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How to Fix Power 96 and Other Thoughts

S

ScottBurns

Happy New Year, everyone!

First off, a couple of observations about Power 96. I grew up listening to what was a once-great station. The Power 96 of the early 1990s is, unfortunately, long gone. Here is why I think the station has suffered a big ratings decline in recent years:
1. Power has lost its Latino flavor. Back in the late 80s and early 1990s, Power featured more Hispanic-flavored music. More of its jocks openly peppered their language with Spanish phrases. While Power still has many Hispanic jocks, the station sounds much more Urban than Hispanic.
2. While Power's playlist used to be all over the road, the lack of focus was an asset. Back in, say, 1993, Power could barely be described as "CHR/Rhythmic." Power was programmed to its daypart. During the morning, midday, and afternoon drive, Power played CHR/Pop and AC songs. I have a tape from late 1993 in which DJ Laz was playing "All for One" by Sting! Now, Power's playlist is just simply Rhythmic, and it is virtually indistinguishable from playlists of other Rhythmic stations, such as The Beat.
3. There seems to be less of a focus on mixing and mix shows. While there are still plenty of mix shows, nearly every daypart used to feature extensive mixing.
4. Power 96 had more Heritage jocks back in the day. Not to take anything away from its current line-up, but Power's jocks do not match some of those of the late 1980s.
5. If anything, the old Power 96 was unique. Now, it is much more cookie-cutter. The old Power 96 featured programming that could not be heard in any other market; now, Power features a playlist that one can hear in Atlanta, Dallas, etc.

Any thoughts?
 
I agree with nearly all of your points (except for your terming the Beat a "rhythmic; it's been Urban AC for almost 3 months now). What's wrong with stations like Power and the newly Urban AC WMIB is they don't sound like Miami or south Florida; these stations could be in Anywhere, USA.

Power lost it's "soul" when it gave up the ghost by dropping all it's dance music and going Hip-Hop when (the now defunct) Party 93.1 launched. Power could've won the dance battle (since Cox decided against putting jocks on Party) by stressing their street cred and heritage. Instead, they decided to screw Cox's then-cash cow 99 Jamz and, in the long run, ended up screwing themselves.

Can Power be fixed? If so, who can fix it?
 
noknownuser has hit the nail on the head. Power 96 overcompensated when Party launched by going after 99 JAMZ hard and heavy. Remember when they had Al B. Silk on in mornings? That was a classic "Power" move meant to steal some of the big numbers from Jamz... and noknown is right, it worked. Power lost it's identity by backing off of the dance music. It was a uniquely Miami sound. Now (sadly) it's nowhere to be found.

I think one other thing may have hurt Power more indirectly. Their constant use of the term "podcasting" may have actually pushed more of its impressionable younger listeners to the iPod. I know I used to be a hard core Power 96 listener (back in the day) but now my iPod gets 75-90% of my TSL.

Truth is, thanks to my iPod, I don't even miss listening to Power 96 anymore. I hate to admit it, but it's true.
 
Well, do you think Power 96 should go back to the same format that made them what they were known for back in the day? Go back to the CHR/Rhythmic format by adding dance and having the same blend of hip-hop and that miami bass that was so unique to S FL. I remember the way they use to sound back in the late 80's and early 90's and that was a station that I could listen to for hours at a time and never get bored. Their personalities were top notch. Their mix shows were great. They had a classic dance/disco lunch time mix. It was programmed just right. It was programmed specifically for South Florida. You couldn't hear this type of station anywhere else. That's what made it special.
 
Everyone has made so many great points here that I can't come up with much to add for myself! Radioguy, that's exactly what they need to do. That distinctive Power 96 (read: "Miami") sound will still work, no ifs, ands or buts. As to who can pull them out of this Urban CHR rut they've dropped themselves into... it's not going to take just one person. It's going to take an entire shift in the whole station's staff to fix things. They have to sit down and decide "we want to be number one again," and then plug away at it as hard as possible. It can be done, and they can be the ones to do it. It just takes that moment of choice.
 
