KDM 7000 said:
By the way, since this is somewhat related to what this whole topic has evolved into, I might as well bring this up very quickly. There is a myth that has been roaming around for the longest time about how "traditional" top 40 could not work in Atlanta, and I admit, I was almost completely hoodwinked into actually believing that this was true, even to the point where I was actually a bit nervous when WWVA went more mainstream and dropped the (so called) "Atl regional rhythmic sound" a few weeks ago. However, I'm not sure how many of you watch mythbusters, but I "discovered some information" somewhere that explained precisely why things are the way they are and have been the way they've been in Atlanta for the longest time in regard to certain chr stations and programming, and just like a radio-info version of Mythbusters, the myth has been BUSTED!
I will not get too deep into how I figured this out because the overall important thing here is for people to know that the reason there isn't been a traditional top 40 station, isn't because "it will never work", and based on certain things that have happened over time, I always knew that couldn't be the case. Pretty much, in lamens terms, what it all boils down to is a "series of unfortunate circumstances" that just happened to take place in Atlanta over time when it came to pretty much all the stations that attempted a chr format.
I'm going to attempt to explain it all in detail sometime later. I just need time to think about how to fully explain it all specifically in detail, verbally, which is why I don't want to get too deep, yet. It will not be some far out, mystical, mind-mystifying stuff, by the way. The entire reason for the ATL. situation is actually pretty simple (but somewhat difficult to explain), and once I explain it all, you'll be thinking "a series of unfortunate circumstances" doesn't sound as silly after all as some may think it does now... As a matter of fact, it will be more of a "duh..." than anything else.
AND LADIES & GENTLEMEN, HERE IT GOES!
- Power 99 flips; leaving Star 94 to perform as A-Towns "chr top 40" sound alone
- No one else is willing to try chr, and for some years, no stations seem to change
- Hot 107.9 is born, but this really does nothing to help CHR
- WBTS FINALLY COMES and solves the problem
- WWWQ "also decides" to come in as well, and BAM! Atl is a thriving chr market for a little while
- WBTS goes RHYTHMIC because WWWQ has the official top 40 sound covered
- (Somewhere amongst all this, WiLD 96.7 comes and goes)
EVERYTHING IS GREAT, BUT THEN:
A sequence of changes (station owner swaps, pd changes...etc.) occur and everything gets "messed up" / changed due to these "unfortunate circumstances" that happen to unfold. WWWQ, later owned by Cumulus (which has a specific way of operating top 40 formatting.. and I'll get to that later) and WBTS end up being programmed differently, with new and different ideas ("1 circumstance") (which causes a large void in many national/international top 40 hits making it into Atlanta airwaves). The result is having more stations, but once again, still lacking many hits...
CUMULUS
On top of that, Cumulus has a specific way in which they operate chr's (which was the biggest part of the "discovered information" I obtained) ("another circumstance"). They only have a certain / select amount of open slots for new/current hit music, which is why Q100 picks the top 20 or so hits and may never actually play all top 40 currents at once. Due to the fact that they are limited with the amount of available new music add slots, they must diligently and carefully select "the best" of the top 40 hits to fill in their 20 or so new music slots! Now, they COULD be lazy and just add in Nicki Minaj, Wiz Kalifah...etc. and more urban/hip hop crossover stuff or whatever the top 20 in the charts are, regardless of how many other urbans...etc are covering half of that already. BUT.... do they really want to occupy their limited currents slots with music that several other (urbans/rhythmic) formats in town are playing? ("Multiple urbans in town - another circumstance".) Or, do they want to try to find and work a "niche" where they could pick a top 20 or so of the top 40, but still cater to a select, unserved crowd as much as possible?
Now, as I've said in the Phoenix section, I'm not the biggest fan of the way Cumulus programs & operates, but
I must at least give
some credit to Q100 for "working with what they have in the circumstances they're in".
THEN, YOU HAVE WBTS:
Fist of all, they went rhythmic, so of course they were not going to "fix the top 40 situation" later on. Who knows what could've happened if WWWQ never materialized and WBTS had never left top 40 ("WBTS leaving top 40 - another circumstance"). But, even with that possibility in existence; Lets say this were the case and WBTS stuck with top 40. This still doesn't change the fact that "in the end", the new pd with his own new ideas could still come in and would've STILL ended up programming WBTS the way it was programmed during the last few years! ("pd with different ideas - another circumstance"). Now, on top of all that, lets say we're in a world of no WWWQ and WBTS remaining top 40, but WBTS STILL eventually flipped to news talk. Would we be satisfied with ONLY Hot AC Star*94 and WWVA on a poor signal? (This is just a brief preview of the other possibilities that could've unfolded).
NOW, YOU HAVE WWVA:
WWVA comes into town, but first they go rhythmic
AC ("another chr top 40 non helping circumstance"). They are eventually flipped to rhythmic, but then end up being musically programmed by former WBTS pd ("another chr top 40 non helping circumstance"). FINALLY, they are fixed, BUT the weaker signal remains ("another circumstance").
So bottom line here is there were many "unfortunate circumstances" that just happened to occur in Atlanta throughout time in the top 40 world. It's like Atl won the lottery for "traditional chr failure" and "Bermuda Triangle Action". First, there was no real chr. Then, everything else that finally came into town had circumstances tied to it that caused them to "operate in a certain way". Another circumstance is the fact that WVEE is own by CBS, therefore it's very unlikely that even CBS would want to come in and try to program a chr format to compete with its own, so far undefeated, urban.
I didn't even touch on ppm or cume...ratings...etc. here, but that is somewhat irrelevant in this post, due to the fact that things could've still been successful ratings-wise, regardless of whether or not the "circumstances" occurred. Regardless of whether CBS, ClearChannel, Cumulus...etc or whichever pd came into town with their own top40 format structure ideas, the chr lovers would still flock to whatever hit music channels were available. I'm sure whoever came into town would've had their own select audience they would've wanted to cater towards. After all, everybody has their own ideas, and no two pd's / station owners program the same, but do strive for the same desired outcome. | Atlanta just happened to be a place where the Hot AC sound was pretty much the top 40 sound people knew and "bonded with" for a long period of time. This is slowly beginning to change, now.
