The Infinite Dial

It's time to start catching up with the holiday format changes.

Clear Channel's new "93.9 MIA," the former Smooth Jazz outlet WLVE (Love 94) Miami, hadn't been on the air for more than a few minutes when various friends and message board posters began referring to it as "WKTU South." If anything, though, it's more like its New York sister from five years ago -- definitely older and more AC-flavored than the current 'KTU, which ceded the '70s disco to sister WLTW a while ago.

Maybe the most surprising thing about the new 93.9 MIA is that some of the music it plays was, well, M.I.A. in Miami for so many years, since Clear Channel's first Jammin' Oldies station WMGE went away. Miami was (along with New York and Montreal) the city where disco was never a dirty word, even during the reactionary early '80s, and Jammin' Oldies probably could always have found a place there.

South Florida is one of those truly different markets with a lot of its own hits -- even in this era when few markets have local hits on a regular basis. Consider that the biggest hits on Rhythmic WPOW (Power 96) are Kid Cudi's "Day & Night" (getting some airplay elsewhere now) and Macallee King's "Frosty," which hasn't yet spread widely elsewhere. 93.9 MIA isn't yet the treasure trove of local records that WMGE was, but there are a number of freestyle titles (e.g., Coro's "Can't Let You Go") that you won't hear on Rhythmic AC everywhere.

Here's "93.9 - MIA" at 7:20 p.m. on its Christmas launch day:

Michael Jackson, "Rock With You"
Cyndi Lauper, "Girls Just Want To Have Fun"
Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown, "No Air"
Chic, "Le Freak"
Sean Paul, "Temperature"
Prince, "Kiss"
Four Seasons, "December 1963 (1994 Remix)"
Next, "Too Close"
Cover Girls, "Because Of You"
Thelma Houston, "Don't Leave Me This Way"
Puff Daddy, "I'll Be Missing You"
Bee Gees, "Tragedy"
Justin Timberlake, "Rock Your Body"
Everything But The GIrl, "Missing"
Eddy Grant, "Electric Avenue"
Ne-Yo, "Closer"
Amber, "This Is Your Night"
Donna Summer, "Heaven Knows"

Recently, the Lexington [Ky.] Herald-Leader reported that the market's two News/Talk stations were engaged in a promo war over the size of their news departments. Clear Channel's WLAP has one on-air newsperson. Cumulus rival WVLK continues to run promos claiming the largest local news team, "even after the early November layoffs of two of its three news reporters." Both stations cite their partnership with local TV stations as effectively extending the size of the news team; the paper contends that NPR affiliate WUKY is actually the largest radio news staff in the city. There's some cold comfort here in knowing that the size of the news department is something that a radio station still thinks would matter to a small-market listener; it's just something stations are less likely to be able to deliver.

And former WERV Chicago PD Matt DuBiel had this to say about how Chicago stations responded to a recent storm/traffic crisis.

We've previously noted that much of mainstream music radio failed to capitalize on (or even just reflect the interest level of their listeners in) the 2008 Presidential Election. By stark contrast, there's Inner City's heritage Urban AC WBLS New York which has ran promos in the days after the election saluting the President-Elect and identifying the station as "Where Barack Loves Soul." WBLS has also added a front-page-of-its-Website link to transition team news. And it has dubbed its upcoming station show, "The Yes We Can Holiday Jam."

If your favorite part of a Triple-A station is the daily 10 at 10, you may have already discoveredKINK Portland, Ore.'s 40th anniversary celebration of 40 years in 40 days, which started in mid-November. For those who don't, "KINK XL" is up to 1987 today as it works its way forward to the present. Here's the station, as monitored from CBS Radio's new AOL IM app, at 7:30 this morning:

INXS, "Never Tear Us Apart"
Santana, "Bella"
Pink Floyd, "One Slip"
Grateful Dead, "Touch of Grey"
U2, "With or Without You"
Robbie Robertson, "Somewhere Down The Crazy River"
George Michael, "Faith" (the one song that stumped the title/artist screen)
John Mellencamp, "Check It Out"
Chris Rea, "Let's Dance"
Fleetwood Mac, "Little Lies"
Lyle Lovett, "L.A. County"
Sting, "Be Still My Beating Heart"

Over the last year, Edison president Larry Rosin and I have been in a number of client meetings with stations that are facing a similar scenario. The station has made improvements over the last year that haven't yet registered with potential listeners. And there is no money for outside marketing. At this point, Larry will explain that when major advertisers want to compel consumers to try a product again, they do some sort of free sampling. So why not go commercial free for a week? At that point, the PD nervously looks over at the GSM, at least five seconds of silence ensues, and the GM announces, "Well, that's not going to happen."

So it's worth noting that Clear Channel's WUBL (94.9 the Bull) Atlanta launched into a week of what it's billing as "3,000 songs in a row: no commercials, no talk," as first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Rodney Ho. That's a familiar stunt for the launch of a new radio station. It's less so, as the above stories demonstrate, for an existing property.

WUBL just parted ways with its morning man, so it would be look at a commercial free week and wonder if it portends a transition to further jocklessness -- particularly in this environment. But Ho reports that the rest of the staff is "apparently still there." (And besides, as we've all seen recently, you can lay off your jocks without going commercial free.) Ho speculates that the intent is to attract attention to a station that has evolved since its launch and had disappointing preliminary PPMs -- which would make this free trial week something happening for the right reasons.

Okay, so the above is a headline that you could have used any time in the past 15 years. But this week's Ross On Radio suggested that Taylor Swift and other generational change in listener preferences might finally make a younger Country format possible. Readers had a lot to say. See the article and their comments here. And CMT's Chet Flippo contributes to the debate here.

If you've followed this page for a while, you know that every now and then I find a new station that goes deep on R&B Oldies. There's rarely more than one of them streaming at any given time and it's never long before somebody either comes in and cuts the library or changes the format. So I was glad to have the tip from the Radio Stream Directory people about KRJO (Old School 1680) Monroe, La., a recent convert from gospel (which, as of today, is still what's on the Website).

Here's Old School 1680 around 10:30 this morning. At least two of these songs were new to me and few show up at Urban AC with any frequency outside weekend specialty programming.

O'Jays, "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow"
Patti Labelle, "If Only You Knew"
Brook Benton, "Hotel Happiness"
Bo Kirkland & Ruth Davis, "Easy Loving"
James Carr, "Pouring Water On A Drowning Man"
Chairmen of the Board, "Pay To The Piper"
Whispers, "A Mother For My Children"
War, "Why Can't We Be Friends"
Masqueraders, "I Ain't Got To Love Nobody Else"
Stevie Wonder, "Signed Sealed Delivered (I'm Yours)"
Sam & Dave, "You Don't Know Like I Know"
Jackson 5, "ABC"
Earth Wind & Fire, "Reasons"
Bee Gees, "How Deep Is Your Love"
Sam Cooke, "Only Sixteen"
Debarge, "Love Me In A Special Way"
Temptations, "I Can't Get Next To You"
El Chicano, "Tell Her She's Lovely"
Major Harris, "Love Won't Let Me Wait"
Isaac Hayes, "Soulsville"
Exciters, "You Don't Know What You're Missing ('Til It's Gone)"
Gladys Knight & Pips, "The Nitty Gritty"
Dells, "Give Your Baby A Standing Ovation"

We wrote a few months back about WAKY Louisville, Ky., the suburban FM that picked up heritage call letters, offered a longer-than-usual Oldies playlist and managed to outlast Cox's long-running WRKA. WAKY is finally streaming here. Meanwhile, check out John Quincy's tribute to the original WAKY here.

If you've been following any of our coverage of the way that R&B radio treated the election vs. other music formats, it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that most of the musical acknowledgements of President-Elect Obama when the election was called at 11 p.m. ET on Tuesday night took place on Urban AC radio. A spot check of Mediabase station monitors for 11 p.m. shows that roughly 50-60% of Urban AC played some song that would have had post-election resonance, compared to only a handful of Urbans and only one other station in any other format.

For most Urban ACs, including those carrying ABC's syndicated Michael Baisden, the song of choice was Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," which was the #4 played Oldie at Urban AC this week. Others included McFadden & Whitehead's "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" (actually the most played gold title overall at Urban AC, based on play during the week), Marvin Gaye's version of "The Star Spangled Banner," Maze's "We Are One" Ray Charles' "America the Beautiful," the Five Stairsteps' "O-o-h Child," Marvin Sapp's "Never Would Have Made It," the Impressions' "People Get Ready," and Incognito's "Change."

Had they been eligible to make the charts again, "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" would have been in the top 30 at Urban AC and "A Change Is Gonna Come" would have been in the top 40.

A few Urban ACs such as WHUR Washington, D.C., and WKJS Richmond, Va., did longer election themed sets at 11 p.m. WHUR followed Cooke with Maze's "Happy Feelings," the Voices of East Harlem's "Giving Love," Earth Wind & Fire's "All About Love," the Emotions' "On and On," Quincy Jones & Tevin Campbell's "Tomorrow (A Better You, A Better Me)," finally ending several songs later with Donny Hathaway's "Young, Gifted and Black."

Only a handful of Urban stations seem to have broken format to acknowledge the election, with WPWX (Power 92) Chicago and WPGC Washington, D.C., among those who played Jim Jones' "Pop Champagne" at 11 p.m. WQHT (Hot 97) New York played Young Jeezy's "My President."

