Re: Formats (was: imus to land on wsjz)

[Mike Thomas <nostatic@earthlink.net>]

The "Soft AC" station has changed a great deal over the last several years.
WLTW for example, plays a lot of 90's material and their fair share of
currents.  They have 22 currents on that station right now, the most popular
ones being played about 20 times per week ( 3 spins a day.)  That's more than
many AAA stations spin their currents. BTW, WLTW's most played song is the
Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way."

Although Soft AC still emphasizes texture, many of the core artists that
launched the format in the 70's--Barry, Neil and Babs--are avoided or
minimized.  As the Baby Boomers age into the Soft AC demo, their expectations of
the format are different from their parents, who made the transition to Soft AC
from Beautiful Music.  The "Wish" stations in Vermont and WHOM-Mt.
Washington/Portland still do it the way it was done 10-15 years ago, but they
are the exception today rather than the rule.  Soft AC is much "brighter" and
more contemporary nowadays.

As a result, Mainstream AC is now an even broader and more upbeat format than it
was 10 years ago.  With so many Hot AC's leaning modern, Mainstream AC has been
able to play a wide range of product as you mentioned.  They have a lot of music
at their disposal and some present it very well, such as WMJX and WRCH-Hartford,
and others can sound very unfocused, such as WSNE-Providence and
WHYN-FM-Springfield.

Mike Thomas
WXLO & Mediabase 24/7

Bump Martin wrote:

> A "Lite" or "Soft" AC, such as WLTW-NYC, or the former WSSH is a very
> conservative version.  Picking songs for their texture (or lack thereof) as
> opposed to picking 'mega-monster-testing' songs.  Lite/Soft AC's tend to
> sound a bit like jelly-fish.  Nice and Mushy with no backbone.  Sometimes,
> they are so conservative, that these stations play no currents at all, just
> to play it safe.  These stations usually do very well 35+.  Jocks tend to
> sound like automatons.
>
> A 'Mainstream AC' tends to play a much wider variety of songs.  From
> Springsteen to Ricky Martin from Bette Midler to Natalie Merchant.
> Anything that the contemporary/CHR/Urban stations play that passes the test
> for the adults and does well with the 25-54 demo can get aired.  They can
> usually play a lot of crossover songs from other formats as well.  WMJX
> would probably be a good example of a 'Mainstream AC'.
>
> A "Hot AC"  usually puts all there music thru a tempo filter.  Emphasising
> only songs that are uptempo.  There tends to be more emphasis on newer music
> (They usually share a lot of songs with the CHR stations).....but again,
> it's for what appeals to adults.  Sometimes these stations can do pretty
> well 18+34 as well.  (The old Mix 98.5 was a good examply of this.)
>
> "New AC" is somewhat new in the last few years.  What WBMX is doing now.
> Almost ALL currents....and emphasising the "alternative" side of new music
> for adults.
>

------------------------------