WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM B98.5 (OR SOFT ROCK IN GENERAL)?

[Wildstyle K]

Ok, so I've seen a massive amount of talk about B98.5 and all the things they do wrong. I cannot really judge B98.5 accurately since I don't research it on a normal basis, and most of everything I know about it is strictly based on hear-say. So, with that being said, I want to ask some specific questions and I'll leave it up to everyone else to REASONABLY leave suggestions and thoughts from a professional,  business, listener, and researcher point of view.

- What exactly is B98.5 doing wrong?
- What did Peach 94.9 do that B98.5 isn't doing?
- What exactly would everyone like to see B98.5 do differently?
- Is B98.5 the real problem, or is it more that another adult hits/variety soft rock station with different ideas is needed?

PLEASE KEEP THE DIALOGUE PROFESSIONAL, SERIOUS, THOUGHTFUL, AND REASONABLE.

 

[Talk_Dude]

B98.5 is doing what all radio stations attempt to do. They have crafted a format and sound that appeals to a specific, profitable niche audience. No radio station in the 21st century can be all things to all people. That's the path to bankruptcy. No radio station in the 21st century can be profitable if it plays music that only appeals to an unprofitable market segment. That's another path to bankruptcy.

B98.5 is playing a soft-rock format that appeals to the people who listen to it, and that people who don't like it will make fun of. It seems nothing makes some people more angry than to find out that they are not in a target market segment. They take it personally and have to either attack or mock the station that isn't attempting to appeal to them.

While soft rock in general isn't my personal favorite, I can accept the fact that for other people it is. B98.5 seems to present the kind of content that soft rock fans like. They only thing I can hear them doing "wrong" is in the ears of people who don't like soft rock. The real problem is that people who don't like soft rock will engage in spamming this board with their never-ending sarcastic comments.

The bottom line is the one thing that B98.5 might need to consider is making tiny little changes that might attract more listeners if it can do so without alienating its existing listeners. Fortunately, soft-rock doesn't depend on the recording industry to keep cranking out popular songs. They don't have the problem that a CHR station has to deal with, such as people demanding more of this genre or that genre of music when the recording artists who make those kinds of music are in a slump, or if the recording artists choose to use filthy "parental advisory required" lyrics with cleaned up versions for the radio that most fans just don't want to hear.

 

[gregg75]

They are TOO SLOW to take action. I remember when "This Love" from Maroon 5 came out. It took them about 5 weeks to start playing it (which is really fast for B98).

They need to become more EDGY, take risks and stop playing the same old worn out slow jams over and over.

They program to a 40 year old white woman, I'd knock that down to around 30. People are growing tired of their 80's weekends (just as they have grown tired of #1 while at work)...........they wear everything out. Maybe they should move on to 90's weekends before someone else beats them to it, because when they do, they'll be stuck in the 80's with their tube socks, leg warmers and big hair.

 

[jabba17]

People are growing tired of their 80's weekends (just as they have grown tired of #1 while at work)...........they wear everything out. Maybe they should move on to 90's weekends before someone else beats them to it, because when they do, they'll be stuck in the 80's with their tube socks, leg warmers and big hair.

B98.5 will keep doing 80s weekends as long as oldies stations (e.g., True Oldies) don't.

Adult format stations lose listeners on the weekends in general. Serving an underserved niche is one way to pick that back up.

That said, B98.5 does weekends the same way they do everything else--get a handful of songs that test well, burn the carp out of them, and replace them with another handful of good-testing songs, and repeat.

 

[Nyte Ryder]

This is crazier than the Top 40 threads. B98.5 is designed to be a passive background station. Currents don't matter. Less than zero importance. They are crafting long, uneventful days of music and spicing it with 80's weekends.

They are doing exactly what an AC should do in Atlanta.

 

[jabba17]

This is crazier than the Top 40 threads. B98.5 is designed to be a passive background station. Currents don't matter. Less than zero importance. They are crafting long, uneventful days of music and spicing it with 80's weekends.

They are doing exactly what an AC should do in Atlanta.

My only caveat is that there are many people who think that B98.5 is too hard for an AC. Not to say that B98.5 should change as what they do they do very well, but that there is a format hole that someone (read, someone else) could fill with soft AC.

 

[Talk_Dude]

This is crazier than the Top 40 threads. B98.5 is designed to be a passive background station. Currents don't matter. Less than zero importance. They are crafting long, uneventful days of music and spicing it with 80's weekends.

They are doing exactly what an AC should do in Atlanta.

My only caveat is that there are many people who think that B98.5 is too hard for an AC. Not to say that B98.5 should change as what they do they do very well, but that there is a format hole that someone (read, someone else) could fill with soft AC.

You may well have a valid point about the content of B98.5 being too hard for an Adult Contemporary station. On the other hand, which is more important, conforming to the official standards of the National Association for Enforcement of Radio Station Formats or providing your listeners with what they want to hear? Is that station at risk from a surprise visit from the Adult Contemporary Enforcement Division of the Format Police?

And, don't you think that if there was money laying on the table waiting to be picked up by the first station to start a softer Adult Contemporary than B98.5, someone wouldn't have reached out and picked it up already?

 

[RTibbs]

Hot Urban Rhythmic Ethnic AC with a good beat that you can dance to.