Is The Rhythmic Format Dying?

[X-Man]

With quite a few Rhythmic stations moving into a Mainstream CHR direction such as most recently KTTB B-96 (Now KHTC 96.3 Now) or just dropping the format completely like KDHT Hot 93.3 (Now AAA KGSR moving from 107.1) and flipping to something else which leads to the question, Is the Rhythmic format dying? How can the format stay afloat? In some markets Rhythmic stations kinda serve as somewhat an Urban station in away for those markets that don't have a Mainstream Urban/Hip Hop station like Wichita with KDGS Power 93.9. Should it go back to mixing in dance music like they did back in the late 80's and the 90's? How can the format be saved?

 

[mcbrideatl]

One thing the Rhythmic stations could do is lean more Urban. As you said, in some markets it is the de-facto Urban station. Take Little Rock for example: For the longest time we had just one Mainstream Urban (Power 92), one Urban AC (102.1 KOKY), and one Rhythmic (Hot 96.5). Hot 96.5 was so Urban leaning, you would have never known it was a Rhythmic, all of their on air personalities were African-American, dj's would broadcast live at different clubs, and they even carried "The Steve Harvey Morning Show". Because of all that they were one of the markets top rated stations. Though around early 2009, they became started to lean more Rhythmic by adding more Pop-friendly artists, needless to say, the ratings tanked and in August the station changed formats to Adult Top 40. For the record the station's ratings as Adult Top 40 are doing worse that it was as a Rhythmic. To answer your question, despite what the demographics of a certain market, or what stations it has to compete with, Rhythmic stations could do much better if they would lean more Urban.

 

[prodigy3]

One thing the Rhythmic stations could do is lean more Urban. As you said, in some markets it is the de-facto Urban station. Take Little Rock for example: For the longest time we had just one Mainstream Urban (Power 92), one Urban AC (102.1 KOKY), and one Rhythmic (Hot 96.5). Hot 96.5 was so Urban leaning, you would have never known it was a Rhythmic, all of their on air personalities were African-American, dj's would broadcast live at different clubs, and they even carried "The Steve Harvey Morning Show". Because of all that they were one of the markets top rated stations. Though around early 2009, they became started to lean more Rhythmic by adding more Pop-friendly artists, needless to say, the ratings tanked and in August the station changed formats to Adult Top 40. For the record the station's ratings as Adult Top 40 are doing worse that it was as a Rhythmic. To answer your question, despite what the demographics of a certain market, or what stations it has to compete with, Rhythmic stations could do much better if they would lean more Urban.

I Agree with you 100%
Rhythmic formated stations gets music to late, whereas Urban gets the new hip hop songs fast, and in the world of iPods people want to hear new stuff and saying that Bedrock by Young Money is new is ridiculous and the listeners notice it....

 

[X-Man]

One thing the Rhythmic stations could do is lean more Urban. As you said, in some markets it is the de-facto Urban station. Take Little Rock for example: For the longest time we had just one Mainstream Urban (Power 92), one Urban AC (102.1 KOKY), and one Rhythmic (Hot 96.5). Hot 96.5 was so Urban leaning, you would have never known it was a Rhythmic, all of their on air personalities were African-American, dj's would broadcast live at different clubs, and they even carried "The Steve Harvey Morning Show". Because of all that they were one of the markets top rated stations. Though around early 2009, they became started to lean more Rhythmic by adding more Pop-friendly artists, needless to say, the ratings tanked and in August the station changed formats to Adult Top 40. For the record the station's ratings as Adult Top 40 are doing worse that it was as a Rhythmic. To answer your question, despite what the demographics of a certain market, or what stations it has to compete with, Rhythmic stations could do much better if they would lean more Urban.

Sometimes it depends on the city the Rhythmic is catering too in some markets that don't have a very large African American population where you would have to mix in Rhythmic or Pop-friendly artists such as Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake,etc. Now on the other such as market like Little Rock which has a large Black population you can lean it Urban like WBHJ 95.7 Jamz in Birmingham or WPGC 95.5 in Washington D.C. and still label it as Rhythmic.

I think KHTE Hot 96.5 had a chance to dominate KIPR Power 92 if they didn't change their direction in format and it was a little confusing as to what that station was doing too.

