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Cumulus CHR's are the worst I've ever heard

atlantaboy said:
Personally, I can't "stomach" most of the CBS CHRs - I'm just sticking up for Cumulus, because apparently, most posters on this board are single men with rhythmic-leaning tastes in music

In actual ratings, though, Cumulus is doing A LOT BETTER with their CHRs than CBS is (averaging all stations nationwide)
Click to expand...

Whats up everyone. Hope you've all been well

While I like Atlantaboy's taste in music I have to disagree with the above statements.

Amp Radio in L.A.,Owned by CBS, is Top 5 in cume overall and Top 5 in shares 18-34. The number one station in the market is CC-owned 102.7 KIIS FM

99.7 Radio Now San Francisco is the top cuming station in San Francisco, number 2 in cume in San Jose, and Top 3 in shares 18-34 Oh, and it's also the highest rated CHR/Pop station in the Bay area since the mid 80s. So, not bad CBS Radio

B-96 Chicago is number 2 in cume, right behind market leader 103.5 Kiss FM owned by Clear Channel

The new Amp Radio Boston is already Top 5 in cume. None of the Cumulus-owned CHRs that launched in the past couple of years managed to do that. Number one in Boston, by far, is CC-owned Kiss 108.

101.5 Jamz is a CHR/Pop station, despite being classified as Rhythmic, and is usually the top ranked CHR in Phoenix. Yeah, they lean Rhythmic, but so do stations like Hot 101.5 Tampa (owned by Cox), 103.7 Kiss FM Milwaukee (owned by Entercom), and yeah that little station out of L.A. called Amp Radio
KZON is playing Pink, Maroon 5, Taylor Swift, Neon Trees, Fun, Owl City, Alex Clare, One Direction, etc. Very few stations on the Rhythmic panel play all of these artists.

The new Energy 103.7 San Diego is already Top 5 cume in San Diego. It's owned by CBS. Rival Channel 93-3 owned by CC continues its winning streak at the top.

In Baltimore you have Mix 106.5, which may be classified as a Hot AC, but is more of an Adult leaning CHR/Pop station. It's owned by CBS, ranks top 5 in shares, and number 2 in cume. Similarly formatted Star 100.7 Pittsburgh is Top 5 in cume though is no match for the current sound of 96.1 kiss FM owned by CC.

CBS-owned heritage CHR Kiss 95.1 Charlotte ranks Top 3 in cume, but is getting their ass kicked in shares by rival Channel 96.1 owned by Clear Channel.

The only market where CBS doesn't do well with CHR is New York where Amp Radio is up against the legendary Z-100 (owned by CC).

This all proves that both CBS and Clear Channel are very competent and capable when it comes to running and programming successful CHR/Pop stations. Both have a far better track record than Cumulus in that department.

The Cumulus CHR stations that stand out are 104 KRBE Houston, 92 Pro Providence, Wild 102.9 Reno, and 98.9 Magic FM Colorado Springs (which is privileged to have a local non-corporate playlist).
Q-100 Atlanta never reached its true potential due to Jan's interference with the playlist and now CC has come in with a well-executed CHR/Pop station in Power 96.1
I-93.3 Dallas has never managed to make a dent in the ratings of rival 106.1 Kiss FM, owned by CC. If anything, KHKS numbers are down b/c of the more current sound of its sister station 102.9 Now (hot A/C), and the new 107.9 Radio H2O.
Cumulus CHRs like 99.5 The Vibe Birmingham, which launched in recent years on a full market signal, have not made an impression on established CHRs like Birmingham's 103.7 the Q (owned by CC).

That's just the way I see things. I'm all for Cumulus launching more CHRs, but they need to stop dictating to their roster of CHRs what to play song for song. Say what you want about Clear Channel CHRs they don't all sound the same - Kiss 108 boston sounds different from KIIS-FM L.A.
 
