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Bad radio format ideas

D

danikayser84

What would you say would be the worst possible radio format you could think of? I joked about a "24/7 Celebrity Gossip Talk" format once, and I'd be curious as to whether it's ever been done :)

Fad formats I know of that ended up failing after like a year or two included "Gen X Radio", "Jammin Oldies" and the all-80s format... (Albany at one point had these formats, which didn't last much longer than 2ish years)
 
"Personal Achievement Radio" - An AM format tried in LA and Seattle in the '90s that was all motivational speakers, 24/7. You heard stuff from Zig Ziglar, Robert Schuller, Norman Vincent Peale, Deepak Chopra and that kind of stuff. I remember tuning in once and hearing something called How To Overcome Discouragement. In three minutes I had the answer: Stop listening to this crap.

What happened to them? I don't know. I guess they found a higher plane of consciousness and simply floated away.........
 
The one that sticks in my mind is the old "Arrow" format, an acronym for "all rock & roll oldies." Not bad, musically, except for the relatively limited playlist, but "Arrow" was apparently one of those fads that swept through, back in the '90s, and then was gone. It was probably reborn in nearly all major cities with another name. I know it was, here in Nashville.
 
Marijuana Farm News - great format for a 250w daytimer in Western Washington...it's legal!

-crainbebo
 
firepoint525 said:
The one that sticks in my mind is the old "Arrow" format, an acronym for "all rock & roll oldies." Not bad, musically, except for the relatively limited playlist, but "Arrow" was apparently one of those fads that swept through, back in the '90s, and then was gone. It was probably reborn in nearly all major cities with another name. I know it was, here in Nashville.
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"Arrow" was a 70s based oldies format launched in 1993 by a number of CBS owned stations. Considering most oldies stations these days program mostly 70s music, maybe it was just absorbed into the oldies format.
I remember reading about an all-classifieds format run by a radio station in LA in the late 60s for a few months.
 
Bongwater said:
"Personal Achievement Radio" - An AM format tried in LA and Seattle in the '90s that was all motivational speakers, 24/7. You heard stuff from Zig Ziglar, Robert Schuller, Norman Vincent Peale, Deepak Chopra and that kind of stuff. I remember tuning in once and hearing something called How To Overcome Discouragement. In three minutes I had the answer: Stop listening to this crap.

What happened to them? I don't know. I guess they found a higher plane of consciousness and simply floated away.........
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It floated all the way down to little WMMW in Meriden, CT, where it was known, I think, as Mind Improvement 101 (101 as in a college course, not frequency). It didn't last long, and neither did WMMW as a separate broadcast entity. It now is a 100% simulcast of WDRC(AM) Hartford.

Also in central Connecticut, WMRD Middletown tried an all-traffic format for a few months, with predictable results. The conceit that Connecticut traffic jams were in any way comparable in length and impact to those in metro Boston or New York City was laughable.
 
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I think Seattle needs to try an All-Traffic format. My prediction is either KARR 1460 from Family Radio to traffic, or flip KXPA 1540 to 1460 and replace with KARR-154, Where Are You? Either station should increase power to 50KW days and 25KW night with a directional beam straight for I-5, I-405 and the floating bridges (520 and I-90) in the Seattle area. Because traffic jams happen all the time....

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
I think Seattle needs to try an All-Traffic format. My prediction is either KARR 1460 from Family Radio to traffic, or flip KXPA 1540 to 1460 and replace with KARR-154, Where Are You? Either station should increase power to 50KW days and 25KW night with a directional beam straight for I-5, I-405 and the floating bridges (520 and I-90) in the Seattle area. Because traffic jams happen all the time....

-crainbebo
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If all-traffic has not worked in LA, it won't work in Seattle.

Increasingly, people are getting traffic from other sources, including GPS devices and smartphones and new media dashboards, so there is no use for an AM with a bad signal when most people don't use AM and are rapidly getting more specific traffic elsewhere.
 
Here in Tennessee, TDOT has an all-traffic station at AM 1680, at least here in the Nashville area. So I am guessing that it is run by the state, and thus not a commercial operation. The messages just repeat over and over again, so it is definitely automated, and it must be relatively inexpensive to operate it. We pass by signs on the interstate telling us about the station, with an admonition to tune in whenever the lights on that sign are flashing. Problem is, too often, the lights are flashing when there is no urgent or especially important information on that frequency. The amber alert signs over the interstates often do a better job with that type of information.
 
firepoint525 said:
Here in Tennessee, TDOT has an all-traffic station at AM 1680, at least here in the Nashville area. So I am guessing that it is run by the state, and thus not a commercial operation. The messages just repeat over and over again, so it is definitely automated, and it must be relatively inexpensive to operate it. We pass by signs on the interstate telling us about the station, with an admonition to tune in whenever the lights on that sign are flashing. Problem is, too often, the lights are flashing when there is no urgent or especially important information on that frequency. The amber alert signs over the interstates often do a better job with that type of information.
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Is 1680 in Nashville actually a group of TIS stations? I tried to post a link with the list from the FCC website but it didn't work.
 
WGEE (wedgie?) in Duluth, MN mixes showtunes and Streisand with NASCAR coverage. What's their target audience...gay rednecks?
 
JeffM said:
WGEE (wedgie?) in Duluth, MN mixes showtunes and Streisand with NASCAR coverage. What's their target audience...gay rednecks?
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How long has WGEE been on its format? I know Seattle's progressive talk KPTK (now sports KFNQ) aired NASCAR and college football for years. It added that coverage in a previous life as a classic country station, and still carried them for a long time as a progressive talk station.
 
installLSC said:
How long has WGEE been on its format?

About three years; not sure exactly. They're a perennial also-ran that's been through a number of formats the past ten years...Radio Disney (they were KXTP back then,) hot talk, neocon talk, ESPN, and oldies.

Their engineering is awful; they are broadcasting only one stereo channel of their music programming. On early 60's records that were made in ping-pong stereo, the results sound like karaoke! (Yes I have called them about it, I just get BS'd.)

Anyone remember WKRP's Les Nessman suggesting a new format: Hawaiian music and pork belly futures reports? I think that may be just around the corner...
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Polka would not do well.

The worst radio format idea I have actually witnessed was a hapless FM here in the Bay Area in the early 00s that tried a "World Music" format. Given that there was very little hit music in this category, the station degenerated quickly into a Souldies format - lots of Al Green, Marvin Gaye, etc. They would throw in some "world music" song every 6th or 8th song just to validate the station's positioning, but really, it was playing most of the same music as about a half-dozen other stations here.
 
Actually, I just thought of an even worse format that actually happened in the Bay Area in the 80s. "Game Shows." 610/KFRC - a Top 40 powerhouse here for many years, was dying as were most AM music stations. For a few weeks, they tried a game show format that was unlistenable for more than 15 minutes. Lots of bells, whistles, and silly music...it could have given an aspirin a headache.

People would call in to play the game, and would win something trivial like a toaster oven. Just awful.
 
A format for stoners would be interesting in WA and CO.
 
DavidEduardo said:


If all-traffic has not worked in LA, it won't work in Seattle.

Increasingly, people are getting traffic from other sources, including GPS devices and smartphones and new media dashboards, so there is no use for an AM with a bad signal when most people don't use AM and are rapidly getting more specific traffic elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Have you ever driven in Seattle traffic? It's insane out here. Seriously. ANY help is good help....even on AM.
 
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