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The Formats We Need in Atlanta

W

wpb1999

These are the formats I wish we had in Atlanta and also the formats I think stations would be successful.

Heres what I think would do well in ATL radio that we don't have (I will work up the dial):

On 929 A classic, fast moving, good ol', CBS ALL News station featuring Traffic and Weather Together on the 9s and a CBS radio news update on the top and bottom of every hour. I think that Atlanta is a news hungry city and think this format would do well in both male and female 25-54 demos.

96.1 A real CC CHR. I know most will disagree that CluelessChannel's CHR are not absolute gold like Z~93 was (I agree with you) but I think a "Channel 96.1" (Just like Charlotte) would do pretty well. I think it would draw in the younger demos who would like a real CHR than what they are getting at Q100.

96.7 Folks, you can hear it downtown. I hear it every day while I am in Midtown. Stop all this "doesn't cover Atlanta" stuff. I think they should run SoftAC PremiumChoice on it and not have any local DJ's there. I will get into 105.7 further down.

105.7 I have long thought that 105.7 should be an FM sports radio with FSR and steal the Two Live Stews for mornings while running Dan Patrick and Jim Rome (who is not burning at the moment). This would do well with men and would work well.

106.7 I think that 106.7 is doing well considering they are taking a bit away from a large amount of stations. I think that if 106.7 shifted a little bit to a WMMO-style Adult Hits and added a few soft rock songs from the 90s and that fabulous NOW and still keeping the focus on rock from the 70s and 80s, they would do quite well. This would attract the male 25-54 and the older demos as well as the crowd who just wants to listen to the music.

So, I think that we need an ALL News, CHR, SoftAC, FM Sports Talk and Adult Hits.

BTW, who is doing WYAY's new imaging? It is excellent. And I have been hearing less 60s oldies. More of a 70s emphasis now.

Bill Bradley
[email protected]
 
Agree on 106.7. They are improving. The music seems more focused. Going by history, the more newer music they played, the better they did. Hopefully this will help them. I'll have to check the imaging out.
 
Mike McVay just tweeted a response that is was Pat Garrett doing new imaging. He is also on WCBS and WTOP as well as KNRS.

CC did do Lite 96.7 and I think they need to bring its premium choice back.

I think 106.7 could pull in the listeners that were turned away by WSB-F's "fresh new look" as well as restoring their current listeners. I think WMMO does quite well in the Orlando market.
 
wpb1999 said:
96.1 A real CC CHR. I know most will disagree that CluelessChannel's CHR are not absolute gold like Z~93 was (I agree with you) but I think a "Channel 96.1" (Just like Charlotte) would do pretty well.
Click to expand...

This would be directly competing with Wild...

Charlotte doesn't already have a Rhythmic CHR in its market
 
YOU WOULD CHANGE WiLD first.
 
There is one format folks like you always leave out

Top40/Dance and yes Top40/Dance is marketable without the corporate rules.
 
carolinaradio said:
Agree on 106.7. They are improving. The music seems more focused. Going by history, the more newer music they played, the better they did. Hopefully this will help them. I'll have to check the imaging out.
Click to expand...

OK...They say they have the oldest record library, well if that's the case why do we hear the same music over and over. You can hear for example, "La Bamba" at least 3 times a day and by Los Lobos.(not even the good version) it should be Richie Valens version, They play one Neil Diamond record, "Cracklin Rosie" one song by Paul Simon or I should say Simon and Garfunkel "Cecilia" An oldies station has such a broad range of music and there is no reason for such a short playlist. WLS-FM in Chicago, a Cumulus station really sounds good. Why can't 106.7 be that way? They use to be! The new voice guy has a nice voice but to me sounds like any voice guy. I liked Dan Kelly much better. He seemed to have more character in his delivery. Atlanta needs a good oldies station and 106.7 could be it, just open up the playlist and include the 60's. It's the best generation of music!
 
I know...99X back on a full-market signal! oh wait, no, that's not going to work. Cumu-crap doesn't want to lose more money. But still, us alternative fans are screwed. Project is OK, but that's hard/active rock, which I'll listen to, but if I need my alt-fix, I went to the X.
 
