Pt 3: Jamn vs Hot vs Hot 106 Prov.......different style of Hip Hop

[-TJ-]

<font color=3333ff>As WizardofProd mentioned below in Pt2, he obviously does not like Crunk Hip Hop. He's more of a conservative listener I get the feeling. Yes, East Coast and West Coast has a very different vibe from the South.

That still doesn't mean that the whole East coast, Providence, or even just Boston for that matter hates it. There are plenty of folks who DO like it, everywhere. And it's just not "15 year olds" as you may suggest.

Crunk Hip Hop is and has been hot for a few years now... but it's nothing new. The conservative markets don't believe that it will work in their cities (Chicago, Boston, etc.) and therefore don't chose to play it. They also don't want to scare away advertisers with Lil Jon or Ying Yang..........but that's really backwards thinking.

If Crunk Hip Hop is what the people really want, then it makes people listen longer, higher TSL, and higher ratings and better for advertisers. But radio stations are afraid to take the chance.

======================

To describe "traditional" East Coast Hip Hop to "crunk" Southern Hip Hop ..... I'd like to put it this way:

Compare Rock. There are different forms of Rock. There is Classic Rock. There is Alternative Rock. There is Hard Rock and Death Metal.

Does this mean that everyone who listens to Rock likes all of it? No.

It's the same with Hip Hop. Some may like Crunk better than East Coast. Some might like Pop-Crossover better than East Coast or West Coast.

It doesn't make it right or wrong. It's all based on a matter of opinion. BUT.........when a main station for a city is blatantly ignoring *NEW* major hits that are being rotated across the country, playing too much old school, and seemingly repeating nearly 4 songs every few hours, there is something amiss with that.

I think the best thing for Jamn to do is go current, or else change their misleading positioner to something as "#1 For Old School Hip Hop and Today's Jamz." That way the Old School is the lead statement, followed by Todays Jamz. That would be more accurate for them.
</font><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by -TJ- on 10/11/05 12:41 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[FMRadio1]

Do you honestly think that WJMN, WBOT or any major market station that plays hip-hop and R&B doesn't do research? Of course they do! They do auditorium tests, callout and utilize other methods to figure out what songs to play. I'm sure they are not passing over any major bonafide hits just to stay away from crunk. Besides, what you don't play can't hurt you.

While I understand that people do like crunk, the demos that prefer it tend to skew younger, at least in this part of the country. Right now WJMN is getting the 12-17's by default (the ones that actually listen to the radio) so the station is concentrating more on 18-24 and 18-34. That's why you hear less crunk and more recurrent and gold in the mix. And guess what? It works. They've been consistantly one of the top three music stations in the city targeting desirable demographics for the past few years. Why would you want to screw that up by going more current, adding borderline hit crunk records and chasing away the older demos that the agencies are buying? That makes no sense. Despite having WBOT as a direct competitor for the last couple of years who's signal is audible in many minority-heavy zips, Jamn' hasn't missed a beat. Why should they change anything?

As far as the slogan goes, they should keep it as is too. It tells what they do to the AVERAGE listener, not to hardcore hip-hop radio geeks. Their music mix can always fluxuate, so you always want a broad positioner in the event that the competitive situation changes. Do they play some Old School? Sure they do, but it's a minor part of what they do so there's no need to spotlight it in their slogan.

Mike Thomas

> As WizardofProd mentioned below in Pt2, he obviously does
> not like Crunk Hip Hop. He's more of a conservative
> listener I get the feeling. Yes, East Coast and West Coast
> has a very different vibe from the South.
>
> That still doesn't mean that the whole East coast,
> Providence, or even just Boston for that matter hates it.
> There are plenty of folks who DO like it, everywhere. And
> it's just not "15 year olds" as you may suggest.
>
> Crunk Hip Hop is and has been hot for a few years now... but
> it's nothing new. The conservative markets don't believe
> that it will work in their cities (Chicago, Boston, etc.)
> and therefore don't chose to play it. They also don't want
> to scare away advertisers with Lil Jon or Ying
> Yang..........but that's really backwards thinking.
>
> If Crunk Hip Hop is what the people really want, then it
> makes people listen longer, higher TSL, and higher ratings
> and better for advertisers. But radio stations are afraid
> to take the chance.
>
> ======================
>
> To describe "traditional" East Coast Hip Hop to "crunk"
> Southern Hip Hop ..... I'd like to put it this way:
>
> Compare Rock. There are different forms of Rock. There is
> Classic Rock. There is Alternative Rock. There is Hard
> Rock and Death Metal.
>
> Does this mean that everyone who listens to Rock likes all
> of it? No.
>
> It's the same with Hip Hop. Some may like Crunk better than
> East Coast. Some might like Pop-Crossover better than East
> Coast or West Coast.
>
> It doesn't make it right or wrong. It's all based on a
> matter of opinion. BUT.........when a main station for a
> city is blatantly ignoring *NEW* major hits that are being
> rotated across the country, playing too much old school, and
> seemingly repeating nearly 4 songs every few hours, there is
> something amiss with that.
>
> I think the best thing for Jamn to do is go current, or else
> change their misleading positioner to something as "#1 For
> Old School Hip Hop and Today's Jamz." That way the Old
> School is the lead statement, followed by Todays Jamz. That
> would be more accurate for them.
>

 

[WizardofProd]

>
> I think the best thing for Jamn to do is go current, or else
> change their misleading positioner to something as "#1 For
> Old School Hip Hop and Today's Jamz." That way the Old
> School is the lead statement, followed by Todays Jamz. That
> would be more accurate for them.