By contrast, none of our spot checks of Oldies/Classic Hits, Triple-A or Top 40 turned up any obvious acknowledgement of the announcement. Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)," a campaign staple, was up slightly in spins this week at Classic Hits, but we didn't find anybody who played it at 11 p.m. The sole apparent acknowledgement of the election news we came across at a general-market station was Classic Hits WMXJ Miami, which played the Ray Charles song shortly after 11 p.m.

It's been almost a week since newly minted AC WNUW (Now 97.5) Philadelphia pushed the holiday music button. In some cases, that would be enough to push an incumbent AC to go Christmas as well, making November a loss-leader in hopes of shutting the other guys down. So it's interesting to see WBEB (B101) Philadelphia doing what a lot of other ACs wish they could do in that situation: make a positive out of not going Christmas yet. As recently mentioned, B101's holiday music poll is asking listeners to vote not just on songs but when they want Christmas music to start: right away, Nov. 15, Thanksgiving or Dec. 1. (Dec. 18, the day I usually feel like hearing holiday music, is somehow not an option.) If any station has the holiday image and the authority to pull off "we're waiting on holiday music because you told us to," it's B101. But letting somebody be first in with holiday music is still a scary proposition for many PDs.

In February, when the Presidential election had already made itself a surprise part of pop culture, we did a Super Tuesday dial scan of New York area morning shows to see how they were acknowledging the election. The answer was that they weren't acknowledging primary day very much. As has been custom, there was more exhortations to vote on Urban radio, but little topicality otherwise, beyond the usual "polling places are now open" mentions in a newcast.

But that was before today's voting was dubbed the election of a lifetime. Before this election returned "Saturday Night Live" to the center of pop culture itself. Before the long lines for early voting and long lines again today. So today, we decided to see what kind of presence the election had by streaming a cross-section of radio from across the state of Pennsylvania, the focus of so much attention in the last few days of campaigning. I put special emphasis on those parts of Pennsylvania that resemble the Midwest as much as the Northeast, figuring they'd offer a different picture than the Philadelphia radio I can hear from our Somerville ofrfices.

The day's listening still hewed to the pattern we heard on Super Tuesday. The Urban station we monitored made a big deal of the election. So did the NPR affiliate. The younger-leaning Active Rock station used the election as the springboard for a very good on-air bit. Overall, however, you were more likely to hear about the election during a stopset or a newscast than in the on-air break that preceded it. Here's what a day's worth of listening in 30-to-50 minute increments turned up:

The first station I tuned in was longtime Oldies/Classic Hits outlet WWSW (3WS) Pittsburgh. Two rotating panels on 3WS' Website led to a central Clear Channel election news page. On the air, though, there was no mention of the election. To be fair, there wasn't much jock talk at all, but there was a mention of a Penguins trade and the station's dining deals feature.

I decided to head for small-town Central Pennsylvania and check out Adult Top 40 WQKX (94KX) Sunbury. No mention of the election on the Website here. And for the first half-hour of my visit, the only mention of the election was two ads for local races. Then a local newscast came on at 11 a.m., (impressive in itself), and the first story was broken machines in Northumberland County that were throwing out any vote for a straight party ticket. The second was on a rise in gun sales, which a local dealer attributed to a rise in pre-election anxiety.

The next stop was Urban WAMO-FM Pittsburgh. On WAMO's homepage, one of the rotating lead items encouraged listeners to "roll to the polls." Clicking through got you advice on voting, such as, "if polling machines are broken, it is okay to complete an emergency ballot. Your vote will be counted" and "nothing supporting the candidates should be worn at the polls." Another link took you to Google Maps to find your voting location.

There was a passing mention of election day during the music sweep. But when WAMO did break for spots, the midday host was joined by a representative from the League of Young Voters and an attorney the ACLU Election Protection office. There was another mention of broken machines (no specific location this time) and the oft-heard reminder on Urban stations that "people have died throughout history" for a right to vote that isn't fully appreciated today. The difference this year was the coda: "so it's great to see all the excitement this year."

From there, we went to Top 40 WRTS (Star 104) Erie. Star also devoted two rotating panels to the election: one offered a number to call to find your polling place, the other led to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's voter website. The Commonwealth was also running a get-out-the-vote PSA on WRTS in which half the audio kept disappearing to dramatize what 50% voter turnout would sound like. That was followed by an ad promoting the election news coverage of the local Fox affiliate. The one jock nod to the day was to acknowledge "your Election Day edition of the All-Request Lunchbox."

No mention of the election on the Website at Country WFGI (Froggy 95) Johnstown, Pa., (although there were plenty of other civic events: a school visit program and an upcoming Veterans Day). None from the jock either; (I gave the station an hour since I missed at least two potential breaks--one because of buffering). I did hear the state PSA again, though.

Next to the state house and Classic Rock WTPA Harrisburg, Pa. No mention of the election on the homepage or on-air. Most of the on-air real estate went to the station's "Tanks-Giving Song of the Day." One possible clue to the lack of Election Day content: When the Song of the Day finally played, the on-air jock wasn't the person who announced the winner.

Big contrast at Citadel's Active Rock WBSX (979X) Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Pa., which was using Election Day to encourge listeners to "Vote the Rock," a variant on the March Madness or Battle of the Bands contest, pitting off Godsmack vs. the Foo Fighters, then Nirvana vs. Slipknot in the hours I listened. The mood here was, of course, decidedly light (one promo promised "no debates, no ads, no polls..."), but it was at least the level of topicality you might have expected. And the jock eventually did mention the real election, reminding the listeners of the free stuff that merchants were offering voters that day. There was also an election news link on WBSX's website.

After a day of staying away from Philadelphia I swung by WBEB (B101) Philadelphia, which, as I wrote this, was playing John Mayer's "Waiting for the World to Change." B101's midday host did mention Election Day, urging listeners "after you've voted today, vote again" in the station's on-line Christmas music poll. (Listeners could also vote on when they wanted to hear Christmas music.) "The polls are open anytime," listeners were told, "your vote counts." (There was no mention of the election itself on B101's homepage.)

I ended the day's listening at non-commercial WXPN Philadelphia, which was in the syndicated "World Cafe" where host David Dye has devoted the last half-hour to songs with political connections, from Bill Clinton's use of Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" to Frank Sinatra's "High Hopes" (JFK's campaign song) to Jesse Winchester rewriting "Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt" to mention Pierre Trudeau. WXPN's Website has a "Decision Day" link to NPR News and its photo of the day is a wire-service picture of a voter casting an absentee ballot under a giant American flag.

Again, we weren't expecting gravity here, or for p.m. drivers to become pundits. And the story obviously would have been a little different had we focused on All-News or Talk radio. But there was surprisingly little topicality, even in the heartland sections of the state that were courted so vigorously last weekend. To toggle back from a music radio site to a news site was to feel like you were rejoining the day's major story, not merely experiencing it on a different platform.

Nearly five years ago, KDAY Los Angeles got a lot of attention, but never managed to get long-term traction, with a gold-based Hip-Hop format (and the call letters of a revered Hip-Hop-driven AM station of the 1980). KDAY went more current, while Classic Hip-Hop became the province of HD-2 channels and satellite networks, but the generation that grew up with '90s Hip-Hop has long believed in its potential; this week, Classic Hip Hop picks up another terrestrial champion in Phoenix-area KNRJ (the Beat), until recently a dance station.

The new Beat's music spans the late '80s to the mid-'00s. (Those latter songs remind you that, while Cam'ron's "Oh Boy" or Missy Elliott's "Gossip Folks" aren't all that long ago, they've still been gone from the radio for a while.) At a time of format change conservatism, it's a gutsy move. Besides the failure of the format to take root in the past, there's a lot of Rhythmic radio already. Phoenix has two Hip-Hop stations (KKFR and KZON), adult Rhythmic KMVA and KNRJ's "old school" sister station KAJM (Mega 104.3).

One of KDAY's issues is likely to still be an issue for KNRJ. As with pre-Nirvana Alternative music, there just aren't that many songs from the era before Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" that really took hold with a lot of listeners. In Los Angeles, a lot of the original KDAY classics existed only on a 1-2 share AM. In Phoenix, some of them weren't on commercial radio to begin with -- unless they crossed to one of the market's three late '80s rhythmic-leaning Top 40s.

That said, five years is often the difference between format folly and format genius, as evidenced by the gold-based Alternative format that finally got traction at WRFF (Radio 104.5) Philadelphia -- four years after the initial format rush, in this case. We've also seen not just the first generation of Hip-Hop fans, but now the fans of '90s hip-hop move into the 25-34 cell, as well as evidence that some of the listeners below them may not be as enamored of Hip-Hop. This is certainly a station that will be of interest to many readers, and I'm interested in your comments after you've heard them.

Here's the Beat at 1 p.m. today:

Ice Cube, "You Can Do It"
A Tribe Called Quest, "Find A Way"
N2Deep, "Back To The Hotel"
David Banner, "Like A Pimp"
2pac, "Do For Love"
MC Lyte, "Poor Georgie"
2nd II None, "If You Want It"
Pharcyde, "Running"
Jermaine Dupri w/Jay-Z, "Money Ain't A Thang"
Cam'ron, "Oh Boy"

You might have seen last Friday's story where Britain's commercial broadcasters complained about their national Top 40 competitor, BBC Radio 1, and the average age of its listener, 33. That, they say, is in violation of Radio 1's licensed target age of 15-to-29-year-olds.

Commercial broadcasters have been complaining for several years ever since Radio 1 and its very successful Chris Moyles breakfast show began picking up steam, making new problems for heritage Top 40s like London's Capital FM. Commercial radio has been doing a little better in the U.K. over the last year, but that doesn't stop the Top 40s (which would really be Hot ACs here) from trying to keep Radio 1 out of their lane.

From an American perspective though, what's happening with BBC Radio 1 isn't as much an effort to wriggle out of its remit, as part-and-parcel with the aging of the format here. In a PPM world, WHTZ (Z100) New York is now No. 1 or 2 in 25-54 many weeks. The mother/daughter coalition has helped both certain CHR records and overall music styles test well over age 35. And I recently saw one heritage mainstream CHR -- once known for its particularly aggressive music -- where the average age was now 30.

There are a few things happening here. For one, there are more available adults with more available time to listen. And the ones above 25 are the ones who are still (relatively) loyal to the radio. The mother/daughter coalition is more possible these days because the teens that wouldn't be caught dead listening to mom's stations are the ones who have selected themselves out of the radio audience anyway.

Also, Top 40 is pretty mom-friendly right now, even with hits from T.I. and Flo Rida (the latter of whom is pretty much filling in for Nelly this year as the all-ages party hits rapper). There's a lot of medium-weight music from Ne-Yo, Leona Lewis, Jordin Sparks, Jesse McCartney, Jason Mraz, and David Archuleta -- much of it with the "American Idol" seal of endorsement. There are certainly pure top 40 records now ("Womanizer," "Let It Rock," "Paper Planes," "Dangerous"), but with the possible exception of the gunshots in "Paper Planes," there's not a lot that anybody's mom would consider harsh.

There's also not an obvious alternative for a 32-year-old listener right now. Hot AC is playing Katy Perry, Leona Lewis, Jordin Sparks, Pink, and Rihanna. And the gold-based format that might galvanize a 1994 high-school graduate hasn't really materialized yet. Z100's gold can include Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, and Pras' "Geto Supastar," because nobody else quite knows what to do with those songs. We'll have more about that topic to follow shortly.

Have you noticed that we haven't written about a lot of format changes in these pages lately? That's because they've slowed to a relative crawl, particularly those that don't involve moving an AM Talk station to FM or otherwise deploying existing stations on to another frequency. The economy is one obvious culprit, but we look at others in this week's Ross On Radio.

One of the most fascinating stories of recent months has been the terrestrial broadcasters who are using the combination of HD-2 multicast channels and FM translators as a way of giving themselves an additional berth on the FM dial. Cumulus has used this strategy to move its Urban AC in Harrisburg, Pa., from AM to FM. Saga has used it to launch a new Triple-A in Asheville, N.C. Now, DCRTV reports that WAMU Washington, D.C., is simulcasting its HD-2 Bluegrass channel on a Northern Virginia translator that had previously carried non-commercial Triple-A WTMD Baltimore's programming. The station is quick to position the simulcast as an experiment. (Unlike Asheville and Harrisburg's Websites, which treat the translator as the main frequency, there is not yet a mention of the new frequency on the station's Website.)

WAMU's move is interesting for a number of reasons. Its bluegrass programming certainly had a devoted following. If any format could sell an HD radio (no need for HD detractors to expend any energy on that first clause), this would have been it. It's hard to imagine a 250-watt repeater in Great Falls, Va., making any format a market powerhouse, but like Urban AC on FM in Harrisburg, it will likely find a following. Beyond that, it shows the rapid spread of this concept from major groups to, now, NPR affiliates.

It's been clear almost since the inception of HD multicast channels that they would more likely find their largest audience somewhere other than on an HD radio. Multicast stations always deserved more resources than they got, just in the interest of staking out a future place on The Infinite Dial. Perhaps using them as a way to get an additional FM frequency means that broadcasters will take their multicasts more seriously. Or make sure they're always on the air.

NRG's KOOO (the Big O 101.9) Omaha, Neb., evolved from its original '70s Rock AC position to more of a '70s/'80s companion piece to Modern AC/Rock 40 sister KQKQ (Q97.9), also programmed by Nevin Dane. Clear Channel's KQLL (Cool 106.1) has been evolving from traditional Oldies since last year under PD Kevan Seal. It's now positioned as "Classic Top 40."

They're very different stations. KQLL can segue from "Le Freak" by Chic into "Magic" by Pilot and has the same "greatest party songs of all time" feel that KQQL Minneapolis was also experimenting with for a while. (One of its liners promises "a lot of songs that no one else has had the guts to play.") Big O has more of a '80s Modern emphasis with some things like the Plimsouls' "A Million Miles Away" or Peter Murphy's "Cuts You Up" that probably didn't get a lot of local airplay when they were new. But both have the MTV '80s at their center with a smattering of late '70s. And, as Seal notes, Tulsa was one of the test markets for MTV.

Both are also examples of how many different angles the '80s are being attacked from. Late '70s/early '80s rock was the initial center of the Bob- and Jack-FMs. At least a few '80s titles are now a part of most Oldies/Classic Hits stations. From an era standpoint, only the lack of recurrents and (in Tulsa's case) the '90s keep these from being Jack or Bob, but the packaging and texture is completely different.

Here's the Big O last week at 11 a.m.:
Cars, "Just What I Needed"
Phil Collins, "I Missed Again"
Def Leppard, "Rock Of Ages"
R.E.M., "Losing My Religion"
Peter Gabriel, "Sledgehammer"
Yes, "Leave It"
Spin Doctors, "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong"
Stray Cats, "(She's) Sexy And 17"
Electric Light Orchestra, "Do Ya"
Prince, "I Would Die 4 U"
Frankie Goes To Hollywood, "Relax"
EMF, "Unbelievable"
Steve Miller Band, "Take The Money & Run"
Genesis, "No Reply At All"

Here's KQLL at 9:15 this morning:
Climax Blues Band, "Couldn't Get It Right"
A Taste Of Honey, "Boogie Oogie Oogie"
Stories, "Brother Louie"
Lipps, Inc., "Funkytown"
Wham, "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go"
Santana, "Winning"
Rod Stewart, "Love Touch"
Hall & Oates, "Kiss On My List"
Elton John, "Philadelphia Freedom"
Power Station, "Some Like It Hot"
Billy Joel, "Only The Good Die Young"
Donna Summer, "Hot Stuff"
Mike & the Mechanics, "All I Need Is A Miracle"
Billy Ocean, "Loverboy"

A few other things heard this week that rate a mention:

* The launch of Entercom's new Classic Hits WKQK Memphis, the former Rhythmic AC WSNA. Some sort of Oldies or Classic Hits has been an obvious hole in this market for a while, but it's particularly nice to hear top 40 veteran Willy B. in afternoons. (Market veterans Steve Conley and Karen Perrin are on board for mornings).

Here's the first 80 minutes of WKQK:

Bob Seger, "Old Time Rock & Roll"
Rolling Stones, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
Earth WInd & Fire, "September"
Eagles, "Life In The Fast Lane"
Billy Joel, "Uptown Girl"
Manfred Mann's Earth Band, "Blinded By The Light"
Grand Funk Railroad, "Loco-Motion"
Commodores, "Lady (You Bring Me Up)"
David Bowie, "Fame"
Chicago, "Feelin' Stronger Every Day"
Bee Gees, "More Than A Woman"
Starship, "We Built This City"
Elton John, "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting"
America, "Sister Golden Hair"
Ides Of March, "Vehicle"
Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Let It Ride"
Gary Numan, "Cars"
Yvonne Elliman, "If I Can't Have You"
Electric Light Orchestra, "Evil Woman"
U2, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

* As long as we're giving farewell tributes this week, Beau Raines did a great job helping to mainstream WKQK's sister outlet KQMT (the Mountain) Denver, while keeping the essence of its initial appeal as a deep cuts Classic Rocker. I was glad that I got a chance to hear them earlier this week. They're worth checking out, particularly around lunchtime when you can hear "Barrel Of Monkeys," the show where listeners have to suggest a song that begins with the last letter of the previous song title.

* "Oh Wow" Songs of the week: "Diamonds and Pearls" by Prince on WISX (My 106.1) Philadelphia; Madonna's "Deeper And Deeper" on Swedish Cityradion 102.7. Cityradion, by the way, is one of those broad European Hot ACs that are becoming rarer. If you appreciate "Sweet Home Alabama" and Eric Benet on the same radio station, be sure to hear them.

If one of the signs of the "next hot format" is that broadcasters race each other to put it on within a market, then this should definitely be brought to your attention. Late last month, BMP Radio and Univision both launched Latin CHR stations in Austin, Texas, within days of each other. BMP blew up the second rhythmic format on KXBT (the Beat) to simulcast KXXS (Digital 92.5), giving it more of a ful-market signal. Univision replaced "Recuerdo," the Spanish-language Oldies format on KINV, with KHZS (107.7 Hitz FM).

In doing so, Austin joined several other Texas markets with CHR battles, including McAllen/Brownsville (BMP vs. Entravision), San Antonio (BMP vs. Univision), and the Univision vs. Clear Channel battle in Houston, where the PPM success of KLOL (Mega 101) shoved Latin CHR into the spotlight.

While the format always had its early champions, including Entravision's "Super Estrella" KSSE Los Angeles, and consultant Bob Perry, who helped develop the Mexican CHR brand "Digital" there and in the U.S., it was regarded for years as a niche: first a victim of the perception that younger Hispanics wanted only the English language hits, then upstaged by the explosion in Reggaeton, which proved that to not be the case. It was only when Reggaeton cooled off that stations like KLOL began to fill the void with poppier artists. And even 18 months ago, the suggestion that there might be a Latin CHR hole in a market often ran up against the buzzsaw questions of format innovation: "Is there really enough music?" and "Who else is doing it?"

Latin CHR was also hamstrung for years by a tendency to default to the most adult possible music in the category: the ballads that could as easily be on a Spanish AC. The texture still isn't blisteringly young sounding; (then again, neither is Radio Disney). But a discernable difference has become noticeable over the years, particularly as the '80s synth flavors of Latin pop (which have existed since, well, the '80s and never really gone away) find more of a foothold. The U.S. Digital stations don't stream, but the Univision stations and KLOL are worth hearing.

One of the previously discussed frustrations of the holiday format's rise is that as its hits became apparent over the years, a lot of the R&B holiday music I grew up with disappeared. So when Bonneville's WMVN St. Louis, flipped to Christmas music as a lead-in to a format change, I dutifully threw them on this morning. But I also decided to find an all-R&B Christmas format to listen to, which turned out to be AOL's R&B Holiday channel. Interesting to note that the latter wasn't that different from the AC holiday format as we've come to know it over the last decade: an emphasis on standards with just a few contemporary things (and, as you'd expect, a little more from R&B Gospel acts). Not so surprising -- it's hard to get away from the holiday hits -- but I was still hoping to hear "Santa's Rap" by Treacherous Three show up.

Here's AOL's R&B Holiday channel as heard today:

Kimberly Locke, "The Christmas Song"
Mariah Carey, "Jesus Oh What A Wonderful Child"
Emotions, "What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas"
Kirk Franklin, "Thank You For Your Child"
Luther Vandross, "My Favorite Things"
Donny Hathaway, "This Christmas"
Vanessa Williams, "I'll Be Home For Christmas"
Boyz II Men, "Let It Snow"
Peabo Bryson, "What Child Is This"
Jackson 5, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
Yolanda Adams, "Born This Day"
Take 6, "Oh! He is Christmas"
Gladys Knight & Pips, "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

And, for purposes of comparison, here's WMVN at 11:35 local time:

Michael Buble, "The Christmas Song"
Gene Autry, "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer"
Neil Diamond, "Silent Night"
Pat Benatar, "Christmas In America"
Andy Williams, "Happy Holidays/It's The Holiday Season"
Celine Dion, "O Holy Night"
Kenny Loggins, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"
Tony Bennett, "White Christmas"
John Lennon, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"
Carpenters, "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

Given the ongoing travails of Alternative Rock in so many markets, Regent's WGRD Grand Rapids, Mich., rates a mention. WGRD, the flagship station of the Free Beer & Hot Wings morning show, was up 4.7 - 6.5 12-plus in the spring, fourth overall in the market and the leading rock station.

WGRD doesn't solve any problems for those Modern Rockers that lean to the "true alternative" side. It's still billed as "rock alternative" on the air, but its music leans to the harder side. At various times, it recalls both the pre-White Stripes early '00s version of Alternative around the country or even the "kickass" rockers of the early '80s. (Its sweeps are called "music blitzes.") And that's not just a function of Grand Rapids, since WGRD leaned very successfully to the Modern AC side for many years, pulling the Blues Traveler records several years after the rest of the Alternative format. But at a time of continuing confusion for current-driven rock radio, it's a success story and a model of relative simplicity.

Here's WGRD at 12:50 p.m. today:

Shinedown, "I Dare You"
Beastie Boys, "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)"
Creed, "Higher"
Alice In Chains, "Them Bones"
Staind, "Believe"
Alien Ant Farm, "Smooth Criminal"
3 Doors Down, "Kryptonite"
Weezer, "Troublemaker"
Metallica, "Enter Sandman"
Taproot, "Poem"
P.O.D., "Alive"

Between 1946 and 1949, Julia Lee & Her Boy Friends had nine top 10 R&B hits, two of them No. 1, with titles like "King Size Papa," "Gotta Gimme Whatcha Got," "Snatch And Grab It," "You Ain't Got It No More," and "I Didn't Like It The First Time." (The double entendre of the last song is given away by its subtitle, "The Spinach Song.") "Snatch And Grab It" -- the subtitle here is "Opportunity Knocks But Once" -- was No. 1 for 12 weeks, but for many, Lee exists only as an intriguing entry in Joel Whitburn's "Top R&B Singles" book somewhere between Jackie Lee ("[Do] The Duck") and Levert.

But at Midnight, Lee becomes a core artist for Adult Standards CFZM (AM 740) Toronto, which recently added a program called "Midnight Blue," specializing in the risqué R&B that was part of the incubation of rock 'n' roll. "Midnight Blue" mixes the most famous songs of that era ("I'm A King-Bee," "Sixty Minute Man") with those long lost to history and with their descendents, ranging from "Strokin'" to Christina Aguilera's "Candyman" to "Love To Love You Baby." It's a genre that many of us know only from an occasional cover (Aerosmith doing "Big Ten-Inch Record") or the occasional spin on "Dr. Demento" in the '70s and '80s.

"Midnight Blue" is part of the retooling of AM 740, one of the more durable AM standards stations, under new owner Moses Znaimer and its longtime programmer Gene Stevens. It's a radio successor to the late-night "Baby Blue Movies" that were part of Znaimer's groundbreaking tenure at Toronto's CITY-TV in the '70s and which continue to this day. It's an interesting gambit when you consider that the freshening of the Adult Standards format -- where it still exists -- usually consists of adding more Manilow or Michael Bublé to the mix (something that AM 740 actually did some time back). And although some of the music comes off as more quaint than shocking now, it's still easier to imagine this show existing in Canada where lyrical regulations are less strict -- even before midnight.

AM740 can be streamed here. It can also be heard throughout the northeast at night. Here's last night's show:

Julia Lee, "My Man Stands Out"
Wynona Carr, "Ding Dong Daddy"
Roy Brown, "Cadillac Baby"
Chaka Khan, "Fever"
Marvin Gaye, "Sexual Healing"
Dusty Springfield, "Spooky"
Sheba Potts-Wright, "Private Fishing Hole"
Crown Prince Waterford, "Move Your Hand, Baby"
Dorothy Ellis, "Drill Daddy Drill"
David A. Stewart f/Candy Dulfer, "Lily Was Here"
Barrelhouse Annie, "If It Don't Fit, Don't Force It"
Etta James, "I Just Want To Make Love To You"
Red Prysock, "Purple Whale"
Orioles, "Hold Me, Squeeze Me"
Bull Moose Jackson, "I Want A Bowlegged Woman"
Barbara Stanwyck, "Take It Off the E-String (Play It On the G-String)"
Dominoes, "If You Don't Like Chicken, Leave That Hen Alone"
Sylvia, "Pillow Talk."

When Newcap's CFXL (XL103) Calgary and CKRA (96.3 Capital FM) Edmonton found a way to do Oldies/Classic Hits on FM, working within Canadian regulations that have effectively kept the format off FM in English Canada all these years, it seemed inevitable that other markets would follow suit. Last Friday, Rogers' AC CKCL (Clear 104.9) Vancouver made a foray into FM oldies as "FM104.9."

FM104.9's move is interesting since its sister station is CKLG, Canada's first "Jack FM." The new station has more of an Oldies feel than the Alberta FMs, with more Motown and more '60s overall, but it's still hard to steer completely clear of Jack, particularly when the regulations require half the music to either come from 1981 or later or have peaked at No. 41 or below.

Here's FM104.9 at 6 a.m.:

Commodores, "Lady (You Bring Me Up)"
Four Tops, "Standing In The Shadows Of Love"
Terry Jacks, "Seasons In The Sun" (Canadian)
Boz Scaggs, "Lido Shuffle"
Lighthouse, "One Fine Morning" (Canadian)
Billy Joel, "The Longest Time"
Monkees, "Last Train To Clarksville"
Guess Who, "No Time" (Canadian)
Beach Boys, "Good Vibrations"
Ides of March, "Vehicle"
Gino Vanelli, "It Hurts To Be In Love" (Canadian)
Doug & the Slugs, "Too Bad" (Canadian)

I hadn't had occasion until this morning to check out WAVV Fort Myers, Fla.'s No. 1 station 12-plus and one of the few stations still listed on the R&R ratings pages as B/EZ (shorthand for Beautiful/Easy Listening, for those who don't remember that as a common format appellation in the '70s and '80s). I had expected a supersoft AC/MOR station along the lines of Cox's also successful WDUV Tampa a few years ago. But WAVV bills itself as "modern easy listening" and that was indeed a fair description.

There won't be a music monitor of WAVV because there were a handful of instrumentals I couldn't name and cover versions of standards that I couldn't place, but one song that was backsold was an Anita Kerr Singers version of "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," which should give you an idea of what I heard. There were also recognizable Smooth Jazz instrumentals, a '70s B/EZ-type cover of "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love," Gloria Estefan's version of the '50s hit "Goodnight My Love," and the Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66 '60s MOR version of "Night & Day."

