KZPT used to really have an AC sound from about 2011-2014, then radically shifted to an Adult Top 40 sound in 2014. It immediately skyrocketed in the ratings. It returned to a more standard Hot AC sound where it floundered. Then, again this year, it went back to a more Adult Top 40 sound and its ratings rose again! It seems it's found its niche...
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KCKC FM - Large Playlist Success ?
- Thread starter kfbkfb
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I think the term has changed over the past decade.Thread 'Is it the end of Hot AC?' https://www.radiodiscussions.com/threads/is-it-the-end-of-hot-ac.630142/ this thread from 2012, people used the term differently. Adult top 40 to me is a step between hot ac and mainstream chr. For example, KZPT plays astronaut in the ocean. A lot of time, the spin count is similar too, but KZPT spins songs like a hot ac does, so they're still a hot ac, but with more of a hybrid sound.
It's still called HotAC.
I don't know if this means anything but I had to watch "The Partridge Family" on WLVA and it was like listening to the radio. WGHP finally got around to showing the same episodes when time came for reruns and it was interesting to see as well as hear.
It doesn’t mean anything whatsoever. Like…anything.
I think I’m understanding where Tall’s getting at, likely a playlist expansion/contraction, re-adding 90s, 2K and 10s tracks or tightening to be more current/recurrent focused. But yes, it’s still Hot AC.
Okay, well in any case the station moved in a more rhythmic direction than it had before.
It might work better to flip to a classic hits station. A lot of their music is definitely tilted in that direction and there's a large demand for it in KC.
There already is a classic hits station in KC.
I like when a station has a wider playlist. I don't have to tune them out when Jessie's Girl gets played for the millionth time.
There is already a very successful (good ratings and good sales) classic hits station. Generally, most markets where an existing one has been challenged the result is two stations outside #10 in ratings and revenue. That is called "lose-lose".
Maybe the large playlist can be promoted as a free alternative for people who've had to cancel satellite radio/cable TV[w/radio]/high $ phone plans w/streaming[back to voice/text only] for example (due to the poor economy).
Mention that many of the songs played on the various specialized satellite radio channels and/or available for streaming can be had for free on KCKC FM (in fact, that's what I thought when I first realized they were playing very old songs during the early months of the pandemic, they were trying to fill the music gap created when people had to cancel non-essential subscriptions).
Kirk Bayne
Mention that many of the songs played on the various specialized satellite radio channels and/or available for streaming can be had for free on KCKC FM (in fact, that's what I thought when I first realized they were playing very old songs during the early months of the pandemic, they were trying to fill the music gap created when people had to cancel non-essential subscriptions).
Kirk Bayne
Sirius/XM's subscriber issues are due to few new cars being sold, not to an immense loss of regular subscribers
One of the biggest complaints that I hear in research projects about satellite is that many mainstream channels play too many deep cuts. "I don't hear my favorite songs often enough" or "I hear too many songs I don't like any more" or, with current formats, "I hear too many songs I've never heard before".
That is why I am cancelling my satellite subscriptions. I'd rather hear a few ads on local OTA stations than hear songs I don't want to hear on the satellite channels.
A lot of satellite people never got that their biggest USPs are no commercials and a dependable signal everywhere... not deep cuts.
That’s not a selling point for a lot of people.
More '60s/'70s oldies and soul, as well as a dedicated folk channel, actually were the main reasons I got XM back in 2002. But I've heard since that most of the deep cuts and niche genre fans signed up within their first few million subscribers, and that commercial-free music and, since the takeover by Sirius, Howard Stern, have been driving growth ever since. Oh, and the folk channel was pushed online-only within a few years to make room for a channel with greater mass appeal, so it must not have attracted many subscribers after all.
Had that experience just the other day. I was listening to 80's on 8 on my way into work. They ran a liner talking about 'something from the lost 80's treasure chest', then played this absolute bottom of the barrel dog which I barely remembered from the 80's. It wasn't a "treasure" then, and it sure isn't today. I found myself tuning out because it was that bad.
I wish there was a way to capitalize on that thought.
And that's the thing; having a deep-cuts channel is one thing, but foisting unknowns onto your audience expecting the hits, is just a bad idea.
It's the snarky "so bad it's good" thinking that causes otherwise sensible radio people to slip "Muskrat Love" or "I've Never Been to Me" into the playlist and expect a positive "I haven't heard that for years!" reaction from the listeners. Maybe some will react that way, mainly music and/or chart geeks. The other never wanted to hear those songs again.
It could still be considered Hot AC.
I think a lot of it too relates to SXM essentially abandoning music research as a cost saving. They've taken on the Pandora mindset where; 'we'll flood the zone with so much content on so many ways, there's no way someone can't find what they like'. The problem is with that mindset; listeners don't want to 'punch around' looking for a consistent sound that they expect. Just like having grown up with terrestrial radio, listeners are conditioned to listening through ads much more than an errant WTF?- song. Dropping a turd in the middle of a good set of known music, is sure to illicit moving on to something else.
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