Lack of Mix Shows on Jamn' 945 (Long Holiday Weekends)

[radiorama1]

It was just a couple of years ago that Jamn' 94.5 was still doing the "mix show weekends" over the long holiday weekends of the summer (Memorial Day weekend, 4th of July weekend, Labor Day weekend)...

These mixes would go non- stop (well, from top of the hour to :45) around the clock, EVERY HOUR, all weekend long (sometimes they would even start on the Thursday before and go all the way til Midnight on that Monday)...

Then, a few years ago I noticed that the clock changed during these shows, with the mixes only going from the top of the hour to :30-:35... and a couple of years ago they stopped running them around the clock, starting them at 10 am, or sometimes even at noon. THIS year I turned on Jamn' on both Sat and Sun daytime and there were no mixes at all! Just the regular music, not to mention all the dead segs!... it just sounded so bland, so generic... IMO the mix show weekends were fun radio, the mix DJ's sounded like they were having fun, the jocks were having fun, you had that feeling that anything could happen... kind of captured the spirit of the old Kiss 108 in way... so I'm asking the panel here... is this a programming issue, a budget issue, or both?

 

[ReggieBeas]

The reality: It's a lack of competition. Jam'n only started doing mix weekends when Hot 97.7 came on the scene. In 2004 Hot stopped doing all weekend and on concentrated on holiday Mondays and during the day on Saturday and Sundays, and Jam'n soon followed suit. When Hot switched to WILD FM and started doing Mondays only, Jam'n followed again. Now that they are the only game in town again, they can do whatever they want.

The programming: Mix weekends have been cut back around the country because the PDs lose control of the station to the mixers, who many times have their own agenda. Mixers are always pushing the envelope on new music, which is cool, but with the new rules stating that 10 spins in a week constitues an add, that is a problem.

Hypothetical: if you are mixing all weekend, and every mixer plays a certain song twice per daypart (because it is hot in the clubs, the record reps hit them up to give the song some extra spins, etc.), that one song could be played up to 42 times! Now that is a very extreme example, but you can see how easy it is to get 10 spins on a record even if it is spun once every 2 dayparts. (BTW, there are 21 four-hour dayparts from 10 am Friday to 10 pm Monday).

 

[MassMusicMan]

because the PDs lose control of the station to the mixers, who many times have their own agenda.

Huh? Isn't mixing a job where demand outweighs supply? How about "play what I tell you to play, or we hire somebody else?" Does the concept of boss and subordinate elude people in these situations?

 

[ReggieBeas]

First of all, there are a great many nightclub DJs that are not good enough to be on the radio, for a variety of reasons. That thins the herd considerably. Yes, it should be "play what I tell you to play," but then what's the point of having a mixshow? Mixshows were initially created to bring the nightclub atmosphere to the radio, and some of the songs played in nightclubs would never make it to regular rotation, but are great mixshow songs. Many PDs also use mixshows to test new songs, give spins to songs to pacify the labels, and to give the station a different flavor.

On the other side, "play what I tell you to play" is the biggest problem mixers have with PDs, because most PDs sit at their desk and listen to the CDs that come across it. They don't have their finger on the pulse of the streets, which in the Urban and Rhythmic worlds is a necessity. They are not actively searching for the next hot track, they are searching Mediabase and BDS to see what songs they are not playing yet that are in the top 20 (not that I'm knocking doing your homework, but there are a hell of a lot of songs that are sitting on a PD's desk that are hits, but they won't move on it until it reaches a certain spot on the charts to force their hand). But I digress.

Ultimately, if you as a mixer want to keep your job, you do what the PD tells you. But even in the world of playlists, most PDs will give you 2 or 3 songs that you can spike in per hour. In the day-to-day world, it's easy to reign in the mixers, but during 84 straight hours of mixing, there is too much room for the mixers to stray.

BTW, this is both sides of my brain warring against each other... the former mixer vs. the current program director!

 

[ciao99]

Kiss & BLS

It was just a couple of years ago that Jamn' 94.5 was still doing the "mix show weekends" over the long holiday weekends of the summer (Memorial Day weekend, 4th of July weekend, Labor Day weekend)...

These mixes would go non- stop (well, from top of the hour to :45) around the clock, EVERY HOUR, all weekend long (sometimes they would even start on the Thursday before and go all the way til Midnight on that Monday)...

Then, a few years ago I noticed that the clock changed during these shows, with the mixes only going from the top of the hour to :30-:35... and a couple of years ago they stopped running them around the clock, starting them at 10 am, or sometimes even at noon. THIS year I turned on Jamn' on both Sat and Sun daytime and there were no mixes at all! Just the regular music, not to mention all the dead segs!... it just sounded so bland, so generic... IMO the mix show weekends were fun radio, the mix DJ's sounded like they were having fun, the jocks were having fun, you had that feeling that anything could happen... kind of captured the spirit of the old Kiss 108 in way... so I'm asking the panel here... is this a programming issue, a budget issue, or both?

If you want to hear radio stations that are MUST HEARS on holiday weekends, go down route 95 and tune into KISS-FM or WBLS on any summer holiday 3 day weekend. I don't care what Jammin or Hot or WILD did, it was nothing compared to Kiss & BLS. Head to the Bronx, Mt. Vernon, Newark, Bed-Stuy, heck the burbs in Long Island, those stations are blasting at the BBQs in the back yard. They mix, they play deep cuts, they reach deep into the crate for those old school jams that got the party growing. And they dont' limit themselves to just hip hop. It's about the groove.