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Programming & Music
This essay, Intriguing Radio Stations Of The ’00s Part II - Into the New, was written by Sean Ross for Radio-Info.com's Programming & Music column.
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Intriguing Radio Stations Of The ’00s Part II - Into the New
First the good news, if it’s possible to devote an entire column to library-driven radio stations that were intriguing in the ’90s, it wasn’t hard to find a like number of Intriguing Radio Stations of the ’00s based in newer or emerging music. Now the bad news, most of those gold-based stations are still among us. This list features a number of intriguing stations that didn’t get or sustain traction. At decade’s end, PPM (or just its specter, in many markets) has turned things upside down in a way that is far from shaking out. That doesn’t mean that we won’t find some lasting utility in some of the formats that programmers don’t consider viable this week.
It’s worth stating at the outset that if there were only one list, CFWM (Bob 99.9) Winnipeg and the Bob- and Jack-FM explosion it touched off in 2002 would still be a prominent part of it. And even with library-based stations getting their own column last week, Bob still extends his tentacles into current-based stations. You can thank Bob for the more current-driven feel of today’s Adult Top 40, if only by wresting away the ’80s from what had been the “’80s, ’90s and now” format. And for helping further change the timbre and texture of what could be considered an AC radio station.
Here, in alphabetical order, are more Intriguing Radio Stations of the ’00s. Stations that my other employer, Edison Research, has worked with during the decade (to decidedly varying degrees) are asterisked.
In America, it was the TV music supervisors who helped bring a new eclecticism to Hot AC and AC radio. In the U.K., it was the national Radio 2 which changed previously held notions about adult tastes. Coast 106 was TV powerhouse Celador’s “less-talk, more hits” streamlining of Radio 2, but its take on “quality rock, then and now” (to paraphrase a Triple-A liner common elsewhere) is still daring by U.S. standards.
The Urban radio building boom of the early ’00s came to Toronto and to less likely markets like Ottawa and Calgary. Many of those stations morphed into Mainstream Top 40s, but Canadian R&B found an unlikely home as the new core sound of the Hot AC, led by CHUM-FM. Now even Mainstream AC in Canada is becoming more rhythmic.
Owner Rawlco shook up Calgary a decade ago with a Country/Hot AC/CHR-hybrid. They came back with a Country/Hot AC/Americana (or Canadiana) hybrid. Calgary 97.7 has since evolved to the somewhat more mainstream Mix 97.7. But in a world where only arbitrary format designations separate Taylor Swift from Colbie Caillat, you know a Country/Pop breakthrough is coming.
If only all of Hip-Hop radio’s post-PPM stories had turned out like this one. In 2009, a few more did (WVEE [V103] Atlanta, WEDR Miami, WHHL [Hot 104] St. Louis). One key? It’s not part of a three-way Hip-Hop battle. Equally key: the South (and that includes St. Louis for the purposes of R&B) still has a viable Hip-Hop scene that The Box reflects.
Blu 102’s ambient mix of “jazz, world, rhythm, chill” continues after seven years, outlasting many of its Smooth Jazz contemporaries of the time. And if Smooth Jazz is going to follow the music where it’s going, instead of just going away, there may still be some answers here.
Clear Channel’s Mega 101 was a game-changer in Latin radio twice. When it gave Reggaeton, already key in the success of WVOZ Puerto Rico and WSKQ-FM (Mega 97.9) New York a full-time home, it changed an industry’s assumption about young Hispanics and their willingness to listen to even a bilingual format before age 35. When it evolved from “Hurban” to Spanish-language CHR, it helped spur a format that everybody believed should exist, but which hadn’t been able to truly break away from Spanish AC.
KMBY (X103.9) Monterey, Calif.
X103.9’s Rap/Rock hybrid lasted only a few years. On Faction, the dudes still abide. At this moment, with both Hip-Hop and Alternative cycling down, there’s no industry rush to finally bring this format to fruition. Perhaps it will re-emerge as a library-based format for the guys who grew up with both genres.
The Wolf was a 1998 launch, but big changes at Country radio had to wait until 2003, spurred by the twin breakthroughs of Gretchen Wilson and Big & Rich. Until then, The Wolf and KEEY (K102) Minneapolis kept the notion of an active-driven Country station alive. And the decade ended with a retooled version of the Wolf as Country’s PPM-era showpiece.
A more mainstream Modern AC now, but Sophie’s (http://www.radiosophie.com/ ) initial efforts to bring the “Alice” format of the ’90s ten years forward were the closest thing we’ve experienced to a “MySpace Music” format.
While AM/FM broadcasters were congratulating themselves on holding satellite radio to “only 20 million subscribers,” Pandora went from desktop to iPhone, morphing from curio to Internet radio’s biggest brand. In doing so, it began giving listeners a much more mass-appeal music mix – if that’s what they wanted – but was still perceived as different and listener-driven. Now, while radio finally figures out how to integrate “crowd sourcing,” Pandora is helping take Internet radio from the cupholder to the dashboard (albeit, for now, at a high cost of entry).
Some will argue that Radio Disney functioned heavily as an extension of the Disney Channel in terms of bringing Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers to the charts, and forcing CHR programmers to reconsider teen pop. But, hey, anybody who brought Snow Patrol or Daniel Powter to the masses got some help from TV, too. The first national CHR superstation, soon to be joined by …
Label people still occasionally mock their idiosyncrasies, but this national CHR’s emphasis on teen punk as a center lane seems a lot less willful than it did five years ago. Since then, at least a handful of larger Clear Channel’s CHRs are more pop/rock-driven. And if finding your own hits was unusual in 2006, it’s far more contrarian now.
