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Journey 94-1
- Thread starter stereolane
- Start date
Jason Roberts said:
Jason, are these opinions your own, or are you drinking the company kool-aid? I usually like what you post, but what I see above has to be the most ridiculous statement I've seen in awhile... and I've spent countless hours with Mike McVay, Jim Richards, and John Lund, not to mention the time I spent in the converted garage under AM towers in Toledo that housed a company called "Stratford Research"...
Funny, Fly 92-9 seems to play plenty of great tracks that "do not test well" :
stereolane said:Jason Roberts said:
Jason, are these opinions your own, or are you drinking the company kool-aid? I usually like what you post, but what I see above has to be the most ridiculous statement I've seen in awhile... and I've spent countless hours with Mike McVay, Jim Richards, and John Lund, not to mention the time I spent in the converted garage under AM towers in Toledo that housed a company called "Stratford Research"...
Funny, Fly 92-9 seems to play plenty of great tracks that "do not test well" :
No...I've seen it in research...And just because one station plays these songs, doesn't make them right. Besides, Fly is not trying to "specialize" in 90's music, not when they also play 60's, 70, 80's and 90's and beyond...But, at least I get the notion of what they're trying to do for the most part And the comment about the possibility of the 90's being a "Lost Decade" has come to me from other broadcast programmers. (Also remember, I didn't say none of it tests...I said a lot of it doesn't test.)
Now, as an "oldies guy" myself, I will admit time can change this, and won't eliminate the possibility that such a perception of that music could change over time.
I would heartily admit we were probably a few years early doing the 80's on Star in Columbus in 1998, as some broadcast executives were saying, "The 80's are burned out...you can't do this as a format." One such executive, by the way, was a boss of mine for a while who used it to explain to me why Star "didn't work". (4 million in ad revenues in a couple of years and it..."didn't work"?) And I wonder, frankly, if these 90's formatted stations are, just like we were in 1998...a few years too early.
The 80's generation is now just looking back on its music with a nod toward nostalgia. They are embracing stations that play their music today...in many cases, just like the original oldies stations...as a place they can go for a "fix" of the music they were listening to in high school. That's what didn't really exist that much in 1998. (You didn't say those songs were "oldies" then, you got a bad reaction if you did. That's not so much the case today.) Once a generation accepts the "nostalgia" angle...you can have a possible longer-lasting format.
Oh yeah...I also had a boss in 1975, who, after I suggested to him that a radio station that played Paul Revere and the Raiders, Herman's Hermits, The Beatles and the like might be popular someday told me something like: "That music is NEVER coming back! No one wants to hear it anymore. It's all junk".
I think about him now and then, too....
I would think the splintering of music in the 90s might make it hard to do a true 90s format. Maybe you will eventually have a core that gets nostalgic over songs like "Mmm Bop","Bailamos", "Mambo # 5" but I wonder. Then there's the split between gangsta rap and grunge and we can go on.....
Jason Roberts said:
Hi, Jason. Just one comment: When Robb Case first fired up 91.5 WHKC, right before he passed away, they were stunting with 80's music. I don't know what you would call the mix they used, but it reminded my a lot of the old 92-X. Not only did it sound great, but there wasn't a lot of repetition. It was simply upbeat, good solid music (minus the crap like Bel Biv Devoe). It sounded similar to the Star, but far less repetitive - almost as if he hooked his computer up to the transmitter and let it play 80's music at random.
Whatever they were playing, if you could bottle it and translate it to the music of any particular decade you would have a winner. WHKC sounded great for that two month period.
Well, I heard about the experiment with WHKC and you might be right about what Robb may have done.
About the only thing I would reply would be the fact that Star rebounded after we cut the playlist, knocked out the vast majority of the urban music (limiting its' play only to the Friday Night 80's and Club 1079 Shows) and focused more on the rock product of the 80's. That's when that little station hit a 3.4, 12 plus.
