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Atlanta Ratings

RoddyFreeman said:
WSRV/97-1 The River calls itself Classic Hits, but it's not a Classic Hits station in the vein of a WCBS-FM or KRTH. It's really a Classic Rock station. WSRV started calling itself Classic Hits before Classic Hits meant former Oldies stations. It was meant to connote Classic Rock minus the really hard stuff.
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Roddy, since demographics is such a key part of this discussion and a number of others on these boards, can you give us some perspective as to the demographics that are most / more often specified or requested in buys?

I am more focused on the Hispanic sales demos, which are almost always A 18-49, with A 25-44 being the second more common, followed by nearly parallel M and W specs. There are few 18-34 any more in this sector, where two decades ago it was a near-dominant.

So what are the demos you see requested the most in general market buys? Have they changed over the last decade or so?
 
DavidEduardo said:


There are quite a few rock leaning classic hits stations, with one of the first being KOLA in the Riverside / San Bernardino market. That one moved from real 60's oldies nearly a decade ago to a classic hits without the hard-core pop things and has fairly consistently been the second highest rated station in the market right behind a Spanish language adult hits station.

KRTH is an interesting study of how classic hits stations are so different from market to market. It has the playlist size of an AC station, and leans, selectively, to the rock side. Much of this is due to the influence of a 70% ethnic and first generation immigrant population in LA.
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Conversely, WROR, which has been Boston's only classic hits station since WODS flipped to rhythmic CHR, has had a rock lean from Day One and added hardly any pop titles after pop-based WODS was no longer a competitor. I believe you've mentioned in other threads that Boston's relatively small Hispanic population is primarily second generation or later and largely assimilated. That would account for the direction WROR maintains, and it is a consistently good performer.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Roddy, since demographics is such a key part of this discussion and a number of others on these boards, can you give us some perspective as to the demographics that are most / more often specified or requested in buys?

I am more focused on the Hispanic sales demos, which are almost always A 18-49, with A 25-44 being the second more common, followed by nearly parallel M and W specs. There are few 18-34 any more in this sector, where two decades ago it was a near-dominant.

So what are the demos you see requested the most in general market buys? Have they changed over the last decade or so?
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I'd say A25-54 first and A18-49 second. I see more women than men-targeted buys. I haven't noticed a shift in recent years.
 
DavidEduardo said:


There are quite a few rock leaning classic hits stations, with one of the first being KOLA in the Riverside / San Bernardino market. That one moved from real 60's oldies nearly a decade ago to a classic hits without the hard-core pop things and has fairly consistently been the second highest rated station in the market right behind a Spanish language adult hits station.

KRTH is an interesting study of how classic hits stations are so different from market to market. It has the playlist size of an AC station, and leans, selectively, to the rock side. Much of this is due to the influence of a 70% ethnic and first generation immigrant population in LA.
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Sorry, David, KOLA is not the rock-only style classic hits that WSRV and WROR are. Just look at their playlist:

http://kola.tunegenie.com

SRV and ROR wouldn’t touch Michael Jackson, Donna Sumer, Patrice Rushen, Culture Club, Eric Carmen....
 
jlehmann said:
Sorry, David, KOLA is not the rock-only style classic hits that WSRV and WROR are. Just look at their playlist:

http://kola.tunegenie.com

SRV and ROR wouldn’t touch Michael Jackson, Donna Sumer, Patrice Rushen, Culture Club, Eric Carmen....
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I used KOLA as an example of a more rock leaning Classic Hits... I did not say it was the same. Each region of the country and even each metro will have slightly different blends of classic hits based on regional differences and the ethnic composition of the market.
 
KOLA is a terrific Classic Hits station- one of my faves! Not seeing any rock lean there, though. At least not currently. I'm sure the song category choices have evolved with time. At the moment, it features a well rounded, balanced mix of music with a decent dose of rhythmic pop. Love the fact they play more 90's than nearly every Classic Hits station out there and dive a bit into the 2K's as well! Honestly, in terms of song age & genre variety, the typical hour on KOLA is more akin to Variety Hits than Classic Hits. Just my two cents.
 
MarkW said:
KOLA is a terrific Classic Hits station- one of my faves! Not seeing any rock lean there, though. At least not currently. I'm sure the song category choices have evolved with time. At the moment, it features a well rounded, balanced mix of music with a decent dose of rhythmic pop. Love the fact they play more 90's than nearly every Classic Hits station out there and dive a bit into the 2K's as well! Honestly, in terms of song age & genre variety, the typical hour on KOLA is more akin to Variety Hits than Classic Hits. Just my two cents.
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I could have been clearer... when KOLA changed from 60's based oldies to 70's based classic hits, it was less pop based and more rock leaning than the typical classic hits station of the time. My point is that leaning towards rock is not new.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
WSRV/97-1 The River calls itself Classic Hits, but it's not a Classic Hits station in the vein of a WCBS-FM or KRTH. It's really a Classic Rock station. WSRV started calling itself Classic Hits before Classic Hits meant former Oldies stations. It was meant to connote Classic Rock minus the really hard stuff.
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When 97.1 started 96 Rock was a very viable classic rock station. IIRC 96.1 was even using the term "classic rock" on air at the time. IMHO if 97.1 had used classic rock too there could have been listener "branding" confusion.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
WSRV/97-1 The River calls itself Classic Hits, but it's not a Classic Hits station in the vein of a WCBS-FM or KRTH. It's really a Classic Rock station. WSRV started calling itself Classic Hits before Classic Hits meant former Oldies stations. It was meant to connote Classic Rock minus the really hard stuff.
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River also doesn't go that deep into an artist's repertoire, vs. say, Z93 in its classic rock days which was known for going very deep and also playing more obscure classic rock acts. As an example, it's rare to hear a Yes song besides "Owner of a Lonely Heart" on River. That's probably what the original River definition of "classic hits" was.

The only acts they consistently play that are not classic AOR are Billy Joel and, to a lesser extent in a variety of ways, Elton John. Very rarely they will throw in some other song that never really got AOR airplay back in the day.

Lately I have also noticed that they seem to have dropped the "Classic Hits" tag (as in "The NEW 97.1 The River Atlanta's Classic Hits Station"), and any time they refer to the format nowadays it's usually obliquely and not in a direct positioner--and they use the term "classic rock"--as in "the largest classic rock library in the state of Georgia". But they still play a shallow playlist, and they follow the same "burn and turn" formula that classic rock stations have used for a long while. Sister B98.5 did the same when B had a playlist that went back three decades to the 80s--burn the songs that tested well, test them again, turn out the burnouts, wash, rinse, and repeat.
 
jabba17 said:
River also doesn't go that deep into an artist's repertoire, vs. say, Z93 in its classic rock days which was known for going very deep and also playing more obscure classic rock acts. As an example, it's rare to hear a Yes song besides "Owner of a Lonely Heart" on River. That's probably what the original River definition of "classic hits" was.

The only acts they consistently play that are not classic AOR are Billy Joel and, to a lesser extent in a variety of ways, Elton John. Very rarely they will throw in some other song that never really got AOR airplay back in the day.

Lately I have also noticed that they seem to have dropped the "Classic Hits" tag (as in "The NEW 97.1 The River Atlanta's Classic Hits Station"), and any time they refer to the format nowadays it's usually obliquely and not in a direct positioner--and they use the term "classic rock"--as in "the largest classic rock library in the state of Georgia". But they still play a shallow playlist, and they follow the same "burn and turn" formula that classic rock stations have used for a long while. Sister B98.5 did the same when B had a playlist that went back three decades to the 80s--burn the songs that tested well, test them again, turn out the burnouts, wash, rinse, and repeat.
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I would say nowadays, B98.5 probably has the largest playlist on Atlanta radio. With Power being the smallest.
 
When 97.1 started 96 Rock was a very viable classic rock station.
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96Rock's ratings as a Classic Rocker were unimpressive and nowhere near what 97.1 The River has been able to achieve.
 
MarkW said:
96Rock's ratings as a Classic Rocker were unimpressive and nowhere near what 97.1 The River has been able to achieve.
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96 Rock also had to compete with Z93 before 92.9 flipped to Dave FM, and to a lesser extent 99X.
 
MarkW said:
96Rock's ratings as a Classic Rocker were unimpressive and nowhere near what 97.1 The River has been able to achieve.
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I just wish they'd be less white. Some people might stay tuned for Marvin Gaye, Prince, Aretha, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, The O'Jay's and Bob Marley.

16 hours of programming today, and Hendrix was the lone non-white act.
 
LegalTender said:
I just wish they'd be less white. Some people might stay tuned for Marvin Gaye, Prince, Aretha, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, The O'Jay's and Bob Marley.

16 hours of programming today, and Hendrix was the lone non-white act.
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They do play Living Colour and Mother's Finest from time to time.
 
The River has always been the station folks love to hate on this board going back to the early days of this boards existence. The River is a safe classic rock station. Safe because it plays the hits. Unlike classic hits stations, it tends the lean more rock. Some lean more variety hits and other lean more mellow (singer/song writer) like The Bridge on Sirius XM. The River has found that niche that plays the most familiar classic rock hits of the 70s and 80s with a few 90s sprinkled in. The River has tried to incorporate more 90s but folks tend to reject it, it seems. Hey, us radio geeks might despise a 150 song playlist station on repeat but the long term successful ratings prove it works.

Rock 100.5, is more true “classic rock” to me that digs deeper and I would say the Carrollton station 98.9 is a true classic hits station with a variety from Zeppelin and Pink Floyd to Disco and R&B.
 
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