DFW Urban AC

[neosolbrudda]

I've noticed that the PPM has always favored KRNB over Majic. Besides signal, is there any other reason why? There are distinct differences in the stations:
KRNB: limited playlist, very mellow sound, all local other than mornings, "Quiet Storm" 7 days a week
Majic: wider playlist, more upbeat sound, only local in middays and the weekends, mixshows on the weekends

Personally, I prefer Majic, because of the more variety of music, but I'm just curious if the Urban AC listeners in DFW prefer the more mellow approach, or is it only because of the signal limitations of Majic? All opinions welcome

 

[salemjedi54]

I can't stand neither of them.

 

[neosolbrudda]

I can't stand neither of them.

What would you consider a good Urban AC to sound like?

 

[salemjedi54]

What would you consider a good Urban AC to sound like?

Heart and Soul on SiriusXM is good. Honestly I don't listen to music radio OTA anymore. If I could program a Adult R&B station, it would sound more like V100 when they came on the air 9/1/95. But I would do my best to cultivate a local morning show. Rickey Smiley and Steve Harvey just don't do it for me.

 

[neosolbrudda]

Heart and Soul on SiriusXM is good. Honestly I don't listen to music radio OTA anymore. If I could program a Adult R&B station, it would sound more like V100 when they came on the air 9/1/95. But I would do my best to cultivate a local morning show. Rickey Smiley and Steve Harvey just don't do it for me.

Understandable. Radio has changed so much, and not in a good way.

 

[Kent]

I've noticed that the PPM has always favored KRNB over Majic. Besides signal, is there any other reason why? There are distinct differences in the stations:
KRNB: limited playlist, very mellow sound, all local other than mornings, "Quiet Storm" 7 days a week
Majic: wider playlist, more upbeat sound, only local in middays and the weekends, mixshows on the weekends

Personally, I prefer Majic, because of the more variety of music, but I'm just curious if the Urban AC listeners in DFW prefer the more mellow approach, or is it only because of the signal limitations of Majic? All opinions welcome

I've heard the Wise County sticks are generally better than the Collinsville signals. I don’t know how true that is, though, as I last lived in the Metroplex in 1996, and I'm not sure we had any Wise County sticks back then. KSTV-FM had applied to move to Wise County, but it was still very much in Stephenville at the time. 96.7 didn't move to Wise County until two or three years after I left, and 101.7 moved even later. 91.3 might've been around, but I never bothered with it. Looks like you can get most of Ft. Worth from Wise County, but you get less of Dallas.

I've never worked at, let alone programmed, an urban AC, but another general rule of radio is that shorter playlists work better. If KRNB has a smaller playlist, that probably works in its favor, too.

 

[neosolbrudda]

I've heard the Wise County sticks are generally better than the Collinsville signals. I don’t know how true that is, though, as I last lived in the Metroplex in 1996, and I'm not sure we had any Wise County sticks back then. KSTV-FM had applied to move to Wise County, but it was still very much in Stephenville at the time. 96.7 didn't move to Wise County until two or three years after I left, and 101.7 moved even later. 91.3 might've been around, but I never bothered with it. Looks like you can get most of Ft. Worth from Wise County, but you get less of Dallas.

I've never worked at, let alone programmed, an urban AC, but another general rule of radio is that shorter playlists work better. If KRNB has a smaller playlist, that probably works in its favor, too.

I guess I'm more of 94.5 fan, because I'm 51 and they play the music from when I was in my 20's and 30's. I honestly believe Urban AC has evolved like the Classic Hits(Oldies) format to appeal to my age group. As far as signal, I'm curious to know how a full signal Urban AC would do now, as opposed to years ago when we had V100.

 

[Ryan Williams]

I've heard the Wise County sticks are generally better than the Collinsville signals. I don’t know how true that is, though, as I last lived in the Metroplex in 1996, and I'm not sure we had any Wise County sticks back then.

That's basically my assertion. But, it's not a night and day difference. At the end of the day they are still both very much rimshots and inferior to the Cedar Hill signals in most of the market minus the very northernmost suburbs. The distance from the towers to downtown Dallas and Fort Worth are between 48-60 miles.

Regardless, in real-world listening conditions, I find the Wise County sticks to generally perform slightly better than the Grayson sticks in many areas of DFW, obviously depending on exact location, your millage may vary.

I'm not entirely sure why this is the case, but it might have something to do with the overall height in Wise County being slightly greater.

 

[neosolbrudda]

Luckily, I can pick up both very well in North Ft.Worth.

 

[salemjedi54]

I dont understand why 94.5 and 105.7 inform their listeners to connect there phones to their car radios and let stream the stations. Most folk have unlimited data plans on their cellphones or wi-fi in their vehicles. They can listen to those stations static free. Since stations streams are measured now, they should not lose any listenership...per se...

 

[DavidEduardo]

I dont understand why 94.5 and 105.7 inform their listeners to connect there phones to their car radios and let stream the stations. Most folk have unlimited data plans on their cellphones or wi-fi in their vehicles. They can listen to those stations static free. Since stations streams are measured now, they should not lose any listenership...per se...

Remember that the average age of a vehicle in the US is now about 12 years. That means that as much as 75% of all vehicles do not have the connectivity you refer to.

Our two cars are both 6 years old, and neither has phone-to-car-audio connectivity. And in the urban area where we live, there are multiple block-long places where cellular cut-outs occur, even though we are in a very flat valley floor.

