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Programming & Music
This essay, The Most Intriguing Radio Stations Of 2009 , was written by Sean Ross for Radio-Info.com's Programming & Music column.
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The Most Intriguing Radio Stations Of 2009
This should not have been an easy article to write. We began 2009 with format change activity slowed to a crawl by the economic gales of Sept. 15. Every now and then, broadcasters stirred just long enough to install another national format or syndicated personality, or further tighten their existing stations’ presentation in response to the perceived demands of PPM. There should not have been any intriguing new radio stations to write about.
And yet, our list of the Most Intriguing Stations of 2009 was the easiest to come up with in several years. I say that cautiously, knowing how some of the trade press has seized on anything it could report as good news: (“Study: 13% of teens would still listen to radio if placed in group home with no other alternative”). But broadcasters continued to deploy themselves on new platforms in a way that went beyond merely making their terrestrial stations available. And even if PPM wasn’t always the right reason to launch a second CHR, those changes still created a certain amount of excitement.
The stations profiled here are not necessarily the biggest success stories of the year, or the stations that are successful year-in and year-out. They are new sign-ons or stations that went through a significant change or resurgence this year, and in doing so portend possible larger changes in the radio landscape.
Stations run the gamut here from Internet-radio startups to a perhaps surprising number of large-market and/or group-owned stations; (Los Angeles is represented here in a bigger way than it has been for years.) Perhaps 2010 will bring us the return of more Larry Wilson-type entrepreneurs. This year, however, it was the small operators who were being forced out and iconoclastic stations like WAMO Pittsburgh and WKLU Indianapolis went with them.
KAMP (97.1 Amp Radio) vs. KIIS Los Angeles After a decade of Top 40 wars of attrition, Amp found a seemingly tight spot between KIIS and KPWR (Power 106). KIIS remained a force, and the format-leader, and Amp created three shares of new listening for the format. And, at least at the outset, there was actually a “new music” war touched off between the stations. Amp certainly became the most copied station of the year, although some of the best progress was made by KKHH (Hot 95.7) Houston, which had actually touched off CBS’ renewed commitment to the format a year earlier.
Pandora, our “Most Intriguing Station” of 2009, was still growing and grabbing headlines at year’s end, and furthering its march to the dashboard in 2010. But give its crowd-sourced CBS competitor Last-FM Discover credit for innovation on several fronts. It found something better to put on an HD-2 multicast frequency than the barely-tended jukeboxes that most groups opt for. And it tried to lasso the Indie Rock that hadn’t yet gurgled up to the mainstream into a coherent radio format. Goom’s Rock-It also tried to find a format there with more of an emphasis on “teen punk”; as a site, Goom strove to put the best of Internet radio’s potential and mainstream radio’s capability in one package.
Clear Channel Rhythmic Hot AC WKTU lived multiple lives last year. After a few years of being steered older and away from Mainstream Top 40 sister WHTZ (Z100), it went more contemporary than ever, managing to make CBS’ new WXRK (Now 92.3) work a lot harder in the process. Then Michael Jackson died, and suddenly ‘KTU was the Classic Dance station again. And, oh yeah, it also helped inspire new Clear Channel Rhythmic Hot ACs in Miami, Detroit, Atlanta, and Fort Myers, Fla.
WQZQ/WPRT-HD-2 (the Light) Nashville
2009 was clearly the year of the found frequency – whether it was commercial stations like WLFM Chicago and WNYZ New York that set up housekeeping on 87.7 or 87.9 FM or stations using the combination of translators and HD-2 multicast stations to wedge these new players on to the FM dial. And if it keeps Smooth Jazz on FM in Chicago or Alternative on the terrestrial dial in Atlanta, I’m fine with it. But since at least three major groups have now availed themselves of this workaround, it’s now time for terrestrial broadcasters to stop begrudging community-oriented LPFM outlets their place on the dial.
KRTH (K-Earth 101) Los Angeles
Every CBS “Greatest Hits” FM outlet forged a little further into the ’80s last year. (“Cars” by Gary Numan on an Oldies station, anybody?) But K-Earth 101 went on the air and talked about it with a “Today’s Oldies Weekend.” And at year’s end, they were leading the market for the first time.
CBS’ V103 avoided the PPM-era fate of many other heritage Urbans and didn’t compromise its high-profile personality lineup to do it. Radio-One’s Hot 104.1 outlasted KATZ-FM (the Beat)’s longstanding war of attrition, and then posted significant PPM gains after only a few weeks of having the young-end Urban format to itself. A promising answer to the question whether Hip-Hop is less competitive or only over-fragmented in a PPM world.
