban music from the U.S. and around the world, and will be aimed at listeners in Asia and Europe.
This seems almost like an April Fools joke, but is apparently a straight news item.
Why would owner Emmis Communications be interested enough in overseas listeners to add a weekly show in the middle of the night?

I live in Australia. I work in the commercial radio industry. Outside of work, I don't listen to any Australian terrestrial stations, mostly because it doesn't offer anything that I want to listen too. So I stream a lot of US (Alternative) stations. I might also add that I do a lot of online shopping, with most of my purchases from US online retailers. You might scoff at why they (HOT 97) are doing it, but I would argue that the management have one eye on the future direction of their business. The key will be pushing online retailers to spend on air.

Lets take the station I work for, as an example. We are the top rating news/talk station in the second largest market in Australia. We superserve our audience, and heavily promote the fact that we are online. We regularly receive emails and calls from all corners of the world from foreigners and expat Aussies alike. Most of our clients (advertisers) have a web presence and regularly push it in their campaigns.

I applaude the management for doing this.