Another thing is this:
I am not exactly sure how ppm works, but I work at the toll booth near the Virginia Maryland and DC border. I work nine hour shifts throughout a majority of the week and weekends. Over the neaarly 90 days so far I've been doing this at various exits and locations, I've paid close attention to what people in the long lines of cars were listening or tuned in to. What I've noticed is that the three things I hear the most are 1, Top 40 hits, 2, urban (mainly hip hop but lots of ac r&b as well), and reggaeton. That's what I catch/hear the most.
I'd say dance/edm is in fourth place (along with some different forms of Mexican and Latin music), but that is mainly with the foreigners who reside here, and I know they aren't listening to the radio because the chr stations here in DC try to even ignore themainstream top 40 charting dance hits by artists that they already play other songs from, regardless of if they ate charting. The only reaason we even have exposure to any dance is because the iHeartMedia stations are forced to carry the weekly evolution beatport show. I also notice how dance intensive many of the bars and clubs are here, which makes sense since the type of people who live here would support that. What doesn't make sense is that a top 40 station in Atlanta is carrying THEIR OWN, LOCAL electronic music show in a town with less cultural diversity - and succeeding while DC is trying to pretend that even some of the charting mainstream poppy ones don't exist. I'm not parading for or suggesting a dance format be tried. However, I am saying that Friday ans Saturday nights could be waaaaaaaay better in DC. First, Hot 99.5 needs a better dj to mix for the little bit of time he is given. I think his mixing style is bad enough that I could easily point out to those who aren't even knowledgeable aabout djing that the rate in which he increases the tempo of songs is not good....for starters..... The top 40 stations here, both rhythmic and mainstream, could do so much more with their mixshows, and 99.5 needs a better dj.
As far as wpgc, I look at what DJ Baby Yu does on V103 Atlanta, a pure urban in a less diverse town, and realize that a DC rhythmic could do sooooo much more with their mixshows with the talents their djs already have than just plain rap, hip hop and r&b all the time in a mix set.
For some reason, the nation's capital is sort of behind, lacking and unoriginal when it comes to radio. It's to the point that I even stream Atlanta stations because overall the market there is more interesting. I would like. to see DC overcome the "it will never work" format tweeks and changes that Atlanta and other places have managed to overcome - and I'm mainly talking about the pop chr radio stations in DC. If Atlanta can do it, then.... It's hard for me to be convinced that Hot 99.5 and DCs 107.3 and the many ac adult top forties (at least ONE of them, or somebody) couldn't program better, or at least play ALL the hits. I'm shocked that even iHeartMedia's Hot 99.5 is programmed rather poorly, and iHeart is supposed to be the king of CHR! If anything, DC 107.3 being at a 2.6 with their massive signal last time I checked, kind of shows who should probably take the initiative and try to tweak and improve for DC, but I do not see them doing anything that would even help themselves, regardless of whether or not I or anyone else agrees with it, lol.
Bottom line is DC has much room for improvement in the chr arena. If Atlanta could solve a problem like this, then a town where I even see a large percentage of the native blacks (mainly female) tuning into very poppy top 40 music (not to mention the huge variety of racial and cultural demographics that would automatically go to that the most) could get away with improving, or simply acknowledging all the hits for mainstream chr instead of just some of them and improve their dj mixshows.
Why can't we have one of those programmers or music directors who choose to be more fun, exciting and cutting edge? I notice that usually mainly comes down to choice because I've seen both the cutting edge and the boring lazy programmers succeed in same markets, despite having two different ideas and styles of the same format.
The urbans aren't "sleeping" but CHR in DC are. The only thing I would change at WPGC is having more intriguing creative mixshows and doing more Baby Yu type stuff.
