Seattle - Worst radio station idea EVER

Cafe Society
#1

I live in Seattle and used to be a faithful listener to 95.7 The Beat which played R&B/dance hits of the 70s and 80s. You know, stuff from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, I Will Survive, You Sexy Thing, etc.

Tonight, they have changed their format…well, I’ll just let their ad blurb speak for itself:

Yes, that’s right. They play 7 seconds of each song. Separated by a jarring number…146 “I get knocked down, but I get up again” 147 “Whatever I did, I didn’t mean it, I just want you back for good” 148 “Played it til my fingers bled, was the summer of '69” 149 “There’s a girl that’s been on my mind, all the time, Su-Su-Sudio” 150 “You are the wind beneath my wings”

Ad nauseum.

I am still hoping this is a joke…please, let it be a joke! But, after 2.5 hours they are STILL playing fragments of songs…

http://www.quick96.com

Click “Listen Now” to experience the horror.

Supposedly this new format was the result of marketing survey. Is this what people really want? I can’t imagine anything less fun than only hearing one line of a song at a time, it’s seizure inducing.

Please, for the love of all that’s holy, let it be a joke.

#2

That’s pretty bad. If they didn’t have to hire DJs, they could at least make the number voice better.

Two…ninetyseven

And who said these were the best parts of songs anyway?

#3

This HAS to be a joke. Maybe people are supposed to listen to the numbers, then look them up on the website, then illegally download thw whole song? Thats the only theory I could come up with.

Wait a minute, are 7 second clips royalty free? Maybe it is a scheme to bring down the music industry? Maybe it is a scheme to drive people crazy?

Nah, has to be a joke.

#4

Gotta be a joke.

One hopes.

#5

A few years ago, a local station announced its move to being an oldies station by spending a few days as “All Louie, All the Time.” They played “Louie, Louie” for – was it 24 hours? a weekend? Whatever. After that they switched to the regular oldies format. It was a hoot.

God I hope yours is a similar joke (if badly thought out).

#6

I was wondering what on earth I was surfing through on the way home. I thought something had broken at the radio station.

That was on purpose? It wasn’t just some bizarre joke?

Wow, that station has always had problems, but this was not the answer to any of them.

#7

When the very powerful KROQ in Los Angeles finally pounded its alterna-rock competitor, Y-107 into submission, Y-107 played “Feliz Navidad” over and over for more than an entire day as they moved in all the Spanish language CDs and such.

#8

I dunno…in a twisted sort of way, it’s entertaining. I just heard Thin Lizzy, Pat Benetar, Ozzy, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Sublime, Spin Doctors, the Clash, Def Leppard, Van Halen (mark I), the Tubes, Bon Jovi, Alice in Chains, Steely Dan, the Talking Heads, U2, the Gin Blossoms, the Police, Nirvana, Styx, Papa Roach, Twisted Sister, the Foo Fighters, Queensryche, and Midnight Oil in just over 2 minutes. hahahaha

I think the appeal is that it’s like playing Name That Tune. Takes too much attention to listen while driving, but fun for a short time while sitting and doing nothing.

They’re probably only doing it for a couple days, to show off the huge variety they have, and they’ll settle into playing whole songs after a week or so.

When KLSK in Albuquerque changed from Classical to Classic Rock, they played “Stairway to Heaven” nonstop for 24 hours. When Power 105 went online in New York City, they played 10,000 songs in a row with no commercials, then started playing a regular format. Then for memorial day they did a countdown of the top 500 hip hop songs of all time. But it’s a cool station.

Yours is probably doing the same thing: a gimmick to attract listeners.

#9

Teaser Gimmick.
Been there.
Done it.

When they unveil the actual format give us an update.

#10

And let me just say that that “hitting the brakes” screeching sound every time you load a page on their Web site is godawful annoying. I had the page loading in the background, and when that sound suddenly blasted out of my speakers, I dang near jumped out of my chair. It’s worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.

#11

Yeah, the ‘brakes’ are annoying as all hell.

Job Suicide by consultant…? I was, until very recently, a consultant, and if I had played ‘short attention span theater’ like the boob on the “Quick96” site claims this one did, I’d have never closed an engagement. 7 seconds?! Un-frickin-believable!

Oh, and the site crashed my browser when I tried to listen in on the horror. Good going, boneheads!

#12

We recently replaced Mr. Case’s consulatant with a five year old child. Let’s see if he notices.

#13

Yeah, sounds to me like a publicity stunt for whatever their new format is going to really be.

#14

Hehehe!!! I’m doing this right now!!!

#15

A college friend (from Indiana, I believe) said that when one of the stations in her area changed it’s call letters to WLRS, they played “I am the Walrus” nonstop for a week (or some abnormally long amount of time). She said she and her friends would bet on what part of the song they thought would be playing, and then turn on the radio quick to check.

She still doesn’t like that song.

#16

So, this is for, what … people who’s Scan button is broken?

#17

In Los Angeles, the Adult Album Alternative station has twice been bought and switched to spanish language format. (101.9, and 103.1 – I miss those stations!). The first time I’d been out of town for a while and hadn’t realized it was coming. I returned on the day after the turnover, and the station was playing a constant loop of maniacal laughter.

MUAHHAAHAAHAAA, HAAAHAAAAHAAA, MUAHHAAHAAHAAA . . .

Sounds better than this idea.

#18

Jumping on the JOKE bandwagon (tho’ I’m not sure if this is because I believe it’s a joke, or because I hope it is).

Although I have to say that I have a friend who would probably love this concept. She and I were music shopping once, and aside from an “I really like John Tesh!” comment on her part, all went well…

Then we got back to her house, and she unwrapped and played a CD she’d bought–a compilation of Movie Soundtrack Medleys (for example, the first track would be a medley of songs from Grease, the second track would be a medley of songs from Saturday Night Fever, etc.)

She said that she really liked medleys because you get to hear all your favorite songs without having to sit through them in their entirety.

So who knows…? There might be a market for this kind of thing, between people like my friend, and people who have indeed broken their Scan buttons…

#19

im diggin’ it!

#20

A station around here did someting similar. It changed to a classic/hard rock format and played “We Will Rock You” for either a day, or a weekend. Interrupting it only on occasion to play the messages of irate callers who were calling in to say “Shut that up already! Enough! Enough! Stop it! #$%@&%!!!”

It was funny, once you realized that they were getting set for a whole new programming schedule.

A public radio station that normally plays jazz and classical, did a fundraiser broadcast based on the theme “Save the Polka!” and played ridiculous oompa-oompa music for a couple days. The announcers did their best to sound earnest when they talked about saving polka music from radio extinction (though once in awhile they got a little too silly.)

So cast my vote for publicity stunt!