iHeart standard stations

I notice iHeart has several dedicated standards channels. One is "Vinyl Standards" which plays all vinyl standards. Another one is "Vinyl Jazz" which plays all analog jazz. A third one is "The Standard" which is hit parade music of the forties, fifties, and sixties. These channels are evidently available for HD2 or HD3 radio as well.

The one thing you won't find is iHeart running those formats on their main channels ... not even on AM.

They have a lot of HD2 and HD3 streams of formats that aren't viable as regular, saleable formats ... and given the relatively low penetration of HD-capable radios (this long after its introduction!) they care much less about what's on those streams.

I've been listening to"The Standard". This kind of format would be ideal for SiriusXM. Siriusly Sinatra focuses on the artists. This channel plays a nice mix off Standards,a little Big band, MOR and soft oldies. Every song I heard was a hit.It's similar to what KMPC did in thee early 80's with their "Hit Parade" format.

HD radios are being included in newer cars. Maybe there will be renewed interest in the band. I may be one of the few with an actual Insignia HD radio which is qite good. WZEE in Madison,Wi. runs it on their HD2 channel. That's the hourly ID they give off the Iheart App.

In the last half hour I heard Bobby Darin,Al Martino,The Miracles,Elvis,Sinatra,Dean Martin,The Crewcuts,Doris Day,Louis Prima and Roy Orbison. It's a nice mix.

Obviously, it will never be on FM,but it might be a nice alternative on AM where IHeart has a cluster of stations. It sure would be better than a third sports station in a market.

benale said:

I've been listening to"The Standard". This kind of format would be ideal for SiriusXM. Siriusly Sinatra focuses on the artists. This channel plays a nice mix off Standards,a little Big band, MOR and soft oldies. Every song I heard was a hit.It's similar to what KMPC did in thee early 80's with their "Hit Parade" format.

HD radios are being included in newer cars. Maybe there will be renewed interest in the band. I may be one of the few with an actual Insignia HD radio which is qite good. WZEE in Madison,Wi. runs it on their HD2 channel. That's the hourly ID they give off the Iheart App.

In the last half hour I heard Bobby Darin,Al Martino,The Miracles,Elvis,Sinatra,Dean Martin,The Crewcuts,Doris Day,Louis Prima and Roy Orbison. It's a nice mix.

Obviously, it will never be on FM,but it might be a nice alternative on AM where IHeart has a cluster of stations. It sure would be better than a third sports station in a market.

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Oddly enough, apparently it wouldn't. My market currently has four Sports stations and I fully expect it end up with six, three sets of two.

Back when they were still Clear Channel, WLTQ Charleston SC had Music of Your Life from 2005 to 2008. I checked Wikipedia and Clear Channel sold the station.

Around the same time, America's Best Music station WMXF Asheville NC, which didn't cover the entire market and certainly didn't reach even Asheville at night, became a simulcast of Rush station WWNC, which had a great signal even at night, although the last time I tried WWNC at night I couldn't hear it. Where I stay in the mountains I can't even hear WMXF. Still, Clear Channel kept that format going for nearly a decade.

benale said:

It sure would be better than a third sports station in a market.

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Not to go too far off-topic, but as has been mentioned in countless other threads about sports stations, they operate with a different financial viability threshold than the rest of the business. There can be several sports AMs in a market, some of whom don't even show up in 6+ -- and if they do, it's at the bottom -- and even rank lower than practically everything else in 18-34 or 18-49 men (the presumed target demo) and still have revenue flying in the door.

Listeners to sports stations tend to tune in for long periods at a time, especially if they have a favorite talk host on a station, in which case it is not uncommon to see them listening for the entire show. Live sports is a draw to varying degrees -- obviously, if a local team is a playoff contender, listening goes up for a while as well -- and even the big college teams will get a decent audience. (Remember how Mutual carried Notre Dame football for years and years to a nationwide audience?) Sometimes a team can move out of town and there remains fan interest. Case in point: The NFL Raiders moved to Oakland way back at the end of the 1994 season ... 21 years ago ... and there are still radio affiliates in Los Angeles, Riverside, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, plus a few more along the Central Coast and in the San Joaquin Valley.