YOU JUST DO NOT GET IT STILL. it does not MATTER what YOU think they should do, what they are doing now is working better than most places in the country, their numbers are consistantly high, they routinely beat kiss. IF they didnt know what they were doing HOT 97 in NEW YORK CITY WHERE HIP HOP WAS BORN would not have offered Jam's PD the pd gig at thie station. Whether you think they should identfy themselves as a station that plays less new muisc than you think they should is just dumb, they are succeeding NOW THE WAY THEY ARE DOING IT. Whether I like Crunk or not does not make me a conservative listener, and most of the Crunk stuff is warmed over 2 live Crew ten years later!.lol.

WHAT part of that do you not understand?. Your continusous arguments about what they should do are meaningless, theyre kicking a** without your hip hop expertise. So why dont you let it go? get an ipod or move closer to Brockton so you cna listen to Hot all day and all night?.

Seriously man you're beating a dead horse when you're not even making any points that even make sense. It's not like theyre doing poorly, theyre doing great so for you to criticize their obvious winning forumla which has been winning for years now is pointless.

 

[RumourControl]

> As WizardofProd mentioned below in Pt2, he obviously does
> not like Crunk Hip Hop. He's more of a conservative
> listener I get the feeling. Yes, East Coast and West Coast
> has a very different vibe from the South.
>
> That still doesn't mean that the whole East coast,
> Providence, or even just Boston for that matter hates it.
> There are plenty of folks who DO like it, everywhere. And
> it's just not "15 year olds" as you may suggest.
>
> Crunk Hip Hop is and has been hot for a few years now... but
> it's nothing new. The conservative markets don't believe
> that it will work in their cities (Chicago, Boston, etc.)
> and therefore don't chose to play it. They also don't want
> to scare away advertisers with Lil Jon or Ying
> Yang..........but that's really backwards thinking.
>
> If Crunk Hip Hop is what the people really want, then it
> makes people listen longer, higher TSL, and higher ratings
> and better for advertisers. But radio stations are afraid
> to take the chance.
>
> ======================
>
> To describe "traditional" East Coast Hip Hop to "crunk"
> Southern Hip Hop ..... I'd like to put it this way:
>
> Compare Rock. There are different forms of Rock. There is
> Classic Rock. There is Alternative Rock. There is Hard
> Rock and Death Metal.
>
> Does this mean that everyone who listens to Rock likes all
> of it? No.
>
> It's the same with Hip Hop. Some may like Crunk better than
> East Coast. Some might like Pop-Crossover better than East
> Coast or West Coast.
>
> It doesn't make it right or wrong. It's all based on a
> matter of opinion. BUT.........when a main station for a
> city is blatantly ignoring *NEW* major hits that are being
> rotated across the country, playing too much old school, and
> seemingly repeating nearly 4 songs every few hours, there is
> something amiss with that.
>
> I think the best thing for Jamn to do is go current, or else
> change their misleading positioner to something as "#1 For
> Old School Hip Hop and Today's Jamz." That way the Old
> School is the lead statement, followed by Todays Jamz. That
> would be more accurate for them.
>
Settle down both of you before I have to pop a cap all up in dat ass!

Feel me?

 

[Power91]

This argument has been beaten to death, but the basic points have been articulated as to why your point of view is personal choice -

Boston is not Atlanta, it's not New York, it's not LA...it is Boston...what works in each city is different...I grew up in Boston...and listened to Jamn regularly (along with Kiss, Mix, BCN, etc.)...and still do when I'm home...now that I live on Long Island, I find myself listening more to KTU and Z100....I'll check Hot 97 and Power 105, but I don't listen to them regularly...and you know why?...they're a bit more hardcore for my taste...that doesn't make them bad (ratings would dictate anything but)...

Jamn works for the Boston audience...it plays songs that get ratings and are familiar (and btw, on a separate argument, who said playing recurrents is a bad thing...) and while listening to those recurrents, I'd hear newer music that would grow on me...as opposed to a station being too edgy (ala Hot 97) in which I miss out on stuff, just cause I can't listen for a long period of time...I'd love to hear a station like KTU in Boston, but it's designed for the NYC audience (which has much more of a club night scene than Boston)...

Sorry if Jamn isn't your taste, but as has been said before, it works: the ratings are solid, Cadillac knows what he's doing, and, is too often the case, don't fix what isn't broken...

~RM