I had the pleasure of visiting Chicagoland over the past few days, and spent quite a bit of time listening to the radio.
Late Saturday afternoon (between 5:30pm & 6:00pm), I was listening to the True Oldies Channel on 94.7. During one of the commercial breaks, I heard a commercial promoting the season premiere of the ABC TV program "Alias". Nothing wrong with that...except that the season premiere already aired two nights prior (Thursday!) And yes, the ad definitely was promoting the season premiere specifically...not the show as a whole.
I don't know if the commercial was part of the True Oldies Channel's national commercials, or if it was a local ad that 94.7 ran on its own. I don't recall hearing anything promoting "ABC 7 Chicago" at the end (which is typical for those types of commercials), so I suspect that it's the True Oldies Channel's commercial and their mistake. But doesn't ABC Radio Networks own the True Oldies Channel? It's mind-boggling to me that an ABC-owned service would run an outdated promo for an ABC-TV show, and that this would be heard on a full-signalled station in Market #3!
Or if it was 94.7's mistake...it's still just as bad since ABC owns the station!
To make matters worse, the commercial played twice, consecutively! (I've noticed that happen quite a bit on both radio and television over the years...is this done intentionally?
Some quick observations about a few other stations I listened to:
92.7 -- I like Nine-FM. What a delight it was to hear "Twilight Zone" by 2 Unlimited late Saturday evening! I can't remember the last time I heard that one on the radio.
93.9 -- It was great hearing all the uptempo songs -- I had to a double-take when I heard "Outta My Head" by Kylie Minogue! I personally love it, but I'm not sure if this is what their audience expects from a station calling itself "Lite". I guess the format right now is something called "Bright AC" -- not soft enough to be considered Mainstream AC, not enough pop/rock to be considered Hot AC, but at the same time, not (yet) rhythmic enough to be considered Rhythmic AC. I believe that sister station KBIG in Los Angeles has sounded like this for quite some time, and they seem to be evolving into a full-fledged Rhythmic AC...I wonder if WLIT will do the same.
97.5 (WZOK/Rockford) -- I spent most of my time driving in areas where 97 ZOK is audible. I'd say that this is a solid, balanced Mainstream CHR with good jingles!
97.9 -- I saw a TV commercial for the Loop -- the one with the guy kinda dancing by himself in front of a brick wall, only to be joined by an attractive blonde. It's strikingly similar to a TV commercial for Classic Rocker KSLX (100.7 FM) here in Phoenix from many years ago (they may still be running it...I don't know for sure.)
102.3 -- 'XLC sounded better than I thought it would. The Friday edition of the 90's all-request noon hour was awesome!
I listened to a number of other stations as well, but not enough to be able to comment.
Late Saturday afternoon (between 5:30pm & 6:00pm), I was listening to the True Oldies Channel on 94.7. During one of the commercial breaks, I heard a commercial promoting the season premiere of the ABC TV program "Alias". Nothing wrong with that...except that the season premiere already aired two nights prior (Thursday!) And yes, the ad definitely was promoting the season premiere specifically...not the show as a whole.
I don't know if the commercial was part of the True Oldies Channel's national commercials, or if it was a local ad that 94.7 ran on its own. I don't recall hearing anything promoting "ABC 7 Chicago" at the end (which is typical for those types of commercials), so I suspect that it's the True Oldies Channel's commercial and their mistake. But doesn't ABC Radio Networks own the True Oldies Channel? It's mind-boggling to me that an ABC-owned service would run an outdated promo for an ABC-TV show, and that this would be heard on a full-signalled station in Market #3!
Or if it was 94.7's mistake...it's still just as bad since ABC owns the station!
To make matters worse, the commercial played twice, consecutively! (I've noticed that happen quite a bit on both radio and television over the years...is this done intentionally?
Some quick observations about a few other stations I listened to:
92.7 -- I like Nine-FM. What a delight it was to hear "Twilight Zone" by 2 Unlimited late Saturday evening! I can't remember the last time I heard that one on the radio.
93.9 -- It was great hearing all the uptempo songs -- I had to a double-take when I heard "Outta My Head" by Kylie Minogue! I personally love it, but I'm not sure if this is what their audience expects from a station calling itself "Lite". I guess the format right now is something called "Bright AC" -- not soft enough to be considered Mainstream AC, not enough pop/rock to be considered Hot AC, but at the same time, not (yet) rhythmic enough to be considered Rhythmic AC. I believe that sister station KBIG in Los Angeles has sounded like this for quite some time, and they seem to be evolving into a full-fledged Rhythmic AC...I wonder if WLIT will do the same.
97.5 (WZOK/Rockford) -- I spent most of my time driving in areas where 97 ZOK is audible. I'd say that this is a solid, balanced Mainstream CHR with good jingles!
97.9 -- I saw a TV commercial for the Loop -- the one with the guy kinda dancing by himself in front of a brick wall, only to be joined by an attractive blonde. It's strikingly similar to a TV commercial for Classic Rocker KSLX (100.7 FM) here in Phoenix from many years ago (they may still be running it...I don't know for sure.)
102.3 -- 'XLC sounded better than I thought it would. The Friday edition of the 90's all-request noon hour was awesome!
I listened to a number of other stations as well, but not enough to be able to comment.
