WMIA (Totally 93.9) Miami, iHeart’s much-watched all-‘90s station that launched nearly two years ago, never got traction and finally segued to a more mainstream AC. To some extent, WMIA was pre-empted by gold-based AC WFEZ (Easy 93.1), which pumped up its own ‘90s content.
For some, WMIA might have seemed like the end of the discussion about whether all-‘90s throwbacks were going to end up as a format or a lunchtime feature, but there was no denying that the ‘90s songs in question were going to surface somehow.
The evidence was in Canada where both CKPW (Play 107) Edmonton, Alberta, and, more recently CIUP (C97.7) Calgary are doing a ‘90s-heavy gold-based AC that frees them of having to stick to 1990-99, and also allows them to tap into both the early ‘00s and the CHR rebound in the late ‘00s/early ‘10s. (For those stations, there is also the extra bonus of being able to cherry-pick 25 years of Canadian Content, not just ten.)
iHeart’s KSTE (Kiss 107.9) Sacramento, Calif., arrives more after a month of creative stunting on the frequency vacated when longtime Top 40 KDND (the End) moved to 106.5 FM, allowing Entercom to relinquish the station to the FCC. In a different time, iHeart wanted a CHR Kiss-FM in every market. Now, the excitement is for throwbacks and Kiss is positioned as “the best variety from the ‘90s and 2000s.”
The new format could be called “The End’s Greatest Hits,” and there’s a line in the launch promo—“we’re proud to reignite one of Northern California’s largest stations”—that pretty much confirms that intention. Ironically, the End is now on the frequency of the former KBZC (The Buzz), which did the first major all-‘90s format in May 2009.
Overall, Kiss 107.9 feels more AC/Hot AC than CHR in its positioning and its writing. It is interesting to note though that the launch promo has a few different mentions of diversity, including a promise to be “one station for all people.”
In the late ‘90s, with Top 40 resurgent, I remember then-WHYI (Y100) Miami PD Rob Roberts reaching the point where he felt he could finally drop his gold-based weekends, because the currents were better than any throwbacks. Top 40 product is better, but it’s not deep, it’s not yet a demonstrable format magnet, and it’s still easily upstaged each week by bringbacks from “Running Up That Hill” to (this week) “Pass the Dutchie.”
Having been through three Top 40 downturns, I feel like there is a way forward for CHR, but it involves a cohesive response from both the format community and the record labels, distracted by streaming and its endless supply of randomness, only some of it valuable.
The path for throwbacks is easier than CHR, but (as WMIA shows) not easy. There were 3-4 distinct CHR eras in Top 40 in the ‘90s. Since then, there’s the Eve/Linkin Park early ‘00s, the American Idol mid-‘00s, and the turbopop/CHR revival era. Different listeners love them differently. They fit together more easily than the Pearl Jam ‘90s and the Spice Girls ‘90s, but there’s still craft involved.
Here’s Kiss 107.9 on its first day, June 8, at 1:50 p.m.:
- Backstreet Boys, “Larger Than Life”
- B.o.B., “Airplanes”
- Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, Pink, “Lