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My local iHeart CHR station is barely playing a current top 5 song??

deejaywestbrook

deejaywestbrook

I live in Atlanta... and our major market top 40 station, Power 96.1 has pretty much ignored "Lil Boo Thang" by Paul Russell since it first came out. And now that it's currently listed at #4 on AT40, It's still barely being played, at around 30 spins per week.

Now usually, Power 96.1 here is notorious for ignoring songs that are more AC/HotAC (rock), and/or crossover country. Or at least they keep the plays way down until it hits the top 20. But why this song... "Lil Boo Thang" by Paul Russell?? Power 96.1 here should be playing the hell out of that song... It's hip hop...(albeit, G-Rated hip hop), and it's a total party song.

I also thought well maybe it just didn't test well with local Atlanta audiences.... (Which would be strange in itself). But their competitor CHR here, Q997 is spinning it close to 130 Xs per week.
And in looking at it's airplay across the nation, it seems that almost every other CHR station also has "Lil Boo Thang" in heavy rotation.

This kind of stuff just baffles me! Lol

Any thoughts?
 
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deejaywestbrook said:
I live in Atlanta... and our major market top 40 station, Power 96.1 has pretty much ignored "Lil Boo Thang" by Paul Russell since it first came out.
Click to expand...

You're listening to the wrong station. WWWQ is the #1 spinner in the country on that song. 128 spins a week!

They kicked it up a notch on Power, from 26 to 31 with a bullet.

It may be an iHeart thing, because it's in the 20s on Z100, KIIS, and Kiss Chicago. Dallas Kiss has it Top 10.

AT40 uses it's own chart based on data from Mediabase. It must sound strange to all the people listening to iHeart CHRs around the country, because the top spinners are not iHeart stations.

Change the station to Q99!
 
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I get all that. I am not just some disgruntled listener! Lol I'm not asking, "why can't I hear this song?" And it's not about whether or not I like the song or not.... I was only curious as to why a hip hop/pop song is barely getting any airplay (on Power 961) when it's the number 4 song in the country.

Power usually ignores the more AC/HotAC crossovers. But never a song like, "Lil Boo Thang". That's where my curiosity comes from. 😑
 
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My guess is the IHM stations have banked on that track not having 'staying power' even though its big at the moment. (What they are basing that on is anyone's guess.) And...looking at local trends obviously because they wouldnt completely ignore that. It otherwise cant be that a big pop track is being ignored on a station that otherwise wouldn't. So, it has to be something with their strategy and how they see the trends for the song occurring in the breakdowns.

I've been noticing my local IHM CHR taking on more of a gold sound as of recent. This reflects trends across the country with some of their other stations and CHR's in other companies. I'm not saying the Atlanta one is going that way but IHM is no doubt experimenting with their CHR tracks lately.

(Plus I mean c'mon...if the golden gods at Cumulus are doing it right on something then the world is shifting lol!! They'd be aroused to know they are shining in the pop realm on a song IHM isn't.)
 
kwthom said:
PD/MD isn't a fan, I suppose.
Click to expand...

deejaywestbrook said:
I also thought well maybe it just didn't test well with local Atlanta audiences.... (Which would be strange in itself). But their competitor CHR here, Q997 is spinning it close to 130 Xs per week.
Click to expand...

Signs do point to it being a top-down music programming decision as opposed to "local" PD/MD preference or local music research...

TheBigA said:
It may be an iHeart thing, because it's in the 20s on Z100, KIIS, and Kiss Chicago.
Click to expand...

Who here believes any music decisions today are based on how good the song is, as opposed to what kind of quid pro quo the head office can cut with the label?
 
deejaywestbrook said:
I was only curious as to why a hip hop/pop song is barely getting any airplay (on Power 961) when it's the number 4 song in the country.
Click to expand...

