Everybody needs a hobby after they retire. A lot of former radio folks are buying up AM stations and playing whatever they want. I've seen it in a lot of places coast to coast. Great way to have fun without the pressure of a real job. It's also entertaining for the music fans who want big playlists. More people should do it. It would make it harder for EMF to swoop in and buy stations.
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KOAI Flips to The Wow Factor
- Thread starter johndavis
- Start date
Everybody needs a hobby after they retire. A lot of former radio folks are buying up AM stations and playing whatever they want. I've seen it in a lot of places coast to coast. Great way to have fun without the pressure of a real job. It's also entertaining for the music fans who want big playlists. More people should do it. It would make it harder for EMF to swoop in and buy stations.
Can we swap "The Wow Factor" to Tucson for "The Drive?" Is that fair? I'm a Sun Devil who's supposed to despise everything Tucson, but this station is brilliant!
The "All Things Radio" podcast profiled the Wow Factor last week (toward the last ten minutes of the show).
I agree 100% with this. A couple weeks ago when KDRI AM 830 had some technical issues where their 50,000 watt signal was not powering down properly at night, I gave the station a long listen and I really enjoyed the playlist they had put together. It worked, flowed naturally and made sense. To me, KDRI “The Drive” has been programmed well and I think their playlist appeals more to the demopgrahic the “Wow Factor” is trying to go after. KDRI has some good music, mostly focused on lighter soft rock from the 70’s and 80’s with a few 60’s hits thrown in. They have actual DJ’s and an engaging morning show. I would love if KDRI “The Drive” was the format on KOAI 95.1 FM right now instead of this jumbled mess that is the “Wow Factor.” This coming from someone who has no ties or affiliation with any of these radio stations and is just a listener of radio.
At least during the day, you can hear KDRI “The Drive” fairly well throughout most of Phoenix on 830 AM!
If that's the case, then the station should let their listeners know that they play re-recorded songs at times, and not the originals.
Nobody but oldies geeks are going to care. The station isn't misrepresenting what is being played. It's playing "Love Takes Time" by Orleans and "Jeopardy" by Greg Kihn, not representing some other songs as being those songs or or some other artists as being those artists. No one is going to sue. No disclaimer is necessary. It would just draw more attention to either what Sebastian is either trying to get away with (either to save money or for legal reasons) or mistakes made by some third party who did the grunt work for him and the station in assembling the music library. It is no big deal to all but a tiny percentage of potential listeners.
How would they do that considering they have no air personalities?
There is no guarantee that any song you hear on any radio station is an original. Dolly Parton re-recorded I Will Always Love You 3 times, and had a hit each time.
There's probably no such thing as a true original. There's a KHJ aircheck (recorded off the air, not restored) on reelradio.com that contains a quite different sounding "Do You Love Me" by the Contours. Commenters were wondering where that alternate version came from. Turns out that was the original 45, and what we've been hearing in movies and on oldies radio since the 80s was an alternate take.
Had another “Oh Wow” moment while listening to the “Wow Factor,” but not necessarily in a good way. So we know that they have been mixing in some 90’s and 2000’s country, but today I heard some 2010’s country with “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum (released in late 2009, but peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March of 2010). This was followed up by a commercial break and then when they came back, it was a nearly 50 year reversal to “Blue Velvet” by Bobby Vinton, a #1 hit from 1963. Now that is quite the odd transition. The “WOW Factor!” is interesting, but I don’t know how a song from 2010 appeals to the 55-72 demographic. I prefer The Drive in Tucson right now, which for us Phoenicians is strictly a daytimer on AM 830.
It's been mentioned several times in this thread that aging programming wizard Sebastian, the man behind the curtain for this format, has been programming contemporary country stations in the later stages of his career and, perhaps, he sees a synergy between geezer pop and 2000s country. What you heard wasn't a train wreck because a block of commercials separated the songs, which may be the best way to try out two such seemingly incompatible titles on the same station. "Need You Now," as you indicated, was a huge crossover hit in its day, so it could be the kind of 21st century country song that could work and not drive the 50-somethings away.
So much is being said about the timeline of music played on The Wow Factor. I tend to take an opposite view. I'm certainly no programmer compared to the knowledge of some who post here as well as Sebastian but from a programming standpoint, I always keyed in to listener lifestyle and influences over the genre or when a song was a hit. I center on 'familiar'.
