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Need something new!

J

jmmt59

Man alive, I used to come to this message board to get the news on what is going on in Indiana in the radio industry. Mostly, I was interested in what stations were doing with music, imaging, etc. For the last year or so there have been very little of this kind of talk. We need something new to listen to in Indianapolis! I enjoy listening to all types of music and this includes classic rock/hits and country. But man alive I can only take so much. I live in Columbus and work in Indy and here are my classic rock/country stations:

92.3 - 93.7 - 94.3 - 94.7 - 95.5 - 95.9 - 96.3 (Seymour) - 97.1 - 100.3 - 101.5 - 101.9 - 102.3 - 102.7 - 104.5 - 104.9 - 105.3 - 106.1

THAT IS ONLY TWO TYPES OF MUSIC!!! COME ON!

talk about hearing the same thing over and over. there are many different types of music and Indy is a large enough market they should be able to have more variety. I didn't even include the stations that occasionally play the classic rock song or the contemporary country song. It's getting ridiculous. Somebody make a change so radio can become interesting again.........PLEASE!
 
Boy I can certainly second that. I just got home from an 8 hour shift and I am absolutely sick of hearing the same songs on 4 stations in this city. There is room for Q and then 1 Q alternative. Jack seems like the logical choice, but the Track is a little lighter so maybe they are the better alternative? I loved WKLU when they came on the air but their music has become a clone of Q over time. 4, 5 if you count 92.3 is just way too much. I can't get 95.9 at night, so I'd love to have an oldies station I can pick up clearly here in Indy. Are all the stations here just out of ideas?
 
jmmt59 said:
Man alive, I used to come to this message board to get the news on what is going on in Indiana in the radio industry. Mostly, I was interested in what stations were doing with music, imaging, etc. For the last year or so there have been very little of this kind of talk. We need something new to listen to in Indianapolis! I enjoy listening to all types of music and this includes classic rock/hits and country. But man alive I can only take so much. I live in Columbus and work in Indy and here are my classic rock/country stations:

92.3 - 93.7 - 94.3 - 94.7 - 95.5 - 95.9 - 96.3 (Seymour) - 97.1 - 100.3 - 101.5 - 101.9 - 102.3 - 102.7 - 104.5 - 104.9 - 105.3 - 106.1

THAT IS ONLY TWO TYPES OF MUSIC!!! COME ON!

talk about hearing the same thing over and over. there are many different types of music and Indy is a large enough market they should be able to have more variety. I didn't even include the stations that occasionally play the classic rock song or the contemporary country song. It's getting ridiculous. Somebody make a change so radio can become interesting again.........PLEASE!
Click to expand...
You forgot WXKU 92.7 Country...which has a better signal in Columbus than 96.3 does. Curious...what do you get on 102.7 in Columbus or Indy that's Rock or Country?
 
My fault, I didn't mean 102.7, I meant 102.5 (New Castle). See what I mean there are so many of these types of stations that I can't even keep them straight!
 
Is this the time where WTTS becomes a station more people try?

I know they occasionally throw in a burned out Q-95-type song to keep the handful of greybeards around, but for the most part, I would think their TSL is sky-high.

Always a great WIDER range of music to enjoy.

They never disappoint.
 
The Indiana station with the biggest variety of songs is Indianapolis' The Track, 107.9 FM. If one can bear the disco songs the rest of the format is good. Even during the disco era not everyone liked disco. Better to leave it out or just have a specialized program on the weekend and leave it at that.

Q-95, 104.5, and WKLU play the same stuff over and over and over............
 
The main thing that drives me up the wall is that not only are there so many of the same types of stations but also there seems to be no real interest by any of the main radio groups in central indiana to change any of them. Everyone must be making tons of money if they are that content with the product on the radio. IMHO there are too many followers in the Indy market and not enough risk takers. When you are talking music people always love the risk takers because it shows they are dedicated to bringing something new to the market. I miss the 80's station on 93.9, and although they seem to have gotten a little better, X103 could do so much more with that genre of music. 101.9 was interesting until all the other stations freaked and started mocking them so they didn't lose ratings, (94.7, 104.5). So now we are stuck with three of the same stations. And finally 92.3 has SO much potential but as was posted on here earlier they still try to cater too much to the older generation. If WTTS was slightly more up tempo and still offered the good variety without all the REALLY soft stuff I think they would shoot up the ratings. The power in the signal is there and they have a lot going for them being the "independant" radio station that they are! I hope in the near future there is some kind of shake up in the Indy market just to keep my interest more than anything. Right now it is very very bland and boring.
 
We the listeners are the ones who suffer. I remember years ago when radio around here was actually pretty good. There was the Q and the Buzzard as two great rockers. Bob and Tom were still doing all local stuff back then and had all the guys that are now gone that made the show great. QFE (now KLU) had a neat little oldies operation working. ZPL and TPI were even ok to listen too. What happened? I assume the almight dollar got in the way. Which I guess from a business standpoint is hard to blame, but as a listener it stinks! Why doesn't someone do oldies again on a station you can actually get clearly throughout the whole city? 104.5 had good ratings with them. Why not bring it back?
 
