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KPNW back to Country?
- Thread starter TimmyWA
- Start date
I'm not in the market but Nielsen shows a larger population of Hispanic than Black, and no Spanish language stations at all. But I guess the focus group research came back saying the hole in the market is for three Country stations when it could previously not support two? Shrug.
FYI Seattle is a market that once supported three stations. Including one that called itself Young Country.
KMPS, KRPM, and KYCY. So this is nothing new.
But then again, someone thought the market could support two AAA stations.
They were both AAA only by the broadest definition but they could not have been more different from each other. KEXP is really more of an indie station and nothing else really sounds like it.
KPNW tried a commercial form of AAA with more familiar songs that I believe targeted a different kind of listener than KEXP. From what I heard, there was very little crossover in the music played between the two stations. KPNW probably hoped to draw some listeners from classic rock, and others who had no station in the market that really served their interest.
I thought KPNW would do better than it did considering Seattle's musical reputation but like I said, I'm not in the market. I think the radio landscape with those two AAA's would be vastly more interesting than one with three country stations, though. I'm disappointed they couldn't make it work for whatever reason.
Maybe they would have kept trying if they had any indication that KPLZ wouldn't flip to country (and would continue on the trajectory of lackluster Hot AC ratings). Perhaps Hubbard felt like they could execute a country format better, and didn't want to leave any chance for listeners to adopt 101.5. I guess they (Hubbard) had no choice but to protect themselves, and they have one of the biggest personalities in the format to leverage.
Audacy shut down all of their HD2s in Seattle with the exception of KNDD HD2 which feeds the Channel Q translator at 103.3.
For Triple A's it takes years to build some ratings and loyalty, and not instant success. KEXP is all over the music noise map and not trademark AAA in my book but has been around for years and built a solid following all over beyond Seattle. All of the AAA legends like KPIG and WXRT are 5 decades long in the game. KMTT 103.7 had the trademark AAA hold in Seattle and should have stuck it out with the format. I propose KMTT would have a solid batch of dedicated listenership circa 2024 if they were still in the race. If they had never watered down their whisky so much and force fed listeners soda water chasers after 2000 or so, they'd be a Seattle AAA survivor.
The big team has bailed out of their year long AAA hybrid experiment. But If you have a hankering to hear fresh new AAA mixed with 5 decades of that deep diverse hand crafted Seattle AAA sound as experimented and programmed by KZAM,KEZX, and KMTT through the years then VALLEY104.9 FM in Duvall, WA is your heaven send at valley1049.org. Oh and doing it since 2014. According to my calculation that makes 10 years of survival, eh?
The big team has bailed out of their year long AAA hybrid experiment. But If you have a hankering to hear fresh new AAA mixed with 5 decades of that deep diverse hand crafted Seattle AAA sound as experimented and programmed by KZAM,KEZX, and KMTT through the years then VALLEY104.9 FM in Duvall, WA is your heaven send at valley1049.org. Oh and doing it since 2014. According to my calculation that makes 10 years of survival, eh?
KPNW's AAA format was dead man walking (to quote a popular Jelly Roll song).
My guess is a flip to country was already in the works for July 4 weekend or Memorial Day weekend.
They didn't want to give Hank a big head start, so the flip date was accelerated.
It's clear Hubbard wasn't ready to pull the switch quite yet. I heard a ton of dry segues on The Bull yesterday. That'll be fixed in quick order.
But the station wasn't growing. In fact it was the opposite. Every month, they lost more listeners.
I agree it takes time to build loyalty if you have new airstaff. But these were known people. Heritage talent that should have some built-in loyalty. That's why they also rehired Fitz. People know him and will want to hear him agan.
Hank would be smart to hire some of the former KMPS talent such as Stubbs and Tony Thomas.
I’ve been listening to KEXP a lot recently from out of the market. The times I tried PNW it sounded like a Cities 97 variant of AAA ~ is that why listeners didn’t tune in and the reason why it didn’t have higher ratings? I’m genuinely curious.
People who were in the AAA demographic either had already migrated to internet streaming to get their AAA fix, or they simply didn't know about it. That's my guess anyway.
Pros here say that the lack of cohesion in the format didn't help. It was admittedly all over the map. The folks here who believe that KPNW-FM was a non-starter probably are correct.
That makes sense
A lot of the comments I'm seeing on Reddit, Radio Ink, etc. suggest that a number of their listeners had "just discovered it." Who knows what a little marketing would have done for them.
This is a valid point and it's not even about the audience using pure music streamers like Spotify. There are some excellent AAA radio stations that stream commercial-free.
It's hard to go back to listening to a commercial station once you've found something online that you like a lot that doesn't have those disruptive commercial breaks -- especially with a format like AAA which is all about turning it on and leaving it on.
That's exactly why I stopped streaming KPNW soon after I initially sampled it. It's also why I don't listen to WXRT despite its heritage and stellar reputation in the format. There are too many other great AAA radio stations that stream without the annoyance. Some of them are in my regular rotation and I could not go back to listening to a commercial version unless I were in a vehicle with FM radio as the only option.
Like what kind of marketing? They were already working the concert venues, giving away tickets, doing the kind of outreach you'd expect. You don't do a mass advertising campaign when you're aiming at a specific niche. These are people who mostly live in their own silo and aren't really open to traditional marketing. They're fans of the music, not the way they receive it.
They are also people who watch TV, use social media, probably use YT (where there are ads, including locally targetted ones), read the online Seattle Times (local ads), maybe the Stranger (local ads), use the local TV channels' websites (has local ads), maybe use Nextdoor Neighborhood (many local ads), etc.
Otherwise I see your point. I just think that radio isn't thinking outside the box enough. But that's just my own take on it. Obviously, I never worked in the marketing side of radio.
The fact that you had a big corporate radio company taking a chance on such a niche format shows outside the box thinking. It would have been easier to stick with country and get a 3 share and make a few million, than do what they did, spend money on talent and consultants, and end up throwing it all away. I think a lot of other companies watched this experiment and learned lessons at Hubbard's expense.
Were they really "out" at concerts?
To my knowledge, they had a photographer take concert pics, and they gave away tickets. But was there a presence? Actual street level engagement with the talent and the station? KMTT had that. KNDD used to. I'm not saying they did nothing to connect with those that found them, but it feels more like they preached to the converted who already knew about them.
To my knowledge, they had a photographer take concert pics, and they gave away tickets. But was there a presence? Actual street level engagement with the talent and the station? KMTT had that. KNDD used to. I'm not saying they did nothing to connect with those that found them, but it feels more like they preached to the converted who already knew about them.
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