The "Death" of Pulse 87 is greatly exaggerated

[Tony Santiago]

 

With all of the recent posts regarding Pulse 87 coming off negative, it's time to do one that is positive for a change.

Lately there has been an influx of advertising/sponsorships on the station.  It has gotten to the point where I would tune in and hear a commercial instead of music!  For some, that may seem annoying but looking at it from a business perspective especially in a rough economy, advertising is GOOD!  On the "DJ Serge Nooner" mix today (12-18), there were 4 sponsorships!

Okay, so the ads may not be Coca-Cola, Taco Bell, Target, etc. but for small businesses, Pulse is definitely hitting them up!  So if a Villagio Tanning & Spa, Silver Star Limo, Whitestone Pharmacy, can get bigger exposure somehow, then it works!  Add TO the fact that since most of these business couldn't afford the "tradtional" ad campaigns on stations above 92, they are NOW getting heard!  Maybe I'll take a trip out to Glen Cove and get a deeper tan out of this! LOL

Yes, the station has certainly had its up and downs all around.  Of course the signal issue is something that won't go away until the FCC decides to change regulations.  But as long as the ad billings keep coming in and, programming wise, new music continually gets added, Pulse will stick around for a bit.  Things seem to be looking up and that's good!

But you know what, I have spoken a lot about this station to the point I'm sure that people just wanna tape my mouth up and hang me upside down over a vat of tar, with chicken feathers nearby!    To that, I would like for someone from Pulse 87 to speak up here!  Yeah, I'm aware that you have to be careful, jobwise, in terms of saying something but in this case if there is something positive that I may have overlooked, please state it. 

Yes, Mega Media may have had its financial woes, just like most radio corporations operating in this crazy economy.  Though, as they say, when the chips are down, you come up fighting.  For what it's worth, I certainly don't want a "Pulse" to die......if anything we NEED for this station to prove that a dance contemporary/rhythmic format DOES work, even through all of its nuances and anomalies.

Thank you for reading.

[mimo]

Tony, you are one of the few who seems to know what's going on with the pulse without being an employee, so your posts here are appreciated.  In my opinion, you're someone who's supporting someone doing something different on the radio dial.  That's a go0d thing.  Stations that are going out of their way to be different, whether they are commercial or non commercial entities, really derserve our support.  Not that you need any encouragement from me, but keep doing what you do, and I'll keep reading.

[Tony Santiago]

Thanks Mimo! 

You definitely hit it on the head regarding "different"!  With the dilemmas going on down here in NYC, past and present, regarding the rock format, variations of an adult contemporary format....whether it is "Jack", "Fresh", "Blink", "Mix" and even to a small extent, struggles with hip-hop/R&B and Latin formats due to the PPM, it is amazing how regardless of this, corporate doesn't want to "think out of the box".

Okay, I understand that the need to pull in profits is important....after all radio is a business.  Yet you're not going to attract people BACK (especially the younger demos....below 25) to radio if the same, stale, older programming is in place, no matter how you vary it to make it "exciting".

Pulse has its struggles as well.  But they ARE doing something different.  Then again when you really think about it, with Joel Salkowitz who is a radio programming veteran, all Pulse is really doing is going BACK to how radio was.  Where being different and creative DID matter, which is what made Hot 103/97 different than Kiss, Z-100 and 'BLS back in those days.

Radio NEEDS different.  Not saying that the dance/rhythmic format is the only way; whatever is needed in the market place that is a void is what matters.  Country may have had its past issues in New York but with a resurgence of the genre thanks to contemporary artists like Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, Keity Urban, Toby Keith, etc. it may be possible that an increase in audience can occur. 

Vive la difference!

[andreajesus]

Without going TOO MUCH into what happened in the past, the whole "Jack" thing was an example of a format that DID NOT work in New York 'cos you can't program New York the way you program ANYWHERE ELSE!! now getting back to your point about it being different, i've got to agree with you as to all the voids in the NY market...i believe country CAN come back in New York - it's just a matter of the right music, the right personalities, the right marketing..same thing with dance - it's gotta be the right people doin it, the right people groovin to it, and the right thing just out of the box...i've listened to 'KTU in other stores (those on this Board KNOW what MY station is!! ) and 'KTU don't even sound like the 'KTU I grew up - so it's TIME for REAL dance music to return to New York - even if it's mostly NEW stuff - New York is RIPE for dance to return and this is the TIME (Pulse 101.9 ANYBODY?? )

[neo11]

You know, for what it's worth about Jack...it wasn't setting the world on fire but based on numbers alone, it wasn't doing as badly as portrayed.  As high as a 2.2 12+ and from what I recall, pretty decent ratings in 25-54.  What doomed Jack was that it replaced a legendary station in CBS-FM, and even further, *how* it replaced that station.

If Jack was launched on, say, 92.3, my guess is there's a pretty decent chance it would still be around.  Certainly that 2.2 is much better than anything K-Rock has been doing and certainly RXP! 

[jazlow]

I have been noticing the increase in advertising on Pulse as well... which I consider a good thing. More commercials and more variety of companies. Commercials suck but I desperately want to see Pulse thrive.

Interesting thing though... Pulse changed the way it streams it's music on the web. Gone is that pop-up window that plays the station "live" and showed the name of the song and artist being played. Now the stream is downloaded in a Quicktime window with no info (on a mac anyway). One huge advantage with this is you can let the stream load for a while and then you have the ability to fast forward through the commercials. Being at work I am always pausing the stream to take calls or to talk to people so I never catch up to the end of the stream. I skip all the commercials. But I also listen to Pulse in the car and then I listen to the commercials. I swear I do.

[Nick]

With this economy, some businesses that could not afford to advertise on KTU and Z100 are advertising on Pulse 87 for much less to hit virtually the same audience.