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One of the Best Articles On One of the Hot Topics In CHR Radio Today

Playing a song 65 times a week is way too much, but this article makes it sound like it's well below average. Playing it 100 times a week is outrageous.

Even a top 40 station should try not to play a song more than 40 times a week. (I'm being serious here.)
 
There are VERY few CHRs that have their most played songs receiving somewhere between 40-50 spins. The same is true for Hot AC stations and R&B outlets. If you scroll down to that article you'll alse notice that even back in the day legendary CHRs like WABC New York played their top records pretty much every hour.
So which stations are spinning thier powers 40-50 times a week? The new 96.5 The Mountain in Chattanooga for one:
http://www.mediabase.com/mmrweb/AllAccess/Stations.asp?c_let=WDOD-FM

93.7 STW Wilmington, a heritage CHR that leans Rock and Adult, and plays a lot of older titles:
http://www.mediabase.com/mmrweb/AllAccess/Stations.asp?c_let=WSTW-FM

Any others?
 
I remember in the late '80s I estimated that WLAP-FM Lexington played its powers maybe 45 times a week. At the time, I thought that was a little much. It was better than stations in larger markets though.
 
And how often did Q-102 in nearby Cincinnati rotate their records back then? Or 99.7 DJX Louisville? Probably 50-60 times per week. Both are still around today, both were market leaders in those day. You are correct though that quite a few CHRs in the 80s to mid 90s, especially in smaller or medium sized Midwestern markets, played their powers 40-50 times per week. In part b/c there were less FM signals on the dial in many markets so stations catered to a bigger audience. It's also true that when Top 40 radio was in the dolldrums in the mid 90s a lot of the surviving CHRs played quuite a bit of Gold and Recurrents in the daytime, like Z-93 Dayton, 104.3 ZYP Huntsville, or Q-94 Richmond, and the average CHR played their top hits close to 60-70 times per week. Z-100 New York during its Modern Rock leaning phase sometimes played their top record about 50-55 times per week, and the same was true for similarly formatted 104 KRBE Houston. On the other hand stations like 106.1 Kiss FM Dallas and 102.7 KIIS-FM L.A. had their top songs at about 80 spins.
How many signals did Lexington have while Power 94 was doing Top 40 in the 80s? How many direct CHR competitors? There were few Hot ACs back then, no Active Rock stations, and very few Rhythmics/Crossover stations so fewer stations to worry about in general.

There were also quite a few Urban stations back then that had a very long playlist and they didnt spin their top records more then 25-30 times a week. Nowadays you won't find too many R&B stations like Hot 103 in Kansas City that "only" play their powers 40 times per week:
http://www.mediabase.com/mmrweb/AllAccess/Stations.asp?c_let=KPRS-FM

Personally I'd be in favor of CHRs playing their top records 50-60 times per week as I think 90-100 spins is a bit too much, but its not about personal tastes - its about playing the hits as often as needed.
 
I made mention of this recently on the Philly board. I saw WIOQ (Q102)'s playlist for the week, and they've spiked their 3 powers to 158 spins per week. 158! At one point they were sitting around 167, up from WIOQ's "USUAL" spins around 110.

I have no clue as to WHY they spiked the spins up that much.. no other CC station followed suit. Is there really a benefit to cranking out your top songs every 50 minutes or so?
 
I thought this was a great article and very timely for me. Just yesterday I was ask by one of my jocks about our rotation. He says that he gets calls from listeners concerning our rotation and how tight it is. I have taken the time to explain to them that we are CHR. We play the HITS. Its as simple as that. Now, how many phone calls is he getting regarding this subject... don't really know. However, I can tell you that my POWERS are hitting every 2 to 2 and half hours. But, as I said... this article is very timely in many ways... for one reason... I printed out a copy of it for this specific jock to read and two... for the past 2 weeks... I have really thought about bringing the amount of spins, my powers get daily, down. I have been thinking about making it 3 hours. But, am I letting my own feelings get in the way? Or am I thinking about this as if I was the listener? Like the article said... PPM is UP but TSL is down.... So, do you just say screw it and keep it as it is? That way you know, if TSL is down, you are probably catching them when your playing the HIT?

I thought the comment about not spinning the POWERS so much becuz who knows how long you will have them around... was a great one.
 
Find me ONE single listener that has three hours to kill waiting for THEIR favorite song?

It's not about you... it's about THEM!

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Your powers should be your biggest songs in all of the above categories. Just because you program the station and listen to it for 8 continious hours, doesn't mean your audience does... They listen for 15-20 minutes, about 4-5 times a day. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's the 2008 radio listening audience.

Why is it that the Top 40 stations that don't play the HITS often enough, don't succeed?

Watch the cume on Q102 and Hot 95.7 go through the roof. Give it 3 years. Your sales staff will have to start selling cume, because your TSL has disappeared.

Rayne
 
rayne931wnou said:
Find me ONE single listener that has three hours to kill waiting for THEIR favorite song?

It's not about you... it's about THEM!

Callout (Rated by your listeners)
Downloads (purchaced by your listeners)
Ringtones (purchaced by your listeners)
Videos (Viewed by your listeners)
Requests (Called in by your listeners)
Text Messages (Text in by your listeners.)

Your powers should be your biggest songs in all of the above categories. Just because you program the station and listen to it for 8 continious hours, doesn't mean your audience does... They listen for 15-20 minutes, about 4-5 times a day. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's the 2008 radio listening audience.

Why is it that the Top 40 stations that don't play the HITS often enough, don't succeed?

Watch the cume on Q102 and Hot 95.7 go through the roof. Give it 3 years. Your sales staff will have to start selling cume, because your TSL has disappeared.

Rayne
Click to expand...

