The audio processing on the WOW! Factor is awful. I could even forgive that considering how bad audio processing is these days (satellite radio anybody?), but the re-recordings of songs is inexcusable. That’s just lazy or cheap programming. If you want to listen to a quality oldies station, listen to Oldies 92.7. For an even better sound, listen to it on 93.3 KDKB HD-2. The sound quality is outstanding and Steve Goddard is one of the best in the business.
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Nov 6+..and still no WOW!
- Thread starter DrAkbar
- Start date
The audio processing on the WOW! Factor is awful. I could even forgive that considering how bad audio processing is these days (satellite radio anybody?), but the re-recordings of songs is inexcusable. That’s just lazy or cheap programming. If you want to listen to a quality oldies station, listen to Oldies 92.7. For an even better sound, listen to it on 93.3 KDKB HD-2. The sound quality is outstanding and Steve Goddard is one of the best in the business.
I must disagree about the audio on 93.3 HD2. Too metallic sounding. Compare that to 94.5 HD2 which sounds halfway decent. But I agree, WOW’s sound quality stinks.
Replace Sebastian’s 2TB external hard drive of 64k MP3s with uncompressed audio from GoldDiscs.
Part is the simple adjustment of the audio processing. Good processors even have loads of presets for different formats. No cost. But weak or rimshot FMs often try to improve coverage by making the modulation too dense by clipping and heavy compression. That does not work for most listeners, though... lots of fatigue and disgust.
The second likely the source material. They obviously did not get clean originals of the songs, and there are several services that allow FTP or flash drive delivery of libraries, either custom or pre-selected... in full wav format. Cost: maybe $2 k at tops.
When Edens blew up KQYT, KOY became a partial simulcast on 95.5 FM. Tim Hattrick was brought in to try to add youth to the Bill Heywood show. At night the AM would split away and do talk while the FM played AC. It didn't work.
A few former KOY people had gone to work for AM Only (Chick Watkins and Dan Armstrong come to mind) so when Valley Bank began to pressure Gary to do something different to get operations costs down, 550 picked up AM Only and 95.5 went adult CHR as Y-95. AM Only on KOY did very well. I remember Gary laughing about it: "I didn't change the format on KOY, Valley National Bank did!"
MOYL never aired on KOY; the Al Hamm format was on 1360 (the former KRUX) and 1230 (the former KRIZ). ABC put a lot of pressure on me to drop AM Only for Stardust when I was there but we didn't play ball.
If memory serves, 550 KOY picked up the AM Only nostalgia format in 1987. The format was well entrenched before I was handed the keys in 1993.
But you've got the swaps right. 1360 was being sold to Salem, so Clancy Woods made a deal to buy the call letters and intellectual property of KGME and put it on 550, bumping KOY's calls and format over to 1230 which at that point was country, acting as a flanker for KNIX but not really doing anything.
Then about a year later they swapped the calls and formats of 910 and 550 to put Rush and Barry Young on the better signal.
Everything that listeners didn't like about AM programming was put on 95~Five, with no adjustments for being on the band that music owned. So all the rambling jocks, excessive commercial load, heavy news schedule, promos and features on the sinking 5~Fifty were heard on KOY~FM. Yup, it didn't work.
So up the thread, people are saying that if KOAI were to emulate that AM full service approach, they might be more apt to sit through the train wrecks.
Not even Nurse Jeff's stash of Maricopa Gold will make me believe that's true.
There's too many stations playing songs that I like to sit through a song I don't. Play too many songs I don't care for and you've lost the preset.
On paper this format is a good idea, but man, it's hard to listen to the station for more than 15 minutes.
A great example of where people will say they want one thing, but in practice, they really don't.
When Sebastian proposed this format a few months ago, most people were thrilled. He was saying things they agreed with.
Also an example of where presentation counts for something.
This is why program research generally does not start with open-ended questions.
Otherwise, you get people asking for educational shows, more news analysis, more variety and all that.
In reality, they say that to "look good". It's not what they want.
The better way to test formats is to give examples in the form of scoped segments of different music blends and then ask for opinions on each blend... "there were songs I did not like" or "it was too hard rock..." or "too soft" or "too old" and so on. You play many different blend pods, and get comparisons and scores.
Some years ago, I did a format search in a very large market, Buenos Aires. The "warm up throw-away question" was "what is missing on the radio today?". Nobody mentioned Spanish language rock by Argentine artists. Not one, out of 500. But when they heard a choice of over 20 music pods, the winner was Argentine rock. No station did that format... we did, and got a #1 22 share in the first book.
So you can't ask listeners what they want; they are not radio programmers. But if you give a taste test, they will show you exactly what to do.
Sure it did, though late. Meaning in the 2010s on AM1230. I listened to it. I don’t care for the spanish-language format, so I dropped that preset when they switched.
Last time I heard KOY on 1230 before it went talk (KFYI2), they were running 'America's Best Music' which is today's brand for what was Westwood One's "AM Only."
Jones syndicated MOYL for awhile before dropping it; once Jones, Westwood One, and the ghost of ABC Radio Networks morphed into the same ball of private equity debt, they really didn't need three nostalgia networks.
What syndicated nostalgia networks are left today? I used to hear them all over the country on AM radio as recent as 10 years ago but now, the only ones left seem to be run in-house. I wish a nostalgia format would return to the Phoenix airwaves, but I doubt that will happen. That format or smooth jazz would have a better chance of success than the WOW! Factor on 95.1!
The Music of Your Life promos on KOY stuck in my head, such that I went to their website once KOY abruptly changed format a few years ago.
I rather liked Smooth Jazz when it was on KYOT. I’d happily listen to that format over the wow factor. You think they could still get the 7up voice guy for their promos?
I rather liked Smooth Jazz when it was on KYOT. I’d happily listen to that format over the wow factor. You think they could still get the 7up voice guy for their promos?
I rather liked Smooth Jazz when it was on KYOT. I’d happily listen to that format over the wow factor. You think they could still get the 7up voice guy for their promos?
Unfortunately he is now serving 7up to a more heavenly clientele, passing in 2014. However, you can relive the smoooooth sound of his voice with this blast from the past of Coyote 95~Five https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRQ0pYwMZaw Refreshing!
Remember the short lived “Star 97.5” in 2005-06? Probably the only station of its kind on FM in a major market, and it lasted only a year.
Emmis did one on a St. Louis rimshot called "Red" but I don't think that lasted long either.
There's a non-comm in Green Bay ("The Avenue") that tried to do an updated Standards format and syndicated it for awhile to a couple of stations in Florida ("Timeless Cool") but the syndication is dead and last time I was driving through there it had morphed into AAA using the same announcers.
A guy I used to work for has a B/EZ AM + FM Translator in Palm Springs. It's commercial, but Garry isn't above asking for people to support the format via PayPal... http://kwxy.com/contribute.html Interestingly enough, the research he did in his market said that people would rather hear Sinatra than Rod Stewart covering Sinatra, which helps explain why updated Standards formats usually fail to make anybody happy.
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