Lite Fm Plays Relaxing Favorites

[Dr Wayne]

When the Holiday Lite goes out it will begin playing Relaxing Favorites. This will be in direct competition with MeTvFm which happens to be in the top 10 in the ratings while The Lite lags in ratings as it played music from the 80's to today.
I think this is a brilliant move as most business establishments currently are playing 93.9 with its Christmas sound so they might continue listening when it begins its new sound.

 

[davideduardo]

When the Holiday Lite goes out it will begin playing Relaxing Favorites. This will be in direct competition with MeTvFm which happens to be in the top 10 in the ratings while The Lite lags in ratings as it played music from the 80's to today.
I think this is a brilliant move as most business establishments currently are playing 93.9 with its Christmas sound so they might continue listening when it begins its new sound.

If Lite follows the model from WFEZ or The Breeze in San Francisco or The Sound in Seattle, there will not be that much competition of song duplication with MeTV-FM. The successful soft AC stations play very few pre-75 songs, and nearly no 60's at all. The core is 80's, but with a good percentage of 1990-2015 songs in the AC fashion.

Me play much, much older songs. Out of 1000 songs played in a typical week, 10% are 80's, and the rest are 50's through the 70's, with the number of late 70's much lower than 70-75. A very different format.

MeTV-FM is not in the top 10 in any demo that matters. In November, it was 25th in 25-54, and 27th in 18-49.

Hardly direct competition. One goes for listeners in their 60's and 70's, the other would be targeting 35-54 with spillage up to 60 or so.

 

[staggmovie]

When the Holiday Lite goes out it will begin playing Relaxing Favorites. This will be in direct competition with MeTvFm which happens to be in the top 10 in the ratings while The Lite lags in ratings as it played music from the 80's to today.
I think this is a brilliant move as most business establishments currently are playing 93.9 with its Christmas sound so they might continue listening when it begins its new sound.

Dr Wayne

I don't know how you found early enough to post your own report on it, but Robert Feder didn't have a report on it as the lead story of his Robseverations it says it posted at 6 AM, but I din't see anything from him, so I might missed it, but here is his report https://www.robertfeder.com/2018/12/20/robservations-christmas-lite-fm-turns-relaxing-favorites/

 

[JeremyAndrews]

MeTV-FM and the Soft AC format iHeart and Entercom program are completely different. I don’t even consider WRME “Soft AC” That is too narrow of a term for it.

 

[passtheword]

MeTV-FM and the Soft AC format iHeart and Entercom program are completely different. I don’t even consider WRME “Soft AC” That is too narrow of a term for it.

WRME would be more properly designated"soft oldies", not soft AC, as there is no contemporary music in their playlist. For a station to be considered adult contemporary of any sort, it would have to air at least offer some type of current music, hence the term "adult contemporary".

 

[davideduardo]

WRME would be more properly designated"soft oldies", not soft AC, as there is no contemporary music in their playlist. For a station to be considered adult contemporary of any sort, it would have to air at least offer some type of current music, hence the term "adult contemporary".

The playlists for soft AC stations I have looked at have no currents. They may have a handful of recent gold in the 2010-2015 range but no currents or recurrents

 

[johndavis]

The playlists for soft AC stations I have looked at have no currents. They may have a handful of recent gold in the 2010-2015 range but no currents or recurrents

Somehow, I don't think the people seeking out this format are doing it for new music discovery.

 

[CTListener]

Somehow, I don't think the people seeking out this format are doing it for new music discovery.

More like music rediscovery. They're hearing songs like "True" and "Little Jeannie" that they probably haven't heard for the better part of a decade, when the uptempo rhythmic takeover of AC (and the rock lean of the classic hits format in many markets) left those songs with nowhere to go on radio.

 

[passtheword]

I was listening to both 98.7 the Breeze in Detroit and 106.1 the Breeze in Philadelphia a few weeks ago and both stations were offering some fairly recent material. One of the songs was Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You". Regardless, why should a station call itself adult contemporary, soft adult contemporary if there is no current material within the playlist?

 

[passtheword]

Somehow, I don't think the people seeking out this format are doing it for new music discovery.

Maybe not for music discovery, but who's to say that listeners are opposed to hearing new material, provided it's musically compatible with the rest of the format? Seems adding a few currents in the playlist would help keep the format fresh. Who wants to hear the same songs over and over from 30+ years ago? After a while, hearing the same music on repeat is going to get old and listeners would bail.

 

[JeremyAndrews]

Think of it as Gold AC, or Gold-Based AC.

