What is left for JAM'N 94.5?

[Bosch94]

Thoughts on the extreme decline in ratings? ??? I know threads have been posted before but a 3.4 share has rarely been seen for this signal... Its always been a top 5 maybe 6-7 station... Now not so much...

 

[SupermarketSweep]

WBQT is taking a huge chunk of their audience. Combined, they'd have a 6.5 rating. Thats about where WJMN was before "Hot" came on the scene. Looks like they're splitting the urban/rhythmic audience. It's gonna be a dog fight between these two for a while. (Hot... jumping up to a 3.1?!?! Impressive for only four months on the air.)

 

[UrbanTeenager]

NO neither is urban they are not splitting and urban/rhytmic audience. If one went urban that one would experience a boost in ratings, its simple. Honestly, Mainstream Urban, with a Power 105.1 Breakfast Cub weekend (Great Morning Show!) syndicate and snag some of the interns, now grown-up, from the old Hot 97 to do the morning show. Take some of the top DJS from Boston and Providence, and Some of the lesser known ones from CT and NYC and they would take the VAST majority of the 18-34 Black and Latino share and could probably get some of a hipper, edgier white audience. Itd have to clearly distinguish itself as Mainstream Urban Contemporary. Move it to 101.7 for one and then name it (tacky as they sound) "Power" "Blazin" "Fresh" "Swag" or "Streetz" just to show that it was different from Hot and Jamn. Enough with the Jay-Z. Pitbull, Ne-Yo, Usher, Drake, Kanye and Rihanna (RHYTHMICS). Bring in Wale, Kirko Bangz, Tamar Braxton, Yo Gotti, Miguel, Future, Kelly Rowland, and French Montana (URBAN). Maybe open up a Urban AC, Rock or move Evolution to 94.5 and add a little more pop to it. They just need a clean slate, Jamn does. Hence, Fresh 101.7.

Also in my opinion Hartford's 93.7 might as well go with "#1 in New England for Hip Hop and RnB" because it's true! While they're at it get a stronger signal and position it better and let it fully thrive in Springfield! Fairfield County doesn't need a third hip hop station.

 

[Lightning]

Why in the world would WJMN switch to urban? They won't get anything better than a 2.5 in Boston. This is not an Atlanta or Philly. I am sorry to say, but it's also not 2003 when hip hop was big. 90% of the white audience that JAM'N caters to don't even know who Kirko Bangz or Yo Gotti is.

 

[johnster]

Again.... Stations exist to sell advertising not to play cool music. They first pick a target audience. Both these stations are targeting women. They are actually even targeting different age groups of women. Look at those new Hot ads I think it's pretty clear from them who their target audience is. Then they select the right sales staffs to go after the clients that serve that target audience. Next you pick talent and play music that will keep grabbing that target audience. If you get some spillover of men or some women out or your target great you'll take the bragging rights but your not selling to that so don't really care. I think most the folks complaining here about the current music choices are out of these targets by the simple reason that they are men. If either JAM'N or HOT change or tweak their formats they will still be aimed at women and you will still be unhappy.

 

[trock]

Again.... Stations exist to sell advertising not to play cool music.

Well, I think a good station station has the capability to do both. That said I think Jamn just needs to continue to skew younger and they will be fine. Who new playing a whole lot of Michael jackson in 2013! Is the key to ratings success. Also urbanteenager my beloved evolution 101.7 is not going anywhere!!

 

[KML0224]

Also in my opinion Hartford's 93.7 might as well go with "#1 in New England for Hip Hop and RnB" because it's true! While they're at it get a stronger signal and position it better and let it fully thrive in Springfield! Fairfield County doesn't need a third hip hop station.

Hot 93.7 does reasonably well in Springfield. However, the 93.7 transmitter is on West Peak in Meriden, not on Avon Mountain (like WTIC-FM 96.5 is). They can't move north since there's already a 93.9 station in the area of Turner's Falls, MA (receivable in the Greenfield, MA area). Last time I checked, I never got a good signal of 93.7 (Hartford) even down past New Haven, despite having the Meriden transmitter site.

 

[MR. JAROME_CALVIN]

Back in the day (1987/1988) I used to live in Amherst, Ma and Sunderland, Ma. I used to pick up (MOST) Hartford radio stations (KISS 95.7, 96.5 TIC, and KC 101) I mostly listened to (KISS 95.7.I picked that up as far as Deerfield, Ma). It came in and out around Greenfield, Ma. 96.5 TIC came in better all around (Amherst, Sunderland, Greenfield) all places that station came in better than KISS 95.7
this was back in 1987/1988
as well as back in 1992 during a weekend visit, and back around 2005 when I visited there.

 

[UrbanTeenager]

Why in the world would WJMN switch to urban? They won't get anything better than a 2.5 in Boston. This is not an Atlanta or Philly. I am sorry to say, but it's also not 2003 when hip hop was big. 90% of the white audience that JAM'N caters to don't even know who Kirko Bangz or Yo Gotti is.

