Indianapolis Loses Popular CHR-Pop WNOU

[EvanJ]

WNOU 93.1 is currently fifth in Indianapolis in the Arbitrend and second 18-34 and fourth 18-49 for the Spring 2007 season. 93.1 is now all-Christmas for 93 days until January 7, when WNOU will become News/Talk WIBC-FM and WIBC-AM will change to Sports.

[musicfanpete]

evanj said:

WNOU 93.1 is currently fifth in Indianapolis in the Arbitrend and second 18-34 and fourth 18-49 for the Spring 2007 season. 93.1 is now all-Christmas for 93 days until January 7, when WNOU will become News/Talk WIBC-FM and WIBC-AM will change to Sports.

Well whatever the PD over there is smoking, I'd like some!

[atlantaboy]

evanj said:

WNOU 93.1 is currently fifth in Indianapolis in the Arbitrend and second 18-34 and fourth 18-49 for the Spring 2007 season. 93.1 is now all-Christmas for 93 days until January 7, when WNOU will become News/Talk WIBC-FM and WIBC-AM will change to Sports.

Wow looks like WZPL finally won the 7 year battle!!! I'm thinkin maybe havin high ratings among teens isn't good enough to bring in lots of advertising revenue - can't say I'm unhappy to hear this WNOU was one of those CHR pseudo-rhythmic stations messin up the pop chart, and I think it was the first station (in this decade) to start the 100 plays a week trend

btw, the title to this thread should be "Indianapolis loses popular CHR rhythmic station"

I'm assumin ZPL will go back to bein classified as CHR pop pretty soon (I think it's already playin Kanye West 30+x a week and is still classified as Hot AC)

[Hot AC Archiver]

While I think ZPL will lean even more CHR than current, don't look for it to be moved to the CHR panel. Back when they were already on the CHR panel and leaned HAC, there was an outcry on the R&R boards to have them moved to HAC because they wouldn't play many current rap songs. Granted I'm talking about message boards, but the sentiment probably is similar among the decision makers who decide which panel it reports.

[atlantaboy]

at40fantoo said:

While I think ZPL will lean even more CHR than current, don't look for it to be moved to the CHR panel. Back when they were already on the CHR panel and leaned HAC, there was an outcry on the R&R boards to have them moved to HAC because they wouldn't play many current rap songs. Granted I'm talking about message boards, but the sentiment probably is similar among the decision makers who decide which panel it reports.

Only thing is...they are playin rap!!...Kanye West "Stronger" - but since whoever's makin the decisions won't put WKRQ/Cincinnati on the CHR panel, I guess they won't put WZPL on the CHR panel either...someone is tryin really hard to make the CHR chart as rhythmic as possible by refusing to reclassify stations like these to CHR - I guess it all comes back to havin rappers able to brag on how many CHR #1 hits they have

I still don't get how about 10 Clear Channel stations (now one less cause WNOU is gone!!) refuse to play rock, but they stay on the CHR panel - while if a station refuses to play rap they get kicked off the CHR panel

[EvanJ]

WNOU isn't owned by Clear Channel.

[musicfanpete]

atlantaboy said:

evanj said:

WNOU 93.1 is currently fifth in Indianapolis in the Arbitrend and second 18-34 and fourth 18-49 for the Spring 2007 season. 93.1 is now all-Christmas for 93 days until January 7, when WNOU will become News/Talk WIBC-FM and WIBC-AM will change to Sports.

Wow looks like WZPL finally won the 7 year battle!!! I'm thinkin maybe havin high ratings among teens isn't good enough to bring in lots of advertising revenue - can't say I'm unhappy to hear this WNOU was one of those CHR pseudo-rhythmic stations messin up the pop chart, and I think it was the first station (in this decade) to start the 100 plays a week trend

btw, the title to this thread should be "Indianapolis loses popular CHR rhythmic station"

I'm assumin ZPL will go back to bein classified as CHR pop pretty soon (I think it's already playin Kanye West 30+x a week and is still classified as Hot AC)

I was just about to say that WZPL might at least be considered for the CHR panel. But like you said, it may be a long time before that happens, if it does at all.

[musicfanpete]

atlantaboy said:

at40fantoo said:

While I think ZPL will lean even more CHR than current, don't look for it to be moved to the CHR panel. Back when they were already on the CHR panel and leaned HAC, there was an outcry on the R&R boards to have them moved to HAC because they wouldn't play many current rap songs. Granted I'm talking about message boards, but the sentiment probably is similar among the decision makers who decide which panel it reports.

