Why was Z90 playing Foster The People?

[Radio3787]

At the beginning of the 9:00a hour. I thought for a second I must be listening to their sister station, 91X.

I'm sorry but Pumped Up Kids has no place on a Rythmic/CHR. Who's programming over there??

 

[Radio3787]

Now they're playing One Republic... Was there a format tweak at XHITZ that I'm not aware of???

 

[mteran5]

Z90 was the best during the Califormula days, I guess they want to really rival against 933.

 

[ncountysurf]

They have Adele, Mr. Saxo-beat, and Afrojack all in rotation too. I've noticed they have definitely shifted to a more mainstream CHR lean. This happened quite a while ago...

 

[pjc1961]

By the way, the Foster The people song is entitled "Pumped Up Kicks", not "Pumped Up Kids" - a common mistake.

Possibly the format tweak has to do with Magic 92.5 afternoon guy "R Dub" Randy Williams taking over the programming reins of 90.3 XHTZ and 92.5 XHRM in August, replacing Fred Rico who left in June to go to Phoenix where he's programming KNRJ and KAJM.

Story links:

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...williams-named-pd-of-magic-92-5-z90-san-diego

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...rico-back-in-phoenix-to-program-the-beat-mega

 

[radio-darn]

Z90 was the best during the Califormula days...

Yep, now it's run by "old" white guys: back in its heyday it was programmed by 20-something Latinos and African Americans who had little radio experience but were street-wise and knew what their peers wanted to hear. Luckily for them Victor Diaz didn't meddle with the music unless one of HIS peers reported they'd heard some nasty lyrics and even then, that recording would just get bumped to later at night. You had to have been there: it was urban radio anarchy and it worked because they actually did keep it real. Victor did have his share of older white guy PD's come through in the first couple of years of Jammin' Z-90, but none of them stuck around and it wasn't until the street kids took charge that it really took off.

 

[ncountysurf]

By the way, the Foster The people song is entitled "Pumped Up Kicks", not "Pumped Up Kids" - a common mistake.

Possibly the format tweak has to do with Magic 92.5 afternoon guy "R Dub" Randy Williams taking over the programming reins of 90.3 XHTZ and 92.5 XHRM in August, replacing Fred Rico who left in June to go to Phoenix where he's programming KNRJ and KAJM.

Story links:

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...williams-named-pd-of-magic-92-5-z90-san-diego

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...rico-back-in-phoenix-to-program-the-beat-mega

Z90's mainstream CHR lean has been pretty evident for over a year now. It happened around the same time Blazin' 98-9/XEMORE flipped to ESPN.

R-Dub is well known across the nation in the hip-hop/R&B programming community. If any changes occur from his entrance, I would think they would start leaning more rhythmic again. That is, IF any changes occur at XHITZ.

 

[radio-darn]

R-Dub is well known across the nation in the hip-hop/R&B programming community.

Yeah but he's still, what, a late 30's gringo with a career radio professional's perspective and the "programming community" has demonstrated time and again (in all formats) that few of its members have any idea on how to program successful stations: they may get lucky here, unlucky there, but the dial is littered with half-baked radio stations run by folks who mostly get their jobs because they are well known in the industry, not because they have any secrets to success: it's a crapshoot.

 

[SDRadio]

not because they have any secrets to success: it's a crapshoot.

What? There's luck in radio? It's not a cash register tied to the broadcast antenna?

 

[radio-darn]

not because they have any secrets to success: it's a crapshoot.

What? There's luck in radio? It's not a cash register tied to the broadcast antenna?

I have watched so many PD's over the years carve out a nice career because they got lucky once (or twice). The smarter ones actually knew how to do a quick fix that could bump a station up short term only, and then they got out before the next book hit. Lots of them programmed hit stations before they became a hit under someone else and wisely benefited from having their past association with those stations, even though they had nothing to do with its success.

It reminds me of major league sports where coaches and managers with "experience" keep getting new jobs even though they haven't had a winning year since Howard Cosell was calling the games.

I always have to give Victor - and Martha - Diaz credit for not buying in to that: they took chances with untested people and in some cases it failed (but no worse than it did with some well known pros) and in some cases it worked very well as it ultimately did with Z-90.

How many local stations are stuck in the doldrums - or have drifted into them - despite what seems like a never-ending parade of hired guns into town? Heck the closest thing to a success story seems to be Charese Frugé who rescued 103.7 from Charlie Quinn. It ain't great, but at least it's consistently over a 2.0 (and she does very well at Mix in Vegas).

Heck I think KGB should bring back Homegrown, only this time instead of creating songs, they could let some local listener be the program director: doubt they could do any worse than the experts have the past several years.

Or maybe they could get a Ouija board to make decisions.

 

[justpassingthough]

I'm not defending playing "Pumped Up Kicks" on a rhythmic CHR, because it doesn't really have a place at the format, despite being a great song. Z90 is clearly a mainstream CHR at this point, though.