At the time we were playing Bel Biv DeVoe in regular rotation, the playlist was nearly 1,200 songs. Afterwards, when the ratings went up, we were at 450-465.
Funny...I hear guys all the time complain about "repetition"...never a woman. Don't know why that is. Still...
About the only thing I would reply would be the fact that Star rebounded after we cut the playlist, knocked out the vast majority of the urban music (limiting its' play only to the Friday Night 80's and Club 1079 Shows) and focused more on the rock product of the 80's. That's when that little station hit a 3.4, 12 plus.
At the time we were playing Bel Biv DeVoe in regular rotation, the playlist was nearly 1,200 songs. Afterwards, when the ratings went up, we were at 450-465.
Funny...I hear guys all the time complain about "repetition"...never a woman. Don't know why that is. Still...
Jason Roberts said:
I think that's kind of the way I would describe WHKC, except it focussed just on upbeat tunes. There may have been some urban, but little of the stuff that hasn't aged well. Remember the 80's also had a good number of Euro tunes, too. There were songs they were playing that I hadn't heard in years and had completely forgotten about.
As to repetition, maybe guys are more OCD. I have the radio on a lot in the office or when working in the yard. When WCOL went retro, at first I thought it sounded great. But they had such a tight play list, it seemed like you would hear the same Elvis stuff every day.
It would be interesting if someone could figure out what they were playing at WHKC just for kicks
One hing I never understood in the first incarnation of The Point, Jason, is that I literally never turned it in without hearing New Year's Dsy by U2...a marginal hit in the 80s.
borderblaster said:
Didn't work here then, my friend. My guess would would be...it tested well.
Remember...it's not how well a song did back in the day...it's the impression the audience has of it now. Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" was the #1 album of the decade...but you couldn't play it for years because all of the music tested poorly (most likely due to his questionable public image in the 90's and 00's). That's not so much the case since he passed away...
What's old is new again. 97.3 WYGY might as well flip to something else now.
http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/55108/journey-94-1-cincinnati-flips-to-great-country/
http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/55108/journey-94-1-cincinnati-flips-to-great-country/
B105 now uses" Cincinnati Country"as its positioning slogan but used "Good Times great country" for a long time and imaged as "Country 105" years ago. The station sounds musically similar to WYGY and yes similar to WLXX Lexington which tanked when Classic Country Hank 96.1 debuted last year in Lexington and reimagedsimply as WLXX and dropped the "Bear" moniker and plays too many gold titles. I Think a more current intensive country format would do better against B105 here similar to the new Buz'n @102.9 in Minneapolis, great imaging and about a 70/30 current/recurrent and Gold playlist. Imaging is weak at best, although theyve tweaked the audio! Cumulus has a little country experience with 96.5 the star after purchasing Susquehanna here a few years, Ironically this sounds eerily similar to that approach which garnered shares in the low 3s on a weaker signal, dont know what to expect but better make it local and slick to compete against B105! Hubbard is a great company that believes in local well researched stations and with a good element of live talent they will be hard to beat! Hubbard may tweak the Wolf to more classic country to counter Great Country 94.1 but would bet a format switch is in the future and with that weak Signal what to do?
97.3 should flip back to The Sound. I know they are signal challenged, so the choice of formats is somewhat limited. So far, I can't see 94.1 hurting B105 much at all but they are running commercial free for a few weeks so people should sample them when B105 is running commercials. Hank 94.1 is what I would have preferred in another country station given that the market is already saturated with the format. I'm within range of 8 country stations that I can get reliably.
Yes, Bandit, really. Because this is what Cumulus should have done six months agao when they flipped to Journey. Rick Dees? Really?
What will 97.3 do? It's time to go after WGRR. How long until they do it?
Anybody who says they shouldn't have gone Country doesn't get it.
Warm is nice and hot these days. Anybody else notice that?
What will 97.3 do? It's time to go after WGRR. How long until they do it?
Anybody who says they shouldn't have gone Country doesn't get it.
Warm is nice and hot these days. Anybody else notice that?
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