It's happened, a format change at KPNW!

[KilowattKat]

It's now mostly R&B from the 60's to the present, and gone is the classic rock, and less alternative now, except for the artists that lean rhythmic I would describe it like KTWV in LA, but much more adventurous.

Give it a listen, would like to know what others think about it.

Although, they just played Tom Petty and Eddie Vedder Could be they are testing the waters for a new direction

 

[KilowattKat]

After listening for awhile longer, this seems to be a change in the playlist, A mixture of alternative from the 80's to present, and the replacement of classic rock with R&B artists like Domma Sumner, The Fugees, De La Soul, The Jacksons, Seal, Martha and the Vandells, etc. And still AAA.

 

[lanceventa]

Looking at their music logs, it appears nothing more than a specialty show they did between 5 and 8pm. Last Friday in that timeslot they played nothing but 80s New Wave.

 

[Gregg.]

It seems kind of odd that a commercial radio station would do a specialty show on Friday in PM drive time. I know, AAA is supposed to be somewhat unpredictable. But unlike KEXP, KPNW-FM is a commercial station. I'm not sure it's wise to play Donna Summer and Martha Reeves & The Vandellas as people are driving home from work. For every listener who might like that you took such a chance, aren't there two or three more who will switch away?

I like orange juice. But when I go to my kitchen sink and turn on the hot water to make tea, it's not a pleasant surprise to have orange juice pouring out. Radio is supposed to be a reliable commodity. Maybe on a Sunday morning or evening, I'd expect a specialty show. Not Friday from 5 to 8pm, especially for a station that's really struggling in the ratings. I don't think KBCO Denver or WXRT Chicago, the two most prominent commercial AAA stations, would do this.

 

[Kelly A]

Cue the trombone: WHU...WAAAAA!

 

[101.9 La Kalle]

Cue the trombone: WHU...WAAAAA!

Womp womp!

 

[pjc1961]

As alluded to by Lance Venta in his post, DJ Marco Collins (KPNW page: Marco Collins – 98.9 KPNW)
hosts the "Dance Party" on Fridays from 5 PM - 7 PM PT.

X (Twitter) post from Friday 10/13/2023:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1712967750568841648

Playlist from the Friday 11/3/2023 edition, via OnlineRadioBox:

98.9 KPNW

Listen to 98.9 KPNW online

onlineradiobox.com

(from 7 PM backwards to 5 PM):

18:59 Run-D.M.C. - It's Tricky
18:55 Fatboy Slim - The Rockafeller Skank
18:52 Technotronic Feat. Felly - Pump Up The Jam
18:48 Staple Singers - I'll Take You There
18:39 Pointer Sisters - I'm So Excited
18:35 Fugees - Ready or Not
18:33 Yung Bae - Disco Body Parts (feat. AWOLNATION)
18:29 Groove Armada - If Everybody Looked the Same
18:26 Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage
18:23 Martha & The Vandellas - Dancing in the Street
18:20 Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
18:16 Brittany Howard - What Now
18:07 Dua Lipa - Don't Start Now
18:03 M83 - Midnight City
17:59 Chaka Khan - I Feel For You
17:55 Fly Moon Royalty - Grown Man
17:53 Paul Russell - Lil Boo Thang
17:49 The XX - On Hold
17:47 Brothers Johnson - Get the Funk Out My Face
17:43 MGMT - Electric Feel
17:39 B-52's - Dance This Mess Around
17:35 Hot Chip - Down
17:30 Donna Summer - I Feel Love
17:26 Silk Sonic Bruno Mars feat Anderson Paak - Skate
17:23 Jackson 5 - ABC
17:19 Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
17:16 De La Soul - Me, Myself & I
17:12 Durand Jones - See It Through
17:08 Commodores - Brick House
17:06 Harry Styles - As It Was
17:02 Peaches & Herb - Shake Your Groove Thing

 

[Treehouse SWL]

That "dance party" playlist isn't bad, but why do this show at the exact same time as C-89's long-running Friday drive-time mix show? If I want that type of music at that hour, that's where I'm going.

 

[Kelly A]

That "dance party" playlist isn't bad, but why do this show at the exact same time as C-89's long-running Friday drive-time mix show? If I want that type of music at that hour, that's where I'm going.

Probably as with KEXP, hosts think they can steal listeners away from two non-comms. Talk about punching-down.

 

[fordranger797]

I don’t hate what they’re playing, but this doesn’t strike me as a recipe for success. What works for KEXP probably won’t translate to commercial radio. Again, the KINK formula may be better suited for a smaller market, but that seems like a safer approach.

 

[Kelly A]

I don’t hate what they’re playing, but this doesn’t strike me as a recipe for success. What works for KEXP probably won’t translate to commercial radio. Again, the KINK formula may be better suited for a smaller market, but that seems like a safer approach.

Wasn't KINK and KMTT very similar back in the day? Didn't work then, either.

 

[Gregg.]

I saw that playlist for 5 to 7pm for 11/3. Uggggghhhh.

