Today's Warm 106.9 tweaks format

[davideduardo]

Air Supply, etc. does not have the long term "oh wow" factor.

I guess you don't see that Air Supply does have the texture and feel that this format is looking for. In cases like this, just like Beautiful Music in the 70's and much of the 80's, the appeal of the format is as much in the flow as it is in each song. There tends to be a format that emerges every certain number of years or so that is such a texture-based blend... Beautiful Music, Smooth Jazz, Soft AC in several incarnations.

I do like the hyperbole about WJXA's ratings, though!

 

[TheBigA]

Hey now. Being a good tourist and driving through this post, might I ask why you would bring up Pina Colada, BigA?

Because I knew it would attract a response from you! Just out of curiosity, I looked at Mediabase, and ole Rupert is not among their playlist. But Kokomo is. Three spins a day. Mike Love and the boys do that song every night, and it always gets a great response, because of the continued airplay. As for the size of the playlist, it's about 500 songs, and yes, they will have to be careful to rotate those songs so they don't burn too quickly. Especially with 3 or 4 spins a day. That's in part what killed Jammin' Oldies. I'm not a fan of formats built around song lists for that reason. But the folks at Jack FM have managed to keep things interesting after 10-12 years.

 

[seatownmedia]

Because I knew it would attract a response from you! Just out of curiosity, I looked at Mediabase, and ole Rupert is not among their playlist. But Kokomo is. Three spins a day. Mike Love and the boys do that song every night, and it always gets a great response, because of the continued airplay. As for the size of the playlist, it's about 500 songs, and yes, they will have to be careful to rotate those songs so they don't burn too quickly. Especially with 3 or 4 spins a day. That's in part what killed Jammin' Oldies. I'm not a fan of formats built around song lists for that reason. But the folks at Jack FM have managed to keep things interesting after 10-12 years.

Jack/Bob/Charlie, etc. do well for one reason. Platooning! They have it down to a science.

 

[davideduardo]

Jack/Bob/Charlie, etc. do well for one reason. Platooning! They have it down to a science.

Platooning, the rotation in and out of airplay eligibility, is very easy to do in the two major schedulers. Generally, though, it only applies to the lower testing songs and / or the lower scoring ones by artists with "too many" songs for the scheduler to manage were they all there with equal priority.

 

[Rob Piotrowski]

Once again the "tourists" take a Seattle thread into the ditch. Just dump the market-specific forums already.

 

[TheBigA]

Once again the "tourists" take a Seattle thread into the ditch. Just dump the market-specific forums already.

We're all waiting to see ANY market specific information you can provide. So far, we see none. You must be spending the holidays in Buffalo. Apparently we know more about what this station is doing than you. Who will be the first to provide any talent info? The morning show job is still posted: http://warm1069.com/jobs/

 

[davideduardo]

Once again the "tourists" take a Seattle thread into the ditch. Just dump the market-specific forums already.

There are often cases where a new format in one market is looked at by folks in many markets because the format is a new one or a new variant of an old one.

In the case of Seattle, we've seen a bunch of format changes, modifications and adaptations in the last year or so, ranging from the nuking of a heritage country station to the early adoption of the soft AC format by The Sound.

The ramifications of these changes provide interesting insights and, occasionally, lessons, for all of us.

 

[crainbebo]

Once again...

I LIVED in the Puget Sound area prior to 2013. I still follow the trends. I'm an ex-resident, not a 'tourist'. 106.9 used to be one of the car presets years ago.
When was the last time KRWM spun 'We Are Family'? Or 'Margaritaville'? I don't remember the former song being on 106.9, any time in the last dozen or so years. Maybe the Jimmy Buffet song. On the other hand, KAFE had a lot of older '70s and '80s music in their playlist earlier this decade. Yvonne Ellman's 'If I Can't Have You' got some airplay, same with 'Margaritaville' and others.

 

[boombox4]

Tourists? We're all members of this RD forum.

 

[Bongwater]

Tourists? We're all members of this RD forum.

If I'm a "tourist", then I'm going to have a word with my travel agent. Now.

 

[TheBigA]

When was the last time KRWM spun 'We Are Family'? Or 'Margaritaville'? I don't remember the former song being on 106.9, any time in the last dozen or so years.

Easy to answer. Buffett was first added on 3/12/98, and has been played 1147 times since then, most recently ten years ago.

Sister Sledge is a bit rarer. Added on 6/11/03, last played 3/9/14, for a total of 58 spins.

