Power 98.3

[ksradiogeek]

Unfortunately, he continues to have more tracks than The Beatles!

And why’s that a bad thing? He and his marketing team have done something right, and his rise has helped to promote Toronto’s status as a destination for musicians.

 

[2Son]

But it made you listen, right? That’s the whole purpose of stunting, whether low-key or a full blown production.

Yeah, I thought about that. They got me for a sec too, but it won't capture or sustain me as a listener. My opinion on the following stations and why I don't listen to radio like I used to and don't post much here anymore:

I'm a former fan of Power when it was more dance-leaning (and I loved Energy). Power continues to be a former shell of itself. Lame gimmicks and stunting won't change that fact. It's format in the mid-90's was stellar with a variety instead of being limited to just hip-hop and will always remind me of what it used to be instead of what it can be because radio doesn't operate the way it used to and it feels like listener needs are always last.

When Hot more recently flipped to "The Rhythm of the Valley", I thought it could have more potential, but it is the same old hot mess - music is all over the map and not in a good way - so many good songs in-between the years that get absolutely no airplay and it just feels dull and falls flat for me. Nothing extra special about that. I'll never understand radio stations trying to lure listeners by using descriptions like Power, rhythm, and dance and choosing to ignore or excluding songs that actually have power, rhythm and dance.

Bounce - Doesn't make me bounce at all. Why does a throwback station have to limit itself by just playing old hip-hop? Is that the only type of throwback?

If radio stations are still trying to capture more listeners, there’s no reason any of these stations can’t be throwing us dance fans a bone by dropping some dance songs occasionally (that actually played on stations in our market over the years) - whether new or old and I’m not talking about the same old stale lowest-common denominator 10-20 songs that always get play. No creativity whatsoever. With all the stations on the dial, I just personally feel there's just too much saturation of hip-hop and pop crap and sameness on the Phoenix dial anymore and I can't find one station that gets me excited about listening - everything sounds monotonous and I don't feel much energy in it at all. I often watch youtube reactions to listeners who hear songs for the first time and its exciting for them to hear songs that are outside their sphere of musical influence and that you just don't hear on the radio anymore and sound different from the same old crap sound played now.

Diatribe done for now.

 

[Deus Ex Machiato]

Yeah, I thought about that. They got me for a sec too, but it won't capture or sustain me as a listener.

To be fair, it wasn't really directed at you, or us in the radio geek community. Yeah, we were all thinking "ooh...stunting on Labor Day weekend? That usually means format flip or a major rebrand. Let's tune in to see what happens!"

Then when nothing happened, we were like "meh." The P1 listeners of Power? They were probably more excited. If they like Drake, even more so. We're not the target audience.

As for a station that plays dance or songs outside of a sphere of musical influence (that they hear for the first time), that's not what radio is about anymore (if it ever was). I'd love it if KSLX would throw on the occasional King Crimson track or a neo-classical guitar instrumental from the 80s, but that's not going to work, is it? The safe and reliable thing to do is play another Bad Company record. The target audience wants to tune in and hear a song they've heard a million times, and unfamiliarity leads to tune out.

When this weekend is over, Power is going to go right back to what they've been doing, because at least that keeps the lights on at the station. If they flipped to "Energy 98.7, your home for 90s dance music and songs you've never heard before," it wouldn't last much longer than a Drake winning weekend.

 

[2Son]

To be fair, I was speaking more specifically about the entire state of radio. Based upon ratings, it doesn't appear Power is doing enough to entice the demo it's seeking, otherwise ratings would be higher, right? So maybe they should be looking outside of their bubble or even key demo and taking more chances musically. They had years of highs and years of lows, so let's just stick with the lows because it's familiar and safe.

I'm not sure what you mean by unfamiliarity - that sounds more like a programming buzzword. 80's/90's stations are just as bad and no they don’t play everything. For example, instead of playing "Enjoy the Silence" by Depeche Mode ad nausem, try playing "Policy of Truth", "Personal Jesus", or "World in My Eyes". That's not asking for too much. They were from the same era and still charted well on Hot 100 and were familiar to the same listeners. If you're targeting an older demo, we were around then and will still remember those other songs. Playing just "Enjoy the Silence" while ignoring the others doesn't properly represent what our listening tastes were back then or now. Asking a station to ease into making such a little tweak occasionally isn't a huge undertaking. Also, how does a station know if listeners are tuning out due to "unfamiliarity" when programmers aren't playing "unfamiliar" songs?

Lastly, I said I was an Energy listener, but I didn't say solely, "Oh, we need another dance radio station" or let's play dance music from the 90's that we've never heard before. I said it would be nice to hear an occasional dance song (specifically ones that were played in our very own market years before on a number of different stations over the years) instead of listening to the same songs over and over and over just because a programmer thinks it's "safe" and reliable. Let's just ignore that dance music was at different times, pretty popular on radio dials throughout the 80's and 90's and into the 00's to the point that some stations formatted their music around it because it was popular at the time. I doubt any target audience is only interested in tuning in to hear only the lowest-common denominator songs they've already heard a million times, but what choice do they really have when they cannot control the mind of a music programmer. That's more likely a reason "target audiences" despite seeking familiarity are tuning out and have been for years - because they're tired of hearing the same songs over and over and they've chosen other outlets to listen to older, even newer music that gets ignored. Finally, I doubt any target audience over their lifetimes is only familiar with the same 20-50 "classic" songs played in rotation on any given radio station.

BTW, I go through this rant every couple of years on this website, so it's just an outlet for me to express my frustration lol.

 

[johndavis]

As someone who worked at Power back when it was focused on Freestyle and not Hip Hop:

It's not 1989 anymore. Pop music has moved on.

Hot 97.5 reflects this. Power 98.3 reflects this.

Let's just ignore that dance music was at different times, pretty popular on radio dials throughout the 80's and 90's and into the 00's to the point that some stations formatted their music around it because it was popular at the time.

No, we can't ignore it. Dance got airplay then because it had mass appeal. It doesn't have mass appeal now. You call this programming to the lowest common denominator. I call this programming. If I play a song that makes 4 out of 5 people change the station, I'm sorry to that one person who liked it, but I can't keep playing that song.