Wait.... what?

[DominiqueRadio]

I took the family down for a short mini vacation to the beach in Corpus Christi. I listened to KTFM all the way to 3 rivers, which was impressive in itself cause the signal lasted pretty far out there. Once the signal faded I switched to listen to Z95. I wasn't in the range for a few dozen miles.

Anyways when I finally did reach the signal I listened to Hot Z95. They sounded really really urban. This was not the "Z" I remember. I also listened to a little of my former station KNDA.

Anyways, the music was considerably different than what the stations in San Antonio are playing. For example look at yes.com when I type in KNDA.

# 1 Ludacris - Sex Room (w/ Trey Songz)
# 2 Rick Ross - Super High (w/ Ne-Yo)
# 3 Young Jeezy - Lose My Mind (w/ Plies)
# 4 Omarion - Last Night (Kinkos)
# 5 Dondria - You're The One
# 6 Alicia Keys - Un-Thinkable (I'm Ready)
# 7 Big Boi - Shutterbug
# 8 DJ Khaled - All I Do Is Win (w/ T-Pain, Ludacris, Rick Ross & Snoop Dogg)
# 9 Plies - She Got It Made
# 10 Lloyd Banks - Beamer, Benz Or Bentley (w/ Juelz Santana)

Z95 was playing the new Rhianna "Rockstar" probably already in heavy rotation. That is just one example.

My question is... how can a small city with such a small arbitron market # have such a different sound and outlook than a medium market like ours? Even my short time in Corpus doing Corpus radio I also noticed how quickly Corpus would break new music.

Is SA and Austin just playing it safe? Or should we be ashamed of ourselves that we rely so heavily on music research that new music is playing elsewhere weeks ahead of us?

What do you think?

 

[saradio1]

Not sure what the problem is here in SA or Austin but we seem to be late with "some" of the new music from-

Ne-Yo- Beautiful Monster
Taio Cruz- Dynamite
Matisse- Better Than Her
and others.

Two Top 40 stations and One Hip Hop/R&B and SA is still late with new music. WTF?!?

Btw, I wish KTFM would stop saying La Roux-Bulletproof & Shontelle-Impossible are new because it's not fckn NEW!!!!

 

[nuff_said]

I was going to keep my mouth shut on this issue, but I couldn't. Maybe not being from this area, I'm ultra sensitive to this topic. It's been very apparent to me for years (ever since I moved to this area from St. Louis) that stations around here play it EXTREMELY safe. It's so bad that I refuse to even listen to radio here. I don't want to hear the same old music playing over and over again for 6 months, then hear "new" music 3 months after I've been hearing it on out of market radio stations. However, this concept seems to pay off in the ratings, so the listeners are allowing this activity to happen. I got fed up with it so much that I started an internet radio station (I know, someone will say it's not the same, but mine was a true radio station which SOUNDED like a major market station... just with a different method of delivery). My station oftentimes broke new music far ahead of the local stations playing hip-hop and R&B, but it goes back to what I said earlier. If the listeners put up with the mediocre played out playlists of local radio, there's no incentive for them to change. This is exactly what is happening, so it appears to be what the market wants. It will only change when/if someone like myself who REALLY cares about quality radio comes into a boatload of money and buys a station. Only at that time will there be competition that will give the status quo a run for their money. Unfortunately, that's unlikely to happen. As I mentioned in another post, the market can have these mediocre stations; it doesn't impact me at all... I'll continue streaming out of market stations in my car and I'll be just fine because I'll be getting new music first and a lot more variety at that.

 

[fredcantu]

I learned long ago you can't program a radio station based on your own tastes. That's an audience of one.

 

[DominiqueRadio]

I learned long ago you can't program a radio station based on your own tastes. That's an audience of one.

I would have to agree Fred

 

[nuff_said]

I learned long ago you can't program a radio station based on your own tastes. That's an audience of one.