WLGX (Gen-X Radio) Louisville, Ky
It was only a year ago that we were wondering when somebody was going to finally have a go at designing an Oldies station for a third generation of listeners (Bob- and Jack-FM being the second). By the end of the year, there were two in Clear Channel alone. Entercom’s Buzz and Clear Channel’s Gen-X format took different approaches to the “like herding cats” challenge of combining the music styles that weren’t played on the radio together when they were new.
WXXL (XL106.7) Orlando, Fla.
A decade ago, a Clear Channel CHR in traditionally-rockin’ Cincinnati helped steer the format in a decidedly more rhythmic direction. Last year, Clear Channel CHRs in traditionally rhythmic-leaning Florida nudged it back toward the pop center. Go figure. WFLZ Tampa or WHYI (Y100) Miami also made the move toward teen rock/pop as a center lane, but it was XL106.7 that went the furthest.
Bonneville’s WREW (Rewind 94.9) was the return of the “’80s and More” format in what may be a better and more enduring package. And there was more activity on the ’80s front in several markets at year’s end.
Think of Univision’s X96.3 as the Spanish-language version of WKTU’s Rhythmic Hot AC. It got fast traction in a market where both PPM and the strength of rival WSKQ-FM (Mega 97.9) have presented challenges.
Usually it’s Top 40 stations that caught a rising tide when their format’s music gets better. Last year, it was Citadel’s Adult Top 40 WDVD that managed to be No. 1 in some months in the most rhythmic market of all time.
WBZ-FM (The Sports Hub) Boston
You don’t blow up WBCN unless you have something better to do with it. But CBS-FM’s new Sports Hub went against WEEI, whose only possible vulnerability was being on AM in most of the market, and managed to actually grow the audience—at least when both the Sox and Patriots were in play at the same time.
KSWD (the Sound) Los Angeles
Two years of work finally starts to pay off in both markets. Leslie Fram helped corral WRXP’s broadness without eliminating it. The Sound, (http://thesoundla.com/) meanwhile, did one of the single best days of radio anywhere with its tribute to legendary rocker KMET.
In the diary world, the excitement was that KIFM managed to be No. 1. As more stations depart Smooth Jazz, their No. 8 showing in the December PPM is looking pretty formidable. But there’s no sign yet of it doing for Smooth Jazz what WOGL Philadelphia did for Oldies. And at year’s end, KDFC was showing that its resolutely mass-appeal Classical format could be top 10 in a PPM world as well.
One of the logical choices to exist on an Infinite Dial, the “reggae and all things tropical” format came in two very different packages this year from RadioIO’s premium Poolside channel and Country superstar Kenny Chesney’s channel that shared as much with Triple-A as with Country radio.
A traditionally strong Oldies market loses two textbook FMs and gains an NPR AM that sounds like a specialty show all week long. Most collectors would consider that more than a fair trade. AM580 has a very successful FM competitor and the ultimate core-not-cume format, but lives to play its deep library in a PPM market.
WSAE (HomeFM 106.9) Jackson, Mich.
Christian ACs have wondered for years how to deal with those acts who were spiritual in nature, but from outside the Christian music community. But the voice of Spring Arbor University goes considerably further, combining secular Modern AC and Triple-A music with compatible Christian AC. In an Owl City era where 17-year-olds embrace increasingly mellow and contemplative music—with or without a spiritual component—it may be the kind of format that can finally put Christian AC in front of a younger listener.
KKGO (Go Country 105) Los Angeles
Always interesting for their initial quirkiness, KKGO is on the list this year for the right reasons: proving that Country could indeed be viable in Los Angeles and, hey, maybe New York, too.
KFWB’s “news for the entertainment industry” format lasted only a few months, and never gave TMZ.com or Variety much to worry about, but it was an eminently sensible idea that would have been fun to hear reach its potential.
There are never enough stations in any given year’s article built on emerging bodies of music, so give Urban AC Z105.9 credit for launching a station around “swing out jams”—Southern Soul’s equivalent of Chicago’s “Steppers Cuts.” They also have one of the best libraries in the format. Grown Folks Jamz was one of a number of Internet launches from former terrestrial broadcasters, and a fascinating throwback to the long-forgotten ’70s progressive school of stations like the early WHUR Washington, D.C.
WVMP (the Music Place) Roanoke, Va.
Allen Shaw, better known as an industry executive and owner, returns to his roots as one of the first broadcasters to codify Rock radio, by trying to do the same for Americana.
WPYO (Power 95.3) Orlando, Fla.
Other Rhythmic stations, faced with the declining fortunes of Hip-Hop, scrambled to reposition or went for more pop music. Cox’s Power 95.3 kept its sound relatively intact, it just played fewer records.
What were your most intriguing stations of 2009? Tell me (rossonradio@in3media.com).
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.
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Sean...Would have been indeed be nice to see KFWB attempt to grow and improve its news for the entertainment industry approach, a format that probably could only be viable in LA, and has long been discussed as an unexploited opportunity for the market.
