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WJBR - Cancelling Holiday Music

Anyone in the western suburbs looking to the AC rimshots for an alternative to all Christmas is out of luck. Y102 in Reading and 100.7 in Allentown are all Jingle Bells as well.
 
TheBigA said:
Keep in mind that radio is not a living thing. It's based on an audience. The audience doesn't stay the same. It ages and changes and adapts to circumstances around it. So the audience for what you consider radio is aging. In some cases, that audience has died. An entire new audience has grown up with different experiences and memories. They see radio completely differently. Radio stations are adapting to those new expectations.

The station you're talking about was sold two years ago. Since then, the programming and call letters have changed. They retained the use of the letters for an online station, but it's totally automated. It's not what it was before the sale, even though it has that name. In that way, that station has "died," although it isn't a living thing, except in the memories of people.

What you're talking about isn't new. The radio your parents grew up with changed as they got older. At some point, it no longer spoke to them, and they stopped listening. Consider the generation that grew up on network radio before TV. The kind of radio they heard was completely gone by the 1970s. To them, radio was dead. This idea of a DJ playing recorded music was not as exciting as hearing live bands or radio drama. They couldn't understand why young people were willing to listen to pre-recorded music. But that's what happened. It became the experience of people who grew up with that kind of radio. Now there are other experiences and ways to hear music. What was done before is seen as obsolete.

So to your point, the music is still there. It exists in whatever way you want it to exist. As others have said, it's up to you to find new places where you can experience radio the way you remembered it.
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Excellent post. While I still listen to radio (I'm 63), your post makes perfect sense regarding radio over the decades, as well as what prior and current generations grew up with in terms of their experiences with radio.
 
radiophiler said:
Heard three hours of WSTW's Christmas music Friday in a place where I volunteer. They have pre-recorded announcements at least once per hour that include something along the lines of "the best music variety will return Dec. 26." One of the variations included a montage of music which would fit Hot AC ... but could also fit a bright AC.
Another observation: earlier in the week, during a different three-hour shift, I heard B-101's Christmas music. I liked WSTW's better ... but I'm not their demographic ... I'm too old and the wrong gender. WSTW's seemed less repetitive and better balanced (B-101's seemed to suffer from the same songs within that three-hour period by different artists) and WSTW's was more "traditional" ... fewer contemporary artists and more from 50+ years ago.
Draper's Hot AC in Salisbury, WBOC-FM, did not flip to all Christmas. Maybe Draper just sees an opportunity in Wilmington for Christmas music? Add to that, that there's only one Philly all-Christmas station, and WSTW puts a very good signal into most of Chester and Delaware Counties and into south Jersey ... WSTW does make a point of mentioning Chester, Delco and Salem County communities on air.
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WBOC is chr.
 
In NYC
Gotgizmo said:
Thank you for all your responses. As someone who never worked in radio, I’m very passionate about local radio. I grew up to Q102 Hit 8 at 8. Can’t tell you how many times I won that Hot 8 at 8 contest. I believe the last time I won off the Hot 8 at 8, the #1 song was No Diggity by Blackstreet. I won a digital camera from B101 during one of the best Christmas ever prizes. Madonna tickets from Sunny 104.5. Back stage passes for the B182 back yard BBQ at the Tweeter Center, and got my first tattoo from Preston, Marilyn, & Steve on Y100.

Saddest day was when Y100 went off the air, hearing that dead silence. Followed by End of the Road by Boyz II Men on 99.5 WJBR.

Music changes, listening habits change, listeners change, and we are all here for this crazy ride.

One little side note, I noticed since Kathy has taken over B101, has anyone else noticed that it’s more upbeat music and less soft listening? I could be far from correct with this, but if they were going to reformat B101 to more of a Today’s Variety Station (like how they ran 101.1 MoreFM). To maybe swing a couple listeners away from WMMR, it would be a good time to do it after the holiday book. Dump the “Relax & Unwind” slogan to Today’s Variety on Philly’s B101. This could open them up to tweaking Big 98.1 to a more relaxing music, which would be more brand for WOGL, which people still call it 98.1 WOGL or Oldies 98.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. If you would like to chime in on tweaking the sounds on the stations . I personally think having a more today’s variety mix on B101 would match Kathy much better in the long run for the health of the show, and if they want to nationally syndicate her show. By doing this, they slowdown the tempo at Big 98.1 and utilizing the brand in a better fashion. As for me, the music sounds the same on Big 98 as it does on B101. I’m not a rocket scientist, but having two stations with similar styles and music in the same market, is not adding listeners, but splitting your listeners to two different stations. I don’t see how that gets them more advertisers. Again, I’m not on radio, so feel free to correct me, or give me a behind the scenes sneak peak on how a PM and management program a station.

JP
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In NYC IHM does this with Z100 and KTU and has no issues.
 
Looks like WJBR.com is gone. Website is now redirecting to WBEN's website.
HD2 is now simulcasting WMGK HD2's oldies channel.
HD info also now reads "The Greatest Hits/102.9 HD2 and 95.7 HD2"
 


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