I agree and understand this all too well... which is why I don't think anyone should think Austin or San Antonio will be breaking new music anytime soon. The way our stations are currently being programmed seems to make management happy, even if that does mean waiting for research data before breaking new songs. In my opinion, it's playing on the "safe" side. I guess my ultimate point is that you won't find renowned stations doing this nearly as much. Those stations have market vets who can hear a song, know if it will do well in their market or not, then decide to break the song in if they think it will work. We don't have those stations here, and it's sad because the right people can make all the difference.

The bottom line is that, regarding Dominique's observation as to why Corpus Christi is spinning new music before Austin in San Antonio, we're playing it safe. Very... very... safe. Unfortunately, it can translate into stale, mediocre, cookie-cutter radio at times. Nothing cutting-edge at all.

 

[musicman3355]

Looking at yes.com, Mix 96.1 seems to be the one playing the new hits first, though combined with the old stuff. So whats the problem here?

 

[DominiqueRadio]

Looking at yes.com, Mix 96.1 seems to be the one playing the new hits first, though combined with the old stuff. So whats the problem here?

Not that I have anything against my former station cause I do not....

But seriously?  Name 3.

 

[musicman3355]

Not that I have anything against my former station cause I do not....

But seriously? Name 3.

Some songs I saw them play in the past hour are:

1. Katy Perry - California Gurls
2. 3oh!3 / Kesha - My First Kiss
3. Travis Mccoy / Bruno Mars - Billionaire (though this song came out in May)
Not to mention, KTFM has just played the new Flo Rida, "Club Can't Handle Me".

 

[DominiqueRadio]

Some songs I saw them play in the past hour are:

1. Katy Perry - California Gurls
2. 3oh!3 / Kesha - My First Kiss
3. Travis Mccoy / Bruno Mars - Billionaire (though this song came out in May)
Not to mention, KTFM has just played the new Flo Rida, "Club Can't Handle Me".

I played all 4 of those songs on KTFM today.

 

[Scholarm1111]

Interesting observations about Corpus vs. S.A. stations.

Part of the issue with KNDA Corpus Christi is that I am not sure that they particularly care about the ratings. The spotload on the station is very low, I think it primarily exists as a way to promote shows and programming at a local club. It is a quirky station (sometimes too quirky) but I am glad it is there.

Perhaps KZFM feels a bit of a reason to play new music because of KNDA but I doubt they consider them to be serious competition.

 

[ANTHONY30]

@Nuff Said :I think the statements youve made about "Your Station" prove your limited experience. Now please dont mistake that comment for disrespect , but The idea that Listeners want "NEW" instead of " Familiar" has been proven wrong time and time again. Lets take the average "Ipod" playlist for example , do you honestly believe that millions of Ipod owners go searching the internet long and hard for the newest most unrecognizable artists and songs to spend their money on ? The fact of the matter is that there is a reason their is a "pop" genre. People (with the exception of very few) like what their used to. The concept of "RADIO" is simple....Play what the majority of the people want to hear in order to bring the most listenership to your frequency.The station that does that wins.

 

[dallasboyz]

anthony30, you nailed it.

everyone thinks they can program a station.
everyone thinks they are the next great talk show host.
everyone thinks they know why a station is failing. or what X station should do to repair itself.

everyone thinks, but no one is good enough or talented enough to do. typical internet radio wannabees

 

[DominiqueRadio]

@Nuff Said :I think the statements youve made about "Your Station" prove your limited experience. Now please dont mistake that comment for disrespect , but The idea that Listeners want "NEW" instead of " Familiar" has been proven wrong time and time again. Lets take the average "Ipod" playlist for example , do you honestly believe that millions of Ipod owners go searching the internet long and hard for the newest most unrecognizable artists and songs to spend their money on ? The fact of the matter is that there is a reason their is a "pop" genre. People (with the exception of very few) like what their used to. The concept of "RADIO" is simple....Play what the majority of the people want to hear in order to bring the most listenership to your frequency.The station that does that wins.

excellent point of view Anthony

 

[prodigy3]

I took the family down for a short mini vacation to the beach in Corpus Christi. I listened to KTFM all the way to 3 rivers, which was impressive in itself cause the signal lasted pretty far out there. Once the signal faded I switched to listen to Z95. I wasn't in the range for a few dozen miles.

