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CHR categories

T

Tomgsinger

Frequent Participant
I'm thinking about potentially doing CHR instead of Hot AC. Any ideas for clocks and rotation categories (eg How many songs in each category, how far back should I go, what should I call my categories, what should my sample hour in each day part look like?)
 
Tomgsinger said:
I'm thinking about potentially doing CHR instead of Hot AC. Any ideas for clocks and rotation categories (eg How many songs in each category, how far back should I go, what should I call my categories, what should my sample hour in each day part look like?)
Click to expand...

A good way to start is to determine the rotations and from that size the library.

Powers 90 minute rotation, 3 in total 1 per hour
Regular currents: 9 to 13 songs 2:45 to 3:15 rotation, 3 an hour or 3 in one, 4 in another.
New adds: 1 per hour, 4 or 5 total
Power recurrents: 7 to 9 hour turnover, one an hour or two an hour, 7 to 18 songs
Regular recurrents: 11 to 13 hour rotations (with care as this has a 12 hour harmonic danger), 1 or 2 an hour, 11 to 26 songs.

(recurrent library depends on how fresh vs. how familiar you want to sound.)

Rest of the hour:
Power Gold
Regular Gold
Tertiary (spice songs / end of sweep fills for timing)

Gold is added depending on how far you want to go back, and how fast you want to spin the songs. Anything from a "day less a daypart" to "a day and two dayparts" are common.

You will get a different opinion from every programmer. I am just giving what might be a starting point.

Keep in mind as far as currents, at any given time there are generally less than 20 true current hits. Some programmers think the number is more like 15.
 
Just curious. This is the same formula we had 45 years ago. I'm not seeing many chr stations at the top of the heap, if any. Who are the real winners with this format? Most CHR stations are really really stale. Could be that 1970 stlyle rotation in a 2015 world has worn itself out.
 
radiowizard101 said:
Just curious. This is the same formula we had 45 years ago. I'm not seeing many chr stations at the top of the heap, if any. Who are the real winners with this format? Most CHR stations are really really stale. Could be that 1970 stlyle rotation in a 2015 world has worn itself out.
Click to expand...

There are plenty of CHR stations "at the top". Look at KIIS in LA or KHTZ in New York or Kiss in Dallas just for starters.

Today's CHRs follow a pattern that is essentially based on the knowledge that there are a finite number of big hits at any given moment and the listener wants to hear a bunch of them each time they tune in. That is a fairly immutable truth for any contemporary format, whether it be Urban Contemporary, Regional Mexican or either Rhythmic CHR or mainstream CHR.

What has changed, due to better research, is the awareness that "Top 40" is more like "Top 17" and the knowledge that you don't need or want to "rest" currents after they are off their peak and should be heavily played as recurrents. So we play more of the big hits more often, but have fewer of them, and then fill mostly with recurrents and very recent gold.

Keep in mind that this is the repetition pattern that worked when Top 40 was created, which was several years before rock n' roll began to invade the format. And any station that tries to be Top 40 with a broader list or different rotations crashes and burns.
 
Our philosophy at WEEM is to have the definite hits mixed with tracks to make us different. We typically have 5 powers, 9 secondaries and then the other categories kind of change size depending on how strong of a week/month. Right now in Feb, we are at our max because of the great releases for Spring / Summer. We have special categories just for "shots in the dark."

Example "Shots in the Dark" this week (2/1/16):
That Poppy "Lowlife:
Bo Napoleon "If It's OK"
Strumbellas "Spirits"
1975 "The Sound"
Weeknd/Labrinth "Losers"

These shots in the dark have found fantastic adds like Fifth Harmony "Worth It", Rachael Platten "Fight Song", Max "Gibberish", Tinashe "All Hands On Deck", Little Mix "Black Magic", and many many more!
 
This is an interesting discussion. As a CHR listener sometimes for long periods of time, I'd say try to keep the power rotation at about 2 hours, although if you find a Townsquare Media CHR you like, try to emulate that clock. I really liked KQMV's clock before they changed it, though it was very tight. They had four powers, top of hour, out of break at 19, bottom of hour, and out of break at 49.
 
butlerguy03 said:
Our philosophy at WEEM is to have the definite hits mixed with tracks to make us different. We typically have 5 powers, 9 secondaries and then the other categories kind of change size depending on how strong of a week/month. Right now in Feb, we are at our max because of the great releases for Spring / Summer. We have special categories just for "shots in the dark."

Example "Shots in the Dark" this week (2/1/16):
That Poppy "Lowlife:
Bo Napoleon "If It's OK"
Strumbellas "Spirits"
1975 "The Sound"
Weeknd/Labrinth "Losers"

These shots in the dark have found fantastic adds like Fifth Harmony "Worth It", Rachael Platten "Fight Song", Max "Gibberish", Tinashe "All Hands On Deck", Little Mix "Black Magic", and many many more!
Click to expand...

Just wanted to come back and point out that 5 months later, The Strumbellas and The 1975 are both getting adds now...sometimes I'm a half-year ahead of CHR.
 
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