New Star 94 Formatics

[RoddyFreeman]

I listened to Star 94 on short car trips in 3 dayparts today, midday, afternoon drive and evening, and noticed something different. The difference was the greatest on Cindy & Ray.

Star 94 was playing sets of 2 songs with nothing in between or over them, meaning no sweeper, no jingle and no jock intro. I don't mean the station went from doing music sweeps to playing just 2 songs. I mean that every 2 songs in the music sweep had nothing in between or over them.

During the short time I listened to Cindy & Ray, they too were playing 2 songs in a row with nothing in between; never just 1 song with lots of talk following. And their talk was brief, much shorter than I was used to.

According to Arbitron, the PPM has shown sharp minute-by-minute declines on music stations when the jock was talking. This could be a reaction to that.

 

[TheMusicMan]

Clear Channel stations have regularly used dead segues for about a year and a half now. I'm surprised it's taken other stations this long to catch on to the practice. But a dead segue every second song is a bit excessive, IMO. Especially when you're in a competitive situation such as Star's (and yes, I know with PPM writing down th station is no longer an issue), I think you need to maintain that branding. Dead segues every so often sound great, but in my opinion they ought to be used with care.

 

[raptusregaliter]

According to Arbitron, the PPM has shown sharp minute-by-minute declines on music stations when the jock was talking. This could be a reaction to that.

Would someone please memo this to Axl at 100.5? His afternoon chats seem to be getting longer and longer and longer...

 

[OutOfTheBiz]

Clear Channel stations have regularly used dead segues for about a year and a half now. I'm surprised it's taken other stations this long to catch on to the practice. But a dead segue every second song is a bit excessive, IMO. Especially when you're in a competitive situation such as Star's (and yes, I know with PPM writing down th station is no longer an issue), I think you need to maintain that branding. Dead segues every so often sound great, but in my opinion they ought to be used with care.

"Branding" is now 100% irrelevant. Welcome to the PPM era. It no longer matters that anyone know or remember the name of the station they are listening to. The box does all the remembering for you. One of the potential positive impacts PPM may have on radio is that it will finally shut some people up and stop cluttering the music with inane repetition of imaging and sweepers. Play the music and keep them listening is the new Prime Directive. I'm curious to see which programmers will adjust quickly and which ones are beaten by the system because they continue to do the "same old same old" because that's all they know.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Branding is not irrelevant at all. You still need to build a brand to get listeners to your station and keep them there. Building a radio brand is like building a brand in any other product category.

You are correct that the elements designed only to get diary mentions and pull listeners through quarter hours are no longer necessary, and that should contribute to less clutter. It's also true according to minute-by-minute PPM ratings that unnecessary jock talk causes listeners to switch stations. The PPM is going to force stations to program well at all times and not just to get diary mentions.

By the way, has anyone noticed that Michael Baisden (on 102.5) now plays music along with his talk? His show had been totally talk and had been hurt by the PPM, and that prompted the change.

 

[taylorengineer]

Is the constant use of calls/ID's even necessary now with PPM? And just how many times in 15 minutes must we hear which station weze' listenin' to?
It may be time to do away with "call letters" and let stations pick any type of positioner/branding and make that exclusive to individual stations. And then use it, along with jock chatter in general,very lightly.
Why not let the music play on a music station? Why not give more consideration to key, tempo, etc......We have all made/heard that great segue where it sounds like one song just melts into the next.
Why interrupt this "magic musical artistry" with blather from some pimple faced kid with pink hair who "wants to be down wit' it?"

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Well, today is a new day, and I've been listening to Star 94. And I haven't been hearing the 2-song seques. As they used to say on the old SNL News Updates, "Never mind."

 

[jal41]

Well, today is a new day, and I've been listening to Star 94. And I haven't been hearing the 2-song seques. As they used to say on the old SNL News Updates, "Never mind."

Computer issues? A missing file or misprogrammed playlist can cause these things.

B98.5 does these back-to-back song segues, and has been for a while. 106.7 also does them as well. It has been done elsewhere.

The call letters and their once an hour reading are FCC regulations. Given the shear number of facilites and the need for the public to identify them, I don't see call signs going away soon. Unless the station is branded around them (WSB-AM, WGST, etc.), you generally only hear them once an hour.

B98.5 and the River have had strict rules about chatter (keep it down...even in AM drive until recently). It seems to have worked to their benefit, because of their formats.

It seems like top 40 (geared towards younger females that love talking all the time) might be more interested in chatter than the older AC/classic hits audience who just wants the DJ to shut up and let the music play (although both audiences have invested in iPods).

 

[kaylar]

" will finally shut some people up and stop cluttering the music with inane repetition of imaging and sweepers."

I totally agree.