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Low rated or declining stations "edgy"/youthful rebrand

Suicide. Yeah, I guess you could call that edgy.
Maybe if it were a traditional B/EZ station, yeah.

But what if it were some sort of lounge-type format? A mix of light Jazz, some standards recorded by recent artists, and maybe some other recent stuff that's popular, but too soft to get much if any airplay on most mainstream stations.

Or would that be fairly suicidal, too?

c
 
But what if it were some sort of lounge-type format? A mix of light Jazz, some standards recorded by recent artists, and maybe some other recent stuff that's popular, but too soft to get much if any airplay on most mainstream stations.
Wasn’t that already tried in the 00s? I think the old “Red 104.1” WRDA in St. Louis was an example around 2004-05, described as “new standards.”
 
Maybe if it were a traditional B/EZ station, yeah.

But what if it were some sort of lounge-type format? A mix of light Jazz, some standards recorded by recent artists, and maybe some other recent stuff that's popular, but too soft to get much if any airplay on most mainstream stations.Soun

Or would that be fairly suicidal, too?

c
Sounds more like a SiriusXM channel than anything that would work on FM.
 
It was?

I guess it didn't work too well, then, because there aren't any current stations with the format. Are there?
IIRC Red 104.1 WRDA lasted only 18 months. Innovative, but too niche.

There were attempts to syndicate similar formats under the “Timeless Cool” and “Classic Cool” brandings.
 
Funny enough, "Timeless Cool" originated from a non-com in northern Wisconsin. WOVM/Appleton, if memory serves.

It seems like they have moved in more of a AAA direction.
 
And also KRZS "Star 97.5" in Phoenix from 2005-06.
I remember the AZ Republic media column describing the music as what you would hear in the Pottery Barn. They even had TV ads.

Basically stuff like Michael Buble, Diana Krall, Rat Pack, Smooth Jazz and even heard David Lee Roth's version of "Just a Gigolo". I don't think it ever got higher than a 1.5 share.
 
And also KRZS "Star 97.5" in Phoenix from 2005-06.
Basically stuff like Michael Buble, Diana Krall, Rat Pack, Smooth Jazz and even heard David Lee Roth's version of "Just a Gigolo". I don't think it ever got higher than a 1.5 share.
A lot like Red 104.1, whose website is partially archived online, including a featured artists list:


You can also dig up the old KRZS Star 97.5 website:

 
IIRC Red 104.1 WRDA lasted only 18 months. Innovative, but too niche.

There were attempts to syndicate similar formats under the “Timeless Cool” and “Classic Cool” brandings.
Timeless Cool... wasn't that the format that had a flagship station on a pair of AM's in Florida? One of them was WCNZ 1660 Marcos Island. They had no FM presence, which might have contributed to their demise.

It was more of a AAA feel than Standards. I can't recall what the core artists were, though .
 
I think I mentioned something like this awhile back (might've been from shortly after I first joined here in '21), but I thought it would be funny to have a station with the old Top 40 imaging and stuff, but airing modern tracks.

I sort of doubt it's be viable (as I recall, that was the gist when I mentioned it 5-ish years ago), but it's something that would definitely be interesting.

c
 
I really enjoyed KYNG’s Young Country format, which ran from 1992-99. Prior to that I had generally disliked Country, outside of widely popular crossover hits. But the 1990s saw a lot of innovation and energy in the format at a time CHR was descending into Rap and Hip-Hop, and Rock was being subsumed by Grunge. Formats like Young Country were refreshing and exciting.
Actually, CHR was not heavy on rap and hip-hop when KYNG launched in 1992. Instead, the format was deep into a "doldrums" period and was heavy on dreary ballads and mid-tempo pop songs. It was a period where CHR was responding to a backlash to the rap songs that had been hits a couple years earlier. In that sense, it was similar to 1980-81, when CHR was also heavy on ballads (lots of Kenny Rogers, Barry Manilow, etc) after the anti-disco backlash that hit in the middle of 1979. In fact, CHR was in such bad shape in the early 90s that we had a brief period where there was no CHR station in Dallas-Fort Worth.

And THAT is the environment that launched "Young Country" in Dallas/Fort Worth and so many other markets. In many ways, the concept was to have the energy that CHR used to have, but play country music instead of the dreary stuff that was dominating the pop charts. It worked very well for a while, but eventually CHR recovered and other parts of the "Young Country" format worked there way into mainstream country stations and "Young Country" niche disappeared.
 
I'm probably weird, but I actually kind of like some of those dreary ballads...
I like song of the dreary ballads from the post-disco era (1979-81), but very few of them from the early 90s.

And we may yet get some surprises as to what resurfaces. I was really surprised last summer when I heard Christopher Cross ("Ride Like The Wind") on a couple of classic hits stations while driving across the western USA.
 


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