Heres the thing, you DON'T have to be Atlanta or Philly. Reno Nevada has an Urban statioin, Swag 104.9. That market is not only much smaller it sis literally less than 2% black. It does well because it is DIFFERENT. If Boston werent jam packed with Rhythmic and CHR I wouldn't advise an Urban but I dont think a 2.5 is realistic. White people listening to JAM'N probably wouldn't even notice. They're just not as invested into the Hip Hop product as are the Black and Latino listeners. If LA can have Urban Formatted Stations my bet is thatd work in Boston. Lets say Boston is 7% Black in its Metro Area, LA is about 9%. But unlike Los Angeles (Mexican) many of the Hispanics in Boston are Puerto Rican and Dominican and are Black by blood (especially Dominican) and they listen to hip hop, that would likely increase the Black population of the Boston are to ~9% then one must remember the younger demographics are more diverse, moving the black population to slightly over 10% in the 18-34 demographic. OKC has urban station, but I understand that's heritage. Clearly Radio One saw some potential in Boston in the late 90's when only census 1990 data was around. Even if the format was boiling back then, the demographics from 90 or even 95 were much different from today but they still took a shot. 7 years ('99-'06) with a bad signal isn't too bad. I think they figured advertisers could be sold just off of the sheer number of blacks and latinos ~600,000. Clearly JAM'N needs to do something right? What else could they do. I'm sorry but 3.4 for JAMN 945 who would've thunk it 10 years ago.

 

[UrbanTeenager]

Also I wonder why it is these stations choose to advertise to women , most Urban Contemporary hit both men and women, depending on how hard the content they can skew more male. That is usually only true on a dial with more than one urban option though (In Chiacgo, WGCI-Men and Women/Power 92-men). If there is one Urban it serves as a unifying point for the young Black community regardless of sex. If there were an urban I doubt 18-34 black women would opt for JAM'N.

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

Remember: the audience is only half of the equation. The other half are
the advertisers. And then the question becomes - will those advertisers pay
enough for the station to make a profit? What might work, economically,
a few hours per week may not work as a full-time format. Bottom line -
if a station thinks something will turn a profit - they will do it, in a heartbeat!

 

[WBIMDJ]

Everything UrbanTeenager said. Jam'n has to do SOMETHING and the SOONER the BETTER. Differentiate themselves from Hot 96.9 as much as they can. I totally agree with the urban lean - model after 93.7 in Hartford! Damn what a great station.. I always love driving into CT and hearing all the new Hip Hop & R&B on that station and then literally 3-5 months later hearing it on the LAME Jam'n... :

I mean, it's not even a call for a drastic format change - at least adding more Urban currents or recurrents into its mix might be a better idea, and not just playing certain currents only at the top 9 at 9 (which aggravates me to no end). Lower your power spins down a tad and it's not THAT big of a difference. Maybe redo the imaging of the station a bit -

 

[NHRadio]

If LA can have Urban Formatted Stations my bet is thatd work in Boston. Lets say Boston is 7% Black in its Metro Area, LA is about 9%. But unlike Los Angeles (Mexican) many of the Hispanics in Boston are Puerto Rican and Dominican and are Black by blood (especially Dominican) and they listen to hip hop, that would likely increase the Black population of the Boston are to ~9%

Another youngster who's never seen the inside of a radio station telling us exactly what Boston radio need(s).
LA is not Boston, dude. Demographics aside. They are completely different cities. Wikipedia says Boston is 24.4% Black. The thing is a LOT, maybe even a majority, are of Caribbean origin, not African American. It's also 17.5% Hispanic, mostly Central American. Compare that to LA which is 9.6% Black, most of which are African American and 48.5% Hispanic, mainly Mexican.
COMPLETELY different cultures. Just because something works in one city does not mean it will work in another.

 

[blackgold]

Maybe they'll sell out to Family Stations and switch the programming to religious.

 

[atlantaboy]

Wikipedia says Boston is 24.4% Black.

That's the city, not the metro area - the Boston metro is 7% black (way too low to support an Urban station)

Also, L. A. doesn't have an Urban station (someone posted that?) - they have a Rhythmic, an extreme Rhythmic-leaning CHR, and a Latin Urban, targeted at the 42% Hispanic population

 

[fmradio1]

And stop comparing WZMX in Hartford and Jam'n's situation. First off, Hartford has much fewer signals than Boston does...less competition for the younger and minority listener. Second, their numbers aren't what they used to be. Third, the Hartford metro is slightly more diverse than Boston is. Fourth....their billing SUCKS! Last I heard, despite their ratings, Hot 93.7 is EIGHTH out of the nine local FM signals (WRCH, WTIC-FM, WWYZ, WHCN, WCCC, WMRQ, WKSS, WZMX & WDRC-FM) in terms of revenue. Only WMRQ is worse. And Hot has one of the best signals in the STATE! Going full blown urban is not the answer for 94.5.

Between AMP and Hot 96.9, they've essentially pulled the rug out from under WJMN. Neither CBS nor Greater Media are going to blink and flip away to another format anytime soon. Jam'n will have to hope for a big hip-hop resurgence to get back in the game...or they may have to go in a totally different direction.

 

[atlantaboy]

^And WZMX/Hartford is trending down as well - from 8.5 in January to a 6.9 this month - there just aren't a lot of hip-hop songs on the ITunes chart, compared to a few years ago

WJMN has a Rhythmic AC, a Rhythmic-leaning CHR, and a Rhythmic Dance station in the same market, so you can't possibly compare the two

 

[chrocket87]

Why is everyone calling doom for Jam'n? IIRC, It is still #2 in it's target demo, only behind one of the most successful CHR stations in the nation.

 

[Bosch94]

I forgot happy 20th birthday JAM'N 94.5! #2 in the target... Clearly most of us on this board dont have access to those #s.... Wheres the proof?

 

[Bosch94]

I would like to see demo #s of these stations clearly the public release ratings are not enough proof of error? And i suppose the #1 obvious is KISS 108 the vanity #s show that.