First Listen: WMIA (Totally 93.9) Miami

If the all-‘90s format is going to happen, it’s going to happen now.

It’s more than a decade old. The first major-market attempt was “Totally ‘90s” KBZC (The Buzz) Sacramento, Calif., in 2009.

Since that time, the songs that didn’t seem quite ready to come back yet—Britney, Backstreet Boys, and ‘N Sync in particular—have taken a central place in pop culture. They’ve become the sure-fire floor-filler set at any 28-year-old’s wedding. Some of them have become surprisingly strong testers. Some are becoming samples of current hits. In Miami, you can hear Corona’s “The Rhythm Of The Night” on the AC and Classic Hits stations, and hear it interpolated by the Black Eyed Peas on the CHRs.

In a very crowded market, especially for gold-based radio stations, CKPW (Power 107.1) Edmonton, Alberta, was the format’s biggest debut to date. I wrote about them a year ago, and despite both the inevitable leveling off of any gold-based station, and a name change to Play 107.1, forced by a rival station that was “Power” in the ’90s, they remain a viable station in demo with typical ups-and-downs.

In recent weeks, the ‘90s and early ‘00s have been COVID-19 crisis comfort food in multiple formats. iHeart’s WKCI (KC101) New Haven, Conn., has gotten a lot of industry attention for its “Feel Good Weekends.” Over July 4 weekend, I went on a short drive and went from one throwback weekend to another. For a moment it seemed possible that we might skip past the all-‘90s format and instead end up with a sort of gold-based Adult CHR, especially given Adult and Mainstream CHR’s current issues.

Instead, on July 9, iHeart’s Mainstream AC WMIA Miami became all-‘90s Totally 93.9. It’s the first major local-market launch in a while for iHR, although its second significant move in two weeks, following the launch of its Black Information Network. WMIA has gone through numerous incarnations over the last decade, several of which had some ‘90s pop/dance component, but never as clearly focused before.

In defiance of the current radio laws covering station launches, WMIA was launched hosted. It is promising two 90-minute music sweeps at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.—not 10,000 songs in a row. Its positioning is largely ‘90s-based attitude liners, e.g., “all of our parenting skills come from our Tamagotchi” and “enjoy the sounds of the ‘90s, once we rewind our mixtape with a pencil.”

Miami was an unusual radio dial during the ‘90s. Rhythmic WPOW (Power 96) was successfully “CHR for the market” for years. WHYI (Y100) segued to Hot AC and came back relatively slowly. In the first three hours, I’ve only heard one “you had to be in Miami (or New York)” song, Ricky Martin’s “Maria,” but there’s certainly been enough universal pop that happens to be rhythmic to cover those hours so far.

(UPDATE: Early in week two, the station played Proyecto Uno’s “El Tiburion,” a signature Power 96 hit and not a song known to pop audiences outside South Florida. There’s a very good reader comment below on what other songs from the Miami radio legacy they might want to consider.)

How could the ’90s format not happen this time? Maybe listeners could hear it as just another WMIA tweak, although most breakthrough stations had been through a lot of incarnations before landing. It’s possible that the songs that worked great on a “feel good weekend” are better as 3x a week songs than 10x a week songs, although if that ever becomes a problem for an all-‘90s format, Mainsteam AC and Classic Hits will be ready to pick up the slack by then. There’s also the issue of trying to forge a coalition that didn’t exactly exist in 1995, although I’m increasingly sensing that was more of an issue for the broadcasters of 1995 than the listeners.

The first hour of Totally 93.9 was heavy on statement records—Will Smith’s “Miami” as the first song, followed by Britney Spears’ “Baby … One More Time” and Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” The only song that wasn’t rhythmic or rhythmic pop was Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic.” Here’s the station in its second hour, 1 p.m., July 9:

• Shaggy, “Angel”
• Lou Bega, “Mambo No. 5”
• Salt-N-Pepa, “Whatta Man”
• Christina Aguilera, “Genie In A Bottle”
• Santana f/Rob Thomas, “Smooth”
• Whitney Houston, “I’m Every Woman”
• Snap!, “Rhythm Is A Dancer”
• Britney Spears, “Oops … I Did It Again”
• Inner Circle, “Sweat (A La La La La Long)”
• Sir Mix-A-Lot, “Baby Got Back”
• Mariah Carey, “Fantasy”
• Ricky Martin, “Maria”
• Ace Of Base, “The Sign”
• Puff Daddy f/Faith Evans & 112, “I’ll Be Missing You”
• Real McCoy, “Another Night”

Here’s WMIA four days later, on July 13 at 4:00 p.m.

• Spice Girls, “Say You’ll Be There”
• Ini Kamoze, “Here Comes The Hotstepper”
• Duran Duran, “Ordinary World”
• Destiny’s Child, “Say My Name”
• Will Smith, “Miami”
• Tal Bachman, “She’s So High”
• Backstreet Boys, “Larger Than Life”
• Fugees, “Killing Me Softly”
• Big Mountain, “Baby, I Love Your Way”
• Coolio, “Gangsta’s Paradise”
• Le Click, “Tonight Is The Night”
• ‘N Sync, “Tearin’ Up My Heart”
• Brandy & Monica, “The Boy Is Mine”

Finally, here’s Edmonton’s CKPW (Play 107.1) on July 14 at 3 p.m. Play 107.1 doesn’t bill itself as a ‘90s station. It plays more early 2000s music than Totally 93.9, and also will go into the 2010s or even recurrents for Canadian titles.

• Sugar Ray, “Fly”
• Kanye West, “Stronger”
• Magic!, “Rude” (Canadian)
• Shakira, “Whenever, Wherever”
• The Weeknd, “Blinding Lights” (Canadian)
• Love Inc., “Broken Bones” (Canadian)
• Coolio, “Gangsta’s Paradise”
• Usher, “U Remind Me”
• Loud Luxury & Anders, “Love No More” (Canadian)
• Backstreet Boys, “I Want it That Way”
• Classified, “Inner Ninja” (Canadian)’
• Our Lady Peace, “Innocent”
• Blu Cantrell, “Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!)”
• Naughty By Nature, “Hip Hop Hooray”