Y-100 can be 'fixed' - and so can POWER-96. Everyone on here made some excellent points regarding how the latter can be fixed, and most of those same points can be equally applied to Y-100. Both of these stations are stuck in a 'cookie-cutter' Urban CHR rut, and it's pretty much not working out for either of them. Since 'JAMZ', 'BEAT', and 'HOT' have the Urban Contemporary genre of music covered nicely 'POWER' and 'Y' both need to dig deep down into each of their respective roots. I'm the one that stated that stations evolve, and that 'different' (from 2002, 1997, 1992, etc.) is not necessarily a bad thing. But I will also admit that back then both stations were gettin' it done with their own unique Miami brand of CHR music and legendary deejays - music and deejays that we're still talking about today a decade or two later. 'POWER' skewed a bit younger towards dance and 'Y' went a bit older by dabbling in the hot adult contemporary rock sector. They both sounded like Miami. Both stations were successful and top-rated. They were competing against each other. It was all in good fun. Bring back the Miami fun to our radio frequencies of 96.5 and 100.7. Bring back competition. Restore these heritage stations.

West Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, Melbourne, and Jacksonville all have CHR-POP stations that are in the TOP 10 of their respective markets. Miami can do it too. The format is not flawed. It is still wildly successful nationwide from coast to coast. Miami is a unique radio market and urban center, but in many ways it's not that much different from other big cities all across this great nation.

THE MAJOR
 
Great points made by all. Unfortunately, an overhaul of either Y or Power would require an infusion of money, something that neither owner would seriously consider. But the bottom line is that nothing about either station represents anything uniquely Miami. As stated, if Power 96 were a Jacksonville station, I would not know the difference. Despite the fact that WEDR and The Beat have much of the Rhythmic audience, if Power 96 created a distinctively Miami sound, then it could find a nice niche for itself between those aforementioned stations.

Speaking of old tapes, I also have hundreds of tapes from the late 80s and early 90s. I have some full-length tapes of 95.5 in its various Country incarnations as well. If anyone knows how to upload tapes to a computer, please help those of us computer-illiterate folks!
 
Re: Recording analog cassette tapes to the computer

Well the good news is it ain't brain surgery. Even for the "computer illiterate".

This should get you off to a good start: http://audacitybook.org/html/ch-recording-vinyl.html

Personally, I prefer using "Cool Edit", but I've had it since 2000 and I'm not even sure it's still available online. You really don't need any additional software, but if your tapes are "dirty", then a quality piece of recording software (like Cool Edit) can help you clean things up a bit.

Good luck!
 
Keep in mind that when you are talking about POW's heydays you are talking about Bill Tanner's work and knowlege of the Miami market.

Does anybody know what he is doing?
 
a few pointers..

power 96 did have a latino-edge in the late 80s early 90s because of the freestyle music they played not because their jocks spoke spanish. even though the majority were latin (raffi contigo, dimas martinez, little laz, felix sama, etc) they didnt speak it. it was all english. I think Power gained MORE latino-edge than ever before. they have a couple spanish-only tunes thrown in their playlist (and they're not just reggaeton)

Also back in the late 80s/early 90s, dance music was the 'pop' in pop music. Black Box, Technotronic, C+C Music Factory were all top 10 artists back then. If they were Lil Jon, Beyonce, Akon back then..they would of played them instead. and the 'vibe' of the station would feed off of that music.

comparing the past to present, power 96 hasnt really changed at all. they have stayed true to their demographic and, as much as i hate the crap they play now, there is nothing to 'fix'. they still are south florida's party station. its just that the 'party' doesnt include dance music today because, well...the kids dont seem to like it anymore.

so if you want to 'fix' power..fix their demographic. (ie. force your kids to listen to kraftwerk, donna summer)
 
It's time for a few random thoughts from me (since it's been a few days since I last expressed myself on here, and I actually had a request via E-MAIL to respond to a few recent statements made on here):

The current dance music scene is a multi-million-dollar industry stateside alone. When you incorporate the global dance music scene then it is well into the billions !

Of course it doesn't translate to radio very good. The music is fine from 10 PM to 6 AM in the city nightclubs, but it is generally not received well on the radio at say 12 noon on any given day.

It's just not 'cool' to like dance music like it was back in the 1970s, 1980s, and well into the 1990s. Dance music is a fringe genre, and those associated with it as being fans are generally perceived by people who like to label other people with various stereotypes as being 'different' (putting it nicely).

