You take your professional reputation in your hands when you try to predict which hit will be the song of the summer - something I did shortly before Memorial Day as a way of taking radio's temperature, and that of Top 40 in particular. Now that the summer is officially over, it's time to see how my predictions turned out. So, what was the song of the Summer?
A lot of people want to talk about the Rhythmic AC format this week, given the initial returns for Alan Burns' "Movin'" format at KQMV Seattle, a high-profile format flip at KZLA Los Angeles, and the launch of Clear Channel's own variant at WJJZ (Philly's 106.1 FM) Philadelphia. In this week's "Ross On Radio" column, Sean Ross takes a look at the three stations and how they differ from each other, as well as the various strengths and challenges of the format. As programmers look for a way to acknowledge the lost rhythmic hits of the late '80s/early '90s, read "Rhythmic AC: In Search Of The Funky Cold Medina."
When most of us were growing up in the industry, "adds" were straightforward-they were the songs going on the stations we watched that very week. Over the years, the integrity of the reported add was greatly diminished, particularly after the advent of monitored airplay. But the record industry clung tenaciously to the reported add as its scorecard-viewing it as a "commitment," even though it often meant no such thing. Now, other changes in the industry have again prompted Edison VP of music and programming Sean Ross to ask, Is It Finally Time To "Drop" The Reported "Add"? in this week's Ross On Radio.
Part I: The Country/Classic Rock Hybrid They're the formats that almost make too much sense to work. They're the formats that always come up when programmers hang out and somebody says, "You know what somebody ought to try?" They show...