While the instrumentals put WAYV in the Easy Listening camp, there's still a high adult standards quotient. And there's also an apparent emphasis on various interpretations of the standards, as opposed to the "play only the hit version" variant of the format. (I realize that these distinctions are increasingly lost to time as the Standards format becomes harder to find and EZ becomes nearly impossible.) And even with WEZV Myrtle Beach, S.C., out there, it is now time to declare WAVV "The Softest Most Relaxing Thing On The Infinite Dial."

That's the question Edison and Arbitron set out to answer with their landmark study using PPM encoding on television advertising. Edison's Larry Rosin and Arbitron's Pierre Bouvard first presented this study last week at the NAB Radio Show, and our email software has been ringing off the hook with requests to make the data publicly available. If you are wondering how television advertising really impacts radio listening, here's your chance to view Tracking Encoded Television Ads With PPM now. Comments welcome!

Given the current state of the newspaper industry, we'll be seeing a lot more announcements like the one this morning that longtime Chicago Sun-Times radio/TV writer Robert Feder is accepting a buyout. Feder was the longest-running, best-respected of those on the radio beat and,having started in 1980 when radio was rarely on the consumer press' radar, his column became the template for what coverage of radio could be.

In making his own announcement, Feder allows that "covering the minutiae of the broadcast business isn't as much fun as it used to be." And in recent years, his coverage had become more sharply critical; a recent column opener begins, "The idiots who've ruined radio are up to their old tricks again." He could also be particularly uncharitable to market newcomers. (WKSC's Drex survived his gauntlet; CBS' Rover did not.)

But Feder was also the only person you could count on to report that a station was forcing its staffers to attend a station concert on their own dime, among his many scoops. Anybody who has covered radio listening on a national level will cheerfully admit that he did a lot of their legwork in reporting Chicago. And on the day after he leaves, there will be a lot less news about Chicago radio and TV making its way to the surface (as is already happening around the country).

Despite his willingness to criticize individual actions, Feder differed from many of his brethern in being a champion of radio overall. He never took radio to task for not playing his hundred favorite indie bands or for having the audacity to actually program to the largest audience possible. Feder arrived at his desk in 1980 a fan of radio, unlike many of those who showed up ready to exact their revenge.

When Edison Media Research named Chicago the best market for radio listeners last year, I didn't give Feder a shout-out by name. For one thing, I figured that he'd see through any obvious supplication. But when we wrote "this is a market where radio has always been taken very seriously and held to a certain standard," Feder was absolutely there by inference.

With the obligatory talk about the importance of localism at every NAB Radio Show, I've yet to hear anybody bring up community hometown KAZI Austin, Texas, the community R&B station celebrating its 26th anniversary this year. Like Triple-A KGSR or Country KVET, it's a station that couldn't exist anywhere else -- but it's the kind of station that you wish could be everywhere. And it's an encouraging moment at a convention that points up the challenges faced by both R&B radio and local radio overall.

KAZI doesn't stream, so if you're in Austin for NAB, they're worth a listen. They're an eclectic Adult R&B/talk hybrid that harkens back to the days '70s progressive days of stations like WHUR Washington. Yesterday morning, the Wednesday/Thursday morning talk host addressed another host who had apparently announced his attention not to vote. This afternoon, they're going back and forth between blues, jazz and, in the last few minutes, a zydeco song called "Drop It Like It's Hot." Hear them at 88.7.

When WWFS (Fresh 102.7) New York launched last year and actually made rival WLTW (Lite 106.7) sound older and scramble for a minute, WBEB (B101) Philadelphia was one of the stations to try and pre-empt a potential rival by acquiring the rights to the "fresh" name and giving the word some presence (although hardly a starring role) on the air.

Since then, WLTW has regained much of its footing and "Fresh" has not proven to be an unstoppable force in other markets. But we'll still get to see how well B101 has girded itself with this morning's launch of Greater Media's Now 97.5, on the site of former Smooth Jazz outlet WJJZ. Billing itself as "a younger approach to today's soft rock," the new station has lobbed some decent liners at B101 in its first hour: "now there are more than five songs in a row" and "the way you work has changed" among them.

In the station's sign-on promo, it also attempted to link B101 with the Easy Listening format it once was . . . in 1981! (For the record, 97.5 was Rock 40 WPST Trenton, N.J., in 1981, but you could also use a format swap to link this station back to 94.5 which, in that era, was Christian teaching.)

Musically, there's not much difference yet between the two stations--both of which played two '70s songs an hour in the 9 a.m. hour, although B101 went back further. In that hour, B101's average year was 1992. Now was 1996. But if B101 continues its modernization to block Now, that could be good news for Greater Media's WBEN. It will also be interesting to see how B101 responds to Now's "Commercial Free Workdays."

Here's Now 97.5 in its first hour at 9 a.m.:

Pink, "Who Knew"
Police, "Every Breath You Take"
Lee Ann Womack, "I Hope You Dance"
Mariah Carey, "Always Be My Baby"
Jimmy Buffett, "Margaritaville"
Daniel Powter, "Bad Day"
Tina Turner, "What's Love Got To Do With It"
Bonnie Raitt, "Something To Talk About"
Lifehouse, "You And Me"
Fleetwood Mac, "Don't Stop"
Jesse McCartney, "Beautiful Soul"
Genesis, "Hold On My Heart"
Leona Lewis, "Bleeding Love"
John Mayer, "No Such Thing"
Kelly Clarkson, "Because Of You"

We've been expecting a resurgence of activity in the Modern AC/Rock-based Top 40 area for a while. There's been too much good, pop-flavored rock product in recent years falling in the cracks between Modern Rock (not enough critical mass to break a lot of its own hits), Top 40 (still mostly rhythmic leaning) and Hot AC (still taking a lot of its cues from Top 40).

So CHUM Radio's newly revamped CHIQ (Q94) Winnipeg, which recently segued from Adult Top 40 to what it's calling a "hybrid pop/alternative format" as Curve 94.3 rates a listen. The core artists on the station's press release and/or Website include Nirvana, Coldplay, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, but also Pink, Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, and Notorious B.I.G.

It's a mix reminiscent at times of WHTZ (Z100) at the beginning of its Top 40/Alternative hybrid from the early '90s. (There are also interesting jingles that sound like teen punk with lyrics like "I love eating cookies/and I dunk them in a cup of cold Curve 94.3.")

Here's Curve 94.3 as heard at 4 p.m. on Monday:

Killers, "When You Were Young"
Mobile, "The Killer" (Canadian band that sounds like New Order and thus like the Killers, so an inspired segue)
Moby, "Porcelain"
Nelly Furtado, "Say It Right" (Canadian)
Coldplay, "Viva La Vida"
Snow Patrol, "Chasing Cars"
Linkin Park, "Leave Out All The Rest"
Suzie McNeil, "Hung Up" (Canadian pop along the lines of Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone")
Snoop Dogg, "My Medicine"
John Mayer, "Waiting For The World To Change"
M.I.A., "Paper Planes"
Arcade Fire, "Rebellion" (Canadian)
Bush, "Glycerine"
Faber Drive, "Sleepless Nights" (Canadian)

A few of radio's more prominent streaming holdouts have become available (relatively) recently and rate a mention this week:

* KKDA-FM (K104) and Urban AC sister KRNB Dallas -- K104 was a streaming pioneer in the late '90s, but has been missing for many years. It is always thought of as one of the best-oiled machines in the R&B/Hip-Hop (or any) format. KRNB started as a soft Urban AC but has gone to a hyper-current (for that format) approach and come into its own recently with the addition of Paul Harvey. KRNB is also streaming a Gospel channel. Still missing, however, is R&B Oldies KKDA-AM (Soul 73), a national treasure where you can hear "You've Got To Earn It" by the Staple Singers into "Think" by Jimmy McCracklin with R&B legend Millie Jackson hosting afternoons.

* KBPA (Bob FM) Austin, Texas - One of the format's most durable Classic Hits/Hot AC hybrids. They didn't stream in the format's period of greatest national attention when they were often the format leader, so it's good that they've remained stronger than many of their counterparts.

* WGTZ (92.9 Fly FM) Dayton, Ohio - The former top 40 Z93 is one of the most recent entrants into the format. They differ from some of the others because they also have a notable '60s oldies component (meaning Dave Clark Five into the Clash, which makes perfect sense to some of us). It's not streaming yet, but it's now teasing a stream on the Website as coming soon.

Some interesting programming for the next few weeks at gold-based AC WVBW (the Wave) Norfolk, Va., which is saluting a different year between 1970 and 1989 in "20/20: 20 Years In 20 Days" starting with 1970 today. The Wave's version is (and should be) more compact than "It," XM Satellite Radio's year-by-year tracking of the entire history of pop music, but if you've ever wanted to hear "Mississippi Queen" on an AC station, here's your chance.

Here's The Wave's salute to 1970 in the 3 p.m. hour today:

Brian Hyland, "Gypsy Woman"
Carpenters, "We've Only Just Begun"
Rascal Flatts, "Bless The Broken Road" (set up with a stager about not forgetting the best of today as well)
Supremes, "Stoned Love"
Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, "Teach Your Children"
Originals, "The Bells"
Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Who'll Stop The Rain"
Tom Jones, "Without Love (There Is Nothing)"
Neil Diamond, "Solitary Man"
Taylor Swift, "Teardrops On My Guitar"
Sly & the Family Stone, "Stand"
Mountain, "Mississippi Queen"
Stevie Wonder, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)"
Sugarloaf, "Green-Eyed Lady"
Edison Lighthouse, "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)"

Got a chance to listen to an early stretch of Harve Alan's new project, Opus Media's KEZP Alexandria, La., which just flipped from Classic Rock to a very hit-driven Alternative as Red 104.3 -- a good name for a radio station even outside the state of Louisiana. Besides doing a good job of cherry-picking the poppiest of today's modern rock, Red also gets liner of the week awards for this end-of-the-stopset sweeper: "Going back to the music beats going back to jail!"

