Ok, all jokes and criticisms aside, although I may not be happy with the necessary format change and the things that lead up to it, in all reality, I have nothing personally against the people operating the station. I'm not exactly sure if the current format will be successful or not, but at least they got a second chance to try and fulfill a dream, so I am happy for them. Many people do not get second chances like this, especially in the business world.
Whether or not what has been tried before will work now, who knows. There is always a right timing for things and sometimes things *hit* at one time that wouldn't hit at another time, especially in radio. Many factors play into that, as the average reader here already knows.
Usually I'm very good at reading and knowing what will come when it comes to predicting the success of (CHR and Adult CHR type) stations. However, for some odd reason, I personally cannot tell what will happen either way about 107.3, and I have no idea why. I did re-add them to my presets and have been listening lately. While they play a lot of things I personally like, I just cannot tell what the outcome will be.
I don't know about other people, but in my experience, after you obsess, research, and study something so much (and for me, that's mainly CHR, Rhythmic CHR and some Adult CHR and the effects of mixshows when it comes to radio), you can begin to develop an accurate sense/feel of what will work and what wont work, and you can tell almost immediately "Yes! That's it! This will work - just give it time and everyone else will catch up and realize it after they start physically seeing the money and ratings" or "Nah, this ain't going to work. This ain't going anywhere and others will eventually realize it whether they want to see it or not." (A good example of that is when you look at the simple basic things like 107.3 slowly adding the word "MIX" into their ID slogans and notice music changes and people developing the sense/feel that they will eventually become MIX something.)
But then again, I do tend to think and analyze waaay more than the average person, so I tend to learn, notice and pick up on things that others miss. Call it "gifted" or diagnose me with whatever you want, but that's just what it is. I just look back and wish I made money off of the bets and predictions I called in radio over the past 6 years, especially with WWPW in Atlanta.
Anyway..... 107.3 actually has me stumped. When I think of all the things that have happened at 107.3 recently and the methods they are pulling right now and the timing of it all, in addition to what they're playing, I am not getting any particular feeling either way with them. I'm sort of leaning towards not seeing a very long term success coming out of their current format, mainly because it doesn't seem like the playlist music "flows" in an organized fashion, but this time, I wouldn't take my word for it. I simply just can't tell, and maybe the average listener doesn't notice.
The suggestions and predictions I made about Atlanta and Phoenix/Tucson and some of Los Angeles, those were solid and I already knew those things would happen. But I'm unsure about 107.3. There are so many ways that this could play out with them.
I also haven't looked into Fresh FM to see how many songs they are actually sharing with Mix. Quite frankly, I never paid any attention to DC Market before I contemplated moving here, which all happened in less than two months. The only thing I really knew was that WPGC went CHR/Rhythmic at one point (so you can already see where my mind and main interests are at with formatting).
We'll see what happens in long run...
* The odd thing is that I've never worked for a CHR station, and you would think that out of all formats, THAT IS WHERE I WOULD HAVE WORKED. Which format did I actually work with? People who know me only from the boards would be surprised... I'll leave that up to your imagination... and no, it wasn't country or news talk.