 

[Bongwater]

Wow. And WE were considered bull moose nuts because we mentioned old station formats and DX discoveries, now we have people who can tell you exactly to the very day a Jimmy Buffett song was added to the KRWM playlist and how many times total it was ever played.

 

[crainbebo]

58 spins - no wonder I haven't heard Sister Sledge on KRWM, myself. Used to be spun on the old KBSG and probably still gets airplay on KJR-FM and KJAQ. I hear 'We Are Family' constantly on 99.3 here in Yakima (KMGW, Mega Rhythmic Oldies).

 

[AQH]

Interesting that this is your only post so far in this thread. Very productive.

Because it's the holidays, family and friends are much more important than having to assert "knowledge" on an internet discussion board.

 

[AQH]

Ah, yes, those pesky out-of-towners

196.9 owned by Hubbard out of the Twin Cities in Minnesota.

The market's top biller is owned by a Salt Lake City company; it's followed by ones based in Maryland, Philadelphia and San Antonio.

In fact, all those out of town owners control all of the top 15 stations in revenue. It is not until you reach 16th that you find local Crista Media with a station.

And where do you think the final major programming decisions come from?

You, nor BigA get the point, so let me spell it out for the both of you.

This is a discussion about Seattle radio and events that happen here in Seattle. Out of town owners and executives are the norm, but that's not the point. Let me spell it out to you since you clearly didn't get the message.

EVERY. DAMN. TIME. a format shift happens here in Seattle, we get a full rundown of what happens in Buenos Aires, Miami, LA or whatever comes off the top of your mind to feed your ego. It gets old, and the irrelevancy to the discussion and the market is off the charts.

Why irrelevant? Because the market, tastes and audience compositions are entirely different than Buenos Aires, Miami or LA. The only similarities in those markets with Seattle is how there are vowels in all of the names. Instead of what happens in other markets, why not provide thoughts on what actually happened here in Seattle?

If your analysis provided insight to what really happened or is actually happening, it might be viewed differently. When you need to look things up, such as who owns "196.9," doesn't that say anything to you on your basic knowledge of the market? At any time do you say to yourself, "hmmm, maybe I don't have anything relevant to the conversation"?

Further, none of your "insights" include the words "I listened to the station." At least when those people who make those final major programming decisions do their jobs, they actually listen to the station and base their findings, opinions and thoughts on how to move forward by listening to the market.

I'm not saying don't post here, I'm saying be relevant to Seattle. Because the frequency and substance of your replies (and BigA's) come over in the way that your egos come first rather than having an intelligent conversation about Seattle radio.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm not saying don't post here, I'm saying be relevant to Seattle. Because the frequency and substance of your replies (and BigA's) come over in the way that your egos come first rather than having an intelligent conversation about Seattle radio.

And I'm saying if you or others who live in Seattle actually have something local to say, you should say it. Maybe instead of getting hung up on where people live, you take charge of the conversation and MAKE it local. Is their imaging voice local? Tell me. There's a great jingle house in Seattle that I've used from time to time. Is this station using them? Tell me. If you're local, act local. Otherwise, you're right, I can find out everything I need on the web. Don't have a tantrum because someone is taking over your turf.

 

[Rob Piotrowski]

And I'm saying if you or others who live in Seattle actually have something local to say, you should say it. Maybe instead of getting hung up on where people live, you take charge of the conversation and MAKE it local.

A, the threads on market-specific boards ARE local by their very nature. No one has to "say it". What needs to happen is tighter moderation to keep threads on topic.
And you always have to have the last word, don't you? Respond to this post and you'll prove me right.

 

[CTListener]

And I'm saying if you or others who live in Seattle actually have something local to say, you should say it. Maybe instead of getting hung up on where people live, you take charge of the conversation and MAKE it local. Is their imaging voice local? Tell me. There's a great jingle house in Seattle that I've used from time to time. Is this station using them? Tell me. If you're local, act local. Otherwise, you're right, I can find out everything I need on the web. Don't have a tantrum because someone is taking over your turf.

Another drive-by here. I think what AQH and other Seattlites are trying to say is that observations about the content and texture of the Warm playlist compared to other soft ACs shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, as David seems to do with his constant reiteration of his assertion that this new format has no regional quirks, that each Warm/Light/Breeze that pops up, be it in Boston, Birmingham, Boise or Bakersfield, is going to be playing the same songs that the format's "prototype" station in Miami is, with no accounting for differences in ethnicity, regional musical taste, etc. But haven't we already seen that Philadelphia's Breeze is including Philly soul oldies that are longtime favorites there? Does that mean Seattle is getting heavy doses of "Me and Mrs. Jones," too, despite being miles away from Philadelphia in musical heritage, demographics and overall attitude as a city? Maybe people here do want to talk about liners and jingles, but most talk I see in every forum when a new format comes to town focuses on the music being played.

