Panel/Format Changes: WHKF and WJJS

[EvanJ]

WHKF Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle was removed from the panel, put back on the panel, removed from the panel again, and put back on the panel again.

www.radio-info.com/mods/board?Post=329377&Board=rchr says Roanoke-Lynchburg CHR-Pop simulcast WJJS/WJJX changed to CHR-Rhythmic. The station has over a 5.0 rating in a market that is very popular for CHR-Pop (competitor WXLK has a higher rating than WJJS/WJJX). WJJS is owned by Clear Channel and is still on the panel but could be removed soon.

The panel currently has 119 stations.

[Slinky]

I don't get why WHKF would be removed.  They still play enough non-rhythmic songs to be considered Pop.  They're giving significant spins to Gavin, Kelly, Switchfoot, etc.  Maybe it was a mistake. ???

WJJS is a weird one.  Their #1 non-rhythmic song is "Sunday Morning" with 15 spins.  My guess is that they only spin Pop songs overnight for, ahem, promotional purposes, which means they really don't belong on the Pop panel.

[johnm1120]

WHKF is a Rhythmic station. I dunno why they claim to be pop.

[EvanJ]

www.radioandrecords.com/Newsroom/2005_01_06/wkznnew.asp
In New Orleans, Entercom changed Hot AC WKZN to Rock. With their sister Hot AC station gone, Entercom said they will make rhythmic-leaning CHR-Pop WEZB more balanced. WEZB adds "Kidd Kraddick in the Morning."

[Marv]

Considering WHKF recently lost their PD to the nation's best and most prestigious CHR/Pop station (WNCI), are they on the verge of flipping out of the CHR/Pop format, considering the dreadful results of stations which have flipped to CHR/Pop in the past 5 or so years, with WHKF & WKSC-Chicago at the top of the list?

Someone posted on this board that KHTS San Diego flipped to CHR/Pop in 1996, but that was the last successful launch of a CHR/Pop station in a major or large market that I'm aware of.

[Slinky]

Marv said:

Considering WHKF recently lost their PD to the nation's best and most prestigious CHR/Pop station (WNCI), are they on the verge of flipping out of the CHR/Pop format, considering the dreadful results of stations which have flipped to CHR/Pop in the past 5 or so years, with WHKF & WKSC-Chicago at the top of the list?

Doubt it. They're not doing that badly, beating the local Adult CHR (WCPP) and Rhythmic CHR (WWKL). The market just has way too many stations competing for CHR listeners. I think we'll see Kiss hold on until the competition thins out a bit.

Someone posted on this board that KHTS San Diego flipped to CHR/Pop in 1996, but that was the last successful launch of a CHR/Pop station in a major or large market that I'm aware of.

No way! There have been plenty of successful CHR launches since then.

Philadelphia - Q102 flipped from Rhythmic CHR to CHR in 1998.

DC - Hot 99.5 has only been around a few years.

Detroit - I believe WKQI was Hot AC before flipping to CHR. WDRQ was a Rhythmic CHR.

Atlanta - Q100... OK, not sure if this can be considered successful, but with their terrible signal, they're not doing too badly.

Seattle - KBKS was a Rhythmic AC. Not exactly sure when that flip took place, but I think it was 1996 or after.

Phoenix - KZZP recently shifted from Rhythmic to Pop and is a top 10 station.

St. Louis - Z107.7 is quite successful and not that old.

Pittsburgh - Kiss-FM is a player there now that the competition is gone.

Cleveland - Kiss-FM is doing well and is not that old.

Cincinnati - Kiss-FM was doing very well for a long time. They've slipped a little but are still respectable.

Sacramento - The End is doing well and not that old.

San Antonio - Mix is doing OK and not that old.

[EvanJ]

Philadelphia: WIOQ has gone way down and I don't know if you can call them successful anymore.

Washington, D.C. WIHT is doing okay but not great. They're way behind CHR-Rhythmic WPGC.