WBON/WDRE/WLIR Long Island, N.Y.
In the 4-½ years since the then-TMO Broadcasting moved its three Eastern Long Island stations from spot-driven to sponsored (and then back), others have tried a similar strategy, particularly Clear Channel stations in Dallas and Rochester, N.Y. The sponsorship model remains an inevitability—particularly if you believe that listeners will eventually turn away from commercial interruptions once and for all.
WAMJ (Grown Folks Radio) Atlanta
WLNK Charlotte, N.C .
Okay, let’s assume for the sake of argument that PPM-era listeners do not want their Urban AC and Adult Top 40 stations to be full-service, “morning-show-in-every-daypart” radio stations. And that stations like WAMJ that almost brought the African-American-oriented Talk format to fruition on FM were just getting gratuitous diary-keeper love. What then does it mean that listeners were still willing to vote for full-time companionship on the radio? Perhaps that the need still exists—just not on stations that are music utilities.
By its nature, this column rarely gravitates to the Mainstream ACs that took care of business (mostly) successfully year after year (KOIT San Francisco, WLTW New York, WLMG New Orleans, WLYF Miami). B101 is the ultimate well-oiled machine, but for all its industry prominence, the rest of the format rarely manages to sound exactly like it. And if all it proves is that a station can still spend its way to prosperity, even in a PPM era (and I didn’t say that, but some of you still do), then it’s still a lesson for the rest of us.
The Beat was one of a number of Clear Channel Urban FMs that blazed a trail for more R&B and less “Blazin’ Hip-Hop” in the ’00s. One can debate whether that’s the best place for the format to be now, but in the meantime, the Beat was surprisingly effective against Churban WLLD (Wild 94.1), a textbook Rhythmic station. And WDKX, the locally-owned, adult-leaning model of what Urban wasn’t supposed to be in the ’00s, was trouncing its Rhythmic Top 40 competitor.
WEEI Boston
WIP Philadelphia
WXYT-FM Detroit
The All-Sports showplaces of the ’00s, back when the format was just starting its great march to FM and you could only name a few.
Kiss 107 was actually a ’90s launch, but it still defined the first half of the ’00s. And it was still a gutsy choice. Throughout Top 40 history, stations driven by R&B crossovers were the outliers; after WKFS, they became the template. When co-owned Z100 steered back toward the pop/rock center in ‘93, at a time when “American Idol” was in its second season and not yet defining the pop landscape, it was an act of sheer willpower. Now, to program around “extreme” music at Top 40 would be the contrarian move.
This All-News powerhouse’s successful journey to FM hastened the move of News, Talk, and Sports radio to the “big mall” of FM. In doing so, WTOP (http://www.wtop.com/) proved that the FM development of those formats had often been held up by the time and expense needed to build new Talk stations on FM. What hastened the growth was existing formats with established usage, where the imposing cost of entry had already been taken care of.
Over Fresh 102.7’s /three years as my most-written-about station of the late-’00s, WLTW has more than regained its equilibrium, while Fresh is no longer quite the “soft and contemporary” station that so intrigued initially. But don’t look for me to quietly slink away from them. They dented the established wisdom about what today’s AC listeners wanted, and spurred a lot of successful ACs to contemporize. For now, Top 40 still controls the “adults who want new music” franchise. In the ‘10s, look for one of those second CHRs that are popping up now to try filling that need in a much different way, however.
Those are our intriguing stations. What are yours?
COMMENTS
I think Energy 927 fm San Francisco should be on this list! — John Peake, Show Director Johnjay & Rich (and former PD Energy 92.7)
As a DJ at WWFS/Fresh 102.7 for almost the life of the station, I have to say it’s come a long way since the “Today’s Soft Music” slogan, and has been getting better and better musically! It’s Fresh! :–)
Also, my intriguing radio station for the 00’s is WKRZ in Wilkes Barre, PA. They are a CHR station that never disappoints when you want to hear the latest…and I mean the LATEST stuff. They play new songs way before the other stations! They aren’t afraid to take chances! Jumpin' Jeff Walker and Amanda also do a nice little afternoon “morning show” which works for me since I'm never awake for morning radio. — Kristin LaBar, Fresh 102.7
Sean, you missed one of my favorites: WFUV-HD3 – www.thealternateside.org An HD subchannel operating like a real radio station and not an afterthought, running an undeniably intriguing college/alternative format with loads of local content and live(!) jocks. — Dan Stark, Senior Director / Plug & Play Imaging, Premiere Radio Networks
Where’s mine? A psychic talk station on iTunes that has 30,000+ friends on twitter and actually makes great money on the internet… I would think it would be top of the list! — Dave Solomon, President, Positive Peak Radio/TV Stations
What about KSFO 560 AM in San Francisco as one of the most Intriguing Radio Stations in the 00’s? KSFO was the station that started and continued the movement to oust California Governor Gray Davis, paving the way for Arnold to take office. I'd say that was a pretty noteworthy event that we were responsible for, not many radio stations in the country did something that big. As the baby-brother station to behemoth, KGO AM 810, we have more then held our own this decade!
Keep up the good work! — Anthony Licciardi, Director of Marketing, KSFO
About the Writer
Sean Ross, one of the radio and music industry’s most widely respected writers and programming analysts, is the author of the newsletter Ross On Radio, an extension of his long-running column of the same name.