Sales staff's in major markets SHOULD be selling CHR's cume already - especially Q102. It's the smaller markets that need to find that delicate balance between spinning powers too little and too much. As you have less population in the DMA, your cume is eventually going to max out and you really need to find the right formula to keep the cume and grow your TSL.
 
Why would you not want to play the biggest songs on the station as much as you can? Now, I DO agree that 158 is a little high. I honestly don't even really know how that's doable. That's...what, like 23 spins a day? Jesus. ANYWAY, we have a high number of powers (7) at my station, but they are the songs that are PROVEN hits for THIS market - why not bang the hell out of them? Rayne's exactly right, unless you're a VERY adult-leaning CHR, the days of people consciously listening to a station for 8 hours a day are over, so you better make sure you're playing a song that they love whenever they flip to your station. Even though it's a rock station, I like the philosophy that WJJO in Madison uses. Cume-core. Every other song on that station is a PROVEN hit. Builds the cume, then to keep the TSL and make your P1s happy, you put in the new music or the flavor old skool record. Take that philosophy and put it on steriods, and you've got a good CHR that's going to build a lot of cume and keep a respectable TSL. I don't pretend to be a genius programmer, but it seems like a pretty good philosophy, right?

Btw, somebody mentioned ZYP in Huntsville during the 90s. I grew up in Huntsville...trust me, ZYP was so successful because the rest of the radio stations in town SUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKED. They could have played their powers 30 times a week or 300 and nobody would have cared because it was either that, Oldies, or Country.
 
rayne931wnou said:
Find me ONE single listener that has three hours to kill waiting for THEIR favorite song?

It's not about you... it's about THEM!

Callout (Rated by your listeners)
Downloads (purchaced by your listeners)
Ringtones (purchaced by your listeners)
Videos (Viewed by your listeners)
Requests (Called in by your listeners)
Text Messages (Text in by your listeners.)

Your powers should be your biggest songs in all of the above categories. Just because you program the station and listen to it for 8 continious hours, doesn't mean your audience does... They listen for 15-20 minutes, about 4-5 times a day. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's the 2008 radio listening audience.

Why is it that the Top 40 stations that don't play the HITS often enough, don't succeed?

Watch the cume on Q102 and Hot 95.7 go through the roof. Give it 3 years. Your sales staff will have to start selling cume, because your TSL has disappeared.

Rayne
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right. I'm in a small market with a 99% exclusive playlist, and my Powers are still at 70x. A hit is a hit is a hit, why am I going to limit the # of chances of my audience hearing them? The funny thing, too, is that since increasing the spins (from the previous 50ish) the comments in our music tests are more often "I like that they don't play stuff over and over like they used to." People who listen for a few minutes at a time (most listeners in a market of short commutes) rate your "high rotation" based on if you're playing a song they like or not.

I'd be curious to know what other small market, exclusive CHRs out there are doing rotation-wise.
 
rayne931wnou said:
Find me ONE single listener that has three hours to kill waiting for THEIR favorite song?

It's not about you... it's about THEM!

Callout (Rated by your listeners)
Downloads (purchaced by your listeners)
Ringtones (purchaced by your listeners)
Videos (Viewed by your listeners)
Requests (Called in by your listeners)
Text Messages (Text in by your listeners.)

Your powers should be your biggest songs in all of the above categories. Just because you program the station and listen to it for 8 continious hours, doesn't mean your audience does... They listen for 15-20 minutes, about 4-5 times a day. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's the 2008 radio listening audience.

Why is it that the Top 40 stations that don't play the HITS often enough, don't succeed?

Watch the cume on Q102 and Hot 95.7 go through the roof. Give it 3 years. Your sales staff will have to start selling cume, because your TSL has disappeared.

Rayne
Click to expand...

You nailed it. That is EXACTLY correct. You point out the constant problem with BOARD guys. They aren't the demo and don't listen like a 20 min demo listener.
 
I actually think that with in the long run the trend will be reversed and a lot of CHRs will ease up on their rotations. Why? B/c if they really wanted to hear their favorite song they'll just go to youtube or their Ipod/Zune for that. They listen to Top 40 radio to hear a bunch of their favorite songs, to hear the hits and whats hot. There's nothing wrong with a CHR "only" playing its powers 60-70 times per week.
 
No listener will be mad at you for playing their favorite songs too much.

Want to know why TSL is so low? Because of the crap that's in between the records, that you think is important, that isn't to the listener. It's hype. It's a commercial (yes, even the station imaging that you think is so well produced). Until you start talking about things that your audience cares about (hint: not the radio station), your TSL is doomed.
 
jjmac said:
Btw, somebody mentioned ZYP in Huntsville during the 90s. I grew up in Huntsville...trust me, ZYP was so successful because the rest of the radio stations in town SUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKED. They could have played their powers 30 times a week or 300 and nobody would have cared because it was either that, Oldies, or Country.
Click to expand...

Well, I worked at ZYP in the 90's and I don't believe the station did well because of a lack of competition. Bill D. knew how to promote and he knew what the audience expected.
 
karsonwithak said:
Well, I worked at ZYP in the 90's and I don't believe the station did well because of a lack of competition. Bill D. knew how to promote and he knew what the audience expected.
Click to expand...

Dude, I do agree - I'm not saying ZYP wouldn't have still been strong, I'm just saying I think they kind of had an easy go because the only time I really remember them ever getting competition was from 94.1 the Q for about 5 minutes or so, and that was a pretty poorly programmed top 40. ZYP DID sound great back in the day, just sayin the rest of the radio landscape in town was pretty ho hum.
 
I agree with Rayne. No CHR listener that tunes in for 30 minutes at most is going to sit around for a bunch of stiffs.
 
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