Wonder why it is that Clear Channel can't seem to make up it's mind on how it's various rhythmic AC's should sound. Seems like they are constantly tweaking them all either towards more currents or more gold and back and forth. For example, 106.7 The Beat Detroit, 105.7 The Groove Atlanta, and Z100 Ft. Myers, have all seemed to move more towards current rhythmic product in the last few months. While on the other hand, 98.1 Kiss FM San Francisco, experimented with newer rhythmic product as "The Beat of the Bay" for a month or so, and then abruptly did a 180, and went back to a more jammin' oldies/classic soul sound as "The Bay's Old School".
Now the latest, tweak I noticed this week is at "My 106.1" in Philadelphia. The station had recently been really gold leaning with quite a lot of 70's funk type stuff, and even some 60's motown. I didn't like this direction at all, but I just noticed the other night that they were claiming on air that they had a "brand new sound with more music added that you'd asked for". Well, it's not current intensive like some of their other Rhythmic AC's, but it seems they have ditched most of the 70s and 60s stuff and are now playing a lot of 80s and 90s pop rhythmic and dance gold, mixed with a few currents. (Personally, I like this sound much better. This is exactly where I think Rhythmic AC should be focused. Right now it's kind of similar in focus to 93.9 MIA as far as the gold/current ratio and time periods, except with much less emphasis on freestyle and more emphasis on pop.) Anyway, I'm hearing a lot of stuff like Dee Lite, Cyndi Lauper, Technotronic, Shannon, Timex Social Club, Bel Biv Devoe, M/A/R/R/S, Young MC, etc.
They seemed to have bumped up the gold by a decade or so over where they were at for more of what I consider a rhythmic AC sound and less of the jammin' oldies type stuff they had been playing. Also, all of the slow soul songs they occasionally played are gone in favor of a mostly all uptempo sound now. Anyway, didn't know if anyone else had noticed or not, but I hope the new sound sticks. Right now they are one of my favorite rhythmic AC's with this 80s/90s focus.
Anyway, I just wish CC could decide on a direction with this format and quit tweaking stations back and forth almost weekly. As I said, I personally like their rhythmic ACs like My 106.1 and 93.9 MIA that focus on 80s/90s gold with a handful of 2k and currents. I like this sound much better than the mostly current/recurrent sound of stations like 105.7 The Groove and KTU. Don't get me wrong, I love current rhythmic product and CHR too, but I think Rhythmic AC should be different and not just another rhythmic CHR that happens to play one "oh wow" gold record an hour.
Anyway, check out the new sound of My 106.1 Philly and the playlist at yes.com and see what y'all think of the new direction.
(BTW, they are also highlighting their new sound with an "80s/90s Party Songs Weekend". So right now, they are all 80s/90s gold for the weekend, but these tracks are also the ones they've been playing heavily during their regular rotation this past week. The only difference is the currents and 2k stuff isn't being mixed in this weekend. But it gives you a good idea of the type of gold they've added recently).
I didn't know that they where any of these stations left, it sounds like Austin's Jammin 105.9 when it was around. I thought after Jammin 105.9 called it quits that was it for Rhythmic AC. It seems to be dying out like Elevator Music on FM in the 80s.
