March PPM's

[TheBigA]

I programmed what can be shown to be the most listened to rock station in the Western Hemisphere, and we avoided the record promoters as much as we could. On the other hand, we created deep relationships with the artists.

You did it before there was social media. Rock stars spend their time today speaking directly with their fans, not with radio. Radio stations need information their listeners can't find on the internet. For that, they depend on labels, who are usually embedded with the stars.

Among many things that we did was to do a live acoustic show at 11 AM twice a week called "Megacústicos"

That's a great idea. The way to do that in this country is set it up with the label promo person. Otherwise, the artist manager will send you a bill for an appearance fee.

 

[davideduardo]

You did it before there was social media.

Nope, we did it beginning in 2000 and they continue to do it today.

Rock stars spend their time today speaking directly with their fans, not with radio.

It depends. If radio has built a relationship with the artists, and your station is so dominant, the artists want to use your "voice" to talk to the fans.

Radio stations need information their listeners can't find on the internet. For that, they depend on labels, who are usually embedded with the stars.

If you have a good relationship with the artists... and in my case, the market was home to nearly all of them as well as the labels and agents. So we could have a personal relationship with the artists and integrate them into various aspects of the programming. It helped that the station was networked into every significant smaller market in the country... and that the home market is about 21 million in the total metro.

That's a great idea. The way to do that in this country is set it up with the label promo person. Otherwise, the artist manager will send you a bill for an appearance fee.

But... if you establish relationships with the artists themselves, you can (and we did) avoid all that.

 

[TheBigA]

If radio has built a relationship with the artists, and your station is so dominant, the artists want to use your "voice" to talk to the fans.

That may work in NY and LA. Artists are too busy to call hundreds of radio stations. Someone has to manage their schedule. That person is the promo rep. There is value in being a chart reporter. Otherwise radio stations wouldn't care.

 

[davideduardo]

That may work in NY and LA. Artists are too busy to call hundreds of radio stations. Someone has to manage their schedule. That person is the promo rep. There is value in being a chart reporter. Otherwise radio stations wouldn't care.

And that, again, makes a case for "national stations" that simulcast in lots and lots of markets. Access to the best talent, to the artists, to promotions and the feel of "bigness" which too few stations exploit.

 

[TheBigA]

And that, again, makes a case for "national stations" that simulcast in lots and lots of markets. Access to the best talent, to the artists, to promotions and the feel of "bigness" which too few stations exploit.

National stations, such as Sirius and Music Choice, each counts as one reporter.

 

[davideduardo]

National stations, such as Sirius and Music Choice, each counts as one reporter.

But my point is that the "national" reach can attract industry interest, whether you want artists, their agents, or their label to initiate actions. The station in Traverse City or Tallahassee can't do that.

 

[TheBigA]

But my point is that the "national" reach can attract industry interest, whether you want artists, their agents, or their label to initiate actions. The station in Traverse City or Tallahassee can't do that.

But it doesn't appear that Beasley is aiming that way. The only Philly station doing that is WXTU at night.

BTW Cograts to WXTU's Andie Summers on her nomination to the Radio Hall of Fame:

Radio Hall Of Fame Sets 24 Finalists For 2026 Induction Class

The Museum of Broadcast Communications has announced the nominees selected by the Radio Hall of Fame Nominating Committee for the

radioinsight.com

 

[Miguelito]

At one time Top 40 stations had even more repetition than they do now. That's what "Top 40" means. You play the same 40 songs over & over.

Even though we were literally pre-teens, I remember my school friends making fun of Hot Hits 98 for playing the same songs over and over again. Of course, it was all we knew, so we listened anyway. And I remember the same kids showing up for school on the morning of November 10, 1987 (the day after my birthday), breathlessly and dramatically asking things like, "What are we supposed to do?!" We realized quickly (when we knew we should) that there was a thing called Eagle 106 and, though it had more variety, we dummies would've listened even if it played the same 20 songs we'd been hearing on 98.1.

 

[TheBigA]

We realized quickly (when we knew we should) that there was a thing called Eagle 106 and, though it had more variety, we dummies would've listened even if it played the same 20 songs we'd been hearing on 98.1.

Apparently the station serving that purpose now is WXTU. They have a lot of variety, from Jelly Roll to Morgan Wallen, with lots of Ella Langley.

 

[vw86]

And I remember the same kids showing up for school on the morning of November 10, 1987 (the day after my birthday), breathlessly and dramatically asking things like, "What are we supposed to do?!"

Different market and different decade, but this instantly took me back to walking into school on April 20, 1999 after CHR Jammin' 92.3 in Cleveland flipped to Jammin' Oldies

 

[Radio Wreck]

I never understood why Jammin Oldies faded out so quickly. It was upbeat, almost everyone knows the music, and even today that music is still very popular. Atlantic City has a night club called Boogie Nights that plays that music every night and the place is packed. By now the demos would be aging out but in the late 90’s and early 2000’s they would have easily fallen somewhere within 18-49.

 

[Miguelito]

I never understood why Jammin Oldies faded out so quickly. It was upbeat, almost everyone knows the music, and even today that music is still very popular. Atlantic City has a night club called Boogie Nights that plays that music every night and the place is packed. By now the demos would be aging out but in the late 90’s and early 2000’s they would have easily fallen somewhere within 18-49.

I liked the format, but it was never going to last. That music is great for the situation you described (a bar you hit once a month for maybe 2 or 3 hours at a time), but these companies were trying to program entire 24/7 radio stations with very limited genres (disco, funk, Motown) from a very limited time period (15 years, if that). Most of the stations launched with high ratings because the libraries were all songs that tested through the roof, but even the biggest fans didn't want to hear the songs that many times. The burnout was almost immediate.

