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Hot 96.9; Jam'n 94.5; 97.7 The Beat

R

radiolives

Can Boston support all 3 stations? I know Jam'n plays more newer songs then sister The Beat which plays older hits. And now Hot plays a bit of everything new and old, when they first flipped they became very popular in Boston.

I can see iheartradio possibly doing something with Jam'n or The Beat, I know it sells well with Kiss 108. Iheartradio does also own 100.7 WZLX Bostons classic rock. Either a Alt 94.5 or Alt 97.7 would sell well with WZLX.

Alt 94.5 Boston's Alternative
Jam'n 97.7 Boston's NEW Hip Hop

Thoughts
 
radiolives said:
Can Boston support all 3 stations? I know Jam'n plays more newer songs then sister The Beat which plays older hits. And now Hot plays a bit of everything new and old, when they first flipped they became very popular in Boston.

I can see iheartradio possibly doing something with Jam'n or The Beat, I know it sells well with Kiss 108. Iheartradio does also own 100.7 WZLX Bostons classic rock. Either a Alt 94.5 or Alt 97.7 would sell well with WZLX.

Alt 94.5 Boston's Alternative
Jam'n 97.7 Boston's NEW Hip Hop

Thoughts
Click to expand...
If they did an "Alt" format, then they would have to at least consider WWBX also. From what I have seen in different places, Today's Hot AC and Alternative stations tend to aim for similar audiences. And again, 92.9 was that kind of station for years, albeit with Hodge podge programming, for lack of a better term. With that said, the numbers at WBOS were actually improving, before they flipped to a slightly younger version of WZLX. Something does need to be done, but the big question is, since WJMN improved quite a bit after AMP Radio bit the dust, and WKAF still seems to be an afterthought. There is the big question if anything would even be done at this present point of time?
 
radiolives said:
Can Boston support all 3 stations? I know Jam'n plays more newer songs then sister The Beat which plays older hits. And now Hot plays a bit of everything new and old, when they first flipped they became very popular in Boston.

I can see iheartradio possibly doing something with Jam'n or The Beat, I know it sells well with Kiss 108. Iheartradio does also own 100.7 WZLX Bostons classic rock. Either a Alt 94.5 or Alt 97.7 would sell well with WZLX.

Alt 94.5 Boston's Alternative
Jam'n 97.7 Boston's NEW Hip Hop

Thoughts
Click to expand...
I had a similar question in the past but not an Alternative format on 94.5 but the Soft Adult Contemporary "Breeze" iheart brand. Alternative would be nice in theory but I think that format is better done when it's independently owned like WFNX was, or done as a hobby. Alot of these big broadcasters do a "hodge podge" version of Alternative as Retro put it. And its not something I'd tune into. Similar to how I really didn't tune into WBOS. If they don't put any effort into it whats the point. Kinda like how they're handling 97.7s current brand and format.
 
jradioguy1 said:
I had a similar question in the past but not an Alternative format on 94.5 but the Soft Adult Contemporary "Breeze" iheart brand.
Click to expand...

They haven't added a station in that format in a while, and my sense is they don't like the potential for revenue. They already have several older skewing stations with WBZ and WRKO.
 
radiolives said:
Can Boston support all 3 stations? I know Jam'n plays more newer songs then sister The Beat which plays older hits. And now Hot plays a bit of everything new and old, when they first flipped they became very popular in Boston.

I can see iheartradio possibly doing something with Jam'n or The Beat, I know it sells well with Kiss 108. Iheartradio does also own 100.7 WZLX Bostons classic rock. Either a Alt 94.5 or Alt 97.7 would sell well with WZLX.

Alt 94.5 Boston's Alternative
Jam'n 97.7 Boston's NEW Hip Hop

Thoughts
Click to expand...
I wonder what Hot 96.9’s ratings are outside of the morning show? I would guess that it is propping up the entire station.

Would Alt be better on 97.7 instead of 94.5? With the long history of some form of CHR rhythmic music on 94.5, would it make sense to switch the station to 97.7? 97.7 seems like the place to take a risk on Alt.
 
I don't see Beasley trying Alternative again. They may work some classic Alt into what they're doing at WBOS, but they won't blow up Hot969 for alternative. Been there, done that.

Jamn945 is doing pretty good considering the amount of time and attention they give it. 97.7 seems like the weakest link, that's the one that appears to be on life support, waiting for a new opportunity. If iHeart does Alt, you can predict what it will sound like. The Woody Show in morning drive, and a bunch out other VT hosts from around the country playing a predictable group of songs. Is that really what you want?
 
TheBigA said:
If iHeart does Alt, you can predict what it will sound like. The Woody Show in morning drive, and a bunch out other VT hosts from around the country playing a predictable group of songs. Is that really what you want?
Click to expand...
If that happened, I would listen to Sirius and streaming for Alternative as my top choice but would have the station as a preset and would listen as a secondary option. I’m looking at the recently played songs from the IHeart Los Angeles station and I like most of the songs. They also have “top songs” listed. I’m not sure if that refers to the songs they are currently playing most frequently, but if it is, I would get bored of the station fast since there is a lack of new music.
 
kp2780 said:
I’m looking at the recently played songs from the IHeart Los Angeles station and I like most of the songs.
Click to expand...

