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WRCH Getting Harder Edged?

G

Gregg

WRCH has, till now, usually resisted the national trend for Soft AC stations to get harder-edged and more rock oriented. Lite-FM NYC and WMJX Boston have been adding more Rock titles and dropping softer artists like Streisand and Neil Diamond... and putting the Celine Dion and Norah Jones titles in very slow rotations. Yet WRCH had been resisting that trend... till now.

I was listening the other night and heard "What I Like About You" by The Romantics around 6:30pm. This really surprised me. The song is what, about 30 years old, and only now is WRCH playing it? I heard a few other uptempo numbers as well.

But then, when I tuned in later in the evening , I heard a couple of Smooth Jazz instrumentals as part of the local nighttime programming. Is it called "Pillow Talk"? That's pretty bold considering so many markets have lost their Smooth Jazz stations lately.

So I guess WRCH is trying to please both audiences.



Gregg
[email protected]
 
These days you'll hear a very rare David Guetta softer track as well, more in line with the mainstream A/C of 2012, mostly during the work day.

I'd say the changes are very subtle, and clearly it's continuing to work for them. #1 biller in Hartford for something like 16 years.
 
WRCH has the advantage of having WTIC-FM as it's sister station, so they've been able to buck the trend of most Mainstream AC's. However, they have to be careful not to skew too old by staying super soft. They have the luxury of making small changes and adjustments over time, since they have 96.5 warming up their future younger demos.
 
"What I like about you" on WRCH??! OMG the world has gone to hell..... And I thought Lite Rock fell off a cliff after 1995....

My how far we have fallen..................!!!

~jay


Gregg said:
WRCH has, till now, usually resisted the national trend for Soft AC stations to get harder-edged and more rock oriented. Lite-FM NYC and WMJX Boston have been adding more Rock titles and dropping softer artists like Streisand and Neil Diamond... and putting the Celine Dion and Norah Jones titles in very slow rotations. Yet WRCH had been resisting that trend... till now.

I was listening the other night and heard "What I Like About You" by The Romantics around 6:30pm. This really surprised me. The song is what, about 30 years old, and only now is WRCH playing it? I heard a few other uptempo numbers as well.

But then, when I tuned in later in the evening , I heard a couple of Smooth Jazz instrumentals as part of the local nighttime programming. Is it called "Pillow Talk"? That's pretty bold considering so many markets have lost their Smooth Jazz stations lately.

So I guess WRCH is trying to please both audiences.



Gregg
[email protected]
Click to expand...
 
ansky212 said:
Lite-FM in NYC even mixes in rhythmic artists like Usher. That's a bit too much for a "Lite" station.
Click to expand...

If the target demo is the low end of 25-44 that advertisers drool over, adding Usher is probably a good move in a market as receptive to rhythmic as NYC is.
 
I was surprised to hear Frank Sinatra - Summer Wind on WRCH last night during Pillow Talk. I thought it was WZEZ 100.5 from Richmond
 
What on earth has happened to my wonderful Lite 100.5?!?!??

What a shame!

I'm going to start my own Radio station with a WRCH playlist from 1993....!!!!


Jay.


MarcB said:
My mom is going to be 63 this year. She likes some of the new music WRCH has been playing lately:

California Gurls by Katy Perry
I've Got a Feeling by Black Eyed Peas
Drive-by by Train
Click to expand...
 
I was music director there in 1993, and even I wouldn't mess with their success today by bringing back their playlist from 19 years ago. If you have a surviving 1993 playlist I'm geeky enough to want to see it:)
 
GlennO, you were at WRCH when it was still truly a Soft AC station. In 1993, there were still songs by Manilow, Streisand, Carpenters, Estefan, etc. I guess I don't understand how every generation rachets up the definition of Soft.

Our parents were happy to listen to hit songs and music from Broadway and Hollywood re-recorded by orchestras. That was WRCH's original format: Beautiful or Easy Listening. (Also WTIC-FM in the daytime, and WKSS, as well as WHYN-FM Springfield, WKCI Hamden and WEZN Bridgeport. Hartford could hear seven Easy stations in the 60s and 70s.)

Those other stations switched to more contemporary formats over time (funny that they all kept their original call letters) but WRCH remained in the format till the end, evolving to soft music but original vocal hits... the real Soft AC format, while you were Music Director.

