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Time For The 90's?

R

Radio Wreck

If you were 17 years old in 1994, you're going on 35, a prime demo for advertisers. So why hasn't anyone attempted a 90's format yet? Obviously a lot of stations have 90's tunes within their rotations, but I'm surprised no one has launched a format that focuses exclusively on that decade.

I say this because an "80's and 90's" format might alienate people in their their 30's because the 80's could be considered too old, and a "90's and today" format might also alienate those same folks because many of them might not want to hear today's rap mixed with Lada Gaga, etc.

There are a lot of songs from the 90's that aren't played on the radio anymore and I think such a station that played many of those forgotten songs would bring in a lot of people in their 30's who want to hear that music.
 
The problem with 90s is the same problem with 80s, but even more so. People who liked Pearl Jam in the 90s are not the same people who liked Will Smith in the 90s. They weren't on one station in the 90s, so why would putting them on one station in 2011 work?
 
Not everyone who liked "A" but not "B" as a teen would have a bad reaction to hearing them both 20-some years after the fact. The bigger issue is decade-specific formats historically have a short shelf life, before needing to evolve into something that can hold people after the novelty wears off.
 
Like aindik said, in the 90's music genres really split. people who listened to Y100 or power 99 aren't gonna listen to a station that has the back street boys and Britney Spear in the rotation. So your audience is limited compared to previous all decade formats.

What seems to work best is a 80's/90's combo, mixed in with all 90's weekends. I think Ben fits this. Allows you to skip the hip hop that prevailed in the late 90's, play some of the grunge songs that prevailed in the early 90's (ones that made the top 40).
 
Radio Wreck said:
If you were 17 years old in 1994, you're going on 35, a prime demo for advertisers. So why hasn't anyone attempted a 90's format yet? Obviously a lot of stations have 90's tunes within their rotations, but I'm surprised no one has launched a format that focuses exclusively on that decade.
Click to expand...

Entercom attempted it in Sacramento, and it was a total disaster. "Totally 90's 106.5 The Buzz" got even worse ratings than 106.5 did when KWOD was a CHR in the late-80's/early-90's. Entercom gave it just over two years, and I think the best it did was the low 2 share range. I can't imagine very many other operators are looking at an all 90's format after the unmitigated disaster that was "106.5 The Buzz."
 
It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out an all 90s station would be a disaster. Even a few of the 80s stations didnt survive very long.
 
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