As I said, it appears to be an iHeart thing. I find it interesting that a song can be #4 in an airplay chart with minimal airplay from CHRs in NY, LA, and Chicago. From what I can see, Arista is still pushing for a #1, because the other stations are still increasing spins. But it gets back to what I've said in the past, that the reporting panels are structured so that no one group can dominate a chart.

Theater of My Mind said:
Signs do point to it being a top-down music programming decision as opposed to "local" PD/MD preference or local music research...
Click to expand...

Then how do you explain Kiss in Dallas? Do PDs in a group talk to each other? Yes they do. Do those conversations have an effect on the decisions they make? Yes they do. But at the end of the day, it's the local PD's decision, and he is the one who gets the phone call from the record label.

Theater of My Mind said:
Who here believes any music decisions today are based on how good the song is, as opposed to what kind of quid pro quo the head office can cut with the label?
Click to expand...

Music decisions are subjective. There are no objective rules about what makes a good song. As to the second half of your sentence, Arista Records is part of Sony. They have lots of tools in their arsenal, and it's their job to fight for their music. What you're seeing is where the rubber meets the road in terms of how the music business works. Radio airplay is STILL important for artists and labels, and we're watching that play out here.
 
deejaywestbrook said:
Power usually ignores the more AC/HotAC crossovers. But never a song like, "Lil Boo Thang".
Click to expand...

Since you mention it, I notice the song is also getting a lot of action in Hot AC. Audacy's WNEW is playing it in NY. Top spinners are in Cincinnati and Louisville. I also don't see a lot of spins at iHeart Hot ACs such as KBIG. But it may be the fact that the song is crossing over, and is charting #4 in Hot AC that might be an issue.

I also noticed the song is getting more love from radio than from streamers. The song is #14 in the Hot 100. Not that it should matter.
 
Atlanta has several Hip Hop / Rap staions, which have a large following. IMHO if you are a CHR you might want to sound "different" than the Hip-hop/ Rap stations and go light on some of there songs. 96.1 might have done research that non Rap / Hip Hop listeners don't really care for the song.
 
Sometimes a song can drive away your P1 folks. The ratings period we are in will determine this. Power did relatively well the Christmas book, Q didn't. (6+)

A PD in Louisville told me he had a "no tune out" strategy for music. Knowing what not to play to him was more important than what you play. "Let the competition drive their listeners to your station.
 
deejaywestbrook said:
I live in Atlanta... and our major market top 40 station, Power 96.1 has pretty much ignored "Lil Boo Thang" by Paul Russell since it first came out. And now that it's currently listed at #4 on AT40, It's still barely being played, at around 30 spins per week.

Now usually, Power 96.1 here is notorious for ignoring songs that are more AC/HotAC (rock), and/or crossover country. Or at least they keep the plays way down until it hits the top 20. But why this song... "Lil Boo Thang" by Paul Russell?? Power 96.1 here should be playing the hell out of that song... It's hip hop...(albeit, G-Rated hip hop), and it's a total party song.

I also thought well maybe it just didn't test well with local Atlanta audiences.... (Which would be strange in itself). But their competitor CHR here, Q997 is spinning it close to 130 Xs per week.
And in looking at it's airplay across the nation, it seems that almost every other CHR station also has "Lil Boo Thang" in heavy rotation.

This kind of stuff just baffles me! Lol

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
I remember when A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton was becoming popular. For a long time, Star 94 didn’t play it. It was nearing its peak of popularity before Star finally played it.
 
secondchoice said:
A PD in Louisville told me he had a "no tune out" strategy for music. Knowing what not to play to him was more important than what you play. "Let the competition drive their listeners to your station.
Click to expand...
A good way for a PD to use "feel" even despite research!

A great example can be seen in the stations that dropped "Macarena" when that novelty song was such a big hit several decades ago. The best PDs and MDs dropped the song well before it started to decline on the charts as they felt it was one of those songs that could be very destructive when it burnt out.

Some just dropped it, some reduced plays a lot.

Same thing with, if I dare say it, "Gagnam Style".
 
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