CHRles said:
That's just the way I see things. I'm all for Cumulus launching more CHRs, but they need to stop dictating to their roster of CHRs what to play song for song. Say what you want about Clear Channel CHRs they don't all sound the same - Kiss 108 boston sounds different from KIIS-FM L.A.
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Exactly! ^

WPRO-FM in Providence is sadly not exactly what it once was. PRO was quite unique under Citadel, and in a good way. They were pretty cutting edge. Now, it more than likely sounds like W___ in South Dakota or somewhere.

I think a trend with Cumulus CHR's is that the heritage ones they have inherited from other companies do pretty well, but they can't start up new ones. How many of the "i" (or similar stations) they launched in the past 5 years are still around in their original form, or doing well?
To be fair, Clear Channel's recent "Hit Music Now" Premium Choice CHR's in smaller markets haven't been great, but at least there is a variance between their CHR stations overall.
 
carolinaradio said:
CHRles said:
That's just the way I see things. I'm all for Cumulus launching more CHRs, but they need to stop dictating to their roster of CHRs what to play song for song. Say what you want about Clear Channel CHRs they don't all sound the same - Kiss 108 boston sounds different from KIIS-FM L.A.
Click to expand...

Exactly! ^

WPRO-FM in Providence is sadly not exactly what it once was.  PRO was quite unique under Citadel, and in a good way.  They were pretty cutting edge.  Now, it more than likely sounds like W___ in South Dakota or somewhere.

I think a trend with Cumulus CHR's is that the heritage ones they have inherited from other companies do pretty well, but they can't start up new ones.  How many of the "i" (or similar stations) they launched in the past 5 years are still around in their original form, or doing well? 
To be fair, Clear Channel's recent "Hit Music Now" Premium Choice CHR's in smaller markets haven't been great, but at least there is a variance between their CHR stations overall.
Click to expand...

Cumulus is modeling their larger market stations purchased from Citadel after their small market ones.  They are slowly but surely tweaking them all.  If yours still sounds decent, it wont be long before it won't anymore. Before the purchase of Citadel, Cumulus was pretty much only in small markets and only had a few CHRs system wide. When will they get the hint that what works in Bearhead, Wyoming won't work in a larger city like Providence, Atlanta, Houston, OKC, etc?
 
CHRles said:
atlantaboy said:
Personally, I can't "stomach" most of the CBS CHRs - I'm just sticking up for Cumulus, because apparently, most posters on this board are single men with rhythmic-leaning tastes in music

In actual ratings, though, Cumulus is doing A LOT BETTER with their CHRs than CBS is (averaging all stations nationwide)
Click to expand...

Whats up everyone. Hope you've all been well

While I like Atlantaboy's taste in music I have to disagree with the above statements. .....

101.5 Jamz is a CHR/Pop station, despite being classified as Rhythmic, and is usually the top ranked CHR in Phoenix. Yeah, they lean Rhythmic, but so do stations like Hot 101.5 Tampa (owned by Cox), 103.7 Kiss FM Milwaukee (owned by Entercom), and yeah that little station out of L.A. called Amp Radio
KZON is playing Pink, Maroon 5, Taylor Swift, Neon Trees, Fun, Owl City, Alex Clare, One Direction, etc. Very few stations on the Rhythmic panel play all of these artists. .....

................

I'm all for Cumulus launching more CHRs, but they need to stop dictating to their roster of CHRs what to play song for song. Say what you want about Clear Channel CHRs they don't all sound the same - Kiss 108 boston sounds different from KIIS-FM L.A.
Click to expand...


INTERESTING. .. .... .... ...  ;D
 
bchristi said:
When will they get the hint that what works in Bearhead, Wyoming won't work in a larger city like Providence, Atlanta, Houston, OKC, etc?
Click to expand...

The problem is that it IS working in Providence and Atlanta, so there's no reason for them to change their strategy - Not sure how they're doing in Houston and OKC because apparently they don't subscribe to Arbitron in those markets

Again, though, Cumulus has a lot better track record than CBS, which has very few CHRs at or near the top of their market
 
Hey Chrles...you may want to check Milwaukee's Kiss FM's playlist again...sure they use to lean rather heavy in the Rhythmic direction in the past...but they have leaned less and less Rhythmic since the arrival of radio now...they no longer even sound Rhythmic...I am a Milwaukee resident.

