I listened to San Francisco’s Breeze shortly after launch, and it was interesting. Haven’t done so since, but curiosity had me go look at the playlist. It could be what Sunny could have evolved into in some alternate dimension. Setting aside a deep-in-the-weeds debate over localization, if that represents the broad direction we’re talking about....well, it depends on what they can monetize. Are there that many More FM and WOGL listeners they can peel off with a softer mix,long term? I’d love to know what the research says.
I mean, at the upper end of the demo, this seems most appealing. But...what’s the marketing? Set it and forget it isn’t going to do much. Some strategic focused digital marketing might get some awareness going, and curiosity. But inertia remains a powerful force. You need to be more than “not More”—or you’ll just end up being, well, less.
Fancy station names and logos are all the rage these days (well, except on 106.1 in Philadelphia) but in my mind, radio marketing can be a LOT simpler. I mentioned a couple songs earlier which I don't think WOGL is touching and I really doubt WBEB has played them in at least a couple years. Perhaps they're being played on BEN-FM occasionally...but along with a lot of stuff that doesn't appeal to a Soft AC fan. If they're gonna launch Sunny 3.0, advertise it with clips of the songs and telling folks that they're gonna hear a lot of favorites they're not hearing anywhere else. With an ad like that, someone who likes the Bonnie Raitt song (and I'm assuming there are still lots of them) might think "I love that song and dammit, they're right: I haven't heard it in ages! I'm gonna try this new old station that's been on twice before!" Or something to that effect.
And remember: These fans are older. They are LOOKING for a place on the radio to hear what they want because they're not as tech savvy as the whippersnappers who can take or leave Q102 because they have all the music they want literally in their pocket. (How's that for a run-on sentence?)