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KNUC 98.9 has filed for a call letter change

Inside Radio's story on KPNW really checks a lot of boxes for me:
www.insideradio.com

The Inside Story On The First Commercial Adult Alternative Launch In 15 Years.

After the loss of long-running adult alternative outlets in San Francisco, Austin and Seattle, who would have predicted a commercial version of the format would return to a top 15
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

Very bold move on Hubbard's part to introduce a new station like this in today's radio landscape. Seattle seems like the ideal market for something like this and I hope they thrive there with it.
 
Sounds a little bit like Click, version 2.0 (although I actually liked what I heard on Click). And Classic Alternative was already tried on FM in the mid-2010s (when 98.9 was Rock 98.9), and it apparently didn't fare very well, because it was removed from FM during the FM ownership swap meet a few years ago, and resigned to an HD-2 elsewhere.

I give these guys credit for trying, and I hope they succeed, because they're trying to go against the short playlist, lowest common format denominator grain.... but they're up against KEXP, which has a lot of similarities in format breadth and alternative music and presentation (along with KNDD 107.7, which is alternative) and who do you think will "win"?

The thing that makes me question the ultimate ratings success of this station the most is that over and over again we are told by experts on RD that music has to be heavily researched for a station to succeed, the different songs have to mix well together, and you don't usually get high ratings with formats that sound like the DJ is just grabbing stuff off the hard drive at will.

But now we have a station with "nine sounds" that make up the format "stew" -- ranging from Modest Mouse to soul music? The Stones, REM, Paramore and a couple current alt acts in the same sound hour? Fleet Foxes mixing it up with CCR?

Count me skeptical. I'll listen and see, though. I give them credit for trying. I suppose if they promote it right, it might last a few years. I guess we'll see.
 
PS, the 'Classic Alternative' station I mentioned upthread was the one on 102.9? KFOO? I think it was. It was changed to something else (Regional Mexican) during the station swapping.
 
It was regular alternative if I recall...Alt 102.9 KFOO. This later became KFNY and that placeholder Smooth Jazz format (South Sound's SJ), then went to La Z.
Since the KNBQ (country) flip it has gone through so many formats.
 
I remember them vaguely. They didn't last too long, the ratings weren't hot, and they leased the space to JACK that April (2005). It didn't help that 107.7 had gone gold '90s alternative and more people knew The End for its heritage in the Seattle grunge scene.
 
boombox4 said:
The thing that makes me question the ultimate ratings success of this station the most is that over and over again we are told by experts on RD that music has to be heavily researched for a station to succeed, the different songs have to mix well together, and you don't usually get high ratings with formats that sound like the DJ is just grabbing stuff off the hard drive at will.
Click to expand...

What makes you think 98.9 KPNW won't be heavily researched? Given who owns it and who's running it, I think it will be the exact opposite. None is known to do much of anything haphazardly, though I suppose you could argue Hubbard's Gamut in DC is an exception. Of course, KPNW won't have the cluster's director of engineering programming it either.

boombox4 said:
But now we have a station with "nine sounds" that make up the format "stew" -- ranging from Modest Mouse to soul music? The Stones, REM, Paramore and a couple current alt acts in the same sound hour? Fleet Foxes mixing it up with CCR?
Click to expand...

Why not try it if research says it will work? What was on 98.9 before obviously wasn't giving Hubbard what it wanted or felt it needed. The idea that the Bull was going to somehow start performing well if just a certain thing happened wasn't holding up. So, it was time to do something else.

boombox4 said:
Count me skeptical. I'll listen and see, though. I give them credit for trying. I suppose if they promote it right, it might last a few years. I guess we'll see.
Click to expand...

If I'm speaking completely honestly, I'm a little skeptical myself. AAA just doesn't do that well anymore, and, while there are many formulas for doing it, very few actually yield solid results. Seems like the odds are against them, but they're against every radio station. About the only guarantee is that what you're doing will quit working at some point.

My first job out of college started August 1 (year redacted). The problem was I graduated in May. So, I took a temp job to cover those couple months in-between. I wasn't even three hours in that job when a meeting was called, and employees were told the place would be closing by the end of the year. Suddenly, it made sense why they brought in a temp to do that job when they had always hired directly before. One of my new co-workers told me, "Everyone's a temp. Some of us are just temps longer than others." Radio works the same way. Whatever you're doing will eventually either need to evolve or go away.
 
Kent said:
What makes you think 98.9 KPNW won't be heavily researched? Given who owns it and who's running it, I think it will be the exact opposite. None is known to do much of anything haphazardly, though I suppose you could argue Hubbard's Gamut in DC is an exception. Of course, KPNW won't have the cluster's director of engineering programming it either.


Why not try it if research says it will work? What was on 98.9 before obviously wasn't giving Hubbard what it wanted or felt it needed. The idea that the Bull was going to somehow start performing well if just a certain thing happened wasn't holding up. So, it was time to do something else.
Click to expand...
Why do I suspect it wasn't heavily researched? Because a throw-everything-into-the-sink style format is usually consigned to failure by the experts here on RD, many of whom have decades of programming experience, whose experience includes dealing with research. And those "Nine sounds" making up the format "stew" just seem to be like what you'd get at a community radio station run by the college DJs.

