Clear Channel Makes Changes In Charlotte and...

[EvanJ]

Bakersfield

Charlotte Oldies station WWMG is now CHR-Rhythmic or Urban. It will challenge Infinity's CHR-Pop and Urban stations there. They want to change to WIBT for "the Beat."

Bakersfield AC station KKDJ is now Spanish Oldies and CHR-Rhythmic KKXX is now Country to challege KUZZ-AM/KUZZ-FM, a Buck Owens station that is Number 1. KGFM is the remaining AC station and KISV is the remaining CHR-Rhythmic station not counting the Fresno stations at the bottom of the ratings.

[reception]

Now that KKXX is no longer a CC Kiss station, will KISV take control of that moniker?

[mbfan]

Ah, I'm so upset about the format change for Magic 96.1... I would always listen to that station. I even loved the morning talk shows. I may be only 19 but that was my favorite station here... the only radio station I actually listened to.

We don't need MORE "Rhythmic" music here. There's plenty as it is.

[chebingeo]

Barbie said:

We don't need MORE "Rhythmic" music here. There's plenty as it is.

[hockeydonna]

What's sad is that the arbitron ratings for stations nationally show strength in Urban and Rhythmic, so other stations (including Top 40) think that by playing more urban/rhythmic music their ratings will get better. I think it is faulty logic - if people want urban, they'll listen to an urban station, and by playing so much urban/rhythmic on Top 40, I think they lose listeners. The Top 40 stations do not do that well nationally in ratings. SO this station is probably switching because they think that's the way to higher ratings. At this rate, we'll all have waaaaay too many Urban or Rhythmic stations.

[tobedawg]

The Best CHR's that I've heard are Citdael's Pop Music Channels.. We have one locally.. www.planet95.com .. They have a great variety with a good balance of golds, recurrents, and currents (R&B, rap, pure pop, pop punk, hot a/c crossover, etc.)

As far as Bakersfield goes, KUZZ country continues to pull high ratings consistently, maybe Clear Channel can make a dent or this attempt at country will be a failure.

[reception]

I remember recently WQNC in Charlotte flipped from Rhy. CHR to Urban AC.

[reception]

KBKO 96.5 in Bakersfield is www.big965.com

[Marv]

Actually, the situation in Bakersfield is a PERFECT example as to why the CHR/Pop format has been losing millions of listeners since the late eighties, and why three CHR/Pop stations which have been launched in recent years in Chicago, San Francisco & Harrisburg have been spectacular failures.

Shortly after Clear Channel 'acquired' the rights to use the 'KISS' handle on it's top 40 stations exclusively, they unleashed their lawyers on KISV-FM, which had been #2 in the ratings for a while there, and calling itself KISS-FM. CC then started using that KISS-FM tagline on KKXX, hoping that the audience would leave the local powerhouse and move over to KKXX. When the PD and airstaff at KISV-FM explained to their audience that they couldn't call themselves KISS-FM anymore for legal reasons, the station NEVER changed its programming, the audience NEVER left the station, and KISV continued to clobber KKXX despite CC's attempt to confuse them.

CC subsequently admitted the failure and flipped KKXX around ten days ago.

CC has been stuck on this warped idea that if they tag their CHR/Pop stations with the KISS-FM tagline (despite the steep ratings plunge of it's KIIS-FM flagship in L A) over the past 16-18 years, tagged their country outlets as 'FROGGY' (thanks to the longtime country powerhouse KFRG in nearby Riverside), and tag it's AC/Hot AC stations with the 'STAR tagline (San Diego's STAR 100.7, arguably the nation's best Hot AC station for several years running), they could snag more listeners.

They never realized that KIIS-FM in L A was seriously hurt by the 1986 launch of Emmis's  Power 106, KIIS-FM severely overreacted by loading up on rhythmic material, and when combined with country radio's explosion in 1989 (two words---GARTH BROOKS), CHR/Pop subsequently lost millions of listeners since then as CHR/Pop stations from coast to coast vainly tried to emulate the success of CHR/Rhythmic powerhouses such as Power 106, and essentially blew off large percentages of their audiences, especially adults, in the process.

Now it's VERY hard to find ANY CHR/Pop stations nationwide with ratings which were even remotely close to the 10.0  which KIIS-FM in L A hit in the fall of 1984, and that the format has plunged because it no longer was the mass-appeal format it had been since Bill Drake launched 93/KHJ in Los Angeles in May of 1965, and re-invented top 40 Radio.

The format has hurt itself by playing LOTS of mediocre-to-awful songs over 100 times per week, which leads to listeners burnout, VERY small music libraries, and eventually a stagnant format with bleak prospects of improving its current dismal state.

The format has been dominated by a handful of one-note producers as opposed to its longtime status of being a SONG-DRIVEN format, and 99% of the best and most important artists/songwriters are no longer welcome at the format, as a look at either R&R's top 50 or BB's Hot 100 will easily prove.

[EvanJ]

Marv said:

Actually, the situation in Bakersfield is a PERFECT example as to why the CHR/Pop format has been losing millions of listeners since the late eighties, and why three CHR/Pop stations which have been launched in recent years in Chicago, San Francisco & Harrisburg have been spectacular failures.

WKSC Chicago has moved up and the San Francisco station that used to be CHR-Pop isn't doing well. WHKF Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle was up 40 percent in Spring 2004, is 2.0 ahead of the CHR-Rhythmic station, and WLAN and WYCR are also in the Harrisburg-L-C ratings.
KIIS was way up in the extrapolations for the most recent month of ratings.

[reception]

reception said:

Now that KKXX is no longer a CC Kiss station, will KISV take control of that moniker?

I'm just glad KKXX and their Kiss slogan didn't survive. I'm hoping KISV gets the Kiss slogan now.

[Marv]

The San Francisco station that I referred to (KZQZ aka Z95.7) flipped to Country last year under the leadership of KFRG's former GM.

KIIS-FM is up to a 3.8, but that's still 40% below where it was 4-5 years ago, and some SIXTY PERCENT below it's 1984 10.0, when CHR/Pop was a TRUE mass-appeal format, as opposed to being dominated by a handful of producers and TONS of teen-pop queens with limited abilities, either as producers or songwriters.

[EvanJ]

Bakersfield Active Rock station KRFR has changed to KKXX.