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Power To The (Party) People!
August 14, 2014
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"It's ridiculous that we just do radio the same way, and never do anything different or exciting."
That's Christian Miller, whose belief about radio's often-maligned, alleged predictability inspired the Friday, August 8th launch of "Tailgate 107.3 – Party Songs For Party People."
The newly minted format was imagineered by Miller, who serves as Regional Market Manager for West Virginia Radio's Northern Division, overseeing the Clarksburg, MD, Morgantown, WV and Cumberland, MD properties.
Okay, fellow "Party People," how's this for different? Don't know about you, but if I made a list of segues never, ever previously dreamt of, not only would Becky G "Shower" to Zac Brown Band's "Toes" to One Republic's "Love Runs Out" followed by Luke Bryan "Shake It For Me" make the list, but I'd automatically assume the call letters were, say, K-WTF?!
Well, dream no more!
After years of marinating on the concept, six months of top-secret laboratory development (think "Manhattan Project" here) and two months of live streaming with daily fine-tuning, Miller finally hatched "Tailgate" on West Virginia Radio's station formerly known as Classic Rock WKAZ/Charleston, WV.
Production/imaging pieces on "Tailgate" will remind you again and again, "Regular radio is over – this is the new radio revolution."
Clearly, the playlist for "Tailgate" attempts to support that premise. Where else will you hear a mix that takes you on a musical voyage suspiciously familiar to the one described earlier, with an itinerary such as this: Frankie Ballard "Sunshine & Whiskey," "INXS "New Sensation," Enrique Eglesias f/Desember Bueno & Gente De Zona "Bailondo" and Eric Church "Cold One."
"This is how people listen to music now," asserts Miller.
With a strong Country skew -- in the two sets I've mentioned anyway -- I wondered what musical hill "Tailgate" aims to capture.
To Hell with hills, says Miller. "We're designed to be a mood-based, rather than a genre-based station."
That said, as for actual genre-balance, Miller explains, "Right now, Country and Top 40 are battling for the mass-appeal brand. This station is one-third Top 40, a third Country and a third everything else. I don't think you can be relevant in today's world without being current, so I'm taking the best upbeat currents from Top 40 and Country, then throwing in Classic Rock, Modern Rock, old school Hip-Hop and a little Urban just to keep you guessing so you don't know what's next."
What separates "Tailgate" from other radio brands, Miller believes, is its unique positioning potential. If there's any hill to be conquered, says Miller, "I want to own being a new, cool and different concept. It's always a benefit if you can rebrand your competition in a negative way when you're launching a new radio format. All of my imaging is about, 'Are you tired of regular radio, boring and predictable? This is Tailgate. We're different.'
Miller's objectives are both personal and lofty. "I have personally trademarked 'Tailgate FM' and am trying to take this to the world, but our [WVRC's] stations can also benefit by putting this on any signal they would like to."
There's also an agenda aimed at radio's greater good. "I'm trying to bring younger people back to FM radio," says Miller. "Let's try and do something no one else is doing. Pandora can't do this; they're a narrowing concept and this is as broad as you can get."
Broad, you say? Well, yeah.
Another sequence of songs looked like this during my 90-minute listening sample:
- ZZ Top – "La Grange"
- Q-Tip – "ViVrant Thing"
- Scotty McCreery – "Feelin It"
An imaging piece separated Q-Tip and ZZ, saying: "Who wants slow and easy when you can have it fast and hard."
Anybody? Hello? Is this thing on?
"Radio is an emotional medium," says Miller. "So when you think 'Tailgate,' whether it's a concert or a college football game, you think of a tent with every genre of people -- old, young white, black, grandmas and grandpas and grandkids. Everybody's huddled around the idea of 'let's all have a good time.' Whether it's Pitbull or Charlie Daniels, it doesn't matter. I want to start with the complete universe of potential to listen to this radio station, where most radio formats start with a narrow piece of the pie."
As I listened, it was amazing how my mind was not flipped out by it. In fact, I couldn't stop listening.
"A lot of consultants over 50 think this is ridiculous, stupid and won't work," quipped Miller, with a chuckle. "Every woman under 40 thinks it's brilliant. One of them will be right and one will be wrong."
At the end of the day, "Tailgate" has to generate ratings, party people – or my own - satisfaction notwithstanding. So does Miller foresee the station as a cume animal, a TSL generator, or both?
"Everybody sees the cume potential in this, but my theory gets back to the fact that females listen to an average of six music channels. The average male only listens to two," said Miller. "I'm trying for that female who is popping around looking for an upbeat song she can sing to. I'm going to keep her longer because I'm pushing the buttons for her. That's the idea. I'm always fun, upbeat, familiar and playing a Tailgate 12-pack-in-a-row. Yes, it will have high cume because of that. But I think the TSL for women between 20-40 will shock people. That's my gut feeling."
It will likely take both to put a dent in Charleston’s two market leaders. As Miller pointed out earlier, “Tailgate†leans heavily on Country and Top 40 current music. The most recent, Spring book shows Bristol’s Country WQBE and Top 40 WVSR boasting 16.6 and 10.0 shares, respectively, dominating the market with a combined 26.6 of radio listening. Depending on whether your general outlook is glass half-full or half-empty, this challenge is either impossibly daunting, or an irresistible opportunity to steal shares.
With a population of 213,000 and a market rank of #188, Charleston is a diary-measured market and perhaps the ideal beta-testing environment for "Tailgate." But I wondered, which ratings methodology Miller sees this concept better suited to?
"I think in a metered market you'd have an advantage," he believes. "Because it's hard to create buzz in this world. But with something as new, different, exciting and unpredictable as this, the word-of-mouth would spread dramatically. Even though you're competing with established brands, it would explode much quicker in a PPM market than a diary market, which we know are always behind the trends anyway."
There are also revenue implications, says Miller. "From a branding and sales position, while new and difficult to explain at first, this can be tied to any event, concert or anything that comes to town. Elton John, Jason Aldean, a truck pull – you're in play for all of it and that is a huge sales opportunity."
Alrighty then. Let me throw it to you, the readers, a.k.a. my vast and unpaid research department. What are your thoughts about "Tailgate 107.3?"
Stream it here and let me know what you think of the music mix, imaging and overall idea.
Email comments below of to me directly: rjcurtis@allaccess.com.
Meanwhile, here's a sample monitor of what I heard on launch day for your perusal:
- Eminem & Rhianna - Monster
- Sam Hunt – Leave the Night On
- Imaging: Regular radio is over – this is the new radio revolution.
- The Band Perry – Hip To My Heart
- Imaging: The station where Jay –Z and Dierks come to party.
- Becky G – Shower
- Imaging: Some songs just sounds better with a summer cocktail.
- ZBB – Toes
- Stopset
- One Republic – Love Runs Out
- Imaging: For those of you tired of regular radio – this is the radio revolution!
- Luke Bryan – Shake It for Me
- Imaging: I can promise ya – you won't hear this on regular radio – here's another old school classic!
- Positive K – I Got A Man
- Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA
- Jx
- Frankie Ballard – Sunshine & Whiskey
- Imaging: Who wants slow and easy when you can have it fast and hard?
- INXS – New Sensation
- Enrique Eglesias f/Desember Bueno & Gente De Zona – Bailondo
- Eric Church – Cold One
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