Here's Red 104.3 at 10:45 this morning:

Muse, "Starlight"
Ludo, "Love Me Dead"
Shinedown, "Save Me"
Beck, "Where It's At"
Beastie Boys, "Sabotage"
Carolina Liar, "I'm Not Over"
Nirvana, "Dumb"
Trapt, "Who's Going Home With You Tonight"
Three Days Grace, "Never Too Late"
311, "Come Original"
Foo Fighters, "Let It Die"
Linkin Park, "What I've Become"
Staind, "Right Here"

You haven't read much about Oldies WAKY Louisville, Ky., in the trades, but they deserve a mention today. WAKY is the former suburban Oldies outlet WASE; it picked up the call letters of (one of) the market's legendary Top 40 station(s) a year ago. And on Friday, it became the only Oldies station in the market when Cox switched longtime Oldies FM WRKA to Country as WQNU (New Country 103.1).

Like WLNG Eastern Long Island, N.Y., WAKY is one of those stations that operates in open violation of programming law (as it's interpreted in most places): longer playlist, heritage jocks, throwback formatics. Even with its signal issues, it was able to carve itself a 2.6 12-plus to WRKA's 3.7. And while it's certainly possible that WRKA would have left without a nudge--as Cox did with its Oldies outlets in Birmingham, Atlanta, and Stamford, Conn. -- it's still a nice story for independent operators and radio history buffs.

WRKA isn't currently streaming, but you can hear airchecks of them on the WAKY-AM tribute site.

Meanwhile, hearing Cox's New Country format on a better signal is intriguing as well -- while much of the format has evolved newer/younger/hotter these days, the Cox version of "New Country" is more pronounced than most. They're also running the attack ads that Cox used on Country KKBQ Houston and former dance outlet WPYM Miami. One charges that rival "WAMZ is all about commercials ... as many as 27 commercials an hour" punctuated by a Gomer Pyle-type voice exclaiming, "Commercials, commercials, and more commercials!"

There haven't been a lot of major/large-market R&B/Hip-Hop launches lately. The major group building boom of five years ago seems to have petered out, a product of saturation in some markets, Hip-Hop's now-clearly-relinquished position as "the only new music that matters" to anybody under 24, reduced 12-24 listening and concerns (justified or otherwise) about PPM's impact on Urban radio.

So a new launch is big news, particularly in New Orleans, where there was some initial concern that Urban radio might not be as dominant in a post-Katrina landscape. Clear Channel's WQUE (Q93) and Urban AC WYLD-FM remained market leaders, but the market lost both its Gospel FM and its second Hip-Hop station. And Urban AC KMEZ (Old School 102.9), with signal issues compared to WYLD, became less of a ratings presence.

So it was gratifying to see Citadel move KMEZ to the bigger signal occupied by former Country/Rock outlet KKND and then launch "Non-Stop Hip-Hop" Power 102.9 on its old frequency this morning, under OM LeBron "LBJ" Joseph. The station, which launched with 10,000 songs in a row, is targeting Q93 with liners that encourage listeners to "turn on the power and turn off the Q."

Here's the first 45 minutes of KKND. No prize for guessing the first song:

Lil Wayne, "Lollipop"
Kardinal Offishal, "Dangerous"
J. Holiday, "Bed"
V.I.C., "Get Silly"
Ludacris, "Stand Up"
Usher, "Moving Mountains"
Keyshia Cole, "Heaven Sent"
Lil Wayne, "A Milli"
Jay-Z, "I Just Wanna Love You"
Chris Brown, "Take You Down"
Kanye West, "Good Life"
David Banner, "Get Like Me"
Snoop Dogg, "Gin And Juice"
Rick Ross, "Here I Am"

By the time Citadel Country KTYS (the Texas Twister) Dallas became KPMZ (Platinum 96.7) this morning, the rough outline had been pretty well circulated -- Soft Oldies with the involvement of market legend Ron Chapman. KTYS' predecessor, KMEO, had done a similar format before as the flagship of an ABC Radio Networks syndicated format. Citadel also does a softer/older Oldies format on its WGVX (Love 105) Minneapolis and an older (but not softer) approach on its True Oldies Channel.

Chapman, as it turns out, is on-board as a consultant, but not part of the daily on-air schedule. That meant the first host heard this morning was Larry Dixon, like Chapman, a veteran of crosstown KVIL during its George John era. It was good hearing Dixon do that sort of Johns-ian brief personality again; (you can also hear that type of radio on long-time Oldies/Classic Hits outlet KLUV, one of the stations that KPMZ is aiming at). When Dixon played B.J. Thomas, he speculated on whether Thomas still lived in Dallas/Ft. Worth; by the next break, there was a call from a listener who knew where he lived.

Musically, Platinum 96.7 wasn't quite as deep or eclectic as Minneapolis, but was working from the same basic food groups: a few pre-Beatles oldies per hour, a few of the late '60s hits that have fallen off the radio in recent years, some softer early '70s music (Bread, Olivia Newton-John, and John Denver, but no Neil or Barbra in the stretch I heard), one softer '80s song. Less than 25% of the music overlapped with what you'd expect to hear on KLUV or most other '60s/'70s/'80s Oldies/Classic Hits outlets.

Here's Platinum 96.7 at 8:15 on its first morning:

Friend & Lover, "Reach Out Of he Darkness"
Bread, "Baby I'm-A Want You"
Supremes, "You Can't Hurry Love"
B.J. Thomas, "I Just Can't Help Believing"
Righteous Brothers, "(You're My) Soul And Inspiration"
Del Shannon, "Runaway"
England Dan & John Ford Coley, "We'll Never Have To Say Goodbye Again"
Chad & Jeremy, "Yesterday's Gone"
Glenn Frey, "The One That You Love"
Gary Puckett & Union Gap, "Lady Willpower"
FIfth Dimension, "One Less Bell To Answer"
Elvis Presley, "All Shook Up"
John Denver, "Annie's Song"
Dobie Gray, "Drift Away"
Monkees, "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You"
Olivia Newton-John, "Let Me Be There"

It is perhaps a sign of the times, but the station I've seen advertised most since I arrived here on Thursday is KCMP (the Current), the non-commercial indie rock/Triple-A outlet, which has advertising in a lot of downtown buildings/walkways. Then I saw Christian AC KTIS' transit advertising. Finally, from my hotel window I saw billboards for Country KEEY (K102) and Oldies KQQL (Kool 108), the latter of which advised that it was "kool to listen again" (in keeping with its back-to-oldies stance of the last year).

I thought I was going to get to hear Ron Gerber's eclectic Friday night oldies show "Crap From The Past" on the radio in real time this week with WCNR Charlottesville, Va., PD Brad Savage as a special guest. Instead, community outlet KFAI's block was hit by a freak power failure that lasted until the last five minutes of the show. And, as Gerber notes, in the digital age, it takes a lot longer to reboot a radio station once you get the power back. So I had to make due with going to the archive.

The radio junkies had been waiting for it for years and yesterday WZZN (True Oldies 94.7) Chicago became WLS-FM again, bringing back its old jingles (or some that sounded like them) as well. Listening from Conclave yesterday during the midday Scott Shannon network portion and again at the tail end of Dick Biondi's show, it sounded more like a call letter change than a presentational one (although Shannon did play the customized version of Reunion's "Life Is A Rock But WLS Rolled Me.") But this morning with Brant Miller on the air, it did sound more like the John Gehron-era WLS that many of us grew up with in the '70s and early '80s, particularly when Gehron called in. Miller talked about Gehron hiring him from WPGC Washington, D.C., and thanked him for not listening to his jocks' advice on programming the station. Gehron, for his part, thanked Miller for following the format this morning!

More Twin Cities radio today in preparation for tomorrow's Conclave arrival:

* WLTE (Lite 103) -- Still unmistakably AC in texture but, like many of its brethern, newer these days: 50% '90s and now in the stretch I heard, with the remainder divided evenly between '70s and '80s. You'll still hear "Sometimes When We Touch," but it's now followed by 3 Doors Down's "Here Without You." Using the one-time Top 40 perrenial "102.9 Days of Summer" as its promotional framing device. Interestingly, also running ads for Brian McKnight's morning show at KTWV (the Wave) Los Angeles on its stream.

* KCMP (the Current) - Minnesota Public Rocker's indie rocker still does features like "My Three Songs," but the three songs today were "Bible Thumper" by Solid Gold, "Got To Give It Up" by Marvin Gaye, and "Ketchy Shuby" by Peter Tosh, and the listener who submitted the three song set didn't explain how they were related. The Current also wins today's "oh wow" award for playing "Breathe" by Telepopmusik.

* KEEY (K102) - In the early '00s, it was one of the few places where you could count on hearing a lot of newer Country songs in short order. Actually hearing two current songs in a row isn't as radical as it was five years ago, but K102 is still a good place to hear a lot of newer Country with energy (only two ballads in the last 40 minutes). There's also clearly an "impossible question" war in this market. The first thing p.m. driver Chris Carr did when he cracked the mic for his first legal ID was to ask one.

