Hot AC is an oxymoron

[vchimpanzee]

I realize Hot AC has its own board, but it may be time to change that considering what AC has become.

I was describing to someone what turning on the air conditioning in the car means for me. AM radio is hard to listen to, at least the stations I like. So I try FM, and in some areas a Hot AC prevents me from hearing the classic country station.

But AC is supposed to be cool ...

 

[vchimpanzee]

But AC is supposed to be cool ...

In case someone doesn't get it, I'm referring to air conditioning.

 

[hornet61]

I realize Hot AC has its own board, but it may be time to change that considering what AC has become.

I was describing to someone what turning on the air conditioning in the car means for me. AM radio is hard to listen to, at least the stations I like. So I try FM, and in some areas a Hot AC prevents me from hearing the classic country station.

But AC is supposed to be cool ...

is Hot A/c driven by BPM's or Genre or both.

 

[Tiger1983]

Well, how about the worst hot AC station I listened to.

102.7 Kiss FM out of Williamsport, PA

Used to be a good station with local talent, but now recently they laid off all the airstaff except for their morning show and one other afternoon jock, and replaced them with Premium Choice with voicetracked talent. They claimed to play "80's to NOW" as the station's slogan says but they mix in sleepy '70s music, which does not belong to this type of format. Imagine playing Bee Gee's Emotion going to Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know? This has got to be one of the worst mistakes they have ever made when it comes to maintaining their format. Plus they have 57,000 watts of power and is considered the most listened to station in that market area. This will ultimately drive younger listeners to other stations(even though they have a sister station playing CHR) because one will not tolerate any very sleepy oldies stuff.

It would be a lot better if this station(along with others in the same cluster) be sold to a different company that can focus on being "live and local". This Premium Choice stuff is a ratings-threatening machine.

 

[new_friends_gr]

Well, how about the worst hot AC station I listened to.

102.7 Kiss FM out of Williamsport, PA

Used to be a good station with local talent, but now recently they laid off all the airstaff except for their morning show and one other afternoon jock, and replaced them with Premium Choice with voicetracked talent. They claimed to play "80's to NOW" as the station's slogan says but they mix in sleepy '70s music, which does not belong to this type of format. Imagine playing Bee Gee's Emotion going to Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know? This has got to be one of the worst mistakes they have ever made when it comes to maintaining their format. Plus they have 57,000 watts of power and is considered the most listened to station in that market area. This will ultimately drive younger listeners to other stations(even though they have a sister station playing CHR) because one will not tolerate any very sleepy oldies stuff.

This sounds more like Mainstream AC than Hot AC. The heritage AC station in Grand Rapids, MI (WSRW/105.7) would play those two songs back to back. It's classified as Mainstream AC, but they do play a lot of more pop hits like Usher and Rihanna (I just heard "We Found Love" this morning).

 

[davideduardo]

is Hot A/c driven by BPM's or Genre or both.

Having programmed both Hot AC and the regular kind, I'd say the biggest difference is in rotations. Hot AC's have hotter rotations, playing more current and recurrents in faster rotations, leaving less room for gold. The second difference is the playing of songs that are younger in appeal, generally bing daincier, rockier or otherwise less acceptable by the 45+ part of the audience.

The result is that Hot AC is more 25-44 and regular AC is a 35-54 format, and that is the distinction that most matters.

 

[fmradio1]

Having programmed both Hot AC and the regular kind, I'd say the biggest difference is in rotations. Hot AC's have hotter rotations, playing more current and recurrents in faster rotations, leaving less room for gold. The second difference is the playing of songs that are younger in appeal, generally bing daincier, rockier or otherwise less acceptable by the 45+ part of the audience.

The result is that Hot AC is more 25-44 and regular AC is a 35-54 format, and that is the distinction that most matters.

You can make the same argument about Active Rock and Alternative a decade ago. Sure, the audiences were slightly different, Active skewed a little older and played more gold, Alt played songs going up the chart, active didn't add them until they were going down the chart, etc. The reality was that they eventually wound up morphing into the same format. They played the same top 10 songs most of the time, and even spin counts became comparable.

The same thing is happening with Hot AC and AC. AC is becoming more contemporary and upbeat, and CHR is appealing to more of AC and Hot AC's traditional demos. Right now they are still three distinct formats, but I can see a day where Hot AC and AC are essentially the same format. AC's biggest calling card was that it was gold heavy and downtempo. That's really not the case anymore at a lot of AC stations these days.

 

[vchimpanzee]

A few years ago Star 92.1 in Myrtle Beach SC made a distinct change in its music and I asked here if the station was now Hot AC since there were AC stations doing the same thing they were. But most people say yes, it is a Hot AC. Now I'm not so sure as AC has gone through an evolution since then.

 

[semoochie]

"A few years ago" doesn't apply to the current state of things. When "Poker Face" first came out, Hot AC wouldn't touch it. They waited for it to be re-current. Now, it's on AC, completely out of the question at the time! Everything evolves.

 

[vchimpanzee]

"A few years ago" doesn't apply to the current state of things. When "Poker Face" first came out, Hot AC wouldn't touch it. They waited for it to be re-current. Now, it's on AC, completely out of the question at the time! Everything evolves.

So what is Star 92.1 now?

 

[semoochie]

I went to their website and I'd have to call it a Hot AC because it's almost entirely current and re-current. It looks like they're trying to avoid being too edgy, which doesn't exactly break my heart. It would be nice to have a station like that around here. If I had to give it a label, I'd have to go with "Soft Hot AC".

 

[vchimpanzee]

I went to their website and I'd have to call it a Hot AC because it's almost entirely current and re-current. It looks like they're trying to avoid being too edgy, which doesn't exactly break my heart. It would be nice to have a station like that around here. If I had to give it a label, I'd have to go with "Soft Hot AC".

They have to not be edgy because there's no AC. There is a classic hits station which is heavy on the 80s and sort of sounds like AC used to. And an easy listening station which is vocal-based and has more in common with adult standards than the beautiful music or smooth jazz formats.

There is a discussion about whether an AC in Greenville, SC will go under because it's poorly managed and has poor ratings and a boring playlist. The other AC went through a gradual shift to Hot AC, not changing what they called themselves and not dumping the 70s entirely, or some softer 80s. Then the 70s were finally gone but some inappropriate 80s material stayed around, but they did report as Hot AC and they finally got their act together on the newer songs. Sometimes they even seem cutting-edge. So one has to wonder what will happen in that market. The other competition is easy listening on the market's west side, though it's not vocal-based. Someone said it had more vocals than it once did and could be changing. There's also a classical and religious station (with the rare Julie Andrews, Andy Williams or Perry Como) that's not even worth talking about except it's also categorized as easy listening..