PLAY 98.7: In retrospect...

[FM 100 Means Music]

So they took a perfectly good Smooth Jazz station and flipped it to a god-awful Adult Contemporary station that tanked in the ratings and got flipped to all sports.

Good job, CBS.

And people wonder why so many are switching to Pandora, when you can't listen to the music you like on terrestrial radio....

 

[gamefreak]

I might have to somewhat defend CBS on this decision. The big reason I believe Play hasn't caught on is because of Mix 100.7. Look at it this way, Play 98.7 wasn't at all programmed poorly. The reason why Play hasn't caught on is because the casual radio listener can't see much of a difference from Mix. Both stations play a lot of the same music, the only exception is Mix is more recurrent heavy. Mix also has a blowtorch of a signal, Play not so much. To the casual listener both stations play similar music, however Mix 100.7 has more name recognition and a better signal.

However blowing it the Smooth Jazz station was a god awful move in part of CBS Radio, no excuse for that. Same goes with all the people CBS fired years ago.

As for Pandora I've been listening for a while. So good when you can fine tune the stations to your liking and play music Corporate radio wouldn't touch.

 

[billalm]

98.7 was most likely the 2nd or 3rd choice for most listeners. If your favorite radio station was either 93.3, 94.9, 100.7, or 101.5; Play 98.7 was the button you pushed when they went into commercials. Very rarely does a station win that battle unless it's positioned that way on purpose within a cluster and or is "sold" that way on the street.

 

[Obtuse1]

Play might have had a shot (as an alternative to 'FLZ) if Hot 101.5 didn't come along. That was the real "nail in the coffin", IMHO.

Too many stations playing CHR at that point.

 

[vadar]

Not a fan of Pandora and advertisers have no use for it...........yet.
Long live radio!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[byron]

Never could pull in the station on a stereo in the office or at home in the Tampa metro. Doesn't really come in stable on the car. People will leave a station like this, and find another choice to hear more of the same.

Sports, will probably not be a big deal... The signal can fade. You're just listening to conversation anyway. Doesn't matter if it's stereo, although they better make sure the HD signal fading in and out stays "on sync" with the conversation or that'll just be annoying for those with HD radios. (I know, only a few of us in that category, I know.)

Byron

 

[azumanga]

Observed this today while at a local store tuned in to 98.7 after 12 Noon -- after a commercial break, they had a liner with their slogan "Today's hit music, without the rap", and the song they played after that -- had rap in it.

 

[badjef]

Observed this today while at a local store tuned in to 98.7 after 12 Noon -- after a commercial break, they had a liner with their slogan "Today's hit music, without the rap", and the song they played after that -- had rap in it.

They aren't paying attention to it. They are preparing for "post-Play".

You are likely to hear just about anything at this point on that station. The air staff, such as it is, knows they are outahere. You will not hear any new music rotation changes, either. It is a zombie station. They are just fulfilling the spots promised otherwise they might be better off in stunting mode. Since they have the Yankees contract in New York, I wouldn't be surprised to start hearing John and Suzyn from WCBS.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!