I found lots of top 40 folks abandoned top 40 for country, classic rock and classic hits. The scope of their music 'knowledge' is wide and deep. The contrast in tempo and eras is seemingly unconnected. I'll cite a food example: you like ice cream and bacon but maybe not bacon ice cream. My point is the two, bacon and ice cream can mix and be just fine but it seems the two together would not. Chances are you might like April Wine, The Dave Clark Five and a few Taylor Swift songs. Over the years you've been exposed to them all and find them well within your comfort zone.
Listeners are not concerned when a song topped the charts. They either like it, are neutral or dislike it. One station I worked with mixed it up: Wake Up by Arcade Fire (tested older demos thought it was U2), More Today than Yesterday by Spiral Staircase, Refuge by Tom Petty, Passionate Kisses by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Don't Know Why by Nora Jones and Twilight World by Swing Out Sister. It was a very eclectic mix but it got listeners from the 30s on up and the retirement age and up seemed to be fine with it. Oddly it didn't sound like a classic rock or oldies station but had more of a Mix feel although 2/3rds of the music was 1970s and 1980s. They even played a couple of 1960s each hour. Ironically the train wrecks weren't bad. I recall hearing Dust by The Eli Young Band (a country hit at the time) followed by China Grove by The Doobie Brothers and it sounded very natural.
My point of this rambling is the age of a song or it's seemingly 'deep left field' position might seem extreme but the music tastes of listeners is just as extreme and what is familiar and liked is like pieces of a puzzle that appear not to fit.
I found lots of top 40 folks abandoned top 40 for country, classic rock and classic hits. The scope of their music 'knowledge' is wide and deep. The contrast in tempo and eras is seemingly unconnected. I'll cite a food example: you like ice cream and bacon but maybe not bacon ice cream. My point is the two, bacon and ice cream can mix and be just fine but it seems the two together would not. Chances are you might like April Wine, The Dave Clark Five and a few Taylor Swift songs. Over the years you've been exposed to them all and find them well within your comfort zone.
Listeners are not concerned when a song topped the charts. They either like it, are neutral or dislike it. One station I worked with mixed it up: Wake Up by Arcade Fire (tested older demos thought it was U2), More Today than Yesterday by Spiral Staircase, Refuge by Tom Petty, Passionate Kisses by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Don't Know Why by Nora Jones and Twilight World by Swing Out Sister. It was a very eclectic mix but it got listeners from the 30s on up and the retirement age and up seemed to be fine with it. Oddly it didn't sound like a classic rock or oldies station but had more of a Mix feel although 2/3rds of the music was 1970s and 1980s. They even played a couple of 1960s each hour. Ironically the train wrecks weren't bad. I recall hearing Dust by The Eli Young Band (a country hit at the time) followed by China Grove by The Doobie Brothers and it sounded very natural.
My point of this rambling is the age of a song or it's seemingly 'deep left field' position might seem extreme but the music tastes of listeners is just as extreme and what is familiar and liked is like pieces of a puzzle that appear not to fit.
The Drive now has streaming apps and an Alexa skill for those who want to listen in high-fidelity stereo (and at night), you know.
I read a thread saying that WROR playlist is overwhelmingly white. I’m mean if you live in the urban area and have a thirst for R&B music there is WBQT and 97.7 the beat. I don’t see WROR changing the music they play anytime soon
Wrong thread!
Good to know, thanks for the information on The Drive! I wonder if they know that people from Phoenix are listening to their station too?
Hopefully the “Wow! Factor” will drop the geofencing and allow people across the country to listen. Has to be a rights issue with the music.
Another Wow! moment today when I heard Sixpence None the Richer “Kiss Me” from 1998 transition to “Tossin’ and Turnin’” by Bobby Lewis from 1961. Now this line of songs I actually liked! It’s the 2000’s / 2010’s country music that seems out of place along with the re-recordings.
Here's another Whoa! moment the Nurse and I caught over the weekend: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen into Summer Wind by Frank Sinatra. Good thing we carry an emergency supply of Dramamine in the Gremlin glovebox!
This morning I heard another terrible re-record. This time it was Alice Cooper's School's Out…. WTF???
Are you kidding me Sebastian? Unreal.
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Are you kidding me Sebastian? Unreal.
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