On the other hand, Foster the People's second single "Helena Beat" is more electronic sounding and may not sound as out of place in the mix. Its remniscent of MGMT's "Electric Feel", which I heard a handful of times get spinned in the mix at KPWR.

San Diego needs a true rhythmic station, though.

 

[CHRles]

CHR/Pop is massive right now. Alongside heritage Channel 93-3, Z-90 is now sounding more Pop leaning than ever.
Additionally, there's also Los 40 Principales on 107.7
http://www.griradio.com/los40/ LOS 40 PRINCIPALES 107.7 TIJUANA-SAN DIEGO
http://64.22.101.50:7118/listen.pls 24 K

 

[only1moore]

On the other hand, Foster the People's second single "Helena Beat" is more electronic sounding and may not sound as out of place in the mix. Its remniscent of MGMT's "Electric Feel", which I heard a handful of times get spinned in the mix at KPWR.

It looks like KPWR is also playing "Pumped Up Kicks" as well, according to Mediabase.

 

[ncountysurf]

On the other hand, Foster the People's second single "Helena Beat" is more electronic sounding and may not sound as out of place in the mix. Its remniscent of MGMT's "Electric Feel", which I heard a handful of times get spinned in the mix at KPWR.

It looks like KPWR is also playing "Pumped Up Kicks" as well, according to Mediabase.

Yeah, but Power spins it during mix shows, and it's a remix.

 

[RadioDiv]

Z90 was the best during the Califormula days...

Yep, now it's run by "old" white guys: back in its heyday it was programmed by 20-something Latinos and African Americans who had little radio experience but were street-wise and knew what their peers wanted to hear. Luckily for them Victor Diaz didn't meddle with the music unless one of HIS peers reported they'd heard some nasty lyrics and even then, that recording would just get bumped to later at night. You had to have been there: it was urban radio anarchy and it worked because they actually did keep it real. Victor did have his share of older white guy PD's come through in the first couple of years of Jammin' Z-90, but none of them stuck around and it wasn't until the street kids took charge that it really took off.

Victor's probably rolling over in his grave. Z-90 excelled during the Califormula days. Everything was done in-house and it really worked. No big corpo-rats needed. Rick Thomas also should be credited for that and acquiring P-1 status. Everything had flair, from the old building on Third Ave to the parades in the Big Ass Buses. I can't see Randy W. programming either station, it's too ethnic. Sorry, he belongs in sales.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

Victor loved his buses almost as much as big ass color photo art.

 

[mteran5]

I remember back in 1994 when Mark in the morning played Green Day, When I come around, it was played really early in the morning around 7am.

I asked about that and I was told that they played it when Victor Diaz is still asleep where he wont find out.

 

[jonbruce]

Victor had a condo out here and we used to see those buses on the streets of Palm Springs years ago.

 

[Garrett]

Z90 was the best during the Califormula days...

Yep, now it's run by "old" white guys: back in its heyday it was programmed by 20-something Latinos and African Americans who had little radio experience but were street-wise and knew what their peers wanted to hear. Luckily for them Victor Diaz didn't meddle with the music unless one of HIS peers reported they'd heard some nasty lyrics and even then, that recording would just get bumped to later at night. You had to have been there: it was urban radio anarchy and it worked because they actually did keep it real. Victor did have his share of older white guy PD's come through in the first couple of years of Jammin' Z-90, but none of them stuck around and it wasn't until the street kids took charge that it really took off.

Victor's probably rolling over in his grave. Z-90 excelled during the Califormula days. Everything was done in-house and it really worked. No big corpo-rats needed. Rick Thomas also should be credited for that and acquiring P-1 status. Everything had flair, from the old building on Third Ave to the parades in the Big Ass Buses. I can't see Randy W. programming either station, it's too ethnic. Sorry, he belongs in sales.

"its too ethnic?"
Excuse me?
Since when did 90.3 belong to one ethnicity? Last time I checked, Z90 was a business, not a non-profit.
Funny, I don't hear people saying, "darn, 91X used to be great, now it doesn't even sound white."

 

[Radio3787]

Being white myself I have to play devil's advocate and say I think a certain demographic might be feeling under-represented by the airwaves as Z90 shifts to appeal to a broader range and be more Top 40 and less CHR/Dance/Urban like it was (which is more PPM friendly, more profitable, yada yada yada... I get it). This less than 2 years after Blazin' 98.9 flipping to Spanish. There's very little variety out there anymore. All the stations are starting to sound like one another and appeal less to a certain demo and more to a bigger range of listeners, with exception to Oldies or Spanish formats.

91X has tweaked in the past year since FCB went under. You know that more than any of us, but I don't think it was as recognizable as Z90. I get a succesful company has to change with the times but you can't blame people for feeling resentful about losing a station they grew up with, that jumped on that mainstream bandwagon.