Now today's 25-54 adults want their relaxing station to not be so relaxing, their soft station to not be so soft. I don't understand it. WRCH is the softest station on the dial, yet they're playing very uptempo music. Isn't there a point where music isn't condusive to office work, reading, eating dinner? Can you do dental work or write a business report while "What I Like About You" (in my original post) is playing on the radio? Would I want my dentist to be doing a root canal on me or my account figuring my taxes while The Romantics are on WRCH?

And yet, the station is consistantly #1 in the Hartford market, and I assume #1 in the 25-54 demo.



Gregg
[email protected]
 
As long as my dentist doesn't doze off while doing my root canal, he or she can listen to all the Romantics they want!

When WRCH was still hanging on to beautiful music, I heard an instrumental version of Madonna's "Like A Virgin" and knew "Rich" instrumental easy listening was soon to be toast. It was one of those signs, kind of like when TV's "Your Hit Parade" reacted to the proliferation of charting rock songs in the fifties by having the same singers who covered "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window" perform "Hound Dog" (or so this youngster was told). If you're going to play a soft AC Madonna song on Lite 100.5, you play the real deal and broaden your demos while most of the older audience stays since there's no other FM option.

Soft is a relevant term. Compared to the competition, WRCH is still the "station everyone can agree on at the office." It is still used as more of an environmental station than a "crank it up good time rock n' roll" outlet. Announcing style, while personable, is still more laid back without the edgy show content. To use the stereotypical reference, soccer moms aren't going to reach for the scan button because they're uncomfortable having their kids hear it. There are other elements, such as jingles or audio processing, that still give WRCH a softer sound than soft rock stations in many other markets.

Times change. Younger female target audiences weren't feeling the same love for Manilow, Diamond and even Streisand after a while. In the 1990s, Long Island powerhouse AC 97.5 WALK's top artist was Rod Stewart. It might mean a much longer wait to hear him there now.
 
GlennO said:
Soft is a relevant term. Compared to the competition, WRCH is still the "station everyone can agree on at the office." It is still used as more of an environmental station than a "crank it up good time rock n' roll" outlet.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I'm currently rehabbing a fractured shoulder and spend 3 hours a week at a physical therapy place that always has the radio going. I guess the therapists get to choose the station because it differs every time. Today it was Radio 104. Last week it was Kiss and 'RCH. The week before, Country 92.5 and Kiss. You get the picture. Anyway, someone -- staff or rehabber -- always comments on the music choice, except when the radio is tuned to 'RCH. It's doing its job as background music, and being a bit uptempo actually helps when you're dealing with an audience of a half-dozen people doing exercises.
 
indystorm said:
What if I want my mother's AC darnit?!?!?!?

GlennO said:
I should've said soft is a relative term instead of relevant. By any standard, it ain't your mother's AC anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Yah! Me Too!
 
HarrisGatesFM10H said:
indystorm said:
What if I want my mother's AC darnit?!?!?!?

GlennO said:
I should've said soft is a relative term instead of relevant. By any standard, it ain't your mother's AC anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Yah! Me Too!
Click to expand...

Sirius XM's The Bridge is sort of close, but fancies itself too hip for the Carpenters and John Denver. Sirius XM's Escape will get you your Carpenters and Denver, but you'll have to put up with three or four "beautiful music" instrumentals before you get a chance to hear them. When even satellite thinks a format is dead, I guess it really is dead.
 
[/quote]

Sirius XM's The Bridge is sort of close, but fancies itself too hip for the Carpenters and John Denver. Sirius XM's Escape will get you your Carpenters and Denver, but you'll have to put up with three or four "beautiful music" instrumentals before you get a chance to hear them. When even satellite thinks a format is dead, I guess it really is dead.
[/quote]

Ya I listen to escape when I'm in my truck i guess i will have to dig out my old WPAT and Magic 104 reels (approx 40 in total) and play those to "relive my past" LOL
 
I've said this for years: Lite 100.5 consistently does well in the ratings because it is so unoffensive that it's played in doctor's offices, stores and restaurants across the state. It has been, and continues to be the modern day version of elevator music. With the way Arbitron ratings are calculated, people only need to be exposed to the programming for them to count as "listeners."
It's strictly a background format, and not at all a listener involvement format, and this has been the ratings bane of other stations with more focused formats for years.
Personally, I break out in sweats thinking I'm sitting in my dentist's chair every time I hear the Lite 100.5 jingle.
 
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