I believe that if 'PARTY-93.1' had gone on-the-air about a decade earlier in perhaps 1991 and did everything exactly the same as they did from 2002 to 2004 then it probably would have survived much longer - perhaps the entire decade of the 1990s. Back during the late-1990s Y-100 was for all intensive purposes a TOP 40 / European Dance music station. That was the case simply because dance music was TOP 40 music back then. It was cool, and it was cool to like it too. That is unfortunately not the case today.

Rap, hip hop, and urban contemporary music is what is 'cool' today. That's why we have 'POWER', 'JAMZ', 'Y', 'BEAT', and 'HOT' all doing various incarnations of it. It's not a bad thing. It's just what the current music scene is all about today here in the U.S.

THE MAJOR'S BEAT
 
The-Major said:
The current dance music scene is a multi-million-dollar industry stateside alone. When you incorporate the global dance music scene then it is well into the billions !
Click to expand...

Thank you for saving me the time spent posting ;D
 
I find a lot of the vibe that Power 96 used to have on Mega 94.9. Some of the former power jocks are there like Dimas Martinez. Throughout the day they play freestyle mini mixes and their lunchtime mixes feature 90's dance music. I just heard "Its a fine day" by Miss Jane and "It's like that" by Jason Nevins VS Run DMC. Of course, the main coourse of the station is Reggaeton, so its not a station that could be listened to unless you have a liking to this genre.Personally, there's no station that can have the vibe and flavor that Power 96 and Hot 97 did back in the 80's/early 90's. I find myself switching from online radio stations for a music choice.XM and Sirius have variety but I might be in the minority in saying that I LIKE having a DJ speak in between songs just as long as its not ad naseaum.
 
djeddy said:
a few pointers..

power 96 did have a latino-edge in the late 80s early 90s because of the freestyle music they played not because their jocks spoke spanish. even though the majority were latin (raffi contigo, dimas martinez, little laz, felix sama, etc) they didnt speak it. it was all english. I think Power gained MORE latino-edge than ever before. they have a couple spanish-only tunes thrown in their playlist (and they're not just reggaeton)

Also back in the late 80s/early 90s, dance music was the 'pop' in pop music. Black Box, Technotronic, C+C Music Factory were all top 10 artists back then. If they were Lil Jon, Beyonce, Akon back then..they would of played them instead. and the 'vibe' of the station would feed off of that music.

comparing the past to present, power 96 hasnt really changed at all. they have stayed true to their demographic and, as much as i hate the crap they play now, there is nothing to 'fix'. they still are south florida's party station. its just that the 'party' doesnt include dance music today because, well...the kids dont seem to like it anymore.

so if you want to 'fix' power..fix their demographic. (ie. force your kids to listen to kraftwerk, donna summer)
Click to expand...


You hit the nail right on the head!

Hip Hop revolutionized the music industry for better or for worse.and Dance music is just too plastic of a scene to appeal in the US.
 
Whoever thinks Dance/Electronic scene is dead here in states is dead wrong. Its actually bigger then ever, look at how many attend Ultra and Bang. Everyone I know agrees that Party went under because of their careless approach to their playlist. See, playing everything off the Promo-Only series is not very bright. And playing same 10 songs over and over is not bright either... And their motto that people only listen in their cars for 20 minutes and want to hear all those cheesy outplayed songs in that 20 minutes is totally wrong too. People who want that have I-pods and CD's. Radio seriously needs to change their strategies, because the world is different today.
 
you're right. dance isnt dead. but it is not pop. not like it was back in the early 90s. given how music and entertainment has gone all digital and instant and easily available, pop music and local news/talk are the only things left people would still bother having a radio...at least for corporate thinkers like those that own miami/ft. lauderdale market.
 
Yes, you make perfect sense. But I was thinking, isn't the radio and media are the ones who are responsible for making general population like and not like different types of music? If there was no MTV and radio, how would people know what is good and what is not? When i hear someone say that people only want hip-hop nowadays, where did that preference come from? It gotta be some major people-controlling media outlet that dictates what is cool and what is not. Some kind of mind control i must say.
 
Power has been dropping since Beasley let Greg Reed leave. He was there at the beginning and with Tanner and Clifton, guided Power through the years. Leadership and vision matter.
 
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