But hey, if they can make it work and succeed, power to them. Maybe a station like that in Seattle can pull it off. It already makes the FM dial a little bit more interesting in this market. And if they can get enough of the area's tech-bros to listen, and pull them away from KEXP, they may be around for a while. I wish them the best.
 
boombox4 said:
Why do I suspect it wasn't heavily researched? Because a throw-everything-into-the-sink style format is usually consigned to failure by the experts here on RD, many of whom have decades of programming experience, whose experience includes dealing with research.
Click to expand...

Maybe you missed my earlier post in this thread that dealt with the consultant who is behind this format:

Paragon – Building a New Public Media

www.paragonmediastrategies.com www.paragonmediastrategies.com

Paragon – Building a New Public Media

www.paragonmediastrategies.com www.paragonmediastrategies.com

These are experienced programming professionals who believe in research. They also know that Seattle is not like Philadelphia. How do they know that? They consult WXPN in Philadelphia. I don't think the music mix is haphazard as you might think.

Having said all of that, I still stand by what I said earlier, that this format, as I hear it, will lean towards older males. That's what I expect to see when we get the first real numbers. So maybe Hubbard thinks they can get advertisers for that audience in Seattle. It seems to be working for Audacy at The Sound.
 
Contrasting KEXP and KPNW:

I will say right off the bat that I genuinely like the AAA format and think that KPNW is executing it very well. I won’t bore anyone with the details since I already provided a writeup about that in the other thread. However, I would like to explain why KEXP has never really appealed to me. I find KEXP to be a little too “out there” most of the time. While I like larger playlists (and think they should keep doing what they are doing), it’s just not really my cup of tea. I’m in the age group that it should appeal to, but I’m not big on electronic music, and there always seem to be a steady dose of that kind of “sound” on KEXP. I’m glad that it exists (and does well), but my taste is more aligned with KPNW since it’s a little more conventional and easy to digest. Not to mention, the signal for KEXP is very small compared to either KPNW or KNDD so they have to rely heavily on Seattle proper or online listeners.

I think AAA could really do well in a market like Seattle because they focus on music discovery while also making it digestible. I can only assume that research is guiding this approach, and it seems like a very smart one.
 
TheBigA said:
Maybe you missed my earlier post in this thread that dealt with the consultant who is behind this format:

Paragon – Building a New Public Media

www.paragonmediastrategies.com www.paragonmediastrategies.com

Paragon – Building a New Public Media

www.paragonmediastrategies.com www.paragonmediastrategies.com

These are experienced programming professionals who believe in research. They also know that Seattle is not like Philadelphia. How do they know that? They consult WXPN in Philadelphia. I don't think the music mix is haphazard as you might think.

Having said all of that, I still stand by what I said earlier, that this format, as I hear it, will lean towards older males. That's what I expect to see when we get the first real numbers. So maybe Hubbard thinks they can get advertisers for that audience in Seattle. It seems to be working for Audacy at The Sound.
Click to expand...
I saw and read that post, BigA, and the other post of yours upthread where I got the article and read the bit about the nine particular sounds of their stew.

Maybe KPNW's consultants researched the fact that a large segment of Seattle's Millennial, tech-bro laden audience is quite open to eclectic music mixes, a la KEXP, and they really like hearing CSNY seque into Beach Weather seque into David Bowie's Rebel Rebel, sequeing into another newer alt group. Maybe they see a non-comm like KEXP with a massive audience they can draw from, and hope they can also draw listeners away from KNDD and KZOK.

You mentioned The Sound, and that's a good point. They were said to be a placeholder by a lot of the folks here on RD, and yet they seem to have survived OK.
 
boombox4 said:
They were said to be a placeholder by a lot of the folks here on RD, and yet they seem to have survived OK.
Click to expand...

Every radio station is a placeholder until it makes money. That's the case with KPNW too.

The main thing going against this station is commercial free competition.
 
On the topic of country music… I had a chance to sample some of 96.9 the other day. For a smaller market station, the overall presentation is fantastic. I’m sure that many South sound listeners will be listening now (or perhaps even discovering it) without the Bull.
 
I think the Giesons (sp) need to bring back the Cowboy 104.9 from Eatonville and their studio in a manufactured home near the RV dealership on I5 in Fife....
 
Just wanted to bump this since the direct streaming URLs did indeed change to the new call letters as expected:

989 KPNW Listen Live player plus Recently Played playlist link:

98.9 KPNW | Seattle's Home for Music Lovers

Seattle's Home for Music Lovers - 98.9 KPNW
live.989kpnw.com live.989kpnw.com

(as of this post, playlist goes back 22 hours and 35 minutes)

OnlineRadioBox Listen Live link + playlist - goes back 7 days:
onlineradiobox.com

98.9 KPNW

Listen to 98.9 KPNW online
onlineradiobox.com onlineradiobox.com

Direct streaming URLs to plug in to media players (it is best to copy + paste):

>>http://playerservices.streamtheworld.com/api/livestream-redirect/KPNWFMAAC.aac<< (64 K 44.1 kHz AAC)

>>http://playerservices.streamtheworld.com/api/livestream-redirect/KPNWFM.mp3<< (96 K 44.1 kHz MP3)
 
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