 

[saradio1]

One thing the Rhythmic stations could do is lean more Urban. As you said, in some markets it is the de-facto Urban station. Take Little Rock for example: For the longest time we had just one Mainstream Urban (Power 92), one Urban AC (102.1 KOKY), and one Rhythmic (Hot 96.5). Hot 96.5 was so Urban leaning, you would have never known it was a Rhythmic, all of their on air personalities were African-American, dj's would broadcast live at different clubs, and they even carried "The Steve Harvey Morning Show". Because of all that they were one of the markets top rated stations. Though around early 2009, they became started to lean more Rhythmic by adding more Pop-friendly artists, needless to say, the ratings tanked and in August the station changed formats to Adult Top 40. For the record the station's ratings as Adult Top 40 are doing worse that it was as a Rhythmic. To answer your question, despite what the demographics of a certain market, or what stations it has to compete with, Rhythmic stations could do much better if they would lean more Urban.

Sometimes it depends on the city the Rhythmic is catering too in some markets that don't have a very large African American population where you would have to mix in Rhythmic or Pop-friendly artists such as Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake,etc. Now on the other such as market like Little Rock which has a large Black population you can lean it Urban like WBHJ 95.7 Jamz in Birmingham or WPGC 95.5 in Washington D.C. and still label it as Rhythmic.

I think KHTE Hot 96.5 had a chance to dominate KIPR Power 92 if they didn't change their direction in format and it was a little confusing as to what that station was doing too.

I think Hip Hop stations in markets where the demos are low with African American should tweak to Chr Rhythmic. This will keep Hip Hop on the air.

Btw, Now 96.3 is Chr Rhythmic. Top 40 would be similiar to KXXM in SA.

 

[Morpheux]

It really depends on the market. In Orlando there's 102 jamz and Power 95.3 both are rhythmic. Although 102 jamz operates as an urban station.95.3 has better numbers inspite of leaning heavily in the last year towards more mainstream artists like Black Eyed Peas,Jay Sean,Britney Spears,Lady Gaga and most recently Ke$ha. In fact,102 jamz was playing Lady Gaga this past summer. So it really depends on the market.In the early 90's most of the chr's that played dance music ended up phasing into what is known as the rhythmic format today by phasing out dance artists.It looks like the opposite is happening now. If anything,this should make the urbans increase their market share of those who rather hear hip hop.

 

[X-Man]

Does anyone think the PPM's may have some part to do with Rhythmic stations going down in the ratings and the Mainstream Top 40 stations going up?

 

[rapking]

Does anyone think the PPM's may have some part to do with Rhythmic stations going down in the ratings and the Mainstream Top 40 stations going up?

Yes . PPM is Killing Rhythmic stations and helping Mainstream Top 40 and AC stations .

 

[only1moore]

You might want to pay a visit to the Sacramento board. Word is leaking out that KBMB is about defect to Top 40/CHR very soon. One gets the feeling that 2010 will be not-so-good year for Rhythmic radio.

 

[kilamanjero]

Sometimes it depends on the city the Rhythmic is catering too in some markets that don't have a very large African American population where you would have to mix in Rhythmic or Pop-friendly artists such as Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake,etc. Now on the other such as market like Little Rock which has a large Black population you can lean it Urban like WBHJ 95.7 Jamz in Birmingham or WPGC 95.5 in Washington D.C. and still label it as Rhythmic.

I think KHTE Hot 96.5 had a chance to dominate KIPR Power 92 if they didn't change their direction in format and it was a little confusing as to what that station was doing too.

Well, WBHJ can shift to being a full fledged Rhythmic all I can care because they are awful.

 

[CHRles]

I'm guessing Hot 96.5 Little Rock switched formats b/c it was having a hard time with advertisers. Were they doing well with 18-34 year olds, or just the younger 12-24 demos?
A lot of Rhythmics have been leaning less on Hip Hop in the past couple of years as the tastes of 18-34 year old females who tune into Top 40 and Rhythmic CHRs has changed. Hip Hop is much more absent these days on Billboard's Hot 100 and on the Itunes chart. As a result, a growing number of Rhythmic CHRs have begun to broaden their sound, or have had to reinvent themselves to stay competitive.
As for PPM, it's a much more accurate methodology when compared to the diary system where passionate listeners of certain formats can exaggerate the amount of listening they devote to their favorite station.

As for 96.3 Radio Now in Minneapolis, they are in a transition period right now, musically speaking. The majority of the playlists is still comprised of Rhythmic hits, but since they are sprinkling in tracks by the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Owl City, Katy Perry, and Kings of Leon, I would classify them as CHR/Pop.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Rhythmics should play dance music,, but not pop,,,, Like the old 95.3 party orlando,, Now power 95.3,,,, They played dance and Dirty South Rap,, but skipped the pop stuff,, same for Party FM in NYC,, these are what a read rhythmic should sound like,,, No Ballads,, no Rock,, just Dance and RAP,, Urban needs to be more urban with new muswic sooner, lots of mixing, and leave the r&B to the Urban AC in their cluster....... thats how I see it.. Stations like hot 93.7 in Hartford are really Urban stations,, while Jamn in Boston is just a CHR with a rhythmic lean.....BLAH.....