Detroit: Neither WDRQ nor WKQI has great ratings but CHR-Pop is popular in Detroit when you combine them.

Atlanta: WWWQ has been going way down. The same goes for KKOB Albuquerque, a station which changed from Hot AC to CHR-Pop that you didn't mention.

Seattle-Tacoma: KBKS is successful. They're tied for fourth.

Phoenix: KZZP is successful (tied for eighth) but the ratings still call them CHR-Rhythmic.

St. Louis: KSLZ is successful. They're seventh and are ahead of all the Hot AC, CHR-Rhythmic, and Urban stations in the market.

Pittsburgh: WKST is successful in seventh place.

Cleveland/Akron: WAKS is eighth in Cleveland and tied for fifth in Akron.

Cincinnati: WKFS is eighth but has gone down 2.2 shares in eight months.

Sacramento: KDND is sixth in a state where CHR-Pop isn't popular.

San Antonio: KXXM is ninth. KELZ, which changed from dance to CHR-Pop after Infinity changed their CHR-Pop station to Rock, is fourteenth.

Also, KHOP Modesto-Stockton did well in the ratings the last time they were released in those markets according to a poster on radio-info, but the markets are embargoed. The next release date for those markets is coming soon and hopefully the data will be released. WHBQ Memphis has a rating in the 2s.

[Slinky]

I only mentioned markets in the top 30 because Marv specifically said "major or large market".

I guess "successful" can be defined in a lot of different ways, but the point was there is definitely more than one "successful" CHR that has been launched since 1996.

About some of the classifications:  Even if the ratings call WPGC Rhythmic, they are a straight up Urban station.  There's very little difference between them and WKYS.  In fact, WPGC could be considered MORE of an Urban station than WKYS, since WPGC has a slow jams show.  If you still had your old signature, you could add that "WPGC and WKYS ARE the same format". ;)

KZZP might still be classified by the ratings as Rhythmic, but I'm sure that will change soon now that they're back on the Pop panel.

[Libra]

Slinky said:

Detroit - I believe WKQI was Hot AC before flipping to CHR.

That is correct. They flipped to Pop in 2001.

WDRQ has been Pop since April 1999.

[Slinky]

Oh, this whole discussion brings up another good point.  When is KQCH getting moved over to the Pop panel?

They must be lonely being the only R&R Rhythmic reporter with Gavin Degraw and The Killers in rotation. :(

[Marv]

Thanks for correcting me about the number of successful CHR/Pop stations which came along after KHTS.

But being 'successful' is in the eyes of the beholder; that former CHR/Pop powerhouse in San Antonio (KTFM) which was destroyed by a CHR/Rhythmic newcomer a few years ago, used to have hefty ratings as well, and most of the stations previously mentioned don't have the 8.0 or thereabouts which WNCI has had for ages, or that KTFM used to have.

I also realize that even with it's 4.0 rating, KIIS-FM is in L A's top five, even if Ryan Seacrest is struggling in EIGHTH place in morning drive.

My reasoning is simply that with the exception of WNCI and that CC station in Cincinnati, I don't know of any CHR/Pop outlets with ratings similar to the 10.0 & higher numbers that stations such as WNCI, KIIS, WZPL & numerous others used to have in the eighties, when the format played a MUCH wider variety of music than it does today.

WNCI has been around 8.0 for awhile, which is MUCH better than KIIS-FM's 4.0.

Since the overwhelming majority of CCs CHR/Pop stations play 70+% rhythmic product anyway, is there anybody out here who feels that the lousy results which KIIS-FM encountered after loading up on rhythmic material in the late eighties to reclaim their teen audience from POWER 106 were bound to happen in most of the markets which copied KIIS-FM's reaction, or overreaction, as some have called it?

[Marv]

Follow-up question; does ANYBODY out there see the day when CHR/Pop will return to its roots as a mass-appeal format, as opposed to being overloaded with rhythmic material?

The format has become substantially mass-appeal over the past half-decade or so, and I was wondering what most of you think?

Thanks.