Re: speaking of new trends
> > As for the term Lite, the station is still very soft by
> > today's AC standards, especially if you don't count the
> > uptempo 60's oldies. Yes, they may sprinkle in some good
> > upbeat 80's tunes, but how can a station that plays lots
> of
> > Barry Manilow ballads NOT be considered Lite? OTOH, I
> don't
> > think they say Lite on-air much anymore. I can only
> imagine
> > what the talented staff at that station could do with a
> > better format.
> >
>
> Yes and no. Some of their music is lite but IMHO, I that
> feel most of it isn't. I was in Indy last Thursday and I got
> to check out their Jack station but I wasn't impressed.
The Indy remark actually drives home one of the main points I try to make, namely that Ted's music mix is actually one of the BETTER ones in this format. Sure, they may play occasional turkeys, but overall it sounds more upbeat, varied, unpredictable and fun to listen to than station such a Jack in Indianapolis. I know this sounds silly, but Ted is a lot more like the Bob format than the Jack format. They're not the same. And some well-funded "Bobs" with GOOD SIGNALS are doing extremely well. Ted has the music, it's just missing other elements that are vitally important to success, most notably a halfway decent signal. And no, I'm not going to go out on a limb and say Ted would tear up the market if it had what it needed to succeed. But there's a possibility that it *could* do that if the other elements were in place. In any event, it would be a helluva lot higher-rated than it is in its current severely handicapped situation.
Which brings me to a secondary concern. If Ted goes away, the "wisdom (!)" is going to be, "See that format doesn't work in Columbus". I've seen that happen before in this town..after a viable format is taken off because technical handicaps prevent it from gaining traction, no one else will try it because they overlook the obvious handicaps. That's like putting a 100-pound redhead on the defensive line and then, after the obvious result, declaring that redheads just are no good as defensive linemenan, so we're never going to recruit one again. That kind of reasoning kind of amazes me, but I see it with radio formats here. If this format goes away on Ted, that kind of illogical reasoning will probably keep it from showing up elsewhere, even though it could probably be successful here with a decent signal.
(Sorry, for getting so blabby about this, but the subject gets me going...)
> I know you love that type of format Nu_Roo but it just doesn't
> do anything for me.
I "like" the format quite a bit on the whole, but I "love" it on stations that do Ted's or Bob-in-Austin's kind of approach. That's why Ted's plight is even more frustrating. OK, I'm repeating myself...
>What I did like is a station there
> called 107.9 The Track. Very similar to 933 but with less of
> the "Lite".
A LOT less of the "Lite".
> Overall, a good station and great moniker that
> fits the format better than Lite fits theirs. I'm not sure
> if they stream but you should check it out.
I've heard it before, and it's a helluva a station. Kind of a toned-down (but still uptempo) Variety Hits approach that is meant more as a direct attack on AC's. In fact, it basically *is* a kind of modified AC. This kind of approach would have made so much more sense for 93.3 (and still DOES, especially if their ratings do head back dwn after that mammoth Christmas-music December falls out in the Winter quarterly). I just looked at a monitor using Chris' link, and it's so much more listenable and uptempo overall than either 93.3, 94.7, and more listenable than 97.1. (They DID have a Barry Manilow song in there, but it was his uptempo "Copacabana" rather than the soft and slepy Manilow ballads 93.3 plays so often.)
While CC was a late entrant into the Variety Hits arena, they're doing quite well with it, and a lot of their stations also have a "Track" like approach. One example is Louie in Louisville, which is doing very well (and CC even has a Classic Rocker there...having two stations with even that minor amount of overlap would cause CC's *Columbus* management to break out in a cold sweat). Bonneville's highly-successful Arch in St. Louis and Peak in Phoenix also take the more AC-oriented (but NOT "lite!) approach kind of similar to the Track, and both are doing great.
<P ID="signature">______________
Nu_Roo_2 formerly Nu__Roo formerly Nu_Roo</P>