Only thing is...they are playin rap!!...Kanye West "Stronger" - but since whoever's makin the decisions won't put WKRQ/Cincinnati on the CHR panel, I guess they won't put WZPL on the CHR panel either...someone is tryin really hard to make the CHR chart as rhythmic as possible by refusing to reclassify stations like these to CHR - I guess it all comes back to havin rappers able to brag on how many CHR #1 hits they have

I still don't get how about 10 Clear Channel stations (now one less cause WNOU is gone!!) refuse to play rock, but they stay on the CHR panel - while if a station refuses to play rap they get kicked off the CHR panel

Agreed! ANY station playing "Stronger", or anything by Kanye West for that matter has no business being classified as a Hot AC.

I also agree about this wave of so called CHR's becoming even more rhythmic than ever before. If this trend continues, there will be no real need for a CHR/Rhythmic panel anymore. The trades may as well abolish that panel right now since there is no real use for it right now. Just have these "pseudo" CHR's either report to the CHR or Urban panels right now.

[dth1971]

Did WNOU carry on weekends Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 or AT40 with Ryan Seacrest?

[atlantaboy]

musicfanpete said:

atlantaboy said:

Only thing is...they are playin rap!!...Kanye West "Stronger" - but since whoever's makin the decisions won't put WKRQ/Cincinnati on the CHR panel, I guess they won't put WZPL on the CHR panel either...someone is tryin really hard to make the CHR chart as rhythmic as possible by refusing to reclassify stations like these to CHR - I guess it all comes back to havin rappers able to brag on how many CHR #1 hits they have

I still don't get how about 10 Clear Channel stations (now one less cause WNOU is gone!!) refuse to play rock, but they stay on the CHR panel - while if a station refuses to play rap they get kicked off the CHR panel

Agreed! ANY station playing "Stronger", or anything by Kanye West for that matter has no business being classified as a Hot AC.

Yeah...I looked up ZPL's playlist on yes.com and in their Top 100 they have "Stronger" (really high up), "Gold Digger" "Ride Wit Me" by Nelly, and even "Ms. Jackson" by Outkast - what more do they have to do to be classified as CHR? They already play much more rap than WSTR/Atlanta, WPST/Trenton-Philadelphia, WSTW/Wilmington, WZYP/Huntsville, WMGB/Macon, and many other current CHRs

[EvanJ]

All Access reports that Radio Now is back after its intellectual property was sold to Radio One and Radio Now is back on 100.9 which was Smooth Jazz WYJZ.

[Hot AC Archiver]

dth1971 said:

Did WNOU carry on weekends Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 or AT40 with Ryan Seacrest?

They carried AT40 with Ryan

[atlantaboy]

evanj said:

All Access reports that Radio Now is back after its intellectual property was sold to Radio One and Radio Now is back on 100.9 which was Smooth Jazz WYJZ.

NO!!!!!!

[Marv]

WZPL and WNCI were arguably the top two CHR/Pop stations in the Midwest throughout the eighties, and both stations almost always had 10.0+ shares.

I still don't know to this day why WZPL flipped (or evolved) to Hot AC, although I'd guess that the launch of 'Hoosier 96' (WHHH) had something to do with it, although somewhat similar episodes have taken place in cities such as Cincinnati, San Antonio, Harrisburg & numerous other markets.

Indy has a very nice ethnic mix that should support a station such as WNOU, as does WNCI, even after local rhythmic station Power 107.5 (WCKX?) was #1 in the spring book.

Indy lost their Oldies station a couple of years ago, and they had a 'JACK-FM'-type station when I visited there in mid-July, which I assume is still in existence.

Throw in the nation's #1 country station in our twenty largest cities (WFMS) and those morning sickos known as Bob & Tom on legendary Classic Rocker WFBQ (they routinely creamed, Howard Stern & Mancow Muller in TONS of markets before Stern went to Sirius Radio) and Indy would appear to be an exhilirating radio market, but WNOU should still be rolling along quite nicely.

What a perplexing market.

[Pipa]

atlantaboy said:

WNOU was one of those CHR pseudo-rhythmic stations messin up the pop chart, and I think it was the first station (in this decade) to start the 100 plays a week trend

Damn them! I could've sworn that at one point they played "Lips of an Angel" 150 times a week. Insane.