To see the first two parts of our series on Twin Cities radio click here and here.

In anticipation of Conclave, I'm doing my second round of Twin Cities listening today, and spending it (mostly) with the contemporay stations:

* Triple-A KTCZ (Cities 97) - In my first day of listening, I didn't come across a lot of specifically local content. (I was listening outside morning drive--usually the easiest daypart to hear live at a convention.) So when Cities' middayer began talking about various walk-a-thons (which get their own page on the Website) it was the most local break I'd heard so far. For a format that has historically been "all about the music," KTCZ played a lot more full-service than a lot of more foreground formats in these austere times.

* Rhythmic KTTB (B96) - They also do well on the local flavor and tying in with Conclave front, since one of their afternoon features, "Rep Your Hood," requires listeners to guess which area intersection they're talking about from various cues. This afternoon, it was the corner that J.D. Hoyts (known as the home of first-night-of-Conclave dinners) was on. And the feature was sponsored by Brown College School of Broadcasting. While other Rhythmic outlets have drifted further into the R&B side, B96 still felt very much Hip-Hop driven and identifiably different from KDWB.

* Top 40 KDWB - It's always been a well-oiled machine, and very consistent -- the stretch I heard was the 3;1 rhythm-to-rock mix that I've heard on the station for a few Conclaves now -- but in a good way. A rival PD once suggested to me that the station always put on an extra burst of speed during Conclave, but if that's true, they're getting a few days' head start. And even with the rhythmic lean, they're the first large-market station where I've heard Secondhand Serenade on the air in my casual listening.

* Hot AC KSTP-FM (KS95) - Having a high profile show in afternoons didn't turn out to be the answer for every Hot AC, but Moon & Staci still sound good here. (The topic this afternoon was "what co-worker did something that should have gotten them fired?" from which they went into their version of Impossible Question.) Musically, KS95 and KTCZ moved away from their Modern AC war a few years ago with the latter going a little more traditionally Triple-A, but it was inevitable that I'd hear them both play "Closing Time" by (local heroes) Semisonic today, which at least proved that I was listening to Minneapolis radio.

There's nothing like finishing up at a convention and realizing that you didn't get to hear a lot of local radio (except when you were in your room during hours that most stations were jockless). In that spirit, we started our Charlotte, N.C., listening early last fall, and we started our Minneapolis/St. Paul listening today in advance of Conclave 2008, where I'll be joining WCBS-FM New York PD Brian Thomas on the Oldies/Classic Hits panel at 1:30 on Thursday (26).

And based on that initial listening, Minneapolis may have become our most interesting Oldies/Classic Hits/Classic Rock market. Three years ago, with KZJK (Jack FM) signing on, Classic Rock KQRS began emphasizing its library depth. Then, KQ's sister, WGVX (Love 105 FM) launched an Oldies/Soft AC hybrid, aimed at KQQL (Kool 108), which had evolved from '70s-driven Oldies to a party gold format, emphasizing tempo, that allowed it to delve into the '80s (but also back to pre-Beatles oldies), and has continued to evolve.

The net result is four stations with playlists in the 900 - 1,000 titles per week range, and some interestingly shaped music mixes. KQQL still plays a lot of '70s, but has phased out most of the '80s, and put back some pre-Beatles songs. (There was even a mention of Bobby Vee having appeared at a local car show.) Love 105 will play pre-Beatles, a lot of the '60s titles that have disappeared elsewhere, a wide variety of '70s pop, early '80s AC titles that you don't hear much ("Theme from 'The Greatest American Hero"), and even an occasional Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin.

KQRS isn't hitting its depth quite as hard on-air as it was a few years ago, but there was still a staged "A to Z" double-play when I listened (two Stones songs: "Rip This Joint" and "Waiting On A Friend"),, "What If I Came Knockin'" by John Mellencamp, and even "Memphis" by Johnny Rivers, which isn't out of character for the station. Jack, meanwhile, continues as one of the most rock-focused stations of its genre but is playing some surprising currents/recurrents (Flyleaf's "All Around Me," Coldplay's "Viva La Vida," etc.).

A good presence for local spots on the various Internet streams, including one heard on KQRS for a t-shirt store that specializes in edgy t-shirts for kids (sample: "pink and blue make me spew").

More Twin Cities radio throughout the week leading up to Conclave.

Nearly eighteen months ago, as stations were finally starting to fill the stopsets on their Webstream with something more than PSAs and bad incidental music, we looked at five Atlanta radio stations and how they were handling Web-stops. So how is Atlanta radio doing now? We listen to seven local stations in this week's Ross On Radio. And we have some excellent comments already.

Listened to some Iowa radio on Thursday to try and get some sense of life in that state as the flood waters recede. Cumulus' Cedar Rapids stations aren't streaming at the moment, but the Clear Channel stations in that market are; so is locally owned KZIA (Z102.9).

In Des Moines, not hit as hard, things seem to be more business-as-normal. I listened to three different music stations for 30-40 minutes each and the only possible reference to the flooding I heard was an ad for Better Basement Technologies that promised to keep water out of your basement.

In the more severly impacted Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area, the flood was more of a presence on the air -- although an intermittent one (which is to say several times an hour, not every break) on the music stations I heard. Z102.9 was broadcasting from a local movie theater to raise money for a community group and selling commemorative t-shirts that said, "Cedar Rapids: Rising Above." Those remotes were preceded, by the way, by a stager that declared, "Z102.9: Live and Local."

Clear Channel's WMT-FM (Mix 96.5) was promoting the resumption of its Uptown Friday Night concert series and make-up dates for the two shows that had been cancelled. (There were also passing references in several places to station events that were taking place in new locations, like this one.)The station was also cross-plugging its Website and the nearly 200 photos of local flooding that had been posted.

Listening from outside the market, of course, it's hard to get a full sense of what's going on. For one thing, Web stream insertion means that you're not hearing the local ads in many cases, and it's often there that you hear the insurance company ads on how to file a claim or the auto dealers advertising to people who lost cars in a natural disaster.

By and large though, a week later the flood had much more presence on the Websites of many of the stations I looked at. Classic Rock KGGO Des Moines' Web poll allowed listeners to decide which public figure had emerged as the "Flood Stud." (The candidates included the mayor, the governor, and the head of the Department of Public Works.) Mix's midday host devoted her blog entries to the flood, including posting a song by a local artist called "Water In My Eyes." And front-and-center on KDAT's home page is a FEMA logo with the words "we will rebuild."

There wasn't much written when Clear Channels WXRA Lexington, Ky., switched from Latin to R&B Oldies last month -- it's a format that doesn't get much press, particularly in a small market. But the new WGVN (Groovin' 1580) is particularly interesting, not only because there aren't a lot of full-fledged terrestrial R&B Oldies stations, but also because this one is a Clear Channel Format Lab offering making its way from the broadcaster's HD-2 multicast stations to a terrestrial outlet.

Groovin' 1580 uses the same "old school hits from the '80s, '70s, and '60s" imager as the Format Lab's "The Groove," currently running on the HD-2 multicast channels at WWSW Pittsburgh, KOHT Tucson, Ariz., KALZ Fresno, Calif., and WMKS Greensboro, N.C. (The only time the two formats diverged when we heard both this afternoon was when WGVN was running spots; it also runs Tom Joyner in mornings.)

What's most interesting here is hearing the format in a different context. In between the format mainstays, Groovin' 1580 has been offering up a few songs that wouldn't be so unusual on a Web-only R&B Oldies station. But when was the last time you heard a terrestrial station play "So" by War? "Higher Plane" by Kool & the Gang? "Cissy Strut" by the Meters? "We Got The Funk" by Positive Force (outside New York, anyway)?

Here's an hour or so of the format, taken from WGVN, at 12:45 this afternoon:

KC & the Sunshine Band, "Keep It Comin' Love"
Commodores, "Machine Gun"
Isley Brothers, "Fight The Power"
Maze, "Joy And Pain"
Bootsy's Rubber Band, "Bootzilla"
Aretha Franklin, "Freeway Of Love"
Taylor Dayne, "Tell It To My Heart"
Van McCoy, "The Hustle"
Patti Labelle, "New Attitude"
James Brown, "Night Train"
Rose Royce, "Car Wash"
Archie Bell & Drells, "Tighten Up"
Wild Cherry, "Play That Funky Music"
Debbie Deb, "Look Out Weekend"
Erick Sermon, Keith Murray, Redman"Rapper's Delight"
Ready For The World, "Oh Sheila"
Barrett Strong, "Money (That's What I Want)"
Barry White, "What Am I Gonna Do With You"

A few interesting odds-and-ends heard in this week's listening:

* More "Sex And The City" -- It's become a lot less ubiquitous on the radio since the movie actually opened and all the promotional tie-ins went away. (I never did hear any station getting paid spots for all their troubles.) But there's still no escaping it: I was listening to a station in the Ukraine this morning and there was the theme song (playing as a bed under what seemed to be an entertainment report).

* The new AOL Radio/CBS Radio tuner sent me punching among the AOL stations for the first time in a while, and I settled on one that billed itself as "New Pop First." And in between some genuinely new records, I heard "SOS" by the Jonas Brothers, "How Far We've Come" by Matchbox Twenty, Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body" and a handful of other songs that had already run their course. To which I can only say that at a time when we're hearing that identifying, say, "Handlebars" by Flobots as "new music" on a Top 40 station would be considered lame by the 15-year-old music junkie who knew it months ago, the bar for any "new music" station is pretty high these days. The good news is that there is certainly a need for this now and it's a great thing to have on a tuner that also contains mainstream commercial stations. But it's a big promise to deliver on. And perhaps a franchise that could support much more than a jockless Internet channel.

