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What is the future of Rhythmic AC?

D

danwxman

As much as I love the format, it keeps getting bastardized by station owners. My1061 and WMIA in Miami continue to shift towards Hot AC, while KTU is basically just a Rhythmic CHR.

What is the future of this format? Is it even needed? Look at how rhythmic Hot AC has started to become. As that continues (and rhythmic music becomes more and more popular with women 25-54), is the format going to disappear?
 
Yes. And let's hope they take TIRED Hip-Hop with them. How can they call themselves Rhythmic when there is no Rhythm there? No Madonna, CeCe Peniston, Crystal Waters, etc. Anything calling itself Rhythmic should be up to it's eyeballs in genuine Dance music.

Take a 45 record of Sylvester's "Mighty Real" and play it at 25 RPM.............that's the state of today's
Rhythm and much of today's Dance music. It's not Rhythmic and it's not Dance. The words don't even match the sorry lame beats. We've got factories continuously cranking out tons and tons of sound alike junk which nobody will remember or even be playing in 2019.

Many stations were once #1 before they switched to Hip-Hop (WPOW, WBBM, KUBE, KKFR, KMEL, KPWR, etc.)......today they are lucky to be in the top 10 (except for WKTU). Hip-Hop is on the downslide.......people are tired of it.
 
I think this topic says it all...............
It's been on here for a day and only 25 people have viewed it.
The sorry, mixed up, haven't got a clue stations killed this format.
 
I'd hate to see the rhythmic AC format leave the airwaves. I actually find it to be a fun format because of the variety and today's hits and back in the day hits, but unfortunately they'll soon be another CHR-like format. :'(
 
Perhaps the problem is that Rhythmic AC doesn't really have any artists it can call it's own. Rhythmic CHR jumped on hip-hop artists and became "where hip-hop lives" and flourished. On the other hand, Rhythmic AC plays a mixture of other formats' songs. Maybe the dance music fans are right and Rhythmic AC's should make dance music their music. The core of the format would be new dance music, 80's synth pop, 70's discos, etc., mixed with just enough upbeat CHR/Hot AC songs to attract a broader audience.
 
I think that's ALMOST what WKTU is doing.

We need a genuine Dance stations that plays songs from 1974 to 2010.........there is enough variety in there to satisfy almost anybody. But radio is too chicken to give it a serious try.
 
Dance is similar to AAA in that the fans are very passionate about their music but a commercial radio station featuring only dance (or AAA) music just doesn't resonate with the masses enough to pull in the numbers. Even the most popular AAA's have had to incorporate more familiar music than the purists want to hear. That said, I wouldn't mind hearing a station that features dance at its core and sprinkles in the more mainstream pop for survival's sake.
 
Very good post. I am quite sad that stations like WDTW/106.7 in Detroit (which debuted almost a year ago) have gone away from their roots of Rhythmic AC and have become just another run-of-the-mill CHR station that happens to mix in a few old-school tunes.
 
AM FM listener said:
The core of the format would be new dance music, 80's synth pop, 70's discos, etc., mixed with just enough upbeat CHR/Hot AC songs to attract a broader audience.
Click to expand...

Don't forget about all those really good dance hits from the '90s! ;D
 
AM FM listener said:
Dance is similar to AAA in that the fans are very passionate about their music but a commercial radio station featuring only dance (or AAA) music just doesn't resonate with the masses enough to pull in the numbers. Even the most popular AAA's have had to incorporate more familiar music than the purists want to hear.
Click to expand...

What is AAA? I assume you're not talking about the American Automobile Association. Haha!
 
WMIA's top 25 include:

The Script - Breakeven
Lady Antebellum - Need You Now
Michael Buble - Haven't Met You Yet
Train - Hey Soul Sister
Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me
Adam Lambert - Whataya Want From Me
Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Billy Idol - Mony Mony
Coldplay - Viva La Vida

Tell me how those belong on a R/AC station.

Those aren't the only ones. Rhythmic AC stations seem to have an identity crisis - wannabe AC's (Philadelphia, Miami) or wannabe CHR's (Atlanta). Most of the MOViN stations are gone or have evolved. Raleigh's Kiss FM isn't a bad Rhythmic AC.

I think I'd call it dead.
 
WMIA and many other stations put people in charge who had no idea what they were doing. If you have no idea what you're doing.......time to make a change.

Talking about things that aren't Rhythmic........have you taken a look at the Billboard Dance
charts lately? They're about as danceable as an eposide of "That Girl." Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock, Top-40
they've got it all.

It's ok for Hip-Hop and Pop stations to close their doors on 99.9% of Dance music, but our door is wide open (we don't even have a door) and we are to promote stuff that would make Sylvester roll over in his grave. Just because a song has a remix with some kind of beat doesn't make it Dance.

Billboard should be ashamed of itself........trying to pawn this crap as if it were Dance music.
 
Maybe Rhythmic AC is just one of those formats that is good on paper, sounds good enough, but when it comes to ratings it just doesn't succeed because of the competition? For what it's worth, here in Philly WISX sucks (though I do like that they play the Remix Top 30, and a lunchtime mix) but 95.7 HD-2 "Club Ben" is an excellent Rhythmic AC. Exactly what the format should sound like. Great mixture of disco, rhythmic 80's, 90's dance, a bit of old-school hip-hop, mixed in with a couple currents and 00's dance and upbeat hip-hop.
 