It seems that Indiana radio is losing connection with the LOCAL community and listeners. Many stations are programmed for ad agencies, not for community needs or wants. I am not saying that ALL Indiana stations subscribe to this theory. The lack of ownership diversity magnifies the situation.

Example - stations cutting back or eliminating high school sports coverage. Even IU cannot be heard in Columbus of Muncie now. Cookie cutter formats dominate the landscape.
 
Not sure how other stations "mocking them" made WKLU less interesting. They can do whatever they want no matter what other stations do. Oldies get ratings, but ad agencies don't want that audience. Actually there are only 2-3 Indy stations that DON'T play a fair amount of old songs. If WTTS dumped the older stuff they play they'd probably lose some of their already small audience. The biggest difference between now and 15 years ago is consolidation. Instead of 10+ companies competing with each other there are now only about 5. Instead of being full on competitors, most stations are now part of "cluster strategies".
 
It would be great if one of the Indy AM stations would take on 50's and 60's oldies.
You'd be surprised at the high numbers they'd receive. OK. Now, you're going to say
only old people would want to hear this, and I answer, it's old people who listen to AM.
What a match! I say put the oldies back on. Good move! Plenty of us over 50 still alive
who would listen and support the station.
 
jmmt59 said:
92.3 has SO much potential but as was posted on here earlier they still try to cater too much to the older generation. If WTTS was slightly more up tempo and still offered the good variety without all the REALLY soft stuff I think they would shoot up the ratings. The power in the signal is there and they have a lot going for them being the "independant" radio station that they are!
Click to expand...

The short answer from me on that is WHO CARES WHAT THE YOUNGER GENERATION WANTS? WTTS is MY station.
Play as much soft stuff as you can! When they change that and it's gone forever, THEN WHAT? People forget that: Ruin the cool station on a whim and it's gone and aint' comin' back.

They've far exceeded their potential as far as I'm concerned. As I posted earlier, they occasionally play some lame Mellencamp or Zeppelin or Allman's song to stay "relevant", but it's cool to hear a brand new song I LIKE as part of a radio station's playlist. Pretty rare. There's plenty of TEMPO out there. Most not very good.

Please don't change WTTS. I'm sure they'll bow to pressure and decide the real money is just copying the competition or automating more, but for now I pray that doesn't happen.
 
Since I am of the younger generation I guess my point of view was slightly bias with the WTTS comment. You bring up some good points about how that type of station would be gone if they changed things. I agree with this and more times than not I do end up on 92.3 if for nothing else just to hear something out of the ordinary. I DO like some up tempo stuff and would like to hear a smidge more mixed in the lineup on WTTS, but you are correct the last thing I want them to do is to "copy" the other stations. Then the problem that I discussed would just be compounded. Thanks for the feedback.
 
> Timewarp wrote:
> It would be great if one of the Indy AM stations would take on 50's and 60's oldies.
> You'd be surprised at the high numbers they'd receive.

It's been tried and so far has had little or no success.
Cincinnati's 1530 (WCKY) brought back many of the old WSAI jocks and played oldies for a couple of years and even with 50,000 watts they didn't put a dent in the Cincinnati ratings.
Buffalo's 1520 (WWKB), another 50,000 watt blowtorch tried oldies, bringing back some of the biggest names in WKBW's Top 40 history and couldn't muster any ratings significance. Chicago had Real Oldies 1680 with Dick Biondi and even Larry Lujack in the morning and they never scored above a 1.5 share.
To the best of my knowledge there isn't a single AM station in the US playing 50's and 60's oldies that is having, or has had any success.
They only oldies stations that are getting respectable ratings (and they are few) have 70's and 80's music as their core, with post-British Invasion tunes at the rate of one per hour, and even then only the top 100 testing titles (meaning you get a lot of Manfred Man's "Do Wah Diddy" and Supremes).
 
Yet another reason why satellite radio is so marketable and appealing. No question.

If I can punch up a network that plays only 50's music with no commercials and/or jocks trying to be relevant, why wouldn't I?
Nobody on the other end is worrying about how it's going to show up in the Arbitrons or wherever and I get exactly what I want.

Occasionally I choose a 50's or 60's channel on my HD and run it through my receiver like I'm listening to the radio. My "TSL" is hours and hours and hours because it's pure and not watered down with bad jocks, commercials, or some programmer "slipping in" a tune that doesn't fit just to compete with the other oldies or classic hits or rock stations in the market.
 
If a station is on AM, then it should program for the people who still will listen to the band. People
50 and older. There is a 3 to a 5 in ratings for a station that would play oldies in Indy.

In the Cincinnati example, did you note how many FMs were competing against the 50 KW AM for
oldies?

So, if there is a 3 for oldies in Indy, and we have 2 stations doing it, an AM and an FM. The FM will get
a 2 and the AM a 1. That means they both go off the air and the listener is the loser. Sometimes
competition is not a good thing.

There is room in Indy for 1 station to do sports, not 2. There is also room for 1 guy to do oldies.
But, not 2.
 
Need something big!

Should ESPN 950 and Gold 95.9 swap formats?
 
Re: Need something big!

AndTheLambGoesBAA said:
Should ESPN 950 and Gold 95.9 swap formats?
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter what 95.9 does since the station doesn't reach Indianapolis. WXLW might as well stick with ESPN.
 
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