-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
What Is The Best Frequency For A Classic Rap Hiphop R&B Station??
- Thread starter DJboutit3
- Start date
This city seems to be too afraid of any urban formats. It also seems like that Houston has a small market mentality and isn't fond of competing stations. I agree that would actually freshen up the market though.
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
How about NONE! Seriously - with a huge format hole like oldies / classic hits in Houston that rates well in neighboring cities - something as niche'y as Classic Rap hip-hop would be ignoring the obvious need for something that wouldn't do nearly as well.
KCOH?, or KMIC 1590. How about AM 650?, which would be weird because it is Daytime only 
And for FM 107.5 at least that one covers Houston MSA, to Lake Jackson. And Cox could drop the simulcast of the Eagle, but there Cox which must stand for Cheap Operating eXtinction. :
And for FM 107.5 at least that one covers Houston MSA, to Lake Jackson. And Cox could drop the simulcast of the Eagle, but there Cox which must stand for Cheap Operating eXtinction. :
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
DJboutit3 said:mr.ric said:What a damn same, some of these posts. No wonder some people look at this market in a negative way. :
I totally agree a lot of childish posting here
Yeah - lets continue to ignore obvious format holes in Houston and discuss niche'y stuff nobody wants. Classic hip-hop rap was tried on WOCL Orlando instead of oldies and crashed and burned. Rated much lower than the previous oldies format. Orlando had another oldies station within a year. Perhaps if owners in this area actually listened to LISTENERS instead of focus groups composed of people who are pre-determined to re-enforce decisions that are already made ---
A good example of radio done right is WPOZ Orlando. An unlikely format to be at the top of any ratings, but they solicit the input of LISTENERS and translate that into number one ranking. The only reason oldies didn't do well here is that it was programmed by people who didn't understand the format. The playlist was small and sucked. Meanwhile oldies or classic hits or whatever you want to call it rates highly all around Houston in San Antonio and Dallas. Also in other major cities. Rather than give up on the format, they needed to give up on the an-air talent and playlist they had on 107.5. Instead we get the total train wreck on there now that tries to pass for classic hits. To add insult to injury, they tie up a second frequency in the area with the same train wreck, instead of at least trying the HD-2 oldies on 106.9.
P
purpledevil
Guest
DJboutit3 said:mr.ric said:What a damn same, some of these posts. No wonder some people look at this market in a negative way. :
I totally agree a lot of childish posting here
djboutit, people are just having fun; unfortunately at your expense, because your thread is basically a moot point. No one, and I mean no one that owns a radio frequency in Houston, Texas is going to flip their radio station to classic hip hop. Just isn't going to happen. You can add it to the list of other genres of music such as zydeco, punk rock, trance, dance, oldies, etc. That are forgotten has beens or never will be formats in this city. Why? Technology. Why would a broadcaster risk flipping a successful station to a new niche format that is readily available to download at the simple touch of a phone screen? That's not a good business plan. It's too much risk. Look at 92.1 for example. The gospel format was a cookie cutter, where you could hear the same songs, and probably the same jocks in any market Radio One has a gospel format and it was rating in the 3's and 4's 6+ here in Houston. Flips to news, all news mind you, something this city has been clamoring for since KTRH fell off the news wagon and has fallen flat below expectations, thus far. You think that 96.5 is a good place for classic hip hop. Ok, first have you ever heard a CBS owned classic hip hop station? And secondly, do you think CBS is a multi million dollar company because they dump 20+ year heritage radio stations like KHMX for the 80's rap stylings of Slick Rick and Ice Cube?
Niche formats are a thing of the past, my friend. Welcome to the wonderful world of today's radio.
If Z Rock couldn't make it fed by a sattelite running a niche rock format nationwide, there's not a snowball's chance of a stand alone niche format like classic hip hop being successful in a single although large market. I've no dog in the fight, I just think you're taking the responses of the other posters a bit too personal.
Hey if you're serious about some old school rap, put up some cash. I hear AM signals all over this town advertising the sale of thier airtime. I bet there are some others on the boards that would contribute to the cause. You never know, unless you try. If that's not your cup of tea, set up a part 15. You and your neighbors can jam all the classic hip hop you want and it's completely legal.
Same formats do not work in every city so giving Houston a chance with a classic rap hiphop r&b station might just be a good idea here. Houston can not support 8 or 9 mexican & 3 sports talk stations look at their ratings for these stations they are crap time to dumb a few and add a classic rap hiphop r&b format to one of them
P
purpledevil
Guest
DJboutit3 said:
Alright, let's run with that. You are absolutely right that not all formats work in every city. We agree on that. Where we disagree is with your next statement. Houston can not support 8 or 9 mexican formats and 3 sports talk stations. First, Houston is supporting the 8 or 9 spanish formats. Some do better than others, but the ones that aren't showing up decently in the ratings are those formats that are on brokered AM stations. Those, for the most part, aren't even full time formats.