KSRADIOGEEK- I to am an alternative geek. FYI- Check out Radio 104.5 Philly and 94.9 out of San Diego.

I'm terribly disappointing with the direction 99X has went the last few years. Limited playlist and more active than alternative. Lots of good alternative bands you don't hear on 99x and the few alternative bands you do here, only a select few songs are played. The Strokes is one that gets to me.

Ideas! I for see CBS trying alternative with Dave. I seriously see it in the future. Maybe it's wishful thinking though.
 
Ok, one thing I've come to notice is that pretty much every market (at least the ones I've seen so far on these boards) thinks their market is horrible and needs change. For example; ever since 103.9 KEXX dropped their alternative format for classic rock last Thursday here in Phoenix, people have been LIVID, and I mean LIVID with a capital L, I, V, I, D! People dedicated a lot of time expressing their opinions (that's my delicate way of phrasing it) on their facebook page in addition to the radio-board, and now people are talking about how depressing it is that there is nothing to listen to anymore as they run errands in their car or work. However, meanwhile, there are a bunch of almost duplicate chr's and rhythmic oldies and classic rock stations. Before 103.9 flipped, the complaints were "they don't know what they're doing..." People also don't like the fact that KOOL 94.5 oldies plays "brown eyed girl" by Van Morrison too often.

Then come here to Atlanta, and the talk is about too much urban, a bunch of short signaled rock stations, an oldies station that doesn't know what they're doing, and the lack of chr's. I could also mention the complaints in LA, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Detroit....etc. Nobody seems to be happy.

But yes, I do agree that there could be some specific improvements in Atlanta. B98.5, Kiss 104.1, and Star 94 have already done their improvements (and even board members here seem to be satisfied with the results based on the comments I've seen posted). I think the biggest problems in Atl. are a bunch of weak signals, lack of a full chr on a large signal, and the desire for at least one decent alternative/rock format on one good signal as oppose to a bunch of separate rock formats on smaller signals. Nothing really that's too outrageous to possibly be done successfully - it's not like anyone's demanding a full blown music format flip for a bunch of stations to get what they want. A few more minor tweaks in some areas (with some signal strength improvements) alone would probably satisfy a lot of Atl'iens. Don't say it can't be done because there was a time when B98.5 improvements and Star*94 changes and certain V103 features were labeled as "could not be done".

As far as a non corporate top 40 / dance, I believe it could be done on a community or school station. There's definitely room for doing it that way, being that there are only two (or shall I say 1 1/2?) chr's there. I say 1 1/2 because of WiLD's limited signal and how conservative Q100 is. Too bad CBS already has V103 because although it would be corporate, CBS could've given a Atl. an exceptionally well done rhythmic format with great on-airs and specialty shows like they did with #1 rated rhythmic chr KZON. Don't believe it? Just look at how V103 is being run and imagine how it would sound as a rhythmic. You rhythmic lovers would've had it made! But it seems like ClearChannel's WiLD is really taking care of Atl. in a way that is actually surprising to me.

Oh, and lastly, if anyone wants to play a more upbeat style version of "La Bamba" in Atlanta,

carolinaradio said:
You can hear for example, "La Bamba" at least 3 times a day and by Los Lobos.(not even the good version) it should be Richie Valens version,
Click to expand...

Then you should hear the Latin Booty Bass version! ...And here it is!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epf5pCbxepg
 
acheron82 said:
KSRADIOGEEK- I to am an alternative geek. FYI- Check out Radio 104.5 Philly and 94.9 out of San Diego.

I'm terribly disappointing with the direction 99X has went the last few years. Limited playlist and more active than alternative. Lots of good alternative bands you don't hear on 99x and the few alternative bands you do here, only a select few songs are played. The Strokes is one that gets to me.

Ideas! I for see CBS trying alternative with Dave. I seriously see it in the future. Maybe it's wishful thinking though.
Click to expand...

Radio and 94.9 are good stations. And that may be the direction that 99X is heading, most likely for ad revenue. 99X was THE station that got me started on liking alt-rock. I used to be strictly an all-rap type of guy. Now, it's pretty much anything that's not country, classical, or classic rock.
 
