The Breeze blows into Buffalo

[davideduardo]

And I was the first to predict in your thread what the new format would be - a knockoff of WDUV/Tampa. And KSWD/Seattle FTM.

Actually, WDUV is a knockoff of sister station WFEZ in Miami which developed the current parameters for this format after failing miserably when it first launched as a clone of... WDUV.

WFEZ did so well when they quit copying the WDUV style that corporate mandated that WDUV copy the Miami station! Then they did it again with their Jacksonville station.

The answer to this question is obvious if you know the history of the market (and more importantly, about how little the population changes) rather than learning about it from Web searches.

Radio years, like dog years, roll by faster. The value of long abandoned calls that do not match the station name, is likely negative as they suggest "old" rather than a fresh approach.

This has nothing to do with specific markets. It's about how people react to call letters and the decreasing value of using them as a brand.

 

[Element9]

Respectfully disagree. This is more than a branding change. Mix 96.1 was unlistenable to me. I say this not as a critcism but as an acknowledgement that the music had zero appeal to me. But in the hour I’ve had the Breeze on this evening, I heard several tunes I liked. Most surprising was Mike and the Mechanics “The Living Years,” which I don’t think I’ve heard in 30 years. So, I would argue this was a format change. In fact, between having the Christmas music on the last few days — and now this — I’ve probably listened to 96.1 more this week than I have over the past ten years.

Concur, for similar reasons, including hearing the Mike + The Mechanics song, plus many others (Hopelessly Devoted, I Just Want to Be Your Everything, Tiny Dancer, The Greatest Love, It's Too Late, What a Wonderful World, etc.) that were not heard prior to the station's format change. As Catherine, my 37 year old cousin put it, "the music that channel is playing is different than what it was a few months ago." Folks in the business (and on this board) can say both the Breeze and Mix are "AC with a few music changes," and this may be true, but listeners' perceptions and decisions will be the true barometer. I'm guessing more than a few Women in the 35-54 age bracket will also opine that "the music that 'channel' is playing is different" and make their decisions as to whether they like it or not. We'll find out what consumers think about the format sometime in late April.

 

[TheBigA]

Folks in the business (and on this board) can say both the Breeze and Mix are "AC with a few music changes," and this may be true, but listeners' perceptions and decisions will be the true barometer.

Ratings and audience response have nothing to do with the name of the format. They never really knew it as adult contemporary. That's an industry name, similar to CHR or Urban. The name they know it as is The Breeze and that's the brand, not the format. Mix was not a format either. You can talk about music and songs all day, and yes, the songs have changed. But it's still considered an adult contemporary station, and those are songs that get played by other adult contemporary stations. If it reports to an industry chart, it will be to the adult contemporary chart.

BTW I looked at Mediabase for this station, and the Mike & The Mechanics song was not a new add. It was originally added on 9/11/14, and has been played 22 times since then, although only once yesterday. New adds were songs such as Silly Love Songs by Paul McCartney.

 

[Element9]

Ratings and audience response have nothing to do with the name of the format. They never really knew it as adult contemporary. That's an industry name, similar to CHR or Urban. The name they know it as is The Breeze and that's the brand, not the format. Mix was not a format either. You can talk about music and songs all day, and yes, the songs have changed. But it's still considered an adult contemporary station, and those are songs that get played by other adult contemporary stations. If it reports to an industry chart, it will be to the adult contemporary chart.

Right. Listeners don't care. They just know what they like, and recognize the difference in music or appeal. So we agree on this.

BTW I looked at Mediabase for this station, and the Mike & The Mechanics song was not a new add. It was originally added on 9/11/14, and has been played 22 times since then, although only once yesterday. New adds were songs such as Silly Love Songs by Paul McCartney.

22 times over four years. Not what would be called high rotation.

 

[TheBigA]

22 times over four years. Not what would be called high rotation.

You're right, which is why it sounds new to listeners. It's interesting to look at the added songs, most of which are from the 70s. The overall library is about the same size.

It'll be interesting to see how many currents they keep. Right now it's less than 5.

 

[CTListener]

22 times over four years. Not what would be called high rotation.

LOL. That "14" must have been a typo. Although 22 times since Sept. 11 of this year is extremely light rotation, too. Maybe the entire date is botched. Does the station run AT40 or some similar syndicated '80s show? Maybe that would account for less than two dozen spins in more than three months -- the spins aren't being done in-house.

 

[TheBigA]

LOL. That "14" must have been a typo. Although 22 times since Sept. 11 of this year is extremely light rotation, too. Maybe the entire date is botched. Does the station run AT40 or some similar syndicated '80s show? Maybe that would account for less than two dozen spins in more than three months -- the spins aren't being done in-house.

