I visited my old hometown of Nashville this past weekend for my 10 year high school reunion. Seeing my old Father Ryan crew was great. But I also did some radio sampling -- and I heard a great deal about one station in particular.
-Oldies 97.1 played a better oldies selection than I used to hear on Oldies 96.3. No doo-wop or early 60s stuff. I also heard a weekend jock mention that several of the syndicated shows (he didn't call them that) like Supergold, Dick Clark, etc. would be "coming back soon, right here on Oldies 97.1." Warrants mentioning, since I haven't read that elsewhere.
-105.9 The Rock sounds like... 105.9 The Rock did before. Not much change there.
-I heard a little bit of WSIX, and it sounded much like what WQYK in Tampa has from a playlist standpoint.
-Hearing Richard Thomas on traffic on WSM-AM was cool, as I remember him from when I lived in Nashville through 1995. With so much that has changed in the city in the past ten years, it's nice to have some things the same. I also forgot that they did a 5 o'clock afternoon newscast.
-96.3 JACK-FM was the talk of the weekend. Some of my old classmates knew that I work as a producer for Bubba The Love Sponge, and others who didn't know I told. It seemed to get those who lived in Nashville to bring up Jack, and I heard 100% positive things about it. It was amazing. I've never, ever heard people react to a station like they did for Jack. I heard about how all the stores and malls and outdoor venues play Jack. I heard how people loved hearing songs they hadn't heard in years, and that they didn't know what was coming next and that they liked that. They also said that that fact helped them stick through songs that they otherwise might switch away from. One guy told me that both his dad (in his 50s) and his brother (25) love it and that it's their favorite (he didn't know the phrase P1, and I wasn't going to use it and then have to spend 5 minutes explaining it). Nobody said "It's a train wreck!" or "God, that station blows." And believe me, they'd tell me if they felt that way. I didn't mention my Variety Hits webpage to try and induce positive responses, either. I didn't even bring up Jack, except when my friend Ronnie (who was my designated driver on Saturday night), who lives in San Francisco, said that he wasn't liking what he heard on the air anymore in Nashville, so I told him to put on Jack. He ended up liking the format and asked if it was on in San Fran! (I told him about KZBR).
As I was writing this long note, I got an e-mail from Ronnie. Here's what he wrote:
we've been listening to 95.7 for the past two days, my office loves the station, apparently it's relatively new to the Bay Area, i did notice that it's called MAX FM, instead of JACK FM. one of their slogans is "Playing the songs you forgot you actually know" and "Playing whatever we feel like playing, but never the same song in a day."
Word of mouth is a powerful thing, no?
-As for my take of 96.3, I really liked it. I take it from earlier threads that some of you are already burned out on it, but from the couple of hours total I heard, I enjoyed it. Not every song was one I loved, but that is par for the format. The biggest "Oh wow!" moment for me was hearing "Connected" by the Stereo MCs. Both my brother (who's 24) and I couldn't remember the last time we'd heard that on the radio (and my bro has XM, though he usually listens to the Squizz hard rock channel so he wouldn't hear it there).
-102.5 The Party sounds about the same as it did the last time I heard it. That's not a good thing, though. Why keep fighting the CHR fight with The River? The Beat protects on the rhythmic side, with 92Q keeping really eliminating any urban options for 102.5. What else... Modern AC? Spanish? Active Rock would make sense, except for 102.9 being Modern Rock. Going dance music to fit the station's name? Classic Hits?
Really, I think Spanish would be a good move, but the problem is that if it worked, a station with a full-market signal would go Spanish then and take away 102.5's audience. Modern AC would at least differentiate it from The River. I was only joking about Dance. Classic Hits would've been better pre-Jack, but it could still work.<P ID="signature">______________
Lou Pickney
Tampa, FL
RadioHotTalk.com & VarietyHits.com</P>
-Oldies 97.1 played a better oldies selection than I used to hear on Oldies 96.3. No doo-wop or early 60s stuff. I also heard a weekend jock mention that several of the syndicated shows (he didn't call them that) like Supergold, Dick Clark, etc. would be "coming back soon, right here on Oldies 97.1." Warrants mentioning, since I haven't read that elsewhere.
-105.9 The Rock sounds like... 105.9 The Rock did before. Not much change there.
-I heard a little bit of WSIX, and it sounded much like what WQYK in Tampa has from a playlist standpoint.
-Hearing Richard Thomas on traffic on WSM-AM was cool, as I remember him from when I lived in Nashville through 1995. With so much that has changed in the city in the past ten years, it's nice to have some things the same. I also forgot that they did a 5 o'clock afternoon newscast.
-96.3 JACK-FM was the talk of the weekend. Some of my old classmates knew that I work as a producer for Bubba The Love Sponge, and others who didn't know I told. It seemed to get those who lived in Nashville to bring up Jack, and I heard 100% positive things about it. It was amazing. I've never, ever heard people react to a station like they did for Jack. I heard about how all the stores and malls and outdoor venues play Jack. I heard how people loved hearing songs they hadn't heard in years, and that they didn't know what was coming next and that they liked that. They also said that that fact helped them stick through songs that they otherwise might switch away from. One guy told me that both his dad (in his 50s) and his brother (25) love it and that it's their favorite (he didn't know the phrase P1, and I wasn't going to use it and then have to spend 5 minutes explaining it). Nobody said "It's a train wreck!" or "God, that station blows." And believe me, they'd tell me if they felt that way. I didn't mention my Variety Hits webpage to try and induce positive responses, either. I didn't even bring up Jack, except when my friend Ronnie (who was my designated driver on Saturday night), who lives in San Francisco, said that he wasn't liking what he heard on the air anymore in Nashville, so I told him to put on Jack. He ended up liking the format and asked if it was on in San Fran! (I told him about KZBR).
As I was writing this long note, I got an e-mail from Ronnie. Here's what he wrote:
we've been listening to 95.7 for the past two days, my office loves the station, apparently it's relatively new to the Bay Area, i did notice that it's called MAX FM, instead of JACK FM. one of their slogans is "Playing the songs you forgot you actually know" and "Playing whatever we feel like playing, but never the same song in a day."
Word of mouth is a powerful thing, no?
-As for my take of 96.3, I really liked it. I take it from earlier threads that some of you are already burned out on it, but from the couple of hours total I heard, I enjoyed it. Not every song was one I loved, but that is par for the format. The biggest "Oh wow!" moment for me was hearing "Connected" by the Stereo MCs. Both my brother (who's 24) and I couldn't remember the last time we'd heard that on the radio (and my bro has XM, though he usually listens to the Squizz hard rock channel so he wouldn't hear it there).
-102.5 The Party sounds about the same as it did the last time I heard it. That's not a good thing, though. Why keep fighting the CHR fight with The River? The Beat protects on the rhythmic side, with 92Q keeping really eliminating any urban options for 102.5. What else... Modern AC? Spanish? Active Rock would make sense, except for 102.9 being Modern Rock. Going dance music to fit the station's name? Classic Hits?
Really, I think Spanish would be a good move, but the problem is that if it worked, a station with a full-market signal would go Spanish then and take away 102.5's audience. Modern AC would at least differentiate it from The River. I was only joking about Dance. Classic Hits would've been better pre-Jack, but it could still work.<P ID="signature">______________
Lou Pickney
Tampa, FL
RadioHotTalk.com & VarietyHits.com</P>
