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WERS shifts away from block format, more to freeform

W

webcastboy

Guest
Well this is odd...

http://wers.org/events/?id=22
If you've tuned in recently, you might have noticed some changes. You now can hear a diverse mix of musical genres all day on WERS. We've expanded our library to include more genres and artists than ever before. Our daytime programming now features a blend of folk, rock, jazz, world, reggae, blues, soul and electronic. We call it "Music for the Independent Mind," because it's music for people who are interested in exploring different genres and discovering artists outside of the mainstream. This programming will air from 2am until 7pm every weekday.

Rockers, New England's #1 Source for Reggae, will now air 7-10pm Monday through Friday, and 88.9@Night will air from 10pm until 2am. All of your favorite weekend programs will remain the same.

I'm not quite sure what this means. WERS is most definitely a college radio station, but it equally tries to be more like a professional radio station...as is befitting a station that is so tightly tied to a college curriculum. Ordinarily I'd say this means that WERS felt the daytime shows weren't generating good enough feedback (ratings?) and is trying to ape the "Jack" (locally known as "Mike 93.7") format. Or the format formerly known as "freeform". But with a college station, it might just be because the individual student DJ's wanted even more control over what they personally play (a questionable idea...it inevitably leads to DJ's playing music for themselves rather than for their listeners).

I've always felt that freeform had a very limited appeal; there's a very small subset in any market that loves the randomness across many different genres. And the rest of the market generally hates it. To me, block programming had similar issues but at least had a means of giving fans of a specific genre a chance to know when to tune in. I can't imagine a real jazz/blues fan is really going to be thrilled to hear an electronic track come on after their Mingus fix, ya know?

I suppose you can try and "manage" the flow across genres so that it's never too jarring...but that would mean substantial oversight. More than I'd imagine WERS DJ's submitting to. And every single track played would have to be planned and vetted well in advance. That's a lot of work in a one- or two-format station...I can't imagine trying to do it across so many formats like WERS is proposing.

Plus I can't imagine WERS really trying to ape Mike 93.7 and be iPod-ish. First, their DJ's won't shut up enough to pull that off. Second, every college kid knows that no matter how wild your playlist, an iPod is always going to beat the radio in that regard. It might work on Mike for older demos who instinctually prefer radio over iPod, but WERS ain't gonna play music that appeals to that demo...not a chance. That concept just seems like a loser strategy and I give WERS enough credit to know better.

For that matter, I thought WERS's fundraisers were doing well? Why change what works?

Bah...I'm just ranting out wild speculation. It's fun, but it's ultimately pointless. ::) Does anyone have real info about the reason behind the format change?
 
WERS isn't freeform.

Neither, by the way, is WERS Jack-FM.

Like every other major format change, there is good research behind it, an excellent programmer (Jack Casey), and a VERY talented staff working night and day to make it sound good.


Fear not, people know what they are doing.
 
Maybe that's why WERS killed that particular segment? I mean, I don't terribly care for folk, but I'm told few do it better than WUMB does. Isn't WUMB one of the only all-folk stations in the country? I wouldn't be surprised if it both wasn't popular with the students and wasn't getting good ratings.

For the record, I've heard great things about Mr. Casey, so I don't fear that WERS will continue do whatever they do with their own eclectic way of doing well. Actually I don't even listen to WERS much, but I like what they represent.

It's more that I'm just curious about why such a big shakeup?

And I'm a bit confused...if what WERS is doing in the morning isn't freeform, what is? It's free of any one format...isn't that the base definition of the term? Sure WMFO is probably "more freeform" than that, but I look at that as an "indier than thou" pissing contest. If it's a bunch of random tracks from wide array of genres, then it's frickin' freeform. If it's one or two genres played for a set block of time each week, it's block programming. Otherwise, it's a formatted station.

Come to think of it...WERS just turned on IBOC/HD Radio within the past few weeks. Maybe they're gearing up for something on HD2?
 
webcastboy said:
Maybe that's why WERS killed that particular segment? I mean, I don't terribly care for folk, but I'm told few do it better than WUMB does. Isn't WUMB one of the only all-folk stations in the country? I wouldn't be surprised if it both wasn't popular with the students and wasn't getting good ratings.
Click to expand...

WERS's "Coffeehouse" morning folk show was killing WUMB's "Morning Express", far surpassing it in the non-comm ratings. Part of that may have been because WERS's signal is far superior to WUMB's, but another reason was that WERS's approach to folk music attracted a younger listening audience by playing a more adventurous mix and more upbeat, uptempo tunes by current and up and coming folk and folk/rock artists.

