Looks Like WZPT Will Remain Star 100.7

[Snafu]

Music testing, in its present form, is choking the life out of the business. Its focus is too narrow and its real reason for existance is to create numerial data to back up what the consultant had already decided to play. It breaks no new ground and leaves nothing to the imagination.

 

[kenhawk1160]

But everyone pretty much tests the same lists for each format, with some minor tweaks. The tests become a self-fulfilling prophecy because you only test the songs that you already know test well.

There are exceptions to this... I know Cary Pall occasionally posts here, and I think he researched something like 2,000 titles when they originally put WMMO/Orlando on the air. It was a really unique music-oriented AC that played stuff that you absolutely couldn't hear anywhere else, and it did very well for a few years. Eventually Cox bought it and distilled it down to 300 songs and now it's just another boring AC station.

This is exactly what the so-called "Variety Hits" stations are slowly becoming. Like any other 'gimmick' format, they start out with a broad playlist, then they slowly tweak it until the playlist narrows and narrows, until it's no different than any other station on the dial. Then they switch to another format when the formula that worked the first time doesn't work anymore.