The Ten Best Markets For Radio Listeners: # 7 - Washington, D.C.
Written Nov. 15, 2007 by Sean Ross in Content + Ten Best Markets with 5 Comments
Washington, D.C., has always been an undeniably great market for Urban radio and it remains that today: a great R&B hits battle between WPGC and WKYS, a great Urban AC war between WHUR (which retains some of its '70s progressive feel to this day) and WMMJ (Majic 102.3), a long-running Talk outlet, (WOL) and the recent addition of Gospel on FM (WPRS-FM). And in mornings alone, the choices--local and syndicated--are Donnie Simpson, Steve Harvey, Russ Parr, and Tom Joyner.
There's also name talent throughout the market: DC101's Elliot, WRQX (Mix 107.3)'s Jack Diamond, WIHT (Hot 99.5)'s Kane, WJFK's Don & Mike, WMAL'S Chris Core and now Fred Grandy, WMZQ's Brian Egan and Jeffro (aka Jeffrey T. Mason), WTGB's Cerphe and Weasel, WTWP's Tony Kornheiser, and WAMU's Diane Rehm are just a few.
Other things to appreciate about D.C. radio:
* Bonneville's WTOP -- long one of the best all-news operations in the country and one of the poster children for the format's move to FM, and its "only in D.C." sister, WFED, an AM station for Federal employees;
* Clear Channel WIHT (Hot 99.5), which has shown that Mainstream Top 40 can still work in the market;
* Citadel's WJZW, one of the best executed of the Urban AC-leaning Smooth Jazz stations;
* CBS' WLZL (El Zol), a pop-leaning Tropical outlet that made Spanish-language radio a force in the market;
* Clear Channel Heritage Country WMZQ sounds pretty good right now. But if you disagree, there's WFRE Frederick, Md., and WFLS Fredericksburg, Va.--two nearby stations that have long sounded better than their market size. (We promised to limit ourselves to from-the-market radio here, which is why the availability of most Baltimore stations didn't factor in here, but both WFRE and WFLS do show in the D.C. book.);
* CBS' unusual "green-friendly" Triple A, WTGB (The Globe), launched this year.
* Alternative DC101, which never drifted in to quasi-metal in the early '00s, and as such became one of the templates for the "Rock Hits" approach that is starting to take hold throughout Clear CHannel today.
What's missing: Oldies is the most glaring one. There are probably some people who still mourn Classical WGMS even with the successful emergence of the format on WETA. And while bluegrass isn't something most markets can count on having, it's a significant part of D.C. culture and it's recently been moved from WAMU to its HD-2 channel. One market observer also bemoans the lack of much truly local talk, contending that WBAL Baltimore often covers more D.C. issues than the locals.
And the countdown so far...
10 - Louisville
9 - Salt Lake City
8 - Austin
7 - Washington
Reader Comments
Your 2¢, in chronological order — add your comment below.
As a former resident of Washington, D.C., that personally witnessed the change of Q107 to Mix and the demise of 105WAVA under Emmis, I have to applaud Hot 99-5 for "getting it right" -- finally -- and for making CHR work after Dan Vallie's attempts with Z104 didn't exactly click with DC as best as possible.
But I have many complaints about D.C. radio. Perhaps the biggest is a lack of variety for non-ethnic audiences. Yes, Oldies is gone. But where is Classic Rock? This was a market that once boasted 105.9 WCXR, DC101 and B106 (later WJFK as a Classic Rocker before shifting to Talk) before W-Lite took the market by storm by becoming Arrow 94-7. Plus, we could get 100GRX from Baltimore and 98 Rock from Baltimore.
Today, we are left with "The Globe" -- a feeble attempt to excite D.C. radio listeners who enjoyed WHFS in the mid-1980s by ignoring all non-ethnic males under 30 in a market where WHFS did very well despite a signal that was nearly impossible to receive in affluent, white Northwest D.C.
DC101 is a mish-mash that does well because all of the other sources of recurrent rock, Modern Rock and reactive rock disappeared.
And, with all due respect, Jack Diamond's act has faded over the years. The Mix brand is tired too and the station has not grown since the demise of Z104 and the caretaker "George FM" presentation that had been at 104.1 before its sale to Radio One.
The market could use a shake-up, and bringing back Q107 as an '80s based rockin' hits station with some Classic Rock thrown in for good measure is just what this market needs.
Of course, Hot AC would work if the Hot AC format itself would only gel a bit better.
Lastly, kudos to the suburban stations. B101.5 in Fredericksburg was a station my office in L'Enfant Plaza chose to listen to, and 92-5 WINC-FM is enjoyed by many in Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland. Both are excellent Hot AC stations with older-demo appeal.
And then there is 103-1 WRNR Annapolis. If only they had streaming -- and a signal that reached Georgetown.
The funny thing is that if you read dcrtv.com or one of the DC blogs like DCist or Marc Fisher's WaPo radio blogs, you'd think DC is one of the *worst* radio markets in the country, especially in the fuss over AMU shunting off bluegrass to HD. Is it just that the limited-audience music fans just don't read industry blogs like this one?
And could this be said about *any* of your Top 10 markets?
Although WGMS has improved tremendously since WETA has gone classical, I find that the DC market has gone down hill steadily since the 1980s. Talk radio is made up of people either complaining all the time or simply shouting at each other for hours on end. WTWP (now WWWT) was a breath of fresh air but the station owners pulled the plug on it about 2 months ago. I find much more interesting radio in other parts of the country and world in Internet radio.
Ugh, the radio dial in Washington is so incredibly boring. Like the guy who runs dcrtv.com, I enjoy a wide variety of non-commercial stations, college stations, and offbeat rock stations. Washington has very little choice in those areas. The non-comm part of the dial in D.C. is exceptionally awful. There are no real AAA stations (if "The Globe" is real AAA then I'll eat my hat -- real AAA is WXPN or WTMD or Vermont's WNCS). There is nothing even remotely like New Jersey's WFMU or NYC's WNYU, or quirky college stations like Princeton's WPRB. Heck, there aren't any student-run stations at all, except for the 10-watt U. of MD station which is being shamelessly squashed by Baltimore's WYPR which is uselessly duplicating most of the same-old same-old NPR programming already found on WAMU. You can't hear enough jazz (or music in general) on the local Pacifica station; the old jazz station WDCU was destroyed so Washington could get the incredibly dull C-SPAN radio. And now WAMU has removed all bluegrass from its main, non-HD channel. Bluegrass was one of the few things that made WAMU distinctive and unusual. Now it's just another run-of-the-mill NPR news/talker, except that it's home of the radio personality whose voice box sounds like it was attacked by giant sandpaper monsters, Diane Rehm. What's the deal with her? Why does she sound like she's about 112 years old?
Jack Diamond'ss chosen format of laugh-at-every-word the host says, kiss every b-list interviewee's rear-end, and feature as many bobbleheaded sidekicks to agree agree agree. "You're right, hahaha" "WOW, Jack!" "Oh yes, absolutely! You are soooo right."
If Erika didn't laugh at EVERY joke or agree with EVERY word Jack uttered the show would be less predictable, but not by much.
The result is a morning show that's the cotton candy of radio, only less filling. ...If that's what you're into.