Here in Philly, people eventually drifted back to WDAS-FM, WOGL, and B101. It’s funny: back then 95.7 couldn't find enough songs to play; now, their library feels bottomless (or at least, it used to). Kinda hard to believe how long ago this actually was. The resurrection of Sunny 104.5 hadn't happened yet. Even Alice 104.5 hadn't happened yet!

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

It’s a bit like using what people dance to at a wedding as a barometer of what they want from radio. It doesn’t translate over.

Back to 98, I hadn’t noticed they were gone as once Eagle debuted, that’s what I had on. Even though by then 98 had broadened from the hottest of the hot hit days, I always preferred Z and Eagle. As for Electric….ummmm….well, they had good jingles. That’s something.

 

[TheBigA]

Most of the stations launched with high ratings because the libraries were all songs that tested through the roof, but even the biggest fans didn't want to hear the songs that many times. The burnout was almost immediate.

Maybe. But you bring up a core point of any classic format. Sooner or later you run out of music. That's where adding currents every week is so important. It's a lot riskier to add a current than to play a tested classic hit. Easier to play the classic. But over the long haul, you need to freshen the music every week.

Adding less played classics means you're basically adding duds. Songs that didn't pass the test. Why would you play them? For an "oh wow" moment? That moment lasts for 30 seconds, and then you're done. You definitely don't want to hear that dud in some form of regular rotation. But that's what a format is: Playing a set group of songs in a pre-determined rotation.

Unfortunately, when you get to a certain age, listening to currents isn't as entertaining as it was because the music is aiming at younger people, and not everyone is in that target. That's why changing formats or genres will extend interest in radio, and why some older people switch to country or AAA or some other format that still adds new music, but isn't aimed at teens.

 

[Miguelito]

I'm having trouble putting some of my thoughts about it into words, so this may or may not make sense. It just wasn't well thought out. The architects of the format knew who their audience would be, and they actually did a good job of reaching them. But they didn't apparently get that the audience wasn't going to put up with much filler. They had built a format that would serve a particular group of very particular people, in that what they wanted from the format was, one after the other, only songs they absolutely loved.

And that's where the reality smashed into the other flaw in the plan: The format they came up with limited them to a relatively limited number of titles, based on the genres and time periods I mentioned above. (Look at Classic Rock. The genres are certainly wider, and the programmers have about three decades to pull from. I can't imagine it happens terribly often that a person who listens daily to WMGK looks at the radio and says, "This song again?!")

When Jammin' listeners quickly began tuning (burning) out, programmers tried adding R&B staples, or AC staples, or even currents that they deemed might fit. That stuff was the "filler" the audience didn't want, and that stuff already had homes on each market's existing Urban AC, Mainstream AC, or even CHR.

 

[davideduardo]

Unfortunately, when you get to a certain age, listening to currents isn't as entertaining as it was because the music is aiming at younger people, and not everyone is in that target. That's why changing formats or genres will extend interest in radio, and why some older people switch to country or AAA or some other format that still adds new music, but isn't aimed at teens.

From a programmer’s perspective, we can look at people going slowly from active to passive music consumers as they age. While a young person may watch for “every new song” that comes out, folks begin to change as they mature. The responsibilities of a job, a family and paying bills become more significant than worrying whether they heard the latest news song of a big artist.

Each person matures at a different rate. That is why we have some 50-year-olds who like CHR or other formats that play mostly currents, and others who want to only hear the songs they loved while they were in high school. This is not an age group, as different people move into different music age appeal groups at different points.

Rather than looking at “who the music appeals to” I prefer to look at affinity groups of people and find the music that the like with a group of commonality.

 

[TheBigA]

That is why we have some 50-year-olds who like CHR or other formats that play mostly currents, and others who want to only hear the songs they loved while they were in high school.

However, there are some 50 years olds (and even some who are even older) who like currents, but don't like pop music. These are people that age who might like new music by classic artists or new music by young artists in the classic tradition. In the country genre, we have Zach Top who makes music that sounds like it was made 30 years ago. Americana music appeals to people 60+, and it's all current music. AAA also falls into that category. A lot of bluegrass or "new grass" fits that category with artists such as Billy Strings. He is selling out huge arenas, and most of the people there are older than his parents.

Neither classic hits nor classic rock appeals to these music fans because they know those songs by heart. They don't care if they ever hear them again. But if they could hear music that was in that style, that wasn't about first dates or first loves, then they'd be interested. People in Philadelphia will likely hear that kind of music on WXPN.

 

[Miguelito]

A (maybe) fun thought exercise: What if Star 104.5 had flipped to Jammin' (as was reportedly being planned at the time)? Maybe we'd never have gotten BEN-FM. And would we have Alt 104.5? Would 104.5 be JACK-FM? Would 95.7 be The Fanatic? Would Greater Media have bought 97.5 from Nassau? And if so, would Beasley have the market's Alt Rock station? (It would likely sound a lot better than what we have on 104.5. And it might well be called...Radio 97.5. And I'd assume, because of its sister stations, it would be making more money for Beasley than Alt 104.5 is for iHeart!)

 

[wprt949]

When Jammin' listeners quickly began tuning (burning) out, programmers tried adding R&B staples, or AC staples, or even currents that they deemed might fit. That stuff was the "filler" the audience didn't want, and that stuff already had homes on each market's existing Urban AC, Mainstream AC, or even CHR.

I think after 1999 the new program director came in and tried to move it into a rhythmic ac direction but it didn’t last very long because a year later it became mix 95.7 and that was a disaster in itself

 

[Miguelito]

I think after 1999 the new program director came in and tried to move it into a rhythmic ac direction but it didn’t last very long because a year later it became mix 95.7 and that was a disaster in itself

That would be Mix 95.7, which I think debuted in 2001?