 

[davideduardo]

I think what AQH and other Seattlites are trying to say is that observations about the content and texture of the Warm playlist compared to other soft ACs shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, as David seems to do with his constant reiteration of his assertion that this new format has no regional quirks, that each Warm/Light/Breeze that pops up, be it in Boston, Birmingham, Boise or Bakersfield, is going to be playing the same songs that the format's "prototype" station in Miami is, with no accounting for differences in ethnicity, regional musical taste, etc.

I did not say that each iteration of the format has the same playlist or should have the same list.

All these early stations, from Miami to San Diego, Seattle and San Francisco, are in markets where music testing is normal and a reasonable cost.

I know that WFEZ in Miami was not successful for its first couple of years until they figured out that 1) Miami has not been a significant retirement market for decades and 2) the less than 25% non-Hispanic white population was not able to sustain an AC format without including Hispanics in the target and, thus, in the research.

So the Miami playlist is likely rather different than what would be found in, say, Seattle. Some different songs, a lot of differences in "like" and "love" scores.

Each of the markets that have been in for at least a year has different ethnic mixes and different median ages. So local research is essential. Of course, going beyond the market population each station may have a slightly different age target based on the local competitive array.

However, there is a commonality in the "feel" and "flow" and "formatics" of these stations, as, like Beautiful Music decades ago, they are texture and blend driven. And texture and blend are what a local PD will give (or not) such stations by knowing that some testing songs don't fit, and some lower testing ones do. And that PD will understand flow when setting up Selector or Music Master and when they edit the logs.

Still, the likelihood is that the lists in each market are going to be 80% or above overlapping, with most of the differences being in rotations. Where there will be regional or market specific differences is in the lower scoring (and thus lower rotation) songs.

I've seen cases where several markets in the same state and in the same format had enough differences in music test results to warrant separate testing in each market... to the point that in Texas I tested that same format in 6 different markets despite the fact that we would rather have only spent on one or two markets and cloned the results in others. To the average listener, all 6 were the same. But there were enough market to market differences to warrant spending $30 k for each test in each one. But unless you compared every song on the lists, all those stations seemed to be the same musically.

 

[davideduardo]

I'm not saying don't post here, I'm saying be relevant to Seattle. Because the frequency and substance of your replies (and BigA's) come over in the way that your egos come first rather than having an intelligent conversation about Seattle radio.

You are missing the even bigger point. Radio stations around the world have more in common than most people think.

In today's world (and even in the world of 20 to 40 years ago) there is much commonality in music tastes and in the appeal of specific formats and formatics than one could imagine unless they have a broader view of the industry and of, particularly, human behaviour.

For the most part, market tastes in Miami and LA and Seattle are not all that different. That's why, generally, for decades and decades, TV shows that work really well in one market work well in the others. The shows that don't do well in some markets tend to be the ones that perform only marginally better in other markets.

Same with music anywhere in the US. You are likely to find, in any given format, for stations with the same target, that the higher rotation songs are identical. it's in the marginal near-cutoff songs that there are differences.

While you'll likely see this as an ego trip of some kind, I'll add two anecdotes.

First one: I was contacted to consult one of the first private, commercial FMs in Karachi. I told the owner that I did not know anything about the local customs and culture, and I could not contribute much. His reply: "We know those things. What we need is to work with someone who knows radio."

Second: In a market about the size of New York City, where I had only visited on a few occasions as a tourist, I was hired to find a format and program a failing FM. I had never lived there, I was unfamiliar with the local culture, the local music scene and even the extremely different local dialect. We did research. A format search, a music test, perceptuals. With no market knowledge 120 days prior, the station went to an overwhelming #1 because local programmers had stereotyped a huge group of listeners and dismissed a wide range of songs. Instead, I just followed the things listeners told us.

My point is the same as I would make were a friend seriously ill: "Have you seen a specialist?" An outside opinion from an expert who is experienced in looking at the forest in addition to the trees is often of great value.

So having an "intelligent conversation about Seattle radio" does not preclude "outside opinions" because we far too often see the lack of a broader perspective so greatly influencing decisions that, otherwise, a bad premise may lead to a bad radio station.