[EvanJ]

marv said:

Throw in the nation's #1 country station in our twenty largest cities (WFMS)

WFMS is popular, but Indianapolis is Market 40.
WNOU on 93.1 is still on the Mediabase Mainstream Top 40 panel.

[Slinky]

Since Radio One also owns Urban WHHH, I'd guess the new Radio Now will not lean as rhythmic.

[Marv]

EvanJ---I was referring to Indy's rank as it relates to population and not market rank; Indy is the 11th largest city in the country and should pass Detroit relatively soon to become #10.

[Cory | Alan]

Living in Indy, it sucks that we are losing this station, but I heard this AM that WNOU and its format may be moving to 100.9 on the dial.

I remember the glory days of "Indy's Apple, WZPL."

[atlantaboy]

marv said:

I still don't know to this day why WZPL flipped (or evolved) to Hot AC, although I'd guess that the launch of 'Hoosier 96' (WHHH) had something to do with it

Someone in this thread said that WZPL was simply reclassified as Hot AC b/c of pressure from members of the r&r online website panels b/c in the late 90s it didn't play rap - I'm almost positive it was reclassified as Hot AC within a year after WNOU joined the CHR panel (around 2000 I think)

The "Hoosier 96" thing happened way back in the early 90s and I think ZPL responded back then by leaning more rhythmic, but then it went back to leaning Hot AC by the later 90s - but it was still classified as CHR until 2000...

I'm almost positive it was reclassified as Hot AC the very same week that WKRQ/Cincinnati was reclassified as Hot AC (from CHR) prob. for the same reason

Ironically, both now acc. to a lot of people need to be reclassified back to CHR, where both of them started (WKRQ since the early 80s)

[Marv]

I don't know if 'online pressure from the R&R website' is a valid reason for a station to be re-classified format-wise.

The fact that WZPL (apparently) was a CHR/Pop station which played zero rap music is a matter that I have no way of confirming, nor do I know why (or how) they evolved into a Hot AC station in the first place.

But given the fact that WZPL was one of the top three CHR/Pop stations in the Midwest for most, if not all of the eighties (alongside WNCI & KDWB/Minneapolis), I can only guess that 'Hoosier 96' did to them what KPWR did to KIIS and KBBT did to onetime CHR/Pop powerhouse KTFM/San Antonio, so they decided to become a Hot AC station rather than slug it out while remaining a top 40 station.

[Hot AC Archiver]

marv said:

I don't know if 'online pressure from the R&R website' is a valid reason for a station to be re-classified format-wise.

The fact that WZPL (apparently) was a CHR/Pop station which played zero rap music is a matter that I have no way of confirming, nor do I know why (or how) they evolved into a Hot AC station in the first place.

But given the fact that WZPL was one of the top three CHR/Pop stations in the Midwest for most, if not all of the eighties (alongside WNCI & KDWB/Minneapolis), I can only guess that 'Hoosier 96' did to them what KPWR did to KIIS and KBBT did to onetime CHR/Pop powerhouse KTFM/San Antonio, so they decided to become a Hot AC station rather than slug it out while remaining a top 40 station.

In case my statements above were misunderstood, I meant that perhaps those in charge of radio classifications felt similar to those on the R&R boards. I doubt that those people even read the R&R boards.

And I agree with Marv that it was Hoosier '96 that hurt ZPL and forced them to go HAC.

[atlantaboy]

at40fantoo said:

marv said:

I don't know if 'online pressure from the R&R website' is a valid reason for a station to be re-classified format-wise.

The fact that WZPL (apparently) was a CHR/Pop station which played zero rap music is a matter that I have no way of confirming, nor do I know why (or how) they evolved into a Hot AC station in the first place.

But given the fact that WZPL was one of the top three CHR/Pop stations in the Midwest for most, if not all of the eighties (alongside WNCI & KDWB/Minneapolis), I can only guess that 'Hoosier 96' did to them what KPWR did to KIIS and KBBT did to onetime CHR/Pop powerhouse KTFM/San Antonio, so they decided to become a Hot AC station rather than slug it out while remaining a top 40 station.

In case my statements above were misunderstood, I meant that perhaps those in charge of radio classifications felt similar to those on the R&R boards. I doubt that those people even read the R&R boards.

And I agree with Marv that it was Hoosier '96 that hurt ZPL and forced them to go HAC.

