> Bob...ouch.
All current-based formats live and die by the quality of the current hits of the moment. Country had a weak second half of the year. WGTY in York also dropped considerably, although they were still #1. What Country needs right now is a huge new superstar, on the level of a Garth, who crosses all lines and brings new listeners to the format. Of all the "heavy hitters," George Strait and Reba have been around 25 years now, Garth and Alan Jackson 18 years, even Brooks & Dunn, Toby, Shania, Martina, Tim & Faith have been around 12 to 15 years. Gretchen Wilson is great, and the core audience loves her, but her ultra-redneck image doesn't broaden Country's appeal, it may actually narrow it.
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> Kiss...ouch.
>
> Hot...ouch.
Same idea here, only worse. Except for a handful of mass-appeal artists like Green Day and Kelly Clarkson, CHR music totally sucks. There's a song in the top 10 now where the singer sings about her ass for 3 minutes. Give me a break! And its not just my "out of the demo" perspective. CHR was great in the 80's and much of the 90's, and I was out of the demo then, too. Remember when WINK, as a CHR, had 12 to 14 shares book after book after book? The music was much better then. Its the reason WYCR flipped to Classic Hits, and it turned out to be a great move for them.
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> WHP...wooow congrats.
A very heavy news cycle featuring the worst hurricane season in history and the Harriet Miers Supreme Court fiasco helped here.
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> Mix...I'll take it.
My wife's favorite station. She's 43 and grew up liking disco and the soft AC artists of the era like Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond and Bread. Nobody has played much of this music for quite a long time. It sounds fresh again and while its a male turn-off, the women love it.
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> W100 and Red doing their thing.
When Current based formats drop, library-based formats pick up the slack.
> discuss
A "Hidden Story Line" in this book....All the stations that went all Christmas music were up...Guess the folks still want to hear Jingle Bells for the 1,657,498th time....