* WEBX (the Source) Champaign, Ill., is the flagship of the new gold-based Alternative format from Jack Taddeo and Dan Binder. As you might expect, the hour I heard was more pop-flavored than some of its counterparts. Here's the station from last Monday:

Police, "Spirits In The Material World"
Tonic, "If You Could Only See"
Billy Idol, "Dancing With Myself"
Alice In Chains, "Would?"
Matchbox Twenty, "Push"
Stephen "Tin-Tin" Duffy, "Kiss Me"
Blur, "Song 2"
Depeche Mode, "Just Can't Get Enough"
Bush, "Comedown"
Replacements, "Merry Go Round"
Blink-182, "All The Small Things"

* Best Promotion Name of the Week: KCBS-FM (Jack FM) Los Angeles doing sticker stops and giving away bomb pops as part of its "Stick It and Suck It Summer Tour."

* Oldie Of The Week: I usually go for an obscure one, but there was no denying "Do Ya" by ELO, especially since I've heard it three times in the last eight days in various places, probably the most I've heard it since April, 1977.

Every few years, I come across my perfect gold-based radio station. It plays the songs of the '70s and '80s that I grew up with, including many which have selected themselves off the radio in most places. Ideally, it's also somewhere other than the U.S., so that I can discover some records that were never on the radio here.

There probably aren't a lot of people for whom this sounds like the perfect radio station, but I know a few kindred spirits and they should be made aware of Western Australia's Gold MX, which I've been listening to for hours at a time since I discovered them late last week. Gold MX is a small-market outlet with what sounds like a deep list of '70s and '80s, a smattering of '60s and '90s and some unusual segues (Hendrix into Chris DeBurgh).

Here's a stretch of Gold MX from early Saturday morning local time:

Jimmy Nail, "Ain't No Doubt"
The Sweet, "Wig-Wam-Bam"
Mary Wells, "My Guy"
Oasis, "Don't Look Back In Anger"
Bread, "Sweet Surrender"
America, "You Can Do Magic"
T-Rex, "Ride A Wild Swan"
Dusty Springfield, "Son Of A Preacher Man"
Harpo, "Moviestar" (European oddity that's somewhere between Abba and Pilot's "Magic")
Suzi Quatro, "The Race Is On"
Dire Straits, "Walk Of Life"
Queen, "Flash's Theme (AKA Flash)"
Redgum, "I've Been To Bali, Too"
Steppenwolf, "Born To Be Wild"
Bee Gees, "Love So Right"
Roy Orbison, "Cryin'"
Eric Carmen, "She Did It"
Climie Fisher, "Love Changes Everything"
Hoodoo Gurus, "Good Time"
Rolling Stones, "She's A Rainbow"
Orleans, "Dance With Me"
Jon English, "Get Your Love Right"
Bananarama, "Robert DeNiro's Waiting"
Wilson Pickett, "In The Midnight Hour"
Gordon Lightfoot, "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"
Cher, "Believe"
Fleetwood Mac, "You Make Lovin' Fun"
Martika, "Love Thy Will Be Done"

Recently, Inside Radio reported that "Smooth Jazz" was getting a name change--at least to the advertising community. While I agree that "Smooth AC" may be less off-putting to an agency buyer than "Smooth Jazz," if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's smooth jazz to the listener. The real test will be what the format ultimately becomes on the air. If buyers think Smooth Jazz describes a format with a "limited highbrow fan base" (as KKSF, San Francisco NSM Marcy Mills noted in the article), why would a listener think any different?

What I keep coming back to is the fact that the music is extremely palatable for a mass appeal audience, yet I have personally seen research that clearly indicates that most people who like the music do not consider themselves "jazz fans." Three months ago I wrote a post called "A Bumpy Road for Smooth Jazz," which I am reposting here, as a discussion prompter for readers of the Infinite Dial: if not Smooth Jazz, then what? Could the format be repackaged less for aficionados and more for soccer moms? Is there room on the Infinite Dial for a "Smooth FM," a "Chill" or do we continue radio's trend for "character" names--like, maybe, "Jacques?" :). Or would a sharp turn away from AC vocals and back into more fusion and even traditional jazz be the ticket to regain radio's dwindling college-educated audience?

Love to hear your constructive comments--post your thoughts and let's continue the discussion!

On Friday, Washington DC's Smooth Jazz outlet, WJZW, became the latest in the format to be unceremoniously dumped, leaving yet another of radio's ever-dwindling bodies of rabid fans with nothing more than a "thanks for listening" letter on their website. I'm sure there were reasons for the flip, and I hope those reasons extend beyond merely the most recent book. WJZW has had a very good run as a Top 10 performer in that market, but becomes yet another casualty in a long line of format flips designed to infuriate listeners. I have written before about the "snow globe" theory of audience dynamics that many programming experts still subscribe to--if we shake 'em up, they'll settle somewhere else, and we will either get them with Station 'A' or Station 'B.' Unfortunately, they never consider the third option--that the globe isn't sealed, and they never settle anywhere, period.

So we sound the death knell of Smooth Jazz in DC. Is it now time to sound the death knell for the format? I have mixed feelings about that. Clearly there are some markets (San Diego and Seattle, for instance) where the format is far from dead--it is dominant. Some of you may know that in a prior life I spent quite a bit of time working in the format--indeed, for WJZW itself back in the 90s--and have seen the format through its best and worst times. I've heard stations that you can't turn off when they are really humming (The Wave in LA (KTWV) always sounds perfect for its place and time to me) and I've heard forgettable jukeboxes--devoid of passion, local flavor and personality. When executed properly, the format can be a golden goose. Done poorly, it can also be positively moribund. With New York and Washington dropping Smooth Jazz, are the format's best days behind it? Is it a classic format? Or as much of its time and place as Arrow was?

I don't think New Adult Contemporary (NAC) is dead. There are very few formats that generate as much passion 35-64, or can still move those same adults to get excited about new music--it is like Country in that regard. It can also be a terrific sales performer--take a potential advertiser to a station concert or Sunday Brunch for a great NAC station and they can't help but be impressed. NAC generates passion, excellent qualitative numbers and sounds great in public settings (hello, PPM!) It is a format, however, that benefits from a dedicated sales staff, a luxury few clusters can afford. Even so, I would dispute the notion that NAC is dead.

I do think, however, that Smooth Jazz (TM) is on its last legs. The format needs more than just "TV" to survive--it needs to tap into a more compelling benefit than "smooth out your workday," like it is little more than a Xanax. There are few formats that respond as readily to local customization; yet many Smooth Jazz stations sound remarkably the same. There are, of course, programmers who have successfully crafted unique sounding NAC stations, but those are a struggle. In the case of WJZW, WQCD and other notable format flips, some operators have decided to switch rather than fight.

I'm not close enough to the product these days to dig authoritatively into the issues with currents, cover songs, or burn scores, so I won't go down that path here. Where Smooth Jazz (TM) has really failed to evolve is in how it is marketed. Even today, stations are rolling out the same purple-y sax logos and billboards with Dave Koz and Sade, proudly proclaiming themselves as "Smooth Jazz" even though there is plenty of research suggesting that the word Jazz may turn away as many potential fans of the music as it invites. The primal need to relax in this country is a powerful benefit that NAC could tap into and market in a thousand clever ways--with passion, with humor and with a more universal approach--yet the format continues to identify itself with unfamiliar artists and events geared to "jazz buffs" instead of helping moms get their kids to soccer practice, or otherwise truly mattering to the 95% of potential listeners who will NEVER go out to see Kirk Whalum at the local jazz club. Brands like Calgon, General Foods International Coffees and Quantas and don't market flakes, crystals or increased cabin legroom--they market where they take you. For too long, the tired, overworked "Trip-a-day" contest has served as the format's proxy for this, but contesting is not branding.

Reinventing NAC will take vision, commitment, guts and, yes, an investment in branding and marketing. Yet those few stations still putting Smooth Jazz on the air view it as a cost-cutting measure, or the ugly stepsister to the "more popular" AC. NAC could be a magical format, bringing disparate ages, sexes and races together. To do that, however, it can't be the ugly stepchild, and it can't be a format-in-a-box. The format has tremendous potential if and only if it is treated as a big box station, not as a jukebox, and if it is marketed for how it can reach and touch everybody, not just the select few who know who Boney James is. I'd love to see that happen. Until then, I fear we will continue to shake listeners completely out of the snow globe, never to return.

A few other things heard this week that rate a mention:

* CTVGlobal's new CHR, CJCH (the Bounce) Halifax, N.S., which launched this morning, giving the Maritimes something that many American markets don't have, a CHR war, as the Bounce (comparable to one of Clear Channel's rhythmic-leaning mainstream reporters) goes up against the rhythmic, but more eclectic CKHZ (Z103.5). This is, a big change for the market, since I remember being in the area in 1998 and hearing only one R&B record, "The Boy Is Mine," for the entire week. There were also very good, very different sounding new jingles on the Bounce.

* Heard even more about "Sex And The City" since Wednesday's posting. At AC/Country hybrid