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Star Adjusts the Music Again
- Thread starter Jim1987
- Start date
IMHO Star doesn't want to be be a part of Atlanta's super competitive Urban radio
scence. Also V103 is on the same building. 98.5 hasn't had a direct competitor lately, and most likely is the easiest target. They could clone CBS FM but that would be an expensive start up and the demos would end up too old like Fox 97 was.
scence. Also V103 is on the same building. 98.5 hasn't had a direct competitor lately, and most likely is the easiest target. They could clone CBS FM but that would be an expensive start up and the demos would end up too old like Fox 97 was.
I know the feeling all to well*. If you were an 18 year old senior in High School in 1989 you would have been born around 1971 which makes you 55. The radio "money" demos stop at 55. Anything older is usually of no interest to the agency buyers.
*I am way out of the money demos.
But literally every major market still plays plenty of 80s music. This seems to be an Atlanta issue. It still tests well with the audience elsewhere.
Bingo! Well, every OTHER major market. Not Atlanta!
I was out at the pool yesterday and listened to 101.1 WCBS and it was so good. Great mix, good DJs.
I am told that format won't work here. God forbid anyone actually TRIES it.
This is me to a T. Born in 1971. Graduated in 1989. Listened to the last gasps of 94Q as a senior, when it was a real CHR. I just officially crossed the "get lost" age demo for radio three weeks ago, although they haven't wanted me in years, really.
WCBS 101.1 is the greatest oldies station in the format, in my opinion. Great mix, great sound, great jocks. I just pull it up on the tablet and Bluetooth it to my yellow DeWalt speaker at poolside. Atlanta gets none of my listening unless something is happening in the news and even then if it's a national story I'll go to 1010 WINS.
You might say that I actively avoid Atlanta radio stations as much as they avoid serving me as a listener.
Back in 1989, WQXI-FM/WSTR PD Bill Cahill said that changing the branding was the right way of flipping format, and that if they said "we're the new 94Q," people would say, "What? Again?"
Different players now, of course, but how many "new Star 94"s have we endured?
I agree. I only lasted 2 songs Saturday. Of course you have to remember just about every station I liked in Atlanta failed: WGST, Fox 97, Cool 105.7, 96 Rock, True Oldies Channel on 106.7, and all News 106.7*. If I listen, they will fail. I am the format killer in the ATL.
* I like the all news concept but Cumulus tried to do it on the cheap. Of course they were having financial issues and headed towards bankruptcy.
IMHO the only station that could pull it off was Cox's 750. All the heavy news gathering would have been done in house by Channel 2 and the AJC. It would require only two people, a producer / editor and a news reader. Since Atlanta is a blue political island in the sea of red that is the southeast, there might have been enough folks that don't accept the GOP's talking points that the Press is a branch of the Democratic Party to listen.
Of course that can't happen now due to the decline in AM listenership.
But back to 94.1. This is big-time radio. I am pretty sure they did the research and music testing on their target demo.
I've lost count. They could go in the direction with BIG in Boston, Magic in Boston, etc but they don't.
I think people believe in the STAR moniker. It has been some form of AC for the last 30 years WITH that name. Its truely is a legacy ATL station. There is something to be said there. On the other side of the coin - people probably are pretty exhausted from the many iterations of AC they have scrolled through.
TBH - a 3.6 share isn't bad. Especially compared to what Star has gotten in the past.
TBH - a 3.6 share isn't bad. Especially compared to what Star has gotten in the past.
You forgot the racial makeup of this market. Boston is 8.7% black Atlanta is 37% black.
A true AC station can and enhance Atlanta's diverse population—including many Black listeners—without abandoning the AC format. It can be done. B98.5 wants to take the Hot AC route. Fine.
94.1 has had ample opportunities to embrace that role while still respecting the listening preferences of Atlanta's diverse audience. A well-programmed AC station doesn't have to abandon its identity or chase another format to appeal to Black listeners. Instead, it can build a balanced playlist that reflects Atlanta's diversity while remaining unmistakably Adult Contemporary. That's a lane that appears to be underserved in the market today.
Hopefully the following post is inaccurate but I am afraid it's true.
There is a large percentage of MEGA whites that don't like Rap, Hip Hop and R & B because of the race of the artists."
Having gone to school in a district that was 51% black that integrated without having to call out the police, serving on an integrated USAF, and worked for equal opportunity Fortune 500 companies, I really don't understand this attitude but I can only guess in America you have the Right to be Wrong.
There is a large percentage of MEGA whites that don't like Rap, Hip Hop and R & B because of the race of the artists."
Having gone to school in a district that was 51% black that integrated without having to call out the police, serving on an integrated USAF, and worked for equal opportunity Fortune 500 companies, I really don't understand this attitude but I can only guess in America you have the Right to be Wrong.
The Atlanta market is considered to be younger and Blacker than average, and the actual demos bear that out to some extent.
Keep me honest here, but the only two stations running an oldies or at least oldies-friendly (80s and older) format are WALR and The River. Maybe 99X; as part of their comeback, they rolled in some 80s alt that they weren't really playing before except during the House of Retro Pleasure.
Classic Country hasn't worked either. 90s country is generally considered to be a golden age for the format, and it doesn't get played much anymore.
There are some HD subchannels that are playing this music, but not many. There are also rimshots like Chuck FM and WBCX, Brenau's college station.
Even B98.5 has changed from "80s, 90s, and today" to "90s, 2K, and today".
As I said before, I am 55, and I went to school in the Atlanta area. In my high school class, when we wanted to listen to something that everyone could agree on, we listened to Z93, and later, Power 99. There were elements of all types of music played there. That CHR music of the time is now today's gold-based AC. I still say it could work here if someone would just try it. And if it failed then I'd shaddap about it.
94Q's big mistake was what a lot of top 40 stations around the nation did in the early 80s...tried to superserve the boomers by "growing up with them" and going AC.
They had a really good format and identity with their "Rock 40" format that slid in nicely between CHR Z-93 and AOR 96 Rock. Next thing you know, they're competing with five* other stations in the AC space. With the Top 40 doldrums of late 1980 into 1981, a Rock 40 format would have done well especially since AOR was picking up during that time.
* WLTA had just flipped from BM/EZ to AC, and eventually rebranded as Warm 100/99.7.
WSB-FM had just done the same, as WSB 99FM and then B98.5 after Cox v. Susquehanna.
WPCH 95 was flipping to AC from BM/EZ in some dayparts.
97 FOX moved in and began their transition from CHR to oldies, but not before trying a "60s, 70s, and 80s" AC format for a few years.
Wide 107 flipped from CHR to AC Lite 106 as part of their move-in before flipping from AC to country as Y106.
Yes, Atlanta had six flavors of AC at one point--two move-ins and 4 original-allocation class C's.