Aunt Helen loves The Breeze, especially when she's upwind of Uncle Oskie. It's their new make-out station.
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The Breeze blows into Buffalo
- Thread starter EricSF
- Start date
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Buddy Shula
Guest
They will want a comparable Sirius channel or Pandora in their store. Stores do not like hearing any competition on the air in their stores.
B
Buddy Shula
Guest
Great. Very compelling industry changing radio. I am sure everyone in the bank knew exactly what they were listening too
Are these 10,000 different songs or the same 300 just repeated until they've played 10,000 without a commercial?
Once this stunt is over, I doubt that this format will have a 10,000 song playlist. It will be the same listless shopworn 300 titles on repeat...
Of course there is no ten thousand song playlist because there is no contemporary station that can even find half that many playable cuts.
The Breeze-like stations have lists in the range of 450 to 500, and they will repeat those songs in proportion to their score with no commercials in between until a total of ten thousand spins has been reached.
At that point, the 400 to 500 best liked songs in the genre will play in a manner where, if well done, the average listener will hear each one about once a week or less.
If you actually read the thread, you'd see where Mediabase is reporting about 500 songs in rotation. There are likely to be a bunch of "Oh, wow" titles among them.
The format is likely to become default office background music - free, and diverse enough to keep a wide range of people from being annoyed. IOW, a younger version of the old WJYE - which is likely the intent. Some stores will run it to avoid paying satellite fees or because of lousy satellite reception. If "The Breeze" can figure out how to limit commercial interruptions, make commercials stand out from the music, and avoid stacking 8-10 minutes into each stopset they could be a saleable commodity. If they get numbers, they'll get revenue. Programmatic buying doesn't distinguish between foreground and background stations.
"A younger version of WJYE"? They'll just play the same stuff with a different name. The demos are likely to be 50+ with this playlist and just as "unsellable"...
This lends itself to an interesting discussion, if one is willing to entertain it without rancor.
"Everyone in the bank knew exactly what they were listening to" ... Who knows. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. The fact is, the radio was tuned to 96.1. If the station was on for hours or days, they probable learned about it and came to recognize it for what it offered, an indirect component of discovery and "tell a friend." The radio could have been set to the old format ("brand" ... ahem) and Director of Office Entertainment, the person in charge of making listening decisions didn't notice the difference. Perhaps the DOE discovered the station at home in his/her car on December 26th, after the All Christmas Music format ended, liked what he/she heard and tuned it in at work. The previous time I visited that particular bank, the radio was tuned to 104. At the time, 96 and 102 were in All Christmas Music Mode. Many businesses have a gatekeeper of the radio or DOE. Some offices take a vote. One day it's 106.5; the next 96.9; another 102.5 and then 96.1. Some businesses have a committee that chooses the station. This scenario lends itself "the station that everyone at work can agree on" premise. I'll be listening next time I'm in the bank to see if the Breeze remains the station of choice.
"Compelling" ... what's compelling? Your definition may not fit mine, my definition may not match yours, or that of the woman/man in the cubicle next to me. The most compelling station in the morning, like Shredd and Ragan or Janet Snyder, may turn into "10 in a row" at 8:30 because that's what gets the ratings and that's what the majority of music-oriented listeners want. The most compelling station in the market may be the sports or news talk stations, WGR, WBEN and WBFO. Do listeners, workers and clients in an office want that kind of "compelling?" It's a question, not an argument. I actually visited an optometrist's office that had WBFO on "behind the glass." The place that changes the oil in my car just wants tunes, so WHTT and Jack are the stations the guys who work there choose more often than not.
"Industry changing" ... every day of the week something happens that impacts the way people seek and make entertainment and information decisions. I remember a time in the mid 70s when my co-workers nixed WKBW as their station of choice in favor of Rock 102. It was part of a move from AM to FM, one local occurrence that I witnessed, replicated nationwide as listeners moved from AM to FM. Small stuff happens that becomes big stuff.
So there's that. Discuss?
Then they have to pay for it. Sirius offers a business plan for that purpose. But as we all know, that's not what everyone does.
Look, I'm the guy who makes the exact same argument you're making. I'm the guy who wants tempo so the station isn't background. I'm the guy who says stations don't want to play competitor's commercials. I've heard all the arguments because I make them. But there are always exceptions. Your station is one of them, and apparently, so is this one. That's how you program in the niche world of radio. If this station becomes as popular as The Sound as Seattle, they will get in-store play, and they will attract local advertising. If the station gets played in a store, the owner will be pre-sold. It happens sometimes.
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Buddy Shula
Guest
Getting numbers does not guarantee revenue, as the old WJYE knew well. Also, look at stations like BLK and HTT- huge numbers - horrible revenue. It's called power ratio
B
Buddy Shula
Guest
Radio is no longer in the "getting new listener" business. Listeners figured out a long time ago that radio exists. If they like it, they would have liked it by now. Radio is in the business of getting advertisers to invest ad dollars. Advertisers want nothing to do with background stations. These stations simply do not get results for the advertisers. They want radio that is keeping the listener attention thru the stop sets. I could give many examples of this, but out of respect to other radio station corporations i know personally, i won't. "Compelling Radio" in my view keeps the listeners attention before, during, and after commercial breaks. Radio has to please 2 sets of people....Listeners and Advertisers.....in the normal world, those 2 do not co-exists. Now is the perfect time to go to an advertiser considering 96.1 and say "They are playing 10,000 songs in a row because they think commercials are a tune out and bad" That is proof right there that programming thinks advertising hurts its product, which is probably the case if you are playing 15,000 commercials in a row, or the commercials are just not good, which radio is notorious for. In the Superbowl, more people tune in for the commercials than the games! Why is that? Because the spots are compelling. Do people "tune out" of the Buffalo News on Sunday because there are too many commercials? That's the whole reason most people buy the Sunday news- the ads! So we get back to whats compelling radio.....and my answer is a station that presents the listener an "experience" vs a Jukebox. There were two stations mentioned above in your scenario of at work listening that WECK beat in the 12 plus demo. WBUF and WMSX. Think about that.....
