Should Milwaukee's WKTI Become a HOT AC Leaning CHR

[Dkampy]

There is some controversey involving Milwaukee's new morning team Mathew Blades in the Morning taking over for the legendary Reitman and Mueller....many of the latter's listeners are complaing they are trying to court a younger audience...and the new team sounds too much like CHR's WXSS Morning team.

I have noticed the two staions have appear to be in more competion with each other for the past couple of years. It started with the one time almost all Rythmic leaning WXSS starting to add more HOT AC type tunes to it's playlist....ie: James Blunt-"Your Beautiful", Anna Nalick-"Breathe 3AM", and Howie Day -"Collide"...in between the rap and R&B.

Recently WKTI has been adding more typical CHR hit music..ie: Justin Timberlake, Fergie, and Gym Class Heroes. I have notice the CHR Material has been faring better then traditional Hot ac Music....with the one exception of Rob Thomas...Pink's "U and UR" has been one of their top songs...while a song like John Mayer's "Gravity" was tried but did not seem to work. I believe they could get away with more...but are too conservitive in their adds of new music.

One last example...I noticed WXSS added Carrie Underwoods-"I'll Stand by You"...it has been doing well there...a week later WKTI added it.

So should WKTI go all out and become a HOT AC Leaning CHR and compete with the more rythmic leaning(although less so the a couple of years ago) WXSS

 

[PDPete]

There is some controversey involving Milwaukee's new morning team Mathew Blades in the Morning taking over for the legendary Reitman and Mueller....many of the latter's listeners are complaing they are trying to court a younger audience...and the new team sounds too much like CHR's WXSS Morning team.

I have noticed the two staions have appear to be in more competion with each other for the past couple of years. It started with the one time almost all Rythmic leaning WXSS starting to add more HOT AC type tunes to it's playlist....ie: James Blunt-"Your Beautiful", Anna Nalick-"Breathe 3AM", and Howie Day -"Collide"...in between the rap and R&B.

Recently WKTI has been adding more typical CHR hit music..ie: Justin Timberlake, Fergie, and Gym Class Heroes. I have notice the CHR Material has been faring better then traditional Hot ac Music....with the one exception of Rob Thomas...Pink's "U and UR" has been one of their top songs...while a song like John Mayer's "Gravity" was tried but did not seem to work. I believe they could get away with more...but are too conservitive in their adds of new music.

One last example...I noticed WXSS added Carrie Underwoods-"I'll Stand by You"...it has been doing well there...a week later WKTI added it.

So should WKTI go all out and become a HOT AC Leaning CHR and compete with the more rythmic leaning(although less so the a couple of years ago) WXSS

The CHR leaning music that WKTI is playing is reflective of the music that many Hot AC's across the country are playing. The sound of Hot AC is evolving into more of an Adult Top 40 sound (very similar to Canadian Hot AC), and technically is a CHR format, just one for adults. And the main reason WKTI will not change to a mainstream CHR is revenue. The 25-44 female target audience for the Hot AC format is a lot more lucrative than the 12-34 target audience for mainstream CHR. That's the reason WKTI flipped from mainstream CHR to Hot AC/Adult CHR back in 1990 in the first place. Though their ratings have dropped through the years, they are still a solid performer in Milwaukee, and have probably billed a lot more than they would have as a CHR station.

One other note. WKTI was far more pop leaning as a Hot AC in their early days. The problem was they were probably five to ten years ahead of their time back in the early 90's. While their ratings were good, they like most other Hot AC's across the country became more alternative leaning during the mid to late 90's. But like most Hot AC's, they now are going back to their CHR roots at a time when most Hot AC's are following suit. And that is reflective of an ever evolving audience, an issue that has to be addressed by all formats from time to time.