Soft Rock 98.9 and Sunny 105.3 playlists

[derek20la]

In a previous thread I mentioned that KHHT 98.9 Mettler is currently off air while they relocate to a new transmitter site. That means for now KSOF 98.9 Dinuba/Fresno comes in pretty well to Bakersfield.
Since then I've noticed that their playlist is almost song for song the same as KBFP Delano (the new Sunny 105.3)

(Thurs, 5/9/19, ~3pm)
Alessia Cara - Beautiful
Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen
Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died in Your Arms
Selena - I Could Fall In Love

Sometimes Sunny will play a track first, other times Soft Rock will, occasionally they both start about the same time. Rarely, 105.3 will play a more rhythmic song that 98.9 skips, usually during a commercial break.
I know even with their different branding, they are both iHeart stations. But I've never seen a "non-simulcast" before. It kinda reminds me of the 102.7 KIIS FM and 1150 KIIS AM delayed simulcast back in ancient history.

 

[mofocat]

Lets just call it a result of "Homogenized music", like Homogenized milk- make it all the same, mass consumption goes down easier that way. With such limited and uniform playlists they are BOUND to be playing the same things at the same time quite often.

 

[derek20la]

Lets just call it a result of "Homogenized music", like Homogenized milk- make it all the same, mass consumption goes down easier that way. With such limited and uniform playlists they are BOUND to be playing the same things at the same time quite often.

I agree, it's not uncommon to hear the same song playing at the same time on different stations. But that's usually just a coincidence from having a limited playlist.

My theory is that KBFP/Sunny 105.3 is actually being programmed by the Fresno iHeart group, which explains the near identical playlist with KSOF/Soft Rock 98.9
A clue was a station promo commercial I heard, describing how to use an Xfinity X1 Remote to search for and listen to Sunny 105.3
Well, all of western Kern County is served by Charter Spectrum (formerly Bright House Networks). That commercial was useless for everyone in Bakersfield.
However, Fresno, Tulare, and Kings County are served by Comcast Xfinity. KBFP is a 35,000 watt signal from the Oildale hills; it has a good reach, but who knows if there are any listeners that far north in Comcast territory.
Someone didn't do their market research...

Incidentally, when visiting Pinnacles National Park in March, from the high peaks I was able to pick up KBFP with my phone's FM radio app. Not bad for 140 miles with a transmitter at 1,200' ASL.

 

[Tiger Cox]

I agree, it's not uncommon to hear the same song playing at the same time on different stations. But that's usually just a coincidence from having a limited playlist.

My theory is that KBFP/Sunny 105.3 is actually being programmed by the Fresno iHeart group, which explains the near identical playlist with KSOF/Soft Rock 98.9
A clue was a station promo commercial I heard, describing how to use an Xfinity X1 Remote to search for and listen to Sunny 105.3
Well, all of western Kern County is served by Charter Spectrum (formerly Bright House Networks). That commercial was useless for everyone in Bakersfield.
However, Fresno, Tulare, and Kings County are served by Comcast Xfinity. KBFP is a 35,000 watt signal from the Oildale hills; it has a good reach, but who knows if there are any listeners that far north in Comcast territory.
Someone didn't do their market research...

Incidentally, when visiting Pinnacles National Park in March, from the high peaks I was able to pick up KBFP with my phone's FM radio app. Not bad for 140 miles with a transmitter at 1,200' ASL.

iHeart has Hub formats that many of their stations use, which takes away from local input of the music, same songs, different ID and commercials.Stations can pause and delay the music, so the songs may not be on at the same exact time.