By Sean Ross In Some Markets, 2021 Was Way Less Sad For CHR They were the CHR markets where All Time Low’s “Monsters,” AJR’s “Bang,” and Machine Gun Kelly’s “My Ex’s Best Friend” were even bigger hits, even sooner. They were faster on Country or Country-adjacent hits–stations where Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like” made it into […]
By Sean Ross This column was originally going to be called “why radio detail still matters.” Over the years when I write about the details of radio programming too minutely, the “O” word will inevitably come up. And while “overthink” is certainly a possibility, I don’t hear much evidence of it when I listen to […]
By Sean Ross In late July, I heard WHTZ (Z100) New York play “Good 4 U” by Olivia Rodrigo, followed by “Love Again” by Dua Lipa. “Good 4 U” was, at that point, an eight-week-old record, but one of the few that had gone to power rotation almost instantly. “Love Again” ultimately did not go […]
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From the moment that AC WKJY Long Island, N.Y., returned to its longtime K-Joy 98.3 identity, it was never quite as consistently soft as some of its new Soft AC counterparts. The station was positioned as “Long Island’s Place to Relax,” but it didn’t sound as much like KISQ (the Breeze) San Francisco as much […]
By Sean Ross Both of these things are true: Pop music and pop radio have been suffering from a shortage of uptempo hits. Pop music and radio have been suffering from a dearth of love ballads. Only the second statement will surprise regular Ross on Radio readers. I’ve always considered a steady supply of a […]
By Sean Ross There hasn’t been much opportunity over the last 18 months to discover new stations by dialing around on a road trip. But a few weeks ago, I was in Southern New England. When I hit seek again, I knew I wanted to stop on the station that played “Got a Hold on […]
By Sean Ross We need more hits. We could have more hits. I’m thinking about Top 40 and Hot AC when I say this, but every current-based format, with the exception of Christian AC, feels challenged at the moment. When radio stopped being the gatekeeper for new music, it staked out a new role as […]
By Sean Ross The concept of the “oh wow” oldie has been around for a while. As I have found out from writing about the “Lost Factor” of various hits over the years, everybody’s threshold for what song evokes the “oh wow” response is different, often dependent on whether they listen to satellite radio or […]
By Sean Ross For a long time, the ‘90s were an almost non-existent decade at Adult Contemporary radio. The challenges were the same as ‘90s product on the radio in general. There had been relatively few consensus hits in the ‘90s, at least until Top 40’s late ‘90s comeback. Much of the Modern AC/singer-songwriter product […]