It's not just playing all the big rock/pop hits....but they recently had A couple of current carrie Underwood songs in power...plus have added the likes of Onerepublic, Phillip phillips, and Lumineers. There are not many Rhythmic leaning stations that would do that. The CHR world seems to be moving away from everything Rhythmic to one that is more balanced...Many CHR's just to need to wake up...Look at what sells on itunes...far less rhythmic tracks then there use to be. My guess is Kiss fm started adding more non rhythmic tracks with the arrival of radio now and found that it is working.
 
Or they might be checking out the sales chart when making their playlist. Most Entercom owned CHR's I've listened to have sounded good.
 
atlantaboy said:
bchristi said:
When will they get the hint that what works in Bearhead, Wyoming won't work in a larger city like Providence, Atlanta, Houston, OKC, etc?
Click to expand...

The problem is that it IS working in Providence and Atlanta, so there's no reason for them to change their strategy - Not sure how they're doing in Houston and OKC because apparently they don't subscribe to Arbitron in those markets

Again, though, Cumulus has a lot better track record than CBS, which has very few CHRs at or near the top of their market
Click to expand...
But it's a stupid strategy - why should every single CHR sound the same? Just because it works in certain markets does not guarantee it is going to work in others.
I'm surprised WPRO is still doing well - I didn't think the Cumulus CHR approach would fly there...

KRBE was on a downward trend before they stopped subscribing.
 
I listened to KKWD for an hour and out of 15 songs, only 3 were current as in from the past six months, and I think only 5 were from 2012. The rest of the songs were older. What's interesting is they put "Independent" by Webbie feat Lil Boosie back in power this week. What modern station that knows what they are doing is still playing that unless its on an urban in gold rotation?
 
Next time you go on a rant about this station, could you post at least the preceding couple songs so people like myself can look it over? I said the playlist wasn't that bad from what I heard of it the other night, and posted about 6 songs from it. What did you think of that sellection?
 
Dkampy said:
Hey Chrles...you may want to check Milwaukee's Kiss FM's playlist again...sure they use to lean rather heavy in the Rhythmic direction in the past...but they have leaned less and less Rhythmic since the arrival of radio now...they no longer even sound Rhythmic...I am a Milwaukee resident.

It's not just playing all the big rock/pop hits....but they recently had A couple of current carrie Underwood songs in power...plus have added the likes of Onerepublic, Phillip phillips, and Lumineers. There are not many Rhythmic leaning stations that would do that. The CHR world seems to be moving away from everything Rhythmic to one that is more balanced...Many CHR's just to need to wake up...Look at what sells on itunes...far less rhythmic tracks then there use to be. My guess is Kiss fm started adding more non rhythmic tracks with the arrival of radio now and found that it is working.
Click to expand...
. Actually, WXSS began decreasing the rhythmic product after WNRG debuted their Rhythmic Top 40 format in September 2012.
 
atlantaboy said:
Cumulus is keeping "The A Team" from going Top 10 on BOTH CHR and Hot AC!! :mad:
Click to expand...
Cumulus needs to stop telling their stations what to play. I miss the days when it was difficult to predict what the Citadel stations would add, because they were all different and appealed to their own markets. Now, they just all appeal to Jan Jeffries and his standardized "CHR playlist".
 
bluestar4 said:
atlantaboy said:
Cumulus is keeping "The A Team" from going Top 10 on BOTH CHR and Hot AC!! :mad:
Click to expand...
Cumulus needs to stop telling their stations what to play. I miss the days when it was difficult to predict what the Citadel stations would add, because they were all different and appealed to their own markets. Now, they just all appeal to Jan Jeffries and his standardized "CHR playlist".
Click to expand...