You got that right Buddy. A lot of homes don't even have a radio. People under 35 listen get their compelling information and entertainment from smart speakers, podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, streaming or satellite radio. A guy who sells for Entercom remarked "Townsquare just did Star a big favor. They blew off the few young Adult Contemporary listeners they had and handed them over to us." That seems like a simplification to me. Earlier in this thread somebody wrote that this format gets big young adult ratings in some cities. Also heard it described as "sleepy and lame." You just have to wonder if Buffalo is like those cities. I'll leave it up to you radio mavens to sort out. I'm a guy who listens to Giant FM, Jack, 97-7 and my own music on my phone.
I think Buddy doth protest too much here. The Breeze is a competitor to him and he doesn't have a nice word to say about it.
The truth is, Soft AC is currently the hot new format because it seems to be working. Each of the six Soft ACs in large markets are doing well. WFEZ Miami and WDUV Tampa are #1, KISQ is San Francisco's #1 music station. KSWD is Seattle's #2 or 3 music station. WEZI Jacksonville is currently ranked at #7.
Entercom just switched a Detroit FM to the format. iHeart just switched FM stations in Chicago, Philadelphia and Sacramento to it. Cumulus just switched in Minneapolis. Stingray in Vancouver and Edmonton. And now Townsquare in Buffalo.
My mom would say, if everyone jumps off the George Washington Bridge, are you going to jump too? But on the other hand, can all these large owners be wrong? Are they afraid of primarily background music stations? Owners made a lot of money on background Beautiful Music and Easy Listening in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. They made a lot of money with Soft AC, Smooth Jazz and Mellow Rock in the 80s, 90s and 00s. Now they see Soft AC again as a viable option on an FM dial where every other station is uptempo and foreground. As David tells us, in the larger markets, so much of ad buying is via agencies. They likely will look at the station's demos and ratings, not caring if it's background or foreground.
The truth is, Soft AC is currently the hot new format because it seems to be working. Each of the six Soft ACs in large markets are doing well. WFEZ Miami and WDUV Tampa are #1, KISQ is San Francisco's #1 music station. KSWD is Seattle's #2 or 3 music station. WEZI Jacksonville is currently ranked at #7.
Entercom just switched a Detroit FM to the format. iHeart just switched FM stations in Chicago, Philadelphia and Sacramento to it. Cumulus just switched in Minneapolis. Stingray in Vancouver and Edmonton. And now Townsquare in Buffalo.
My mom would say, if everyone jumps off the George Washington Bridge, are you going to jump too? But on the other hand, can all these large owners be wrong? Are they afraid of primarily background music stations? Owners made a lot of money on background Beautiful Music and Easy Listening in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. They made a lot of money with Soft AC, Smooth Jazz and Mellow Rock in the 80s, 90s and 00s. Now they see Soft AC again as a viable option on an FM dial where every other station is uptempo and foreground. As David tells us, in the larger markets, so much of ad buying is via agencies. They likely will look at the station's demos and ratings, not caring if it's background or foreground.
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All the soft ACs from WFEZ and WDUV to San Diego and San Francisco are playing 450 to 500 songs. Since Miami is the oldest, I doubt any songs are not strong researching tunes, as they are several years into the format.
Not all of them are in the same rotation, though. We've already had Mediabase examples of tunes that are heard infrequently. That would qualify as an "Oh, wow" tune in the confines of that format.
"Oh wow" how? As in in (1) "oh wow, I can't believe they're playing this" ... or ... (2) "oh wow, I haven't heard that song in a while." There was indeed an "oh wow" (1) moment" a few days back when Sounds of Silence by S&G came up in rotation. So yeah, there are some "oh wow moments."
About the "10,000 commercial free songs." What's the duration? This should take about 25 days, give or take... which allows at least a few more weeks, running to around January 19-21st. That's a long time to go without revenue. Will there be a premium for "first commercial" heard after the 10 thousand songs?
About the "10,000 commercial free songs." What's the duration? This should take about 25 days, give or take... which allows at least a few more weeks, running to around January 19-21st. That's a long time to go without revenue. Will there be a premium for "first commercial" heard after the 10 thousand songs?
We've likely got a different interpretation of "oh wow" songs.
I see them as occasional tunes that can be made relative to a morning show topic or a personality bit in other dayparts via linking with a current event, a special date or a reference in the tune. There is no regular rotation, just isolated spins for "fun".
On the other hand, there are songs that scored to near cut-off on a test that we don't want them to even be in the worst category day in and day out. So we platoon them to play a bit and then rest for a while. They are like Uncle Seth: if he stops by with the family for an afternoon, it's fine. If he looks like he is eying the guest bedroom, things are going downhill fast. Seth is one of those songs. They are not "oh, wow" songs. After a second play, they are "oh, s--t" songs.
I doubt WFEZ, long in the format, has any such risky songs in the library as oh, wow songs don't tend to be understood or received equally by different cultural groups. And Miami tends to juggle those groups very judiciously and carefully as they need both.
LOL. For me that describes the entirely of Buffalo's 97Rock (WGRQ, I think?).
My apologies for that, but I could not resist.
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