I might suggest they're not representative of iHeart Alt stations. They play more currents than any of them. They play most of the charted Top 10. Take a look at KTBZ in Houston. They may play 3 of the Top 10.
 
TheBigA said:
I don't see Beasley trying Alternative again. They may work some classic Alt into what they're doing at WBOS, but they won't blow up Hot969 for alternative. Been there, done that.

Jamn945 is doing pretty good considering the amount of time and attention they give it. 97.7 seems like the weakest link, that's the one that appears to be on life support, waiting for a new opportunity. If iHeart does Alt, you can predict what it will sound like. The Woody Show in morning drive, and a bunch out other VT hosts from around the country playing a predictable group of songs. Is that really what you want?
Click to expand...
My guess is if they indeed do that, it could potentially mimic Alt 98.7 (KYSR) Los Angeles.

BTW, the voice-over guy at Big 103, is reportedly the same person who does the voice-overs at Jack-FM (KCBS) as well.
 
Retro said:
My guess is if they indeed do that, it could potentially mimic Alt 98.7 (KYSR) Los Angeles.
Click to expand...

I've looked through a lot of iHeart alternative playlists, and KYSR is different from the others. Why? Because they have competition in that market. They'd have no real competition in Boston, other than WERS.
 
WJMN is earning its best ratings in a long time; iHM would be foolish to disrupt that right now.

They already ruined 97.7 - a station that had been punching far above its weight class under prior ownership.

It certainly wouldn't shock me to see 97.7 flip to something else.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
"The Breeze" was run on WJMN 94.5 HD2 for a couple of years until last summer when it was replaced by iHeart's "Black Information Network".
Click to expand...
Yeah once I saw them replace "the Breeze" with the "Black Information Network" i figured that a format change was not likely going to happen on 94.5 WJMN.
 
If they were three distinct and reasonably-well programmed stations, sure. Right no? no.
Because at least one of them isn't really supported as-is. But then again no one is doing anything to it...

Do people really think an urban station couldn't routinely pull a 2.5 in Boston-especially after seeing it happen in the last 5 years?. That would be support. But if the folks on the advertisement side don't want it or don't see the purchasing power in that demo then it won't exist. But it's not due to a lack of popular support.

All three of these stations have the benefit of hundreds of thousands of captive young and diverse groups of people and give nothing in return but a stale decades-old product.

Obviously, in return, this leaves no opportunities for advancement among their employees who've been stuck on a sinking ship for 15 years...It's an ugly situation really.

It's an industry hedging against its own future by not persuing any new listenership/loyalty. It's simply banking on a rising median age and more older listeners.

The excuse-making that goes with it makes it clear to see why radio is a dying format. The norm and baseline is failure and consumer frustration. As a result by this point, the industry has to be drawing a lot of hacks. Hackoramo leads to poor programming follows and you're in a negative feedback cycle of BBD and Ma$e...and outsiders like me are the bad news boogeyman blowhards.
 
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UrbanTeenager said:
If they were three distinct and reasonably-well programmed stations, sure. Right no? no.
Because at least one of them isn't really supported as-is. But then again no one is doing anything to it...

Do people really think an urban station couldn't routinely pull a 2.5 in Boston-especially after seeing it happen in the last 5 years?. That would be support. But if the folks on the advertisement side don't want it or don't see the purchasing power in that demo then it won't exist. But it's not due to a lack of popular support.

All three of these stations have the benefit of hundreds of thousands of captive young and diverse groups of people and give nothing in return but a stale decades-old product.
Click to expand...

The sad problem is that in many cities, all across America, black and Hispanic people are an economic underclass. In New Haven, urban AC WYBC-FM (owned by Yale but managed by Connoisseur Broadcasting) does fantastic numbers, book after book, with a signal that is great in New Haven proper but degrades quickly beyond city limits. Yet I'd imagine it is substantially outbilled by Connoisseur's classic rock WPLR and hot AC WEZN, even if those two are attracting smaller shares.
 
CTListener said:
The sad problem is that in many cities, all across America, black and Hispanic people are an economic underclass.
Click to expand...
A great deal of that has to do with consumer spendable income.

In Latin America, ratings are produced not with age breaks but with income level breaks. In Mexico City, the three regional Mexican (called "grupera" in Mexico) stations have nearly a 50 share, but about 10% of the revenue in the market.

In an analysis of LA Hispanics about a decade ago, 49% of men and 74% of women had no more than 6th grade education or less.

CTListener said:
In New Haven, urban AC WYBC-FM (owned by Yale but managed by Connoisseur Broadcasting) does fantastic numbers, book after book, with a signal that is great in New Haven proper but degrades quickly beyond city limits. Yet I'd imagine it is substantially outbilled by Connoisseur's classic rock WPLR and hot AC WEZN, even if those two are attracting smaller shares.
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Again, it's predominantly due to the differences in CSI. WYBC is limited to "inner city" areas, the other two are broader signals covering about 3 times more people. And the WYBC listener gives much higher TSL, so the reach of a campaign is much lower. Both of the other two stations cume twice as much, each, as WYBC. So on a cume basis, the revenue is proportional.
 
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