Not sure if you guys are talkin about the 90s or 00s...in the later 90s Hoosier '96 prob. forced ZPL to be a CHR that didn't play rap (lean Hot AC) but it was still classfied as CHR

WZPL wasn't actually reclassified as Hot AC until the 00s - it didn't change its music all that much - it's just that WNOU came out and became the new "CHR" in town so ZPL either was pressured into or decided to relabel themselves as Hot AC

Oh...also think WKRQ/Cincinnati should get credit for being a "Midwest powerhouse" CHR station throughout the 80s along with the others - Q102 dates back to at least 1982 (if not earlier) and it always had really high ratings

[Marv]

Yes, I did overlook Cincy's Q102 as a Midwest CHR/Pop powerhouse alongisde the three stations I mentioned, as well as the onetime heritage CHR/Pop station in St. Louis which was torpedoed by Z107.7 (KSLZ?) when it came along sometime in the mid-to-late nineties.

It did appear that in markets such as Jacksonville, Indy, Tampa, Cincinnati & San Antonio, a new CHR/Rhythmic or CC-cloned 'KISS' station either forced the longtime market CHR/Pop powerhouse to become a Hot AC station or merely left it in the dust ratings-wise.

[atlantaboy]

marv said:

It did appear that in markets such as Jacksonville, Indy, Tampa, Cincinnati & San Antonio, a new CHR/Rhythmic or CC-cloned 'KISS' station either forced the longtime market CHR/Pop powerhouse to become a Hot AC station or merely left it in the dust ratings-wise.

Just wanna give credit to WAPE/Jacksonville b/c it's still beatin the Clear Channel Kiss station in that market and it's still just as mainstream CHR as it was before the CC Kiss station came along

Also wanna give credit to the "Mix" San Antonio station (KXXM?) b/c it blew away the Clear Channel competition, stayed a mainstream CHR (that even leaned Alternative I think) and now it's the only CHR/Pop left in that market

And Q102 Cincinnati (whatever format it is) is just points below the CC Kiss station...ZPL has taken a "hit" from NOU but it's still doin pretty well

The only market though that u mentioned where a rhythmic-leaning CHR has completely done away with a mainstream CHR though is Tampa (that station I think was called Q105 and it was forced out of the market by WFLZ in the 90s)

[tico]

atlantaboy said:

marv said:

Also wanna give credit to the "Mix" San Antonio station (KXXM?) b/c it blew away the Clear Channel competition, stayed a mainstream CHR (that even leaned Alternative I think) and now it's the only CHR/Pop left in that market

KXXM is a Clear Channel. The station they outlasted, KELZ, was a Cox station.

[circlecircledotdot]

marv said:

Yes, I did overlook Cincy's Q102 as a Midwest CHR/Pop powerhouse alongisde the three stations I mentioned, as well as the onetime heritage CHR/Pop station in St. Louis which was torpedoed by Z107.7 (KSLZ?) when it came along sometime in the mid-to-late nineties.

Couple quickies:

1) KSLZ, for those who might be interested, celebrates ten years on the air next week, as it signed on 10/20/1997.

2) St. Louis never really had a Top 40 station that was around long enough that you could really call it "heritage," unless you're going to go back to the early to mid 80s when 103.3 was (if memory serves correctly) KHTR.

3) KSLZ did not "torpedo" the station that you are referring to as the "heritage" Top 40 station, WKBQ. That station was flipped in February of 1997 (to "Extreme Radio," I think, but I was 13 then and didn't really pay attention to formats) and Majic 108 gave way to Z107-7 in October of that year when Clear Channel (was it CC at that point or was it still an AM/FM cluster?) bought the 104.9 frequency licensed to Columbia, Illinois and moved Majic 108 to that frequency as Majic 105.


Just a few minor points to the discussion.... carry on! :)

[atlantaboy]

tico said:

atlantaboy said:

marv said:

Also wanna give credit to the "Mix" San Antonio station (KXXM?) b/c it blew away the Clear Channel competition, stayed a mainstream CHR (that even leaned Alternative I think) and now it's the only CHR/Pop left in that market

KXXM is a Clear Channel. The station they outlasted, KELZ, was a Cox station.

Oh sorry then that's the opposite of the pattern Marv was talkin bout that happened in a lot of Midwest markets...a Clear Channel CHR that almost leans Alternative outlasted a more rhythmic-leaning CHR that was owned by a different company - this is the first time I've actually liked Clear Channel