I've noticed in my travels to Huntsville that WZYP some time recently stopped playing their '90s/early '00s songs "sped up." All songs are now airing at normal play speed. It's a subtle but welcome change that improves the station's presentation. Increasing song speed is a gimmick that I could just never figure out as a PD. Glad to see that the folks in Athens made this change.
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WZYP slows it back down
- Thread starter whit979
- Start date
J
jharmon
Guest
I cant imagine anyone in today's world, speeding music up or slowing it down.
Who really cares about that?
Is that going to get another point or two in the book?
Not.
Another reason Pandora, satellite radio, smartphones are the medium of choice these days.
No ridiculous antics.
Who really cares about that?
Is that going to get another point or two in the book?
Not.
Another reason Pandora, satellite radio, smartphones are the medium of choice these days.
No ridiculous antics.
If you are the only station in that format then you can get away with it. If the other stations in the format figures it out then they should "use" a twice the speed track of a song and say "we never speed up the music like _ _ _ _." That promo worked wonders for the old KXOL in their top 40 battle with KFJZ in Fort Worth TX in 1974.
Yea I've never been a fan of sped up music. Always sounded to strange for me. I'm glad its stopped.
On another note. Rick Dees has moved off of mid-days at ZYP and is now on afternoons on the new Journey 93-3. Much better fit for him over there.
Two good moves for ZYP. Could this mean there are more to come? One can only hope, but I won't hold my breath. They're still doing 80s for lunch and Friday mornings (competing with themselves. :
) and still way too much 90s and 2000s old stuff in the play list, among many other things that need to be changed.
On another note. Rick Dees has moved off of mid-days at ZYP and is now on afternoons on the new Journey 93-3. Much better fit for him over there.
Two good moves for ZYP. Could this mean there are more to come? One can only hope, but I won't hold my breath. They're still doing 80s for lunch and Friday mornings (competing with themselves. :
) and still way too much 90s and 2000s old stuff in the play list, among many other things that need to be changed.RollTide said:They're still doing 80s for lunch and Friday mornings (competing with themselves. :
That's the biggest mystery of all. This is a CHR/top 40 station! A large and growing segment of their core demographic wasn't even born in the '80s, and most aren't old enough to even know the deep cuts they play during lunch and Friday mornings. It makes no sense. Good Hot ACs, for example, understand that there are now people in their thirties who were infants in the '80s, so they stick mainly to popular '80s hits only. ZYP's Retro Lunch and Friday Free-for-All are programmed by radio people, for radio people, and that's a huge mistake in any format.
RadioZack said:
Zach, hopefully that was sarcasm. If it wasn't, then that's the most ridiculous statement I've read on here in a while.
In 22 years of doing radio, 17 stations (10 of them CHR), three networks and an XM channel, never ONCE have I heard anyone suggest speeding up the music in order to squeeze in another 30-60 seconds of spots.
And it wasn't about ratings either. THAT also is ridiculous. Ever heard a respected PD attribute his stations latest ratings increases to "because we play the songs faster". No.
Fact is, most CHR's have, and still do, pitch the music up. I've seen stations pitch at three different levels: 2% is the norm, 3% is that level you go to when you have a competitor in the same format in order to make them sound S L O W. A couple stations I know pushed it to 4% and THAT sounded bad to me. Ballads/slower songs pitched up 4% stick out bad.
And you may even work at a station never seeing any evidence of music being pitched up 2% but it is. The operating systems allow you to adjust pitch on everything in the song category with one quick setting change.
Interesting to hear that they stopped pitching JUST the 90s ish era songs. They must have separate song categories that can have separate pitch options.
raydiodude said:
Unfortunately that wasn't sarcasm. I was friends with a jock from ZYP many many years ago before I ever got into radio myself. They sped the music up back then pretty noticably in some cases. I asked him about the sped up music situation and the answer he gave me was just that. To make room for more spots, and to sound more up tempo for younger audience appeal. You're right, it isn't about ratings, but I've never really understood the logic behind it or how it can make the competition sound slower. I don't see how it can really make that big of a difference if the average listener can't tell in the first place. Besides, ZYP doesn't have CHR competition in Huntsville, and hasen't had it for MANY years. Of course they have LOTS of 80's and 90's competition, including one of their own stations now :
whitfm said:
You are 100% correct. I've never understood it, and I never will. Plus, how can a supposed Top 40 station play only maybe 5 songs an hour that are actually currently on the Top 40 chart? The rest of the clock is filled with all recurrents from the 2000s and a gold or two going back to the 90's. That is until Billy Bush comes on at 7pm. That's the only time they sound the most right musically and that's syndicated. The same recurrents every day and the same 90's cuts every few days that have been playing for years now!? Nothing from the 90's should ever be played on a Top 40 station in my opinion, unless it's a 90's lunch show, and if you're going to do one of those, it should be the more rhythmic 90s cuts that the A/C stations in town don't play. I hear "With You" by Jessica Simpson almost every day! I wouldn't even consider that a hit deserving of recurrent play let alone almost every day, and that song was back in 2004! SEVEN years ago! I want to vomit in my mouth every time I hear it, or a Rob Thomas/Nickelback recurrent. They're played so much it seems like every hour! Then you play 80's at lunch? 80's all morning on Fridays!? When your target demo (or what's supposed to be your target demo) is in high school or in their 20s and excited for the comming weekend and are ready to kick back and have fun. That's the time to play all the best current hits, not music they don't even know! The stupidity makes my head spin!
During the 1960s and 1970s many Top 40 stations would set the turntable pitch at 48 RPM instead of the normal 45 RPM to give the impression the station was "hipper" and to make the competing Top 40 station sound slower and sluggish. In some cases there would be enough "extra" time within the hour to play an additional record; Hence, the More Music identifier. It worked fine then. However, if it is used at all today, it is used as a means to create additional inventory to squeeze in more commercial content.
jsu, I haven't been able to catch it yet. I'm not within listening range of them during that time of the day very often but as soon as I get a chance to check it out I'll let you know. If it's 90's and more rhythmic oriented I'm sure I'll like it just fine. I just don't want to hear the same 90's songs I can hear all day of 10 other stations you know? Why is it at 11am instead of noon?
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