Yeah, and the Jan Jeffries playlist is getting more and more boring - any new track that sounds either Alternative or Urban doesn't get touched until it approaches Top 10 on the national pop chart (i. e. approaches top 10 WITHOUT the Cumulus stations) - and we're talking about somewhere around 25 stations, many in liberal markets

And Jeffries is the same way about Alternative-leaning tracks on Hot AC - WPLJ/New York, WRQX/Washington, and the Cumulus HACs in Indianapolis and Harrisburg are now among the most conservative Hot ACs in the country
 
atlantaboy said:
bluestar4 said:
atlantaboy said:
Cumulus is keeping "The A Team" from going Top 10 on BOTH CHR and Hot AC!! :mad:
Click to expand...
Cumulus needs to stop telling their stations what to play. I miss the days when it was difficult to predict what the Citadel stations would add, because they were all different and appealed to their own markets. Now, they just all appeal to Jan Jeffries and his standardized "CHR playlist".
Click to expand...

Yeah, and the Jan Jeffries playlist is getting more and more boring - any new track that sounds either Alternative or Urban doesn't get touched until it approaches Top 10 on the national pop chart (i. e. approaches top 10 WITHOUT the Cumulus stations) - and we're talking about somewhere around 25 stations, many in liberal markets

And Jeffries is the same way about Alternative-leaning tracks on Hot AC - WPLJ/New York, WRQX/Washington, and the Cumulus HACs in Indianapolis and Harrisburg are now among the most conservative Hot ACs in the country
Click to expand...

A couple of examples are how "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers wasn't added to Cumulus CHR playlists until 2 or 3 weeks ago. They didn't start playing "Let Me Love You" by Ne-Yo until that song was on the verge of breaking into the top ten. Now both are receiving major spins on many Cumulus CHRs.
 
^"Ho Hey" was actually added to most Cumulus CHRs last week, and "Let Me Love You" three weeks ago - Jeffries' philosophy seems to be to wait as long as possible to add anything that's not straight pop, and then rocket it into power rotation within a couple weeks

He still hasn't added "The A Team" to CHR, and he waited to add it to most of his Hot ACs until AFTER it peaked on the Hot AC chart, preventing it from reaching the Top 10
 
That's the Cumulus way- wait until it hits top ten, then continue to play it after everyone else has forgotten about it. There's a number of Akon and Shinedown songs that I still hear on a daily basis on my local CHR.
 
chrocket87 said:
That's the Cumulus way- wait until it hits top ten, then continue to play it after everyone else has forgotten about it. There's a number of Akon and Shinedown songs that I still hear on a daily basis on my local CHR.
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Same here. Add Rob Thomas to the list. Pretty much every hour at my local CHR. A LOT of recurrents that weren't even really hits. Jessie McCartney?? Really???
 
atlantaboy said:
^"Ho Hey" was actually added to most Cumulus CHRs last week, and "Let Me Love You" three weeks ago - Jeffries' philosophy seems to be to wait as long as possible to add anything that's not straight pop, and then rocket it into power rotation within a couple weeks

He still hasn't added "The A Team" to CHR, and he waited to add it to most of his Hot ACs until AFTER it peaked on the Hot AC chart, preventing it from reaching the Top 10
Click to expand...
They also have a habit of jumping on adult-friendly songs from artists like Matchbox 20 and The Script really early. My Cumulus station, WNTQ in Syracuse, is a little strange. While they follow Jan's playlist, they'll not add some of his songs. For example, WNTQ ignored "She's So Mean", only played "50 Ways To Say Goodbye" once or twice a day, only just added "Home", and hasn't touched "Hall Of Fame" yet. Unfortunately, this makes their playlist smaller, but they'll jump on songs like "Gangnam Style", "Let Me Love You" or "Va Va Voom" as soon as Jan lets them.

This is unfortunate. WNTQ used to have a playlist that really fit the market and sometimes had adds out of left-field, such as "Ride To California" by the Paper Tongues, an alternative-rock song that few Top 40 stations played.
The only leniency they get now is between March and June when they are allowed to add songs from artists who are going to their Summer Jam concert. This year, they played "Love U Betta" by Neon Hitch, "Now Or Never" by Outasight, "Don't Give Up" by Kevin Rudolf, "Young Homie" by Chris Rene, all songs Cumulus ignored, as well as added "We Run The Night" by Havana Brown months earlier than the rest of the Cumulus stations.
 
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