KPLZ Flips

[mammaknowsbest]

As mammaknowsbest predicted KPLZ finally reacted to MOVIN by adding artists like Fergie, Beyonce, Jo Jo and Akon. They are also playing Rascal Flatts, Joe Nichols and Martina McBride. In fact they are playing just about everything current. No eighties except some on weekends. What kind of format is this? Zed in Vancouver is doing kind of the same kind of thing, heard them last weekend. They call themselves CRAVE. Is this a candian format like JACK only with currrents or have these pd's lost their minds. MOVIN is good and I predicted it would make STAR change. Just wondering what the heck it is. Once again mammaknowsbest. ya ya ya.

 

[radiogeek40208]

As mammaknowsbest predicted KPLZ finally reacted to MOVIN by adding artists like Fergie, Beyonce, Jo Jo and Akon. They are also playing Rascal Flatts, Joe Nichols and Martina McBride. In fact they are playing just about everything current. No eighties except some on weekends. What kind of format is this? Zed in Vancouver is doing kind of the same kind of thing, heard them last weekend. They call themselves CRAVE. Is this a candian format like JACK only with currrents or have these pd's lost their minds. MOVIN is good and I predicted it would make STAR change. Just wondering what the heck it is. Once again mammaknowsbest. ya ya ya.

Waiting for a Star to Fall...

 

[SeattleRadioPro]

As mammaknowsbest predicted KPLZ finally reacted to MOVIN by adding artists like Fergie, Beyonce, Jo Jo and Akon. They are also playing Rascal Flatts, Joe Nichols and Martina McBride. In fact they are playing just about everything current. No eighties except some on weekends. What kind of format is this? Zed in Vancouver is doing kind of the same kind of thing, heard them last weekend. They call themselves CRAVE. Is this a candian format like JACK only with currrents or have these pd's lost their minds. MOVIN is good and I predicted it would make STAR change. Just wondering what the heck it is. Once again mammaknowsbest. ya ya ya.

Ya ya ya....just add a "Kent and Alan should retire" post and this thread is complete. Yawn...

 

[djdan]

I truly doubt KPLZ has "flipped" because of one trend and the music changes happened before this trend even came out. They had a strong winter book in demo and were up from Fall. Mornings are particularly strong and top two 25-54 women. My wife noticed a pretty big change in their music a month ago playing more pop and more country. I must admit it is a bit surprising. Why would a top billing station coming off a pretty solid demo book now decide to change it up? It isn't a big leap from where they were, but it is a change. Has anyone noticed a change in imaging or staff? For the record, I don't like it, my wife does.

 

[Grindlfan]

This sounds interesting. I am going to have to check it out. I don't see anything wrong with mixing current hits regardless of genre. It reminds me of the 70s and 80s when you would hear crossover country records right next to the pop-rock artists on Top 40 radio.

 

[FMSteve]

Thank god. KPLZ was sounding a little too Country for my tastes. But I'm not a soccer mom driving a Denali living on the Issaquah Highlands with the 3000 sqft home and the 3-car garage.

 

[redbullfan]

Duh...Country is strong is Seattle between the WOLF and KMPS. While adding some Country titles doesn't mean a flip to Country, it does mean the station is in a Identity crisis or the flip is coming and the staff has been given the freedom to play almost anything up to the flip as they have given up the HOT AC ghost. Well DUH...being around a 2 share book after book will.

Since the Mid 90s the suits and Consultants have in most cases ruined once great sounding radio stations. Imaging for Top 40 since the Mid-90s has been weak...not the Powerful jingles I remember from my early teens. It is about Demo and your tiny niche and not about being the most "Mass Appeal" as you can get and not just in Top 40, but across the format spectrum. If the Sales Depts and the suits truly allowed the Program Directors, Music Directors and Djs to run things radio would boom just like it did years ago.

 

[Grindlfan]

AMEN to that redbullfan!

 

[radiogeek40208]

AMEN to that redbullfan!

Pull up any hot a/c stations playlist.. star isn't doing anything different than what other HOT A/C's are doing across the country.. geez!

 

[djdan]

This thread starts everytime a station has a bad trend. I am not defending a bad trend, but just like I pointed out with KMTT in September a bad book or two won't make you change format. After listening a bit this weekend, KPLZ still sounds HOT/AC to me.

In the age of I-Pod, Satellite Radio, Internet radio, mutiple radio and HD radio frequencies I find it highly unlikely that mixing genres is a good idea on a single radio station anymore. Listeners get variety by pushing the radio button, they don't need stations to do it for them. Course maybe that's just the sales guy ruining brilliant programming again.

In the age of I-pod, Satellite Radio, multiple radio and HD Frequencies it is harder than every at the agency level to spend dollars. Advertisers stick with heritage stations that deliver over time and rarely react, like programmers do, to a down book or two. (except maybe to drive a better cpp)

 

[RadioRon]

Movin did what to STAR??? It's KUBE and KBKS where they're getting the vast majority of their listeners.....not STAR!!

 

[searadiofreak]

New R&R has an article about KPLZ. (I know, I can't quote or even paraphrase here)...

But I suggested this change be made months ago. I certainly can't take credit, but they certainly are doing the right thing by going back to a "hit-oriented" format, less boutique, and more mass-appeal! I fully expect to see ratings-growth within the next book or two.

