Specialty Weekends

[The Truthsayer]

Once upon a time there was a mainstream CHR/Top 40 that did a specialty weekend on easter. This station is musically balanced as in it doesnt skew towards Hot A/C and it plays a decent amount of rap and rhythm, but plays some stiffs off the Alternative chart [that will never cross onto CHR such as Jimmy Eat World, Jet Lag Gemeni, and Atreyu] once in a while, otherwise its balanced.

The specialty weekend is called "old school weekend" and anything goes formatically, from Led Zeppelin to Til Tuesday to The Time. Is it a good idea? If so, is once a month too often for such a 'feature?' I think its a bad idea but I'm curious as to what you radio vets think about this kind of weekend. Should more stations do something like this?
Discuss

the thread about the station's weekend is right here along with some logs from that station:
http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,95838.0.html
Doctor_radio is this station's assistant program director and music director.

I say its not a good idea for a CHR, no matter how small the market is!
This is a good idea for a Jack [which is the format anyway] and maybe a Hot A/C.
NOT CHR/TOP 40 RADIO!!!

Your core CHR demo is 18-34. Especially that younger portion which are college students.
The station they listen to for Leona, Justin, Baby Bash, Miley and Wyclef Jean...suddenly decides they are going to mix in Kansas, Nazareth, and The Eagles in on the weekend
INSTANT CHANNEL CHANGE!

"What is this!?...sounds like my dad's station!!"

This station is taking a HUGE risk. Who's to say they will come back on Monday morning?

STUPID STUPID STUPID!
meanwhile a CHR in a larger market that booms in this town will be churning out the hits all weekend.
Guess where this station's listeners are going to go? the bigger market's CHR

 

[SirRoxalot]

Skool's Out

In general, specialty weekends are a way to feature songs that are on your playlist, but in categories that don't get played as often. The idea is to reduce repetition, and rest some of your "A" rotation songs, while providing some "Oh, wow" songs for your listeners.

Doing a specialty weekend with songs that are completely out of your genre sounds more like an "April Fools" stunt than a smart programming decision.

For a CHR, an "Old Skool" weekend seems like a chance to feature 5-10 year old songs more prominently, not classic rock hits. Of course, small markets with less competition have fewer restrictions, but let's not get carried away. Maybe if you're talking about a college town, on Spring Break, where most of your normal audience is gone, and lots of former residents are back home to see family...

 

[The Truthsayer]

I do not work for this station but i used to

The seek dial landed on this CHR station on friday while I was driving to Walmart.
They were playing DUST IN THE WIND BY KANSAS!
My first thought was "they changed format!"
But oh no...it was followed by NELLY!?!?!?!

Turns out they were doing their "old school weekend" which they do about every month
they played songs by Kansas, Pink Floyd, Nazareth, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Cheap Trick, Motley Crue, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard, Peter Gabriel, AC/DC, etc

Most of the music was from the 70s and 80s with a sprinkle of 90s and this decade's songs. Basically a JACK-FM with the bulk of it being CLASSIC ROCK SONGS from the 70s and 80s

[they had a set consisting of a segue from Mickey by Tony Basil into Elevator by Flo Rida into Good Times Roll by the Cars into Time by Pink Floyd into Shoop by Salt-n-Pepa into Don't Stop The Music by Rihanna just to name a few.......MICKEY into FLO RIDA into THE CARS?!]

a log from Sunday - http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,95838.0.html

 

[SirRoxalot]

Maybe the're trying to get people to appreciate their regular programming? It's a small market? There's not much competition? The PD and/or consultant is/are schizophrenic? They're trying to drive ASCAP/BMI crazy? What, no country? They're trying to confuse people who fill out diaries? They're trying to drive other PDs in the market crazy? Somebody sent the wrong replacement hard drive for the automation system? They're planning a format change, and want to see what gets the biggest response? They're trying to reclaim lost musical heritage?

So many questions, so few sensible answers...

 

[SirRoxalot]

Doc, do whatever works for you. If it doesn't hurt your numbers, listeners respond favorably, and everybody has fun, then have at it.

I'm not sure that I'd try it in a large, highly competitive market. Especially one with meters.

PS - Truth, it might be time to move on. Obsession is an ugly thing.

 

[Radknowski]

OMG, "Dust In The Wind?" Lemme open a vein! I'll take Unskinny Bop, Legs, Big Shot, What I Like About You and Rock The Casbah any day. Specialty weekends can be fun, entertaining but equally precarious. Must have balance, grasshopper, balance.

 

[ROCKTHEMIC]

I don't care what size market your in Nelly and Kansas on the same station, no way! Led Zeppelin and Run DMC, uh I don't think so. In a club where the patrons can't run out the door becuse they aren't finished with their drinks...a stretch! That's just bad high school radio!

 

[KOOL Listener Lauren]

doctor_radio,

I see what you're saying. I suppose the success of what you're describing probably depends on the size of your market. I don't think going from Parliament to 2Pac, for example, could fly just anywhere. That's such a wide range of songs spanning what, 30+ years roughly? But I'm glad it seems to be working for your station!

Specialty weekends are a great opportunity to gain more listeners, and play some of the stuff people don't normally hear every other day. As a big-time radio listener in Phoenix, I look forward to the specialty weekends every year. It is F-U-N for both the listeners and air-staff.

So, as for the kind of specialty weekend you're talking about; I'm not so sure about. I love it when there are themes to the specialty weekend, personally.


Lauren

 

[nightfly61]

By doing that they're saying "s*rew our regular listeners- let's cater to other station's listeners for 5 minutes here & 5 minutes there.
Specialty weekends on a Hot AC can be fun, especially with the right imaging- especially 80's- but if you just turn around & play the same "Modern English" & "What I Like About You" every 12 hours why bother? Do it with decent halfway obscure cuts & no repeats all weekend. (You Can't Get What You Want-Joe Jackson, Crush On You-Jetts, You Be Illin'- Run D.M.C, Something Real-Mr. Mister, Touch Me- Samantha Foxx, I'll Be Over You-Toto, Just Got Lucky-Joboxers, Fallen Angel-Poison, Lookin' For Love- Johnny Lee, etc). Dump the core artist mainstream & songs that lean toward album rock. "Free Fallin" isn't gonna bring back fond 80's memories-neither is the Fine young Cannibals or Paula Abdul...they were too late in the 80's & they were just played yesterday. An old P.D of mine used to program our 80's & 90's weekends with the same songs repeating within about a day of each other, so if you were voice tracking your Saturday & Sunday shift on Friday it got pretty monotinous. : _ "Question...why is it...every time I turn on da radio...I hear the same 5 songs...15 times a day...for 3 months...MAN FUNK DAT!" :Sagat

 

[davideduardo]

By doing that they're saying "s*rew our regular listeners- let's cater to other station's listeners for 5 minutes here & 5 minutes there.

Yep. Considering that the primary target of CHR today is women 18-34, such a weekend will just blow them off. I'd love to see the individual days of a CHR in a PPM market... but nobody in a large market would do this.