Company News · November 15, 2006

What Would Radio For Teens Sound Like?First Listen: BoomBoxBaby.ca

By sross

What would Top 40 sound like if it had the opportunity to target younger teens exclusively?
Would there be more Jojo and Vanessa Hudgens? Would Top 40 have acknowledged the No. 1 sales chart debut of the “Hannah Montana” soundtrack? Or would we find out that teen pop’s appeal doesn’t extend all that far into the teens?
Would the format become very centered, or would it become that sprawling mix of emo, harder Hip-Hop, Rascal Flatts, and even some Classic Rock that represents the current programmer perception of teen tastes? Or would teen punk and power ballads still be the only Rock that mattered, as they are at today’s Top 40?
Would Weird Al Yankovic’s “White & Nerdy” have been a radio smash for at least a few weeks, instead of stalling out in the mid-50s on the Mainstream Top 40 chart?

Even with increased industry concern about declines in young-end listening, there’s shockingly little research into teen tastes.

Even with increased industry concern about declines in young-end listening, there’s shockingly little research into teen tastes. For one thing, Top 40’s fortunes are improving despite music that often should appeal more to moms than daughters. So if a 16-year-old appears to be okay with “Bad Day” and “Far Away,” why rock the boat? Besides, if teens with more extreme tastes leave radio, Top 40’s piece of what remains is even bigger.
Because there’s so little incentive to do so, it’s particularly fascinating when any broadcaster does try to superserve teens, even if it’s not on a terrestrial station. So Corus Radio’s new teen-targeted broadband station, Boomboxbaby.ca, which officially launched Nov. 6, rates a listen from anybody who does regard teen listening as part of radio’s future.
Repatriating teens has been a longstanding issue in Canada, partially because Top 40 radio has almost entirely disappeared there twice in the past 15 years: once in the early ’90s when the last AM Top 40s went away; again a few years ago when a number of prominent stations switched format, including, as it happened, several Corus FMs. Since then, the format has experienced another upturn in Canada. And while many of the current Canadian CHRs are more adult-leaning than their U.S. major-market counterparts, they are hardly sitting ducks for a younger-leaning station, even on the terrestrial FM band.
BoomBoxBaby.ca is billed as “online radio for teens and by teens.” It is being staffed largely by board-ops at sister modern CFNY and N/T CFMJ (AM640), with an assist from longtime CFNY programmer Alan Cross. It’s also being tied in with various other Corus-owned media properties such as youth-oriented cable network YTV (which will contribute personalities for a weekly program and for short-form movie reviews) and Kids Can Press (an author series and on-air book club). Listeners are invited to e-mail the station their own drops. Corus also says there are plans to include the channel on its digital music service, Max Trax.
The initial publicity for BoomBoxBaby.ca promised a “mix of eclectic music-ranging from Top 40 and Indie Rock to Hip-Hop and Rap.” Cross says that will also include roughly 10-15% Classic Rock-positioned here as “the BoomBoxBaby.ca Time Machine” (at this writing, the station has just segued from Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” to “My Generation” by the Who and back into Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”). That makes BoomBoxBaby.ca the first younger-targeted channel to acknowledge Classic Rock’s young-end appeal.
It’s important to note that Cross emphasizes that this is a work in progress. Musically, what I heard during the first few days of the station often reminded me of the British digital Top 40 channels Core and Smash Hits. I’ve heard some stretches that skewed younger and others that were more Hot AC-flavored than the average major-market Mainstream Top 40 in the U.S. In that regard, it also sounded no younger than many major-market Canadian Top 40s, and less so than some, such as Toronto’s CIDC (Z103.5) which mixes rock, hip-hop and dance without much that borders on Hot AC.
Presentationally, a lot of what the station is promising is also only starting to take form. BoomBoxBaby.ca is more produced than some of its Internet radio counterparts, but it’s not yet approaching the level of a Radio Disney. I’ve heard some decent jocking and some that, perhaps by design, wouldn’t sound out of place on a high-school station-one jock’s music teasers began, “Let’s see, what are we going to play next?” Topics have ranged from YouTube’s “invention of the year” award to whether it’s okay to wear socks with sandals.
All that said, you can’t deny the potency of the vision. Somebody needs to claim the next generation of listeners by figuring out how to talk to them. And somebody needs to offer some a bigger-than-life, national listening experience that has some of the same “bright lights, big city” sway that the big AM Top 40s once held over today’s radio people of a certain age (which is to say, mine). As with KMBY (X103.9) Monterey, Calif., the Hip-Hop/Rock hybrid that wants to reclaim young men, it doesn’t have to turn out to be the model, but it should inspire somebody to invent one.
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Boom Box Baby.ca, Nov. 6, 2006, approx. 11:30 p.m.
K-Os, “Sunday Morning” (Canadian rapper/singer who, in many ways, anticipated Gnarls Barkley by several years)
Jojo, “Too Little, Too Late”
Jamiroquai, “Runaway”
Karl Wolf, “Desensitize” (Canadian rhythmic pop)
Pussycat Dolls, “I Don’t Need A Man”
Jesse McCartney, “Got Me Where You Want Me”
Shakira, “Hips Don’t Lie”
Jay-Z, “Show Me What You Got”
Simple Plan, “I’m Just A Kid”
Lupe Fiasco, “Kick, Push”
Tomi Swick, “Everything Is Okay” (Canadian singer-songwriter often compared there to John Mayer)
Ciara, “Get Up”
Pink, “Who Knew”
Nov. 7, 3:50-4:30
Christina Aguilera, “Hurt”
Cassie, “Long Way To Go”
Bedouin Soundclash, “Stand Alone” (Canadian act with a world music feel, now having hits in U.K. as well)
Jewel, “Good Day”
Evanescence, “Call Me When You’re Sober”
Snow Patrol, “Chasing Cars”
Fergie, “London Bridge (Oh Snap)”
Gnarls Barkley, “Crazy”
No Doubt, “Just A Girl”
Rascal Flatts, “Life Is A Highway”
Hughes Corporation, “What A Feeling” (dance record sampling the “Flashdance” theme)
Roxette, “One Wish”
K-Os, “Sunday Morning”
Scissor Sisters, “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing”
Nov. 10, 3:05 – 3:50 p.m.
Gnarls Barkley, “Crazy”
Who, “My Generation”
Eminem, “Lose Yourself”
Scissor Sisters, “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing”
Nickelback, “Far Away”
K-Os, “Sunday Morning”
James Blunt, “Wiseman”
Jessica Simpson, “A Public Affair”
Madonna, “Jump”
Ludacris, “Money Maker”
Cham & Alicia Keys, “Ghetto Story”
The Presidents Of The United States Of America, “Lump”
Jojo, “Too Little, Too Late”

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