This is kind of annoying. Why are there so many songs in the top 40 that our stations haven't even picked up yet? I'm looking at American top 40 right now and here's what I see, It Girl by Jason Derulo is at 17 and I just heard it on KBKS this past weekend. Have to give KUBE some credit on this one as they seem to have picked it up although not playing it in heavy rotation. Here's one even worse, Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan is at 20, and Star 101.5, the last station I expected to pick it up, ran it as a music experiment earlier this week, and everyone seemed to like it. Where are the other hit stations on this one? I expected KBKS and KQMV to pick it up before KPLZ. Here's an odd one and one that I probably should give a few more weeks for the stations to pick up, but at 31 it is Patric Stump - This city Lupe Fiasco. At 35 it's Britney Spears - Criminal, KHKS in Dallas is already playing this. At 38 it's Lloyd - Dedication to my X Miss That Feat. End. I've never heard of that one or the one I mentioned at 31. KHKS in Dallas already has the song at 40 spinning hard but no sign of it in Seattle, Flo Rida - Good Feeling. On the Adult top 40 chart I notice that 101.5 hasn't picked up Hey Mama by Mat Kearney which is at 22. The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggy is another one they haven't picked up on 101.5, Allice in Denver played this twice when I was listening to them a couple weeks ago. Also Michel Branch has a new one out called Loud Music, which I have never heard and it already seems to be falling off the charts. Last week it was at 26 and this week it's at 32, it'll be interesting to see what the chart for tomorrow will have it at. Another one is Heaven by O.A.R. Last but not least, it's Kiss Me Slowly by Parachute. Any thoughts?
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What is up with Seattle's current-based stations?
- Thread starter bobdavcav
- Start date
I've mentioned it on here before....over-generalizing, AC stations (such as STAR) often let the CHR's "warm up" a song so at least the listeners have been EXPOSED to the tune by the time they start playing it. But in all cases, the stations often have a pretty decent handle on what their audience "flavor" is ... and whether something new will likely resonate with their audience or not. Certainly what resonates with KUBE is different than with KBKS and so it's likely to be case-by-case as to who jumps on something first.
What usally affects the playlist is crossover. For example...a CHR picks up a song and the "kids" in the car win the tuner war and get to listen to the station. The "parent" driving ends up getting exposed to the song and it becomes familiar by the time the HOT-AC's jump on it.
Other times...it's just a music director having a great ear and hearing something that will likely be accepted by the audience. Probably why STAR tested that song you mentioned...and an on-air test is another way of mildly "warming up" the song a little bit as the whole exercise of being a music critic kind of forces you to sample the tune.
What usally affects the playlist is crossover. For example...a CHR picks up a song and the "kids" in the car win the tuner war and get to listen to the station. The "parent" driving ends up getting exposed to the song and it becomes familiar by the time the HOT-AC's jump on it.
Other times...it's just a music director having a great ear and hearing something that will likely be accepted by the audience. Probably why STAR tested that song you mentioned...and an on-air test is another way of mildly "warming up" the song a little bit as the whole exercise of being a music critic kind of forces you to sample the tune.
So would it be fair to say that the current American Top 40 chart is leaning more towards KHKS and the hot AC towards WTIC? Haven't listened to TIC lately, but when I did listen to them one time, they were playing Just Can't Get Enough, Party Rock Anthem, Save Me, San Francisco, and acts like that. Haven't looked at the rankings on the KHKS playlist, but when I looked at KBKS, I was surprised to see songs that were over a year old still in the top 40, Replay being at 39. Or do the numbers on the CC playlists mean anything at all? I always assumed they were a rank of how popular the song was.
I thought this was going to be about carrier current stations on the AM band. ;D
Seattle is a lot like Kansas City's current-based stations. KC is sometimes VERY slow (or purposefully ignoring) certain new tracks. I remember it took KMXV FOREVER to add David Guetta's Sexy Chick back in 2009 (and they actually avoided Adam Lambert's music when it first came out). I think it may be because certain age/demographic groups and the local music history trends don't exactly warm up to tracks that other cities are spinning the hell out of. I mean, going back to Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan, where Kiss or MOViN' doesn't play it (and C does, but we won't count that because it's a non-comm), Chicago's B96 plays it ALL THE TIME.
It doesn't seem to me that there's much of anything new about Top 40 stations not playing everything that's on the Top 40 chart. Aside from the fact that different stations have different musical leans, there's also the simple matter that it's impossible to play the entire Top 40 chart if you have a 30 song current playlist (which is pretty typical).
But as I said, it's nothing new -- growing up in Tacoma in the seventies and early eighties, there were always songs that I would hear on American Top 40 that nobody was playing, especially when those songs were in the lower half of the chart. Even some songs that ended up being huge number one hits were slow to get added -- when "Funky Town" charted in 1980, it didn't show up on Tacoma's KNBQ ("Q-97 FM") until it hit number one.
But as I said, it's nothing new -- growing up in Tacoma in the seventies and early eighties, there were always songs that I would hear on American Top 40 that nobody was playing, especially when those songs were in the lower half of the chart. Even some songs that ended up being huge number one hits were slow to get added -- when "Funky Town" charted in 1980, it didn't show up on Tacoma's KNBQ ("Q-97 FM") until it hit number one.
In that case, I have nothing more to say on this topic. If I were running a CHR, I'd have all the songs from the top 40 chart on the playlist, as well as the top 100 of the year and the top 40 of the decade and nothing more, unless the market I'm in has something different in it. For example, Kiss would have all the above mentioned songs plus the top 20 would be Bender's big 20 from the current week.
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