All that creates a different dynamic for advertising buys from agencies. There are a lot of specified "buy all sports stations in a market" directives from clients. Especially beer. You can plug in a 24/7 sports network and add the dregs of what's available in live sporting events from syndicators and still be included on those buy sheets.

There is no parallel in sales to anything Standards-based ... for anything where the median listening age is over 55, in fact. And it's a hard sell for local advertising as well.

WNAM Appleton, Wisconsin is actually owned by Cumulus, but when I did a search for more streaming stations that had America's Best Music, I saw that it was available through iHeart. Apparently this doesn't mean it has to be owned by them.

WNAM worked at a library, but I haven't tried it at home.

I don't remember whether I had a TiVo Roamio when I found out WNAM was on iHeart. But one day rather than look for the link to their online stream in the usual place, I went to Wikipedia and was reminded. I knew I had iHeart on my TiVo Roamio. And the online stream wouldn't work on my computer, plus anytime I tried to listen to the radio, my computer kept freezing.

I tried WNAM on my TiVo and it works. The only disadvantage is if the air conditioner is on I can't hear it clearly. Which is an advantage if Adele or one of those annoying song is playing or there's some annoying commercial.

radiotron said:

I notice iHeart has several dedicated standards channels. One is "Vinyl Standards" which plays all vinyl standards. Another one is "Vinyl Jazz" which plays all analog jazz. A third one is "The Standard" which is hit parade music of the forties, fifties, and sixties. These channels are evidently available for HD2 or HD3 radio as well.

Click to expand...

Do they have anything like this?

Let's pretend Sirius/XM has a competitor which gives its formats ridiculous names. "Get Off My Lawn" is pure standards, or something close. No swing instrumentals or rock and roll. Mostly vocals, both older and newer, and a few easy listening instrumentals. Also groups such as The Lettermen, The Platters, The Ray Conniff Singers and The Four Lads and crossover country such as Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, Ray Charles and that one song by Ray Price.

Just in case you're wondering, this fictional competitor to Sirius/XM would also have:

"Hip Replacement" with artists such as The Carpenters, Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray, John Denver, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, Air Supply, Brasil 66, The Fifth Dimension and The Association.

"Singers and Swingers" with the high-energy swing artists and big bands.

"Stax of Wax" with early rock and roll as well as The Stray Cats and Brian Setzer.

The Standard might as well be Siriusly Sinatra. The first two songs I heard after the Timber Rattlers pregame show started were by him, and while there have been two or three songs by others, he's back.

So far, it sounds good. But do you really want that many Sinatra songs?

A really good music mix. Some of the songs aren't actually standards but they've been a part of the radio format called standards for so long they fit perfectly. I even heard Elvis!

And Sinatra isn't being played quite as much as earlier.

Three Sinatra songs since I posted this. Oh, well, he's great. But we do need some variety.

Two versions of "I've Got You Under My Skin" right together?

Still obsessed with Sinatra.

It has been a while, but I couldn't get WNAM to work and I'm listening again. Great music mix, but how much Sinatra can one person listen to?

Who is paying for this? There are no commercials.

Most internet broadcasting is free of ads. Considering the low standards of
broadcasting, it is probably paid for by child prostitution and heroin dealing.

WNAM works most of the time and I am listening now. KRIB is also available (a lot of talk, but similar music) and, for people LOVE Sinatra, The Standard.

WNAM has lots of ads including Progressive Insurance and other national companies. I even hear Taylor Swift singing about "Me he he!"

I just saw the most amazing ad on Easy 105.9. It's for a tax service with the word "EASY" in big letters, from a comment from a client. Now I'm not sure they want to be described that way on a station that now plays Post Malone, Jonas Brothers and Black Eyed Peas. And that station is still advertising doctors and financial planning for retirement. I suppose it's never too early. I can't recall hearing assisted living advertised lately but I haven't paid that much attention to commercials.