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'Save' Lightning 100

R

Radio Nashville

www.tennessean.com

'Save' Lightning 100: Radio station launches fundraising campaign

The Nashville radio station is launching the "Save Our Airwaves" fundraising campaign, which aims to raise $250,000 to offset lost revenue.
www.tennessean.com

If they're being honest, i wouldn't see much of a future for this (at least at 1 time) unique station.

(An a personal note: look at the creator(s) of last few threads. At one time there was discussion- I think on the board (or possibly before the split)- of restricting membership to people who had actually worked in radio. I never have. I've personally known 2 people who did. But i have been fascinated-frustrated-aggravated-exhilarated* by radio for 50 years. I'm betting there aren't many on RD (and i don't think RI even has a Nashville board- and maybe not Tennessee, except east- anymore) who can say the same. I keep an INCOMPLETE Excel spreadsheet of Nashville area stations, formats, call letters, frequencies, from so many different sources i can't list them all.

There has NEVER been this much good music available- over the air, Sirius/XM & youtube.com- regardless of what your taste is. I have 8 OTA music stations i regularly listen to & 5 S/XM. Sorry.)
 
Long time AAA in Knoxville 105.3 WFIV flipped to oldies a few months ago due to lost revenue during the pandemic. I feel like this may become pretty common for locally owned stations for the next few years.
 
I will have to make a call on what is up with Lightning. The owner has had plenty of money, but no one wants to bleed money. I know it's been tough. Lightning has been a bit of a forgotten entity, except for the Live on the Green events. Which oddly has turned into one of the best events attended by a crowd that doesn't listen to Lightning. I am not sure that 91.1 will hurt them that much. I don't think they have a large under 30 listening audience on Lightning.

It probably sadly is time for a change, but what would make sense? For years it was the hip station in and around the hip Hillsboro Village and Vanderbilt/Elliston corridor. Now those area's are dwarfed by The Gulch, Germantown and East Nashville.
Lightning is not hip enough for those areas. WXNA is. Maybe this is the answer.

Radio Nashville - you are exactly who needs to be on this board. Why restrict anything that allows for different viewpoints. I would love to see the list. There indeed are a ton of stations and very listen to listen too. It's been discussed over and over.
What are your 8 OTAs?
 
It's interesting how many commercial radio stations around the country are thinking along these lines. Going directly to the listeners rather than depending completely on advertisers. I hear people say that bad programming drove listeners to satellite and streaming. So here's a station that people like, asking its listeners for direct support. They have some interesting options for listeners, giving them a "backstage pass," to go behind the scenes. Sounds like a good idea to me.
 
Tibbs: 88.5, 93.3, 94.5, 96.3, 102.9, 105.9, (2nd tier: 89.5, 100.1, 100.7. Alt 97.5 (98.3) was my favorite when it was on. That's the first time i've had my favorite station taken away TWICE. S/XM Deep tracks, Underground garage, Classic Vinyl, Classic Rewind, Alt

Name Dropping Dept. (1) Adrian Marshall, who was in the WMAK news department early 70s (i believe he was still in high school), the WDBL, Springfield. (2) Mark Lang, who had a weekly radio show on different stations + MORE (3) Melba Farrell (who went by "Ann"), WNAZ early 80s; (4) The Duke family, who owned 1560 WWGM (in mid 90s?). Since i will be permanently banned (and i should be) for this self-serving post, I went to WWGM once, saw Mark, Melba, & Mrs Duke!

Is this what you're asking about? (Sorry, it isn't pretty)
 

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I've been visiting Nashville regularly since 1994 (married a native) and living here since 2014. So Lightning 100 and I go way back. I really love the station, and I would miss it like a limb.

As for why - well, here's the typical AAA format recipe to my ear, as heard on SXM The Spectrum, XRT in chicago, The Point in Vt, etc.:
40% classic rock (almost all very at home on the least adventurous CR station you could find)
30% "classic alternative" (drawn from a few hundred of the biggest
30% current playlist (national acts)

That's just way more classic rock than I can tolerate. I have listened to a LOT of radio over the last 50-odd years... maybe too much!

To my ear, if L100 plays 13 songs in an hour, it'd be about like this:
~1 classic rock song, sometimes pretty common stuff, sometimes not (e.g., Little Feat, Fat Man in the Bathtub f/ Waiting for Columbus)
~ 2-3 classic alternative tracks, usually pretty common stuff, but on occasion something quite a bit more obscure (e.g., Poi Dog Pondering, cuts from the first Ben Folds Five album)
~ 2-3 non-current but more recent tracks that were part of their current rotation in the last "x" number of years (mix of national and local artists - or then local, now national)
~ 7-9 current playlist songs (mix of local and national).