Anyways when I finally did reach the signal I listened to Hot Z95. They sounded really really urban. This was not the "Z" I remember. I also listened to a little of my former station KNDA.

Anyways, the music was considerably different than what the stations in San Antonio are playing. For example look at yes.com when I type in KNDA.

# 1 Ludacris - Sex Room (w/ Trey Songz)
# 2 Rick Ross - Super High (w/ Ne-Yo)
# 3 Young Jeezy - Lose My Mind (w/ Plies)
# 4 Omarion - Last Night (Kinkos)
# 5 Dondria - You're The One
# 6 Alicia Keys - Un-Thinkable (I'm Ready)
# 7 Big Boi - Shutterbug
# 8 DJ Khaled - All I Do Is Win (w/ T-Pain, Ludacris, Rick Ross & Snoop Dogg)
# 9 Plies - She Got It Made
# 10 Lloyd Banks - Beamer, Benz Or Bentley (w/ Juelz Santana)

Z95 was playing the new Rhianna "Rockstar" probably already in heavy rotation. That is just one example.

My question is... how can a small city with such a small arbitron market # have such a different sound and outlook than a medium market like ours? Even my short time in Corpus doing Corpus radio I also noticed how quickly Corpus would break new music.

Is SA and Austin just playing it safe? Or should we be ashamed of ourselves that we rely so heavily on music research that new music is playing elsewhere weeks ahead of us?

What do you think?

I'm actually in Atlanta right now (for the summer) and from the looks of it (which I noticed years back) KNDA is a Urban station, Hot1079 and V-103 out here in Atlanta have 6 out of those ten in heavy rotation..

I've always wished that S.A. had an Urban and Urban AC station but with the demographic it wouldn't survive... I know that in the past the have had them but as we can see they didn't last....


Although S.A. radio isn't my favorite I have to say that The Beat and KTFM and even Mix are doing their jobs right... There are certain things that we probably wish were different about the stations but oh well, there really isn't anything that us as listeners can do...

@Nuff Said :I think the statements youve made about "Your Station" prove your limited experience. Now please dont mistake that comment for disrespect , but The idea that Listeners want "NEW" instead of " Familiar" has been proven wrong time and time again. Lets take the average "Ipod" playlist for example , do you honestly believe that millions of Ipod owners go searching the internet long and hard for the newest most unrecognizable artists and songs to spend their money on ? The fact of the matter is that there is a reason their is a "pop" genre. People (with the exception of very few) like what their used to. The concept of "RADIO" is simple....Play what the majority of the people want to hear in order to bring the most listenership to your frequency.The station that does that wins.

I do want to point out that many people do actually spend time looking up music that isn't popular.. Now are they paying for it? Probably not, but that's why artist have such hard times selling records because people already have all the songs, look at Drake, just this past week on Facebook I saw this girl saying that she had every song on his album months ago and I'm pretty sure many others had them as well....

anthony30, you nailed it.

everyone thinks they can program a station.
everyone thinks they are the next great talk show host.
everyone thinks they know why a station is failing. or what X station should do to repair itself.

everyone thinks, but no one is good enough or talented enough to do. typical internet radio wannabees

And Dallazboyz we've had a few opinions on previous forum posts but you must remember that the point of this forum is to post ideas and opinions... And the people that are on this site obviously have some sort of passion towards radio and have their ideas..

I've traveled across the nation listening to Hip Hop stations and I started an Internet station because I have a passion for radio not because I think I'm smarter than the PD at the Beat... or at KXXM or at KTFM... The problem I see is that many young people such as myself aren't given the opportunity to get into this industry like the ones in it now had... And with formats such as CHR and RHY and URBAN that target the younger audience, it's vital that people are able to get experience because a 13 year old isn't going to listen to a 75 year old morning show host lol