Heck, let's just quit talking about AM altogether considering you certainly won't be successful with a classic hip hop station on AM in this day and time. Breaking down the FM's that are Spanish speaking you have KLTN which is consistently in the top 5 for the market, certainly not losing Estereo Latino anytime soon, KOVE which is right behind KLTN and typically shows around a 5 share itself, KLOL which I hate to say has been pretty successful since it flipped from rock so it's not going anywhere, KTJM/KJOJ/KQQK/KQBU which all get around a 3 share as a rag tag of rimshots from Beaumont/ Port Arthur and in KQBU's case actually dropped in ratings when Party moved to the 93.3 frequency and only rebounded back when it changed back to Spanish speaking La Que Buena. KNTE is going to be some derivitive of Christian programming once KSBJ takes the reigns so it certainly wouldn't go there, and bud, that's all the Spanish stations on the FM band in Houston. Which successful format would you blow up for the classic hip hop, that would actually be MORE successful and generate more money?
The sports stations, btw there are 4 of them not 3, are even more handicapped which in turn is part of the problem with their current ratings. The only FMer, 97.5, has to be the weakest rimshot coming from Beaumont. There is a reason Power 97.5, which WAS classic R&B mixed in with more currents, failed because it wasn't listenable here in Houston. It was well rated and popular in the Triangle, but that's not where Cumulus has the station targetting. Beaumont's numbers don't add up to a hill of beans here in Houston. ESPN sports on 97.5 has got to be pretty cheap to run, or it wouldn't have lasted as long as it has at that frequency. Look how many times Cumulus flipped 97.5 before they settled on ESPN. There's no chance of Cumulus even considering leaving sports for classic hip hop or, in my estimation, anything else than ESPN or a syndicated talk format for KFNC. The other 3 are on AM, and again there's no chance of any success for what you want on the AM band.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but DJ, there are so many niche formats like this that people would be excited about initially but how long could the station hold the listener's attention? If you play classic hip hop from say 1985-1997, how many times will your listeners hear the same songs over and over and over again until they grow bored with the station and look for the next new fad. It's been happening since I was young, it'll still be happening when you get old. I still think you'd be happy broadcasting a station yourself. Part 15 doesn't go very far (mine serves me and about 6 neighbors) but you can program anything you want and enjoy it in FM STEREO. It's up to you. If you're waiting for someone else to do it, I'm afraid you will need a lot of patience.
DJboutit3 said:
If you're serious enough about the music, go buy a copy of SAM Broadcaster, get yourself a Loudcaster account, put it online and get it listed on TuneIn.
The difference in cost of entry and keeping it running is why you can put any format you want online and run with it but wouldn't necessarily be able to pay the bills on a big FM stick with the same library.
F
foursider
Guest
Not to mention the fact that a 250 watt FM transmitter won't even get you three miles down the road. And, you also have to deal with those pesky FCC rules. ;D
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
DJboutit3 said:
I think we all can identify with the frustration of too many Spanish language and brokered formats. Some formats are pipe dreams that might work for a while - I know WOCL Orlando dumped oldies and tried classic hiphop R&B for a while - there is a considerable potential audience for it there, too. It didn't last lost. They appear to be back to a modified version of oldies again. I guess there are only so many times you can hear Baby Got Back and Whoomp There It Is before you get as burned out on them as everybody in Houston is of Hotel California on our so-called classic hits stations.
When looking at a new format, or revival of a format, one should look at the successes and failures of cities with similar demographics and histories, particularly nearby cities with similar demographics and cultures. What is working and what is not in those cities. If classic hiphop R&B were a success in Dallas, San Antonio, etc. then logically somebody could argue it would work here. But under that logic, the biggest and most blatant format hole is oldies / classic hits. Just saying --- the possibility that some body could make money with classic hits / oldies (not the train wreck format of the eagle) is much greater than the possibility somebody could make money from a format you like.
Right now - oldies / classic hits fans in Houston either do without, settle for something they don't really like, DX KONO, KVNS, KHVL, and other stations, stream, listen to satellite, or use iP___s and Pandora. But they probably do not listen -en masse - to the eagle, the arrow, or other locals because they basically suck to fans of oldies. You are in even worse shape with your selected format - there aren't any viable DX targets. But I must have a hundred sources of oldies on iPhone apps, a lot of them streams of over the air stations which obviously make it in other radio markers. Perhaps you could find similar numbers of your format - I hope you do because it would prove the format viable other places, maybe it would be here, too.
- Status