Since (predominantly 90s) alt seems to have a limited audience, has anyone ever considered opening up the format to include more 70s/80s alt? For those of you on satellite, adding First Wave material to an alt station. You hear more 80s alt on a station doing all-80s than you do on an alt station. First Wave bills themselves as "classic alternative", which sounds oxymoronic but fits well. 99X had 70s/80s alt when they debuted, but it soon disappeared as they got a big enough playlist of 1990s material.

Frankly, I don't know why someone hasn't tried the Jack format in ATL. That way you can get all your classic pop hits on one station, 60s-90s, without so much burn/"good times and eight oldies".

Oh, and yes, we need WGST on a real FM. I agree on the sportstalker on FM, too.

I still don't see the appeal or durability of all-news. I am sure someone has a way to get a (personalized) news feed on a smartphone and read it to you. How did WCNN do with all-news back in the day?
 
A "true" alternative station actually incorporates all that in it (maybe not 60's though).

60% of the format is alternative rock and indie rock from 2k including the hits off the current alt chart and break through bands

30% is those hits from the 90's that were alternative/grunge. Deeper NIN cuts and some of the early years of Nirvana.

10% of the format includes some of the new wave artist like Depeche Mode, The Police, Petshop Boys, etc. Peter Gabriel and The Who are sometimes hidden in the mix as well.

99X does do a show that includes 80's new wave and 90's grunge during the lunch hour.
 
acheron82 said:
A "true" alternative station actually incorporates all that in it (maybe not 60's though).

60% of the format is alternative rock and indie rock from 2k including the hits off the current alt chart and break through bands

30% is those hits from the 90's that were alternative/grunge. Deeper NIN cuts and some of the early years of Nirvana.

10% of the format includes some of the new wave artist like Depeche Mode, The Police, Petshop Boys, etc. Peter Gabriel and The Who are sometimes hidden in the mix as well.

99X does do a show that includes 80's new wave and 90's grunge during the lunch hour.
Click to expand...
You're still talking about roughly the current mix. 10% 70s/80s alt isn't going to attract any new listeners...and neither is the Duplex of Retro Pleasure or whatever they are calling the lunch hour show these days (I stopped listening once they brought in the 90s, mostly out of indifference).

Additionally, I'd want something deeper (Martha & The Muffins, Devo, Jam, Bluebells, Thomas Dolby, General Public, etc.), not the kind of stuff you hear burned on Dave. But that might be asking a bit much.
 
The problem in Atlanta, and everywhere else for that matter, is that nobody is willing to try anything different or if they do they merge right back into the mainstream. Bottom line is that there are too many stations playing essentially the same music. And new stations that come in try to wedge themselves between existing formats.

When Groove came on, they started out being different. They were playing a lot of old dance music and disco that nobody else played. Stuff I hadn't heard in a long time on any radio station. It wasn't great but it was something different! But within a month or two, they deleted all the unique stuff and started playing the same crap everyone else was playing.

Seems to happen with every new station that comes in.
 
THAT'S WHY YOU NEED A GOOD SPOKEN WORD NEWS CHANNEL.
 
wpb1999 said:
THAT'S WHY YOU NEED A GOOD SPOKEN WORD NEWS CHANNEL.
Click to expand...

What do you think is missing from WSB on 95.5? I think it's a pretty good news station and I don't think anyone will be able to compete with their resources. I think Atlanta is fine now as far as news goes.
 
What do you think is missing from WSB on 95.5? I think it's a pretty good news station and I don't think anyone will be able to compete with their resources. I think Atlanta is fine now as far as news goes.
Click to expand...

The only broadcaster with the track record, both talent and $$$, is CBS, and it has probably considered all news in Atlanta, but it has also taken into account the station where everyone in this town goes for news.

Will CBS (at 92.9) go up against WSB? It didn't stop them in Washington/Baltimore, so maybe we're next. ;)
 
wpb1999 said:
YOU WOULD CHANGE WiLD first.
Click to expand...

If Rhythmic-leaning CHR worked in Atlanta, Clear Channel would already be doing it (with Wild) - obviously, the feedback CC is getting is to keep Wild Rhythmic (as opposed to Rhythmic-leaning CHR), so there's no way they're gonna try Rhythmic-leaning CHR on another frequency
 
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