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Sunday, March 21, 2010
Is "The Buzz" Real? How "Classic" is Radio?
by Sac Frequency, published on July 2, 2009 at 6:32PM
Storyline: Frequency
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Sacramento radio severely suffered two more steps back in the last six weeks. First KWOD-FM (106.5) stopped playing Alternative music, held on to Nirvana and Green Day, then re-birthed as 106.5 The Buzz -- "Totally 90s."
Anyone Else Puking?
Many former KWOD listeners did their marketing for The Buzz by publicly complaining about the new format. This has put The Buzz in a situation that every radio station would love to be in -- Everyone knows they exist. But do they care? No.
Will it last?
No.
It might adjust to add 80's and/or early 2000's music -- which, I might add, it already plays a little bit of. With time it might adjust to sound more like a KGBY-FM (My 92.5) or even KZZO-FM (100.5 The Zone). But it will not last more than 18 months with an all-90's playlist. The 90s lacked as a decade musically. It was great for those in their teens, but the decade only has approximately 300 songs to choose from. That will get old very fast.
Consider that in the last week The Buzz played 57 of those 300 songs at least 10 times. That's two full days of music. See why this will get old fast? When you can't play new music, you are bound to bury yourself. Hence why I do not think "all 90s" will last more than 18 months.
Classic Clear Channel
Clear Channel did it again. They started up a "radio station in a box" on their new 93.1 FM frequency. Touting "70's and 80's Classic Hits" they decided to start playing music already heard on multiple Sacramento-area radio stations. Many of those of which have local on-air hosts.
"Classic 93.1" does have DJs, and they are pre-recorded from markets around the country, including San Diego and New York. This was blatantly obvious when Michael Jackson passed away last week. Almost every radio station in Sacramento was conducting on-air tributes of some sort. Two of those even received TV coverage for their tributes (KCCL-FM 92.1, KHYL-FM 101.1). But, 93.1 was oblivious.
And this is how Clear Channel is paving the way for the radio industry. Thanks guys!
Feedback Time: Here's a question I'd love to have you post your answer to:
If someone handed you the keys to an FM radio station in Sacramento, what type of programming would you offer? Why?
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The problem with "decade" radio stations is that they aren't even playing all of the music from that decade--they are only playing a handful of the most popular hits, barely scratching the surface of the music of that era. No "classic rock" format station plays the Mothers, or the Stooges, or the Velvet Underground, or any of the influential but little-known bands of their selected era, or anything but the A-side singles from those bands...no B-sides, rarities, or live tracks selected by DJs and music lovers instead of marketing droids and focus groups.
You might get away with all 90's if you included all sorts of music. The indie rock scene really took off in the 90's and if you add electronic music and hip hop into the mix, I think you could probably muster more like 3000 interesting tracks instead of 300.
All in all, it's not just newspapers that are in flux right now, it's really all of media and we are seeing that reflected in radio as well.