 

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

Rhythmic stations are dying because the music is all over the place. Most rhythmics are slow on new Hip-Hop/R&B music and over kill the older songs. Rock, Pop, Dance, Hip-Hop and R&B all one one station would turn me away. Bye Bye "Hits and Hip-Hop" and hello again to "The Hit Music Station."

 

[only1moore]

Well, lets see the 2010 scoreboard so far....

January 1, 2010: WBKS/Huntington, WV goes Active Rock
January 6, 2010: KTTB/Minneapolis-St. Paul goes Top 40/CHR (even though they still remain on BDS and Mediabase's Rhythmic panel)
January 11, 2010: KBMB/Sacramento starts shifting to Top 40

And this is just the beginning. We'll see what happens within the next 11 months.

 

[kilamanjero]

I don't have a problem with Rhythmic stations as long as they are along the lines of stations like WZMX Hartford and WMBX West Palm Beach because they play the hits and slow jams at night (which I love) and fulfill their coverage of their hispanic/Latino portion of the audience. It's the stations like KPWR that I can't stand because they are garbage (in my opinion) they try too hard.

 

[only1moore]

Well, you can add KYZZ/Salinas-Monterey to the list of causulties. They gone Classic Hits February 11th.

 

[AM FM listener]

Well, you can add KYZZ/Salinas-Monterey to the list of causulties. They gone Classic Hits February 11th.

Interesting. When I was in Monterey last summer, I thought KDON was leaning more mainstream, although I think it is technically still a Rhythmic CHR. So, with KYZZ going Classic Hits, the Rhythmic format is declining in Monterey, too, and they are still using the diary method.

 

[bchristi]

There is little difference between Rhythmic and mainstream CHR these days. Both hip-hop and modern rock are fading from the charts and pop/dance is taking over. I don't think there is a need for Rhythmic CHR stations anymore.A few years ago, it worked well to mix in pop (Beyonce, Rihanna, Akon) with hip hop (TI, Lil John, Ying Yang Twins), but today it doesn't work as well to mix in Lady Gaga, Kesha, and Owl City. Here in Charlotte, 95.1 Kiss FM (mainstream) and 96.1 The Beat (rhythmic) sound virtually identical, except for Kiss FM sprinkles in rock every now and then. The Beat does get new music faster but other than these subtile differences they are playing pretty much the exact same stuff. Rhythmics should either go urban or mainstream but quit trying to straddle the fence because it can no longer be done in this climate.

 

[htowler]

There is little difference between Rhythmic and mainstream CHR these days. Both hip-hop and modern rock are fading from the charts and pop/dance is taking over. I don't think there is a need for Rhythmic CHR stations anymore.A few years ago, it worked well to mix in pop (Beyonce, Rihanna, Akon) with hip hop (TI, Lil John, Ying Yang Twins), but today it doesn't work as well to mix in Lady Gaga, Kesha, and Owl City. Here in Charlotte, 95.1 Kiss FM (mainstream) and 96.1 The Beat (rhythmic) sound virtually identical, except for Kiss FM sprinkles in rock every now and then. The Beat does get new music faster but other than these subtile differences they are playing pretty much the exact same stuff. Rhythmics should either go urban or mainstream but quit trying to straddle the fence because it can no longer be done in this climate.

I REALLY think 96.1 WIBT is about to be blown up soon they sound too Mainstream. They MAY shift Urban

 

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

There is little difference between Rhythmic and mainstream CHR these days. Both hip-hop and modern rock are fading from the charts and pop/dance is taking over. I don't think there is a need for Rhythmic CHR stations anymore.A few years ago, it worked well to mix in pop (Beyonce, Rihanna, Akon) with hip hop (TI, Lil John, Ying Yang Twins), but today it doesn't work as well to mix in Lady Gaga, Kesha, and Owl City. Here in Charlotte, 95.1 Kiss FM (mainstream) and 96.1 The Beat (rhythmic) sound virtually identical, except for Kiss FM sprinkles in rock every now and then. The Beat does get new music faster but other than these subtile differences they are playing pretty much the exact same stuff. Rhythmics should either go urban or mainstream but quit trying to straddle the fence because it can no longer be done in this climate.

I REALLY think 96.1 WIBT is about to be blown up soon they sound too Mainstream. They MAY shift Urban

You think so htowler? CC had that chance when they first signed on to go full Urban to take a bite out of CBS' POWER 98. This was around the time when Radio One flipped HOT 92.7 from Urban to Urban AC.