Classic Hits (The former Oldies) stations focus on the 80s with some 70s and a touch of 90s. They are way more uptempo.

This is similar. Heavy on the 80s, some 70s, some 90s, very small amounts of everything else. Musically it’s downtempo.

Gold AC is basically sub category rarely used. Like Bright AC (Bright AC is somewhere between Hot AC and Mainstream AC) I consider WSHE Bright AC.

 

[davideduardo]

Maybe not for music discovery, but who's to say that listeners are opposed to hearing new material, provided it's musically compatible with the rest of the format? Seems adding a few currents in the playlist would help keep the format fresh. Who wants to hear the same songs over and over from 30+ years ago? After a while, hearing the same music on repeat is going to get old and listeners would bail.

This kind of format is based on total familiarity. Many used to position as "your familiar favorites" and some still do.

Classic Rock, Classic Hits, Adult Hits (Jack et. al.), many Urban AC station, Spanish Adult Hits and the like all play the songs that are playable today from 25, 30, 40 yeas ago with no currents. Stations that have tried putting more current material in have lost audience.

WDUV in the Tampa Bay area has been #1 for a decade and a half playing (at the start) easy listening, then older gold based AC and now smooth AC. There has never been any newer music, and they are a top station in 25-54 now.

 

[davideduardo]

I was listening to both 98.7 the Breeze in Detroit and 106.1 the Breeze in Philadelphia a few weeks ago and both stations were offering some fairly recent material. One of the songs was Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You". Regardless, why should a station call itself adult contemporary, soft adult contemporary if there is no current material within the playlist?

Several of the Soft AC stations have a small batch of post-2010 songs, none being current.

With this kind of format, the feel of the songs is very important, as long as the songs score positively in research.

 

[passtheword]

ic not much has changed...

There was a 955thebreeze domain registered back in Nov, around the same time the other Iheart "Breeze" registrations took place. Many people speculated that Iheart was going to change WEBG "Big 95.5" to the Breeze, not WLIT. Not sure if that domain was registered by Iheart or not, however, or if it had been, whether it was going to be used for another one of their stations at 95.5 FM. Anyone have an idea what station this domain is registered for, Iheart or not? https://www.whois.com/whois/955thebreeze.com

 

[Dr Wayne]

The flip should happen 12-26-18. It will be interesting from what time periods they will play and if any current songs will be added.

 

[erwin33]

iHeart have The Breeze on 103.5 HD2 already. They could put it on 93.9 with The Breeze moniker.

 

[JeremyAndrews]

They’re keeping it 93.9 LITE FM, except the music will change.

Good reasons to keep the “LITE FM” branding under the Gold AC Format:

1. It’s heritage. WLAK became WLIT, Lite FM in 1989. From that point, the music became associated with WLIT throughout the 90s into the Early 2000s. This music was what WLIT “LITE FM” was known for. Chicago likes it’s heritage.

2. It can be adjusted. Let’s say Gold Soft AC doesn’t work out. They can easily tweak back to Mainstream AC while still calling it “LITE FM”

3. “LITE FM” and 93.9 in general is what people think when it comes to Christmas. November and December are their biggest months of the year.

 

[kevtronics]

More like music rediscovery. They're hearing songs like "True" and "Little Jeannie" that they probably haven't heard for the better part of a decade, when the uptempo rhythmic takeover of AC (and the rock lean of the classic hits format in many markets) left those songs with nowhere to go on radio.

Today I heard Lite FM in NYC (WLTW) play "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie. Maybe they're starting to sprinkle in some of these softer songs to prepare for the possibility that another station in the market might switch to Soft AC.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Today I heard Lite FM in NYC (WLTW) play "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie. Maybe they're starting to sprinkle in some of these softer songs to prepare for the possibility that another station in the market might switch to Soft AC.

That's not all that soft. I would have thought that was always on a station called "Lite".

"Just the Way You Are" (not Billy Joel's song) is NOT "lite". I don't know for sure Breeze stations are playing it but WEZV is similar.

Same for a song with the words "I could fall in love." It could be, but there is that constant beat.

 

[kevtronics]

"Just the Way You Are" (not Billy Joel's song) is NOT "lite".

Compared to "Uptown Funk" (which is one of mainstream AC's favorite songs), it definitely is.

Same for a song with the words "I could fall in love." It could be, but there is that constant beat.

The Selena song? I remember Soft AC stations playing it 10 years ago. It's just as fine today.