WUMB's core audience is in their 50's and 60's. I've seen the non-comm ratings breakdowns. Their playlists focus on downtempo singer/songwriter contemporary folk ballads. Many of WERS's younger "Coffeehouse" listeners find WUMB's playlist boring and tepid.

WUMB does a great job maintaining a devoted, loyal older folk audience with an approach which, in the daytime, formats kind of like an acoustic soft AAA, providing an innocuous background for people's workday, folkie style.

Their evening and nighttime shows are more adventurous, but those are all syndicated music shows from NPR or PRI, not locally produced. They lock up the station and let the automation system take over running syndicated shows starting at 7 PM weeknights (9 PM Fridays, and they have excellent locally produced live folk specialty shows on Saturday evenings until 12 mid.). At midnight weeknights they rebroadcast the 12 noon - 3 PM portion of their live daytime programming, then the syndicated shows re-run again until 6 AM.

They don't want to lose their established older audience by loosening up a bit in their live daytime programming, but their current audience is not getting any younger, and they're afraid to program to the next demo. (They do have a separate web stream called "X-Stream Folk" aimed at younger folk listeners, but that's not on the airwaves).

WERS' "Coffeehouse" did so much better than WUMB in the mornings that it doesn't make sense to me that they would kill it, but I guess competing with WUMB is not what they're interested in doing.

I don't intend any slight on WUMB's morning host Dick Pleasants, who is a very talented and extremely knowledgeable veteran folk DJ, and a great guy. However, like most any professional station, their music is formatted. It's not playlisted song-for-song like most commercial stations, their DJ's must select their music from limited menus on a programmed terminal. Pleasants gets a little more leeway on his show, but I'm sure that anything he picks on his own must still reflect the established tone of the station.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
webcastboy said:
Maybe that's why WERS killed that particular segment? I mean, I don't terribly care for folk, but I'm told few do it better than WUMB does. Isn't WUMB one of the only all-folk stations in the country? I wouldn't be surprised if it both wasn't popular with the students and wasn't getting good ratings.
Click to expand...

WERS's "Coffeehouse" morning folk show was killing WUMB's "Morning Express", far surpassing it in the non-comm ratings. Part of that may have been because WERS's signal is far superior to WUMB's, but another reason was that WERS's approach to folk music attracted a younger listening audience by playing a more adventurous mix and more upbeat, uptempo tunes by current and up and coming folk and folk/rock artists.

WUMB's core audience is in their 50's and 60's. I've seen the non-comm ratings breakdowns. Their playlists focus on downtempo singer/songwriter contemporary folk ballads. Many of WERS's younger "Coffeehouse" listeners find WUMB's playlist boring and tepid. WUMB does a great job maintaining a devoted, loyal older folk audience with an approach which, in the daytime, formats kind of like an acoustic soft AAA, providing an innocuous background for people's workday, folkie style. (They do have a separate web stream called "X-Stream Folk" aimed at younger folk listeners, but that's not on the airwaves).
Click to expand...

I just noticed that WUMB has added a new live show called "Extreme Folk" on Friday evenings 7-9 PM hosted by Darrell Penta, U. Mass. Boston '05, playing new folk releases aimed at a younger audience. Being a graduate from last year, this is the closest I've heard of in decades of a U. Mass Boston student (albeit a recent grad) getting their own slot on WUMB, and by far the youngest person I've heard of getting a regular slot. There is no one else on their regular airstaff less than twice his age.

This was the slot of the weekly mellow, thematic folk show "Acoustic Images" hosted by Joan Orr (formerly of WHRB, WTBS/WMBR, WBUR, WCAS, WBOS, WCOD, and for many years evenings on WATD, still occasionally for folk specials). I don't know if this means that Joan is losing her show, or if she may be moved to Thursday evenings where they have been filling with various automated syndicated folk programming or archive recordings of folk concerts. I know that WUMB has been reluctant to create more live (paid) DJ shifts on weeknights after 7 PM for many years.
 
For what it's worth, BostonRadioWatch.com has reports from some WERS listeners and alumni who think the changeover stinks.

But of course, that's to be expected. There's always going to be some folks who hate change no matter how good or bad the change is. For the record, I'm still mostly puzzled why the change when it seemed like things were working reasonably well with the block format. And why freeform of all things...which is, historically and in general, the format LEAST likely to retain listeners and generate revenue.

Oh well, I hope for WERS's sake it all works out and I guess the only way to know for sure is to see what happens for the next few fundraisers.

Speaking of which (shameless plug alert) WZBC's fundraiser starts in a few days. Everyone get yer checkbooks out! ;D
 
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