Dan said:
Maybe Rhythmic AC is just one of those formats that is good on paper, sounds good enough, but when it comes to ratings it just doesn't succeed because of the competition? For what it's worth, here in Philly WISX sucks (though I do like that they play the Remix Top 30, and a lunchtime mix) but 95.7 HD-2 "Club Ben" is an excellent Rhythmic AC. Exactly what the format should sound like. Great mixture of disco, rhythmic 80's, 90's dance, a bit of old-school hip-hop, mixed in with a couple currents and 00's dance and upbeat hip-hop.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's what WDTW 106.7 The Beat of Detroit sounded like when it first debuted as a Rhythmic AC station in September '09. Now it's basically a Rhythmic CHR station that throws in a couple "old school" tracks once every couple hours or so. It's really sad because the Rhythmic AC sound is very good. If I want to hear current CHR music, I'll listen to a CHR station... not a Rhythmic AC station.

Unfortunately, listeners in all sorts of radio markets don't have the tolerance for much '80s and '90s (not to mention early '00s) dance music. They're so obsessed with current music and want to hear the same set of CHR songs (maybe only about a dozen right now) all the time.
 
Rhythmic AC isn't working in most markets, but it is indeed a good format if programmed right. I think stations took Rhythmic AC and twisted it for their market, some, I think projecting CHR would do better. For Detroit, no... you have Channel 955 and 98.7 AMP Radio. Although, I think The Beat of Detroit sounds amazing, it belonged as a rhythmic AC. They really need to focus on 955 being CHR and 1067 being Rhythmic because you have issues there if not. Although, maybe CC wants it to be a monopoly. If you don't like what's on 955, tune to 1067, not 987. It sounds as if 1067 has that down though, music-wise.

Look at Atlanta though... both of its "CHR's" are adult-leaning. Star 94 and Q100. Q100 plays more of the hits, but 105.7 did the right thing by making it Atlanta's Party Station (aka hit music station) - THIS is an example where CHR on a rhythmic AC would work. Although, not sure if I agree with 1057 to play Rick Ross and Lil Wayne... maybe they are filling the void that 955 left.

Now, take a look at MOViN Syracuse or MOViN Anchorage... true rhythmic AC's... Anchorage more than Syracuse, but both are big with 80s and 90s. None of them doing superb in the books, but they stuck the real format that Alan Burns created.

I have two examples of failed Rhythmic AC's trying to be CHR, but realizing that it didn't work.

MOVIN 100.7/Salt Lake City

They started off as the MOViN format that Burns created and decided to use "All The Hits" and go Mainstream CHR in March of '09. They returned back to Rhythmic AC after many failed books in June of this year. This is an example of Rhythmic AC working for that market. The gay population is huge in Salt Lake City, and they want to hear rhythmic music. Although, they still have a CHR lean, they do play Prince and Madonna, and play more recurrent than current.

RDL101.1/Internet Radio

I personally program this station. We kicked it off in '05 as a Urban-leaning Urban AC format that worked for a while, but it eventually got hotter and flipped to a CHURBAN-type format. We were the only station like it in the country, playing the biggest rhythmic and urban hits, and the upbeat CHR ones. It worked very well, but the PD who hosted the very popular morning show went into the hospital, and we ended up losing a lot of our audience. The station went downhill. We ended up playing around with the format, being Urban and even straight Urban AC which failed miserably. We decided to go after a different audience and cater to our black, white, and latino audience with Rhythmic AC. It was straight rhythmic AC for awhile and was probably the most successful run since the CHURBAN format. However, I got stupid and decided to follow the pattern of Detroit and Atlanta and thought that rhythmic CHR would work better with the old audience we used to have. It failed, and we're now back to Rhythmic AC. I'm in the process of getting new imaging and expanding the playlist.

Maybe it just depends on the market...

Atlanta's Groove has a 2.5, up from a 2.2 - and cume-wise, 595,900 to 678,500 - give it another book though, they recently flipped to rhythmic.
Detroit's Beat has a 2.4, up from a 2.3 - and cume-wise, 625,300 down from 682,900 - I think this is the wrong market for The Beat as a rhythmic CHR, but CC has a plan, so we'll see.

The stations need to get back out on the streets and market more. TV ads make a difference, and they should do cross-station promotion. It's gonna get real interesting!
 
I both Agree and disagree with Gregg75,,, I actually do think that the pop hits with Dance mixes are Dance,, but on the other hand,, they shouldnt be the core base of a Dance Station.. And yes I agree with gregg that Rhythmic AC should be mostly all Dance,,, 70s Disco,funk,motown, 80s,Freestyle,New wave, some R&B,, lots of heavy 90s hi nrg Dance,, KLF,, Cee Cee Peniston, Corina, Bobby Browns Upbeat Stuff, Lisa Lisa I could go on and on..., and todays current true Dance with some,, I said some.. POP Remixes.

Also if the format is AC,, there should be NONE....0 Percent of Rap,,, and NO Ballads and no guitar ROCK,,, because its rhythmic..
 
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