O'Brien - a veteran of Washington radio and former Clear Channel manager - says Bonneville management has given him a "three-year rubber stamp" to make the experiment work. Clear Channel would counter that it plays tough but fair, and acts only in stockholder and listener interests. "Z104 had never had a monster Top 40 station like this at their throat."Ĭritics of Clear Channel will point to Z104's surrender as one more example of the media gargantua's Microsoft-like ability to drive rivals from the field. ![]() "It was a SWAT team approach to putting on a radio station," says Hot 99.5 program director Jeff Wyatt, a veteran of KIIS, Clear Channel's hugely successful Los Angeles Top 40 station. For instance, Hot 99.5 deejays use the slang word "ish," apparently street code for the scatological expletive. Hot 99.5 even tapped the brains of youthful Clear Channel producers for lingo that young listeners would consider authentic. The station drew on research from Washington and other cities. One involved a stunt man in a Z104 T-shirt knocking on doors, saying he was an "animal sex offender" who had just moved to the neighborhood.īehind the scenes, Hot 99.5 was marshaling the resources of a 1,200-station giant: It is owned by Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio chain. Hot 99.5 launched tasteless promotions aimed at crippling Z104. Then Hot 99.5 ads suggested that Z104 - which is owned by Bonneville, which is owned by the Mormon Church - was not hip enough to bring Washingtonians hit music. Hot 99.5 promos attacked Z104's "staticky" sound. When Hot 99.5 debuted on April 6, the station went straight for Z104's soft underbelly: its weaker signal. Nighttime deejay Mathew Blades was fired in the format switch. Second, that you should shut up and play the music, to kill all the clutter and all the hype," which includes idle deejay chatter. "One, that women are so fed up with commercials, they can't stand them anymore. "Two things were the consensus in all the research we did," says Z104 General Manager Mark O'Brien. To compensate, Z104 has raised ad rates about 40 percent. Z104's research suggests that this tactic will deliver the 18-to-49-year-old female listeners the station desires.įurther - and this is risky - the new Z104 is playing only six minutes of commercials an hour, slashing its ad load in half. The new Z104 is a little Mix 107.3, a little DC101, a little WASH, a little WHFS. Instead, Z104 says, its new format is unique to Washington: It combines on one station songs that have been spread all over the radio dial. ![]() (Z104 switched from oldies to Top 40 in 1996.) Folks at Z104 (WWZZ, 104.1 FM) admit that Hot 99.5's ratings climb over the summer was a factor, but they are unwilling to say they were driven from Top 40. The new Z104 debuted yesterday.Įxecs at Hot 99.5 (WPGC-FM) are claiming complete and total victory. Instead, Z104 will aim for an older and heavily female audience, playing acts like Dave Matthews, U2 and Sarah McLachlan. Z104 has abandoned the hit music format, ceding youth-oriented pop artists like Nelly, Janet Jackson and Destiny's Child to invading rival Hot 99.5. The Washington Top 40 war is over, only six months after it began.
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