If I wanted a dance playlist, there are stations that do that. I don't need the AAA station to do that. As I said above, for every listener who's gonna say, "How Cool! My AAA station is playing Chaka Kahn and Harry Styles," there'll be two or three who will say, "I want a more sophisticated rock station than KZOK or KISW. But to avoid The Commodores and Peaches & Herb, I'll switch to KZOK or KISW."

It's too much of a stretch. It hurts more than helps. KPNW-FM is #24. Don't these people want to keep their jobs more than a year or two?

 

[Kelly A]

I saw that playlist for 5 to 7pm for 11/3. Uggggghhhh.

If I wanted a dance playlist, there are stations that do that. I don't need the AAA station to do that. As I said above, for every listener who's gonna say, "How Cool! My AAA station is playing Chaka Kahn and Harry Styles," there'll be two or three who will say, "I want a more sophisticated rock station than KZOK or KISW. But to avoid The Commodores and Peaches & Herb, I'll switch to KZOK or KISW."

It's too much of a stretch. It hurts more than helps. KPNW-FM is #24. Don't these people want to keep their jobs more than a year or two?

Weekends don't matter in the scheme of things. That's why you put oddball special programming on weekends.

 

[davideduardo]

Weekends don't matter in the scheme of things. That's why you put oddball special programming on weekends.

A true and valid point worth emphasizing. Almost all ratings based buys are Monday to Friday 6 AM to 7 PM. Weekends don't usually enter into consideration, nor do nights.

Local direct is different, but those sales generally are not based on ratings but things like results, service and relationships.

 

[Gregg.]

Maybe weekends don't matter much. But this was Friday 5 to 7 p.m. PM drive on a weekday matters.

And even if it's Sunday morning or evening, shouldn't the specialty show ENHANCE the station's image? I honestly don't know why an AAA station would play The Jackson Five or Dua Lipa. There are plenty of other stations for those songs.

I can accept an AAA station being a bit adventurous. KPNW-FM should play something unexpected OCCASIONALLY. We've had discussions about Lizzo and Eminem being heard on this station and I think one song not on the regular playlist once in a while is a plus.

But two hours of The Pointer Sisters and Donna Summer? On a station where I'm expecting to hear Mumford & Sons, Tracy Chapman and The Talking Heads? No.

 

[pjc1961]

Granted: leading in to the weekend, yet still prime-time as mentioned above.
They're trying to build a programming "event", hopefully build some publicity, make it "destination/appointment radio".

As can happen in these cases, someone tuning in and not listening intently to every spoken word between songs may think there's been a format change (as evidenced by the first post of this thread).

There was a similar thread years back in the San Francisco forum when KFOG's 10@10 featured some off-the-wall, highly unusual selections leading to the poster "giving up on the station; they've changed!"

 

[Kelly A]

But two hours of The Pointer Sisters and Donna Summer? On a station where I'm expecting to hear Mumford & Sons, Tracy Chapman and The Talking Heads? No.

But if you hear a weekend show that you don't care for, or is uncharacteristic for the station, does that mean you'll never listen to the station again? Of course not.
Many on this very board accuse stations of being stale or not venturing out of a lane. God forbid when they do over a weekend, now some are up in arms because a particular show has strayed away from the expected.
This is a minor example of what David, BigA, and I are frequently talking about when it comes to playing researched music or hits to be successful. Consumers tend to say they want variety and to shake the musical box, but in reality, they want comfort in knowing what to expect 24/7.

 

[trevorparker588]

Hubbard may tweak and try some things, but theyre a good company. They won't wait until it's an epic fail of a radio station but they will give it a shot.

 

[Gregg.]

The day before Halloween, I was listening to Philadelphia's AAA station, non-commercial WXPN 88.5. When people list the best AAA stations in the U.S., WXPN is in there. One of the songs the station played that day was "I Put A Spell On You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Not a song you'd expect on a radio station in 2023. But appropriate for the holiday the next day. And a not-on-the-regular-playlist song.

But after that, WXPN got back to what you'd expect. It wasn't two hours of 1950s R&B, just one song to add flavor to the station.

 

[Kelly A]

Just got back from a few days in the Seattle area around Thanksgiving. I had a chance to do some critical listening of KPNW, and boiled down three potential reasons it may be struggling from a ratings perspective:
1. The station is WAY over processed. I don't know what the engineer or PD is thinking. Much of the music has no dynamic range, and is very fatiguing to listen-to. There seems to be a lot of strange EQ-ing at 180hz and 7kHz and high frequency clipping going on. Drum and symbol beats are mush. Given the station plays modern and classic rock, they're killing their TSL by sounding so bad as compared with streaming or just about any other FM station of the dial. The HD1 audio sounds particularly horrid. Of all the formats you don't want to be in a loudness war with, it's AAA.,
2. Not sure if it's related to processing; but their Nielsen encoding seems inconsistent for no apparent reason. That would be a problem for being caught via PPM.
3. In all, the station is formatted a lot like The Mountain was, and we all know how that turned out.