Where in the heck and I gonna find a replacement for that?!

I'm n=1 and very odd at that, so I'll leave it for the professionals to tell me what the market wants/needs if L100 isn't it, but I doubt I'll like it much. Sorry. [rant ends]
 
100's days were numbered the day WMOT flipped to Americana. It has been a house of cards for decades, living off the glory of the Ned Horton days. The new Public Radio station is going to make them even more irrelevant, at least temporarily. If WNXP can't come through on their mission within two years, it will be because it was too late to save Nashville alt/AAA radio from mediocrity and the fans gave up and went to Spotify, etc.
 
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BeachBaby said:
If WNXP can't come through on their mission within two years, it will be because it was too late to save Nashville alt/AAA radio from mediocrity and the fans gave up and went to Spotify, etc.
Click to expand...

I see these as three very different stations. WMOT is more alt-country than alt, and aims older than the other three. WNXP is aiming younger and hipper with the focus on breaking new bands and music. Lightning is more of the traditional Alt station playing a mix of local and national.

What will make the difference will be how these stations are funded. Obviously WMOT has the benefit of MTSU behind it. WNXP has some advance funding that they've appropriated for the development of this project. WRLT is a commercial operation with a small local owner. If they don't find a way through this economic downturn, they might even sell the station. This is a format that is becoming more of a niche thing, and with all the new competition, it may just be too much.
 
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bgfred said:
As for why - well, here's the typical AAA format recipe to my ear, as heard on SXM The Spectrum, XRT in chicago, The Point in Vt, etc.:
40% classic rock (almost all very at home on the least adventurous CR station you could find)
30% "classic alternative" (drawn from a few hundred of the biggest
30% current playlist (national acts)
Click to expand...

The Spectrum is very conservative and has, to my ears at least, a much, much tighter playlist for currents, recurrents and gold than The Point, which I've listened to quite a bit over the past few years on trips to the Upper Valley of VT and NH. Sadly, The Point is a money pit as well, having recently sold its Upper Valley relay to EMF. If AAA were still something that clicks with a college audience, I don't think that would have happened. Dartmouth College is there, but its students must be listening to more rhythmic stuff just like everyone else in the 18-34 demo seems to be these days, regardless of race or ethnicity.
 
CTListener said:
The Spectrum is very conservative and has, to my ears at least, a much, much tighter playlist for currents, recurrents and gold than The Point, which I've listened to quite a bit over the past few years on trips to the Upper Valley of VT and NH. Sadly, The Point is a money pit as well, having recently sold its Upper Valley relay to EMF. If AAA were still something that clicks with a college audience, I don't think that would have happened. Dartmouth College is there, but its students must be listening to more rhythmic stuff just like everyone else in the 18-34 demo seems to be these days, regardless of race or ethnicity.
Click to expand...
The Point >>> The Spectrum. No doubt.

The Spectrum on XM is truly and tragically sad for being a paid-service offering, and I've pretty much hated XM since they got rid of "Fred on 44" long ago... I do more channel surfing on XM when I leave town now that I ever did on any kind of radio before! I need to cancel that out of a car or two... although Sirius XMU isn't so bad.

FWIW, I bought the LOTG "Restroom" sign from L100s auction (10:1 return - I can get $500 worth of conversation out of that w/o trying!), and my wife bought me an All-Access membership for 2021, so we put our money where my mouth is.
 
TheBigA said:
I see these as three very different stations. WMOT is more alt-country than alt, and aims older than the other three. WNXP is aiming younger and hipper with the focus on breaking new bands and music. Lightning is more of the traditional Alt station playing a mix of local and national.

What will make the difference will be how these stations are funded. Obviously WMOT has the benefit of MTSU behind it. WNXP has some advance funding that they've appropriated for the development of this project. WRLT is a commercial operation with a small local owner. If they don't find a way through this economic downturn, they might even sell the station. This is a format that is becoming more of a niche thing, and with all the new competition, it may just be too much.
Click to expand...
WMOT didn't just hurt them by siphoning off Americana listeners, but by siphoning off its advertising and promo opportunities to some extent.

If WNXP succeeds in its mission, they will further cut in both with music underwriting and reclaim non-profit dollars WRLT had attracted from the arts community, and completely own the prestige angle.

If both the money and the prestige are gone, there's no reason for WRLT to stay in business, imo.
 
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