No typo. In Mediabase, we can see when the song was played, it the spins were evenly distributed in the dayparts, primarily in the summer of 2017. But the first spin was in the evening of 9/11/14, and we all know what happened on that day in 2001. And this would have been an appropriate song for that day.

 

[TheBigA]

Delilah at night? Can she'll play a role in this presentation? "Relaxing favorites" seems to be a key slogan point. She may be too foreground... and listeners calling with personal pain and problems aren't all that "relaxing" to listen to.

Update: iHeart's 106.1TheBreeze in Philadelphia will add Delilah on Jan 2:

https://twitter.com/1061thebreeze/status/1078367765206130690

She had previously been heard on B-101, now owned by Entercom.

 

[tbolt909]

The vast majority of Facebook comments(Very few)have been negative about The Breeze. It's being mocked--(Sleepy, Boring, Tired, Rest Home Muzak, etc...) The lack of response at all could mean indifference anyway. People no longer care.

Rolling out another limp format like this is typical of Corporate Radio cluelessness. JOY already had the older demographics that they are now targeting again. Another bloodless bland station like The Breeze will largely go unnoticed...

 

[TheBigA]

The vast majority of Facebook comments(Very few)have been negative about The Breeze.

As you know, some people just like to complain. It's all factored in when a station makes a change like this.

Because it was basically a tweak and not a wholesale replacement, there will be a lot of people who won't even notice the change.

 

[yugoidar]

I've been listening quite a bit since the change to "The Breeze". I find the station to be very listenable - with a lot of music that hasn't been heard in the Buffalo area in many years. Much of it was current back in the 80s on WBUF. A few examples - today I heard "America" by Neil Diamond, "You Can't Hurry Love" by Phil Collins, "Baby, Baby" by Amy Grant, "Candle In The Wind" by Elton John, "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon, "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye, a couple of Eagles tunes, some Whitney Houston cuts, some REO Speedwagon and a surprise - "I Second That Emotion" by Smokey & The Miracles.

The music's good, but what's going to be happening between and around the songs? Those will be the missing ingredients until late in January. The other question - what will Townsquare (that doesn't seem to a big spender) do to let the public know about their new radio station?

 

[davideduardo]

The vast majority of Facebook comments(Very few)have been negative about The Breeze. It's being mocked--(Sleepy, Boring, Tired, Rest Home Muzak, etc...) The lack of response at all could mean indifference anyway. People no longer care.

Rolling out another limp format like this is typical of Corporate Radio cluelessness. JOY already had the older demographics that they are now targeting again. Another bloodless bland station like The Breeze will largely go unnoticed...

Yes, of course. That is exactly what people said in Miami about WFEZ: "we don't need another AC station" and "the music is boring" and "WLYF moved away from those dreary songs years and years ago... they are dead."

WFEZ is now #1 in 25-54 persons. It beats the conventional AC quite nicely.

Add in Seattle, San Francisco, Tampa, Jacksonville and San Diego. All near or at the top in 25-54. All received the same kind of comments that you are making.

Joy has been gone for going on 5 years. It was being beaten by Star consistently, and seriously out billed. As an AC, Mix was not doing well in 35+, and was less than competitive with Star in 18-34, so it had no real sales story. Now, it does.

Anecdotal experience: back some years I flipped a top-20 market Beautiful Music station which had the sort of Joy heritage you seem to admire. But demographically, it was joy-less. I changed to a very contemporary format, and for several weeks got many calls of complaint; during the weekend of the change we had to call in the whole office staff to answer, politely, the often insulting rants about the "low class music for unemployed people who don't buy cars... they steal them". We heard no positive remarks. After a while, the first book came out, and we had more than quintupled the share, and were cuming close to 40% of the market.

 

[TheBigA]

Looked again at their Mediabase list, and they're still playing just 5 current songs. The library appears to be around 500 songs, with about half being new adds, and quite a few from the 70s. Some R&B hits like Smokey & Marvin might compete with 107.3.

What's between the songs? Does it matter? How about some cool imaging? How will the public find out? Word of mouth.

 

[davideduardo]

Looked again at their Mediabase list, and they're still playing just 5 current songs. The library appears to be around 500 songs, with about half being new adds, and quite a few from the 70s. Some R&B hits like Smokey & Marvin might compete with 107.3.

What's between the songs? Does it matter? How about some cool imaging? How will the public find out? Word of mouth.

I just looked at the last two days, the 26th and 27th, and there are about 460 songs and about 15% are pre-1975 but only 10 pre-1960 (Including Brown Eyed Girl). The era map is still the same 1975 to 1990 as the rest of the similar stations have, and there are about 20% post-1990, which is also typical of the format thus far.

Since I only looked at two days, it's likely there are more songs in rotation, as it appears that there are some on greater than 48 hour rest cycles.

There were no currents in the two-day period, with the newest song being from '17.

 

[tbolt909]

Yes, of course. That is exactly what people said in Miami about WFEZ: "we don't need another AC station" and "the music is boring" and "WLYF moved away from those dreary songs years and years ago... they are dead."

WFEZ is now #1 in 25-54 persons. It beats the conventional AC quite nicely.

Add in Seattle, San Francisco, Tampa, Jacksonville and San Diego. All near or at the top in 25-54. All received the same kind of comments that you are making.

Joy has been gone for going on 5 years. It was being beaten by Star consistently, and seriously out billed. As an AC, Mix was not doing well in 35+, and was less than competitive with Star in 18-34, so it had no real sales story. Now, it does.

Anecdotal experience: back some years I flipped a top-20 market Beautiful Music station which had the sort of Joy heritage you seem to admire. But demographically, it was joy-less. I changed to a very contemporary format, and for several weeks got many calls of complaint; during the weekend of the change we had to call in the whole office staff to answer, politely, the often insulting rants about the "low class music for unemployed people who don't buy cars... they steal them". We heard no positive remarks. After a while, the first book came out, and we had more than quintupled the share, and were cuming close to 40% of the market.

I never listened to JOY, but they obviously had success during their run. Townsquare chose to dump it, MIX failed, and now they are reversing course. If they couldn't sell JOY, how will they sell the Breeze.?

Are you seriously saying you think The Breeze will be #1 in Persons 25-54 with this playlist? That would mean vaulting over WYRK and WBLK(which are under the same ownership)...

 

[davideduardo]

I never listened to JOY, but they obviously had success during their run. Townsquare chose to dump it, MIX failed, and now they are reversing course. If they couldn't sell JOY, how will they sell the Breeze.?

Are you seriously saying you think The Breeze will be #1 in Persons 25-54 with this playlist? That would mean vaulting over WYRK and WBLK(which are under the same ownership)...

Joy aged poorly, and was leaning old towards the end and was, simply, being beaten in-format by another station that did it better. Some of its problem was a perception of being old, a common issue with former easy listening stations that tried to modernize after being beaten by a newer station in the same format.

If Townsquare does this right (and the list so far appears to be fairly well on target) it will be a major contender in 25-54, likely to be in the top 3 to 4 stations. With WBLK's poor power ratio, it is possible that this format could be up with WYRK and WBEN in billing.

 

[Buddy Shula]

There is a reason that WJYE ended its run 5 years ago. Ratings were declining, revenue was horrible, and the station had zero pizazz to listeners or advertisers. Fast forward five years to now. Radio as a whole has declined in audience, there are more ways to get music than ever, and a soft jukebox will get no one truly excited. They are going to run this station on the cheap, and spend the least possible. What possible reason would any salesperson of this station have a reason to want to get up in the morning? The ratings will go up because there is a hole in the market for a soft ac, the agency billing and national billing will go up because the ratings will go up, but this station have a power ratio much like WBLK. Good ratings and bad revenue. No local direct clients will give a crap about a radio jukebox. It will continue to be a flanker for WYRK, the top biller in the market. The station will be thrown in to get bigger share for YRK, just like WBUF. The format will challenge other lifeless jukeboxes like WHTT and WTSS. Nobody is going to go out of their way to listen to the Breeze. Nobody is going to go out of their way to buy the Breeze. At least with WJYE, the lifeless station had heritage. It has nothing now, and I know from sources that this will not be something TS is going to put any money into. My prediction. Better ratings. Bad revenue.

 

[TheBigA]

Good ratings and bad revenue. No local direct clients will give a crap about a radio jukebox.

Maybe, unless they happen to play the station in their store. What we're seeing is that The Breeze is becoming an in-store station because it's great as background music.

But yes, long term doesn't look good. And yes I agree with the flanker concept. They'll revisit again in 5 years, and might resurrect Mix. Old formats never die, they just fade away for a while.

 

[Buddy Shula]

Maybe, unless they happen to play the station in their store. What we're seeing is that The Breeze is becoming an in-store station because it's great as background music.

But yes, long term doesn't look good. And yes I agree with the flanker concept. They'll revisit again in 5 years, and might resurrect Mix. Old formats never die, they just fade away for a while.

Advertisers do not want to be involved in a station that is “ background music” in a store.

 

[TheBigA]

Advertisers do not want to be involved in a station that is “ background music” in a store.

That's what they say, until they play it in their store.