For many people, when driving they don't want the tedium of making adjustments and re-connections. Obviously, systems are improving but between areas with signal drop-out and cares without or with limited connectivity, not everyone can make use of what you suggest.

 

[Ryan Williams]

Remember that the average age of a vehicle in the US is now about 12 years. That means that as much as 75% of all vehicles do not have the connectivity you refer to.

Our two cars are both 6 years old, and neither has phone-to-car-audio connectivity. And in the urban area where we live, there are multiple block-long places where cellular cut-outs occur, even though we are in a very flat valley floor.

For many people, when driving they don't want the tedium of making adjustments and re-connections. Obviously, systems are improving but between areas with signal drop-out and cares without or with limited connectivity, not everyone can make use of what you suggest.

I second everything David said but would also like to add that even modern day streaming of AM/FM stations is a pretty bad experience and doesn't really seem to be getting better. A few examples...

- Pre-roll ads which have no equivalent on AM/FM
- No easy scan function (iHeartRadio's app used to have this and took it away)
- Poorly synced or calibrated ad insertion technology that cuts away or comes back at the wrong times (this is still a bad problem among all the large group owners and platforms today)
- Terrible and repetitive PSA and ad content that is inserted during those breaks
- Often times, I get ads inserted to me in the stream that are even from a different market altogether. Say I am streaming a Dallas area station and I get to hear repetitive ads for a business in San Antonio.

On the plus side, streaming can provide you out-of-market stations you might wish to hear and in ideal circumstances the stream could be more robust in a signal deficient area. Beyond that everything else is worse than OTA FM.

 

[neosolbrudda]

I second everything David said but would also like to add that even modern day streaming of AM/FM stations is a pretty bad experience and doesn't really seem to be getting better. A few examples...

- Pre-roll ads which have no equivalent on AM/FM
- No easy scan function (iHeartRadio's app used to have this and took it away)
- Poorly synced or calibrated ad insertion technology that cuts away or comes back at the wrong times (this is still a bad problem among all the large group owners and platforms today)
- Terrible and repetitive PSA and ad content that is inserted during those breaks
- Often times, I get ads inserted to me in the stream that are even from a different market altogether. Say I am streaming a Dallas area station and I get to hear repetitive ads for a business in San Antonio.

On the plus side, streaming can provide you out-of-market stations you might wish to hear and in ideal circumstances the stream could be more robust in a signal deficient area. Beyond that everything else is worse than OTA FM.

That's what I'm listening to now. I prefer the streams of the "mom & pop" stations, because they play all of the local commercials from their area.

 

[salemjedi54]

Remember that the average age of a vehicle in the US is now about 12 years. That means that as much as 75% of all vehicles do not have the connectivity you refer to.

Our two cars are both 6 years old, and neither has phone-to-car-audio connectivity. And in the urban area where we live, there are multiple block-long places where cellular cut-outs occur, even though we are in a very flat valley floor.

For many people, when driving they don't want the tedium of making adjustments and re-connections. Obviously, systems are improving but between areas with signal drop-out and cares without or with limited connectivity, not everyone can make use of what you sugge

Lord have mercy...

 

[ZantennaG1]

Remember that the average age of a vehicle in the US is now about 12 years. That means that as much as 75% of all vehicles do not have the connectivity you refer to.

Our two cars are both 6 years old, and neither has phone-to-car-audio connectivity. And in the urban area where we live, there are multiple block-long places where cellular cut-outs occur, even though we are in a very flat valley floor.

For many people, when driving they don't want the tedium of making adjustments and re-connections. Obviously, systems are improving but between areas with signal drop-out and cares without or with limited connectivity, not everyone can make use of what you suggest.

My car is 17 years old (2005), and my truck is 7 years old (2015). (I can see some of you out there saying "That dude needs to get a new car", LOl, but it still runs fine). The truck does have Bluetooth, and SXM. The car has neither of those. Overall, I find 4G fairly useful around my town, but it does have two very frustrating drop-out points: One at my local convenience store where it's 2 or 3 bars, or out I-25 by the WY212 truck stops, where service will drop all the way into 2G Edge.

 

[AnyHuman]

There are FM transmitters on Amazon which plug into the cigarette lighter and automaticly broadcast your phone's Bluetooth audio. I've got one. Turns off when the car's not running. But your vehicle may be different.

 

[salemjedi54]

There are FM transmitters on Amazon which plug into the cigarette lighter and automaticly broadcast your phone's Bluetooth audio. I've got one. Turns off when the car's not running. But your vehicle may be different

So do I. If you want to stream in your vehicle, there are ways to do it. So again it makes sense to tell your listeners to stream the station, in their cars or use the app if available to have a "clear static free signal". I know a lot of folks who only listen to online only stations in their vehicles. No amount of number nerds are going to tell me different.

 

[neosolbrudda]

So do I. If you want to stream in your vehicle, there are ways to do it. So again it makes sense to tell your listeners to stream the station, in their cars or use the app if available to have a "clear static free signal". I know a lot of folks who only listen to online only stations in their vehicles. No amount of number nerds are going to tell me different.

You know what Salem? I have a program on my computer where I can record the direct stream from EVERY radio station in the United States that streams, and that's what I listen to in my cars. All I do is record what I want, burn it to a mp3 and add it to my collection. Some of the streams sound better than the actual station, (ex. WAMO/Pittsburgh). That's basically all I listen to now.