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106.1 The Breeze

Shocked at the softness. Almost crashed the car when 'Neil Sedaka - Laughter in the Rain' played. I imagine as is the case with many new stations, they're having fun with a deep playlist now but it'll definitely be tightened after Christmas.

A few things have me puzzled although I happen to like this new station.

1) If this frequency gave up smooth jazz twelve years ago because of an aging demographic, I would imagine this format to be even older. I know many young folks who groove with Watercolors on Sirius, but not many folks below 55 who like many of these tunes.

2) The imaging is ultra cheesy. It sounds like an SNL skit. Cheesy male voice talks about relaxing and then a cheesy sounding female choir sings "The Breeze." I say if you're going to play songs like this, at least make the imaging sound like something fresh.

That all said, maybe as someone else said, maybe iHeart doesn't care if this station is near the bottom. Just shave off some OGL and BEB listeners and they're happy.
 
Could very well be. Although the announcement is still full of traditional lingo, I think this is an example of how “moods” and tone will eventually play a bigger role than the way formats have been thought of for multiple decades. That’s probably a horrible way to try to say what’s rattling around in my head, but it’s in there somewhere, I swear.

The Breeze isn’t bending any definitions yet, all four hours in, but look really, really far down the road, and you could have stations more defined by a feeling than whether the songs are all country, AC, pop or what have you. Somewhere in that mix would be the relaxing, calming station (maybe?). Is it viable? Time will tell.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Could very well be. Although the announcement is still full of traditional lingo, I think this is an example of how “moods” and tone will eventually play a bigger role than the way formats have been thought of for multiple decades. That’s probably a horrible way to try to say what’s rattling around in my head, but it’s in there somewhere, I swear.
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I get what you're trying to say. Radio as a mood service has been tried several times, but it's tricky.

This format has had a bit of a resurgence in the past few years. I mean, we all thought that Cox was nuts to do this in Miami, IHeart to do this in San Francisco, and Entercom to do this in Seattle, but they've all turned that into something 25-54 friendly. Just not sure why you'd sign on with Laughter In The Rain...
 
They are dipping into the 60's and 70's for some of their songs. One that surprised me was Laughter In The Rain.
 
R
johndavis said:
This format has had a bit of a resurgence in the past few years. I mean, we all thought that Cox was nuts to do this in Miami, IHeart to do this in San Francisco, and Entercom to do this in Seattle, but they've all turned that into something 25-54 friendly. Just not sure why you'd sign on with Laughter In The Rain...
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Miami was not a surprise happening... it was initially a near disaster. They tried to clone WDUV in Tampa, but they did not take into account the over 70% ethnic composition of Miami, and they did not notice that Miami is really not the huge retirement community it was 50 or 60 years ago.

They made several adjustments, and finally ended realizing that their targeting and research had to be “majority Hispanic” for it to work. Now they are #1 25-54 but that is because the AQH is about 60% Hispanic and the playlist leans towards songs that were also hits in Latin America with a decrease in play of songs that were not hits there.
 
Route 222 said:
Shocked at the softness. Almost crashed the car when 'Neil Sedaka - Laughter in the Rain' played.
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Ha! Bet it's been a while since anyone in Philly has heard that one! It was Neil's comeback song in 1974. His first hit in over ten years. One of the first on Elton John's Rocket Records label. It was around this same time that Elton released Philadelphia Freedom.
 
eriedj said:
They are dipping into the 60's and 70's for some of their songs. One that surprised me was Laughter In The Rain.
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I'd look at that Miami station, Easy 93.1. It is #1 18-34 and has beaten the heritage ac there in the money demos fairly consistently.

I think you could do a flavor of this for Philly. It shouldn't be as sleepy and should make good use of the right rnb music. I'm thinking Baby come to me, nightshift, lowdown, mercy mercy me etc. B101 has gone so far ahead that there are tons of 70s and 80s songs that are great, not cheesy, that they can be playing and owning until B, if they even wanted to, makes an adjustment. Enhance those titles with the right softer hits of the 90's and 2k and I think you at least got a pretty good chance at some top 7 finishes in the money demos.

It is all about the music, then selling it as a mood booster or whatever you call it is just smart imaging. "Relaxing and Refreshing", I'd just own that phrase and have it define the station.

I really don't think that anyone ever thought that these soft ac stations would do as well as they are. Seriously, are you telling me that when Cox flipped 93.1 they said, yeah give it a few years and we will have this baby #1 18-34....you would be giving that guy or girl a drug test....yet here we are.
 
TheBigA said:
Ha! Bet it's been a while since anyone in Philly has heard that one! It was Neil's comeback song in 1974. His first hit in over ten years. One of the first on Elton John's Rocket Records label. It was around this same time that Elton released Philadelphia Freedom.
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He had a lesser hit in that comeback with a song that might resonate today: "The Immigrant." And then there was his reworking of his own "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do." He did to that song in the '70s what Eric Clapton did to "Layla" in the '90s.
 
DOB said:
I think you could do a flavor of this for Philly. It shouldn't be as sleepy and should make good use of the right rnb music. I'm thinking Baby come to me, nightshift, lowdown, mercy mercy me etc..
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According to the "last songs played" playlist, the first song played was "Me and Mrs. Jones," which is about as Philly as it gets. But it's also 45 years old.
 
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Listening further, I take back a little of what I said. I think this station could work. All the songs have the same tempo and the newer songs like Bruno Mars keep the station from being too geriatric. If I were them, though, I wouldn't necessarily delete any songs (except maybe 'Laughter in the Rain'... LOL) but I'd increase the ratio of newer songs. Like 70s, 2000s, 80s, 2000s, 60s, 2000s, 90s, etc. You get the picture. Then it could truly be a station "everyone agrees on at work." (Remember that cheesy positioning statement from the 80s and 90s)? :)

Disclaimer: I actually like the current sound. I'm an old soul. I'm just trying to think of keeping the station from being too much like "heaven's waiting room" (an old radio colleague taught me that funny line once). LOL
 
I remember Sunny 104.5's first year was gold-based AC, all slow, sappy songs with an emphasis on the 60s and 70s. Then they went upbeat with disco, to the point that it almost sounded like a jammin oldies station.
Sunny 104.5's goal wasn't to go #1, but to knock enough off B101 and Oldies 98.1 to boost up WDAS. In 2002, they actually did go near #1 as the only all Christmas station.
 
Definitely an interesting occurrence in the philly market. God it sounds like 1997 all over again on 106.1. It's almost a smooth jazz station, just slightly more "rock". Basically a modern MOR station. Gonna keep listening to see if we get enough good songs I give it a position on my presets.
 
Good Lord. "Joey Scarbury - Greatest American Hero" and "Bee Gees - More Than a Woman" in the last half hour. This station is Sunny risen from the dead.

I agree with the post earlier. With the way they reincarnated Sunny, they should have named this station "Wish 106." LOL But then only people over about 80 or 90 would be old enough to understand. LOL
 
Hop in the car for the drive home, and John Parr's St. Elmo's Fire is on. That may just earn them a preset from me for that alone. ;)

For a brief minute, cranking the volume all the way up, I was taken back to the days of Z/Eagle 106*. Then the Righteous Brothers a couple of songs later brought me crashing back to Earth.


(*The less said about what came between those two stations, the better.)
 
Route 222 said:
Good Lord. "Joey Scarbury - Greatest American Hero" and "Bee Gees - More Than a Woman" in the last half hour. This station is Sunny risen from the dead.

I agree with the post earlier. With the way they reincarnated Sunny, they should have named this station "Wish 106." LOL But then only people over about 80 or 90 would be old enough to understand. LOL
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Philly had a "Wish"? Was it soft MOR or beautiful music? Boston (Lowell rimshotter, actually) had WSSH 99.5 playing beautiful music in the '70s and soft AC in the '80s, also using "Wish" as its positioner.
 
CTListener said:
Philly had a "Wish"? Was it soft MOR or beautiful music? Boston (Lowell rimshotter, actually) had WSSH 99.5 playing beautiful music in the '70s and soft AC in the '80s, also using "Wish" as its positioner.
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Beautiful music until 1982 then a short-lived MOR, still using "Wish" from 82 - 83.
 
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