 

[dan_greenberg1500]

Nothing more attractive to listeners than to hear a couple of 50 yesr olds in morning drive talking about the new AKON record. Seems like a weird fit. If they sway younger with a hot hits type format, bring in talent that can realte to that type of music and demo.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

As PD Kent Phillips told R&Rs Hot AC/AC editor Chuck Taylor in this week's issue, 'This is NOT about blowing up a station; it's trying to take a good station that is always top five in women 25-54 and make it #1 in women 25-54.

It is STILL a Hot AC station, or as Phillips stated a 'Hit Hot AC', with '40% AC and Adult Top 40 hits, 20% country, 20% rhythmic pop and 10% 80's'.

They went from #8 to #1 in women 35-44 at the end of the winter 2007 ratings book.

In the first trend of spring they experienced a 15% growth in women, while blowing some men, as he expected. He states that 'Women typically react first, and men follow.'

He goes on to say that 'It is rare to find a Hot AC in a top 25 market which is in the top 5 in 12+ numbers or 25-54 adults' adding that 'the typical Hot AC in a top 25 market is somewhere between a 1.8 & 2.8 share in 12+ & usually top five in women 25-54.'

Consoildation gets a lot of the blame for Hot AC's current state; he also states that 'consolidation created artificial lines in the sand', and that 'Certain songs in a cluster belong to CHR, country or AC, and could not be played on Hot AC.'

I agree with him; Hot AC SHOULD be the best sounding format on the radio since CHR/Pop started blowing off millions of soccer moms and adult listeners starting in the late eighties, and abandoned its roots as a mass-appeal format.

Phillips does state that 'KPLZ rakes in dollars, but needs to increase its ratings', and that's beyond debate as well.

He also went on to say that 'Even with often declining ratings nationwide, Hot ACs remain top-billing stations; it's also why many don't flip despite ratings that are HALF of what they were a decade ago'.

 

[AQH]

Nothing more attractive to listeners than to hear a couple of 50 yesr olds in morning drive talking about the new AKON record. Seems like a weird fit. If they sway younger with a hot hits type format, bring in talent that can realte to that type of music and demo.

Akon is 35.

What should be the rule with regards to the difference in artist age to DJ age?

 

[tcsnrayp]

I didn't see the article but I betcha a dollar Kent did not say they were "hot hits".... Hot Hits was an extremely tight top 40 (pre CHR) format which was last heard anywhere in the early 80's. Mike Joseph still owns that name and formatics.

KPLZ is one of the precious few sucessful Hot AC's left in the country. This sounds like nothing more than a couple of clicks on the wheel taking them slightly younger (25--44 vs. 35-54?).

A percentage of country cross over hits is what all pop stations should be playing because it reflects what the market wants. Has little if anything to do with how well the Country stations are doing. You can't beat Country by playing some country... but you might keep some cross cumers from popping over to hear those favorites on a country station.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

That would be true except that CHR/Pop is no longer the mass-appeal format that it was originally designed to be since the early nineties, and you can blame LA's KIIS-FM for that, as well as for all of the other PDs out there who copied their overreaction to having a brand new CHR/Rhythmic station (KPWR, aka Power 106) replace them at #1 in the spring of 1987.

KIIS started loading up on the rap/rhythmic stuff that KPWR used to blow a HUGE hole in them and swipe TONS of their teens, and neither KIIS nor top 40 radio in general has been the same since.

 

[AQH]

That would be true except that CHR/Pop is no longer the mass-appeal format that it was originally designed to be since the early nineties, and you can blame LA's KIIS-FM for that, as well as for all of the other PDs out there who copied their overreaction to having a brand new CHR/Rhythmic station (KPWR, aka Power 106) replace them at #1 in the spring of 1987.

KIIS started loading up on the rap/rhythmic stuff that KPWR used to blow a HUGE hole in them and swipe TONS of their teens, and neither KIIS nor top 40 radio in general has been the same since.

You make it sound like Power 106 is the second coming of WABC, which it certainly is not.

Power just adjusted to the evolution of contemporary music, pure and simple.

CHR/Pop is on the rebound right now. Star is taking advantage of it, while Kiss continues to misfire and spin its wheels.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

Power 106 is and never was going to be compared to WABC (or KHJ or KFRC or KLIF or WLS or any other beyond-legendary top 40 station), but the fact that it went from nowhere to #1 in less than a year and knocked what arguably the pre-eminent CHR/Pop station in America out of #1 very easily stunned radio execs from coast to coast.

Power106 (and CHR/Rhythmic stations from coast to coast) are never going to be the mass-appeal monsters that stations such as KIIS, WZPL (Indianapolis), WNCI (Columbus, Oh.) and numerous others were during the CHR/Pop glory days of the eighties, but they can certainly be very successful these days, even as CHR/Pop, CHR/Rhythmic & Urban continue their insatiable pursuit of dominating the 18-34 demo.

But I do agree with the previous poster who said that 'consultants and suits have ruined many a onetime great radio station'; I certainly hope that Kent Phillip's 'renovation' and 'reimaging' of KPLZ is very successful, as the format could really use some good news.

If he does attain his objective, so much the better.

 

[ilovebeer]

It is STILL a Hot AC station, or as Phillips stated a 'Hit Hot AC', with '40% AC and Adult Top 40 hits, 20% country, 20% rhythmic pop and 10% 80's'.

i love how either Marv or Kent can't do math...Lord I hope it was kent.

40+20+20+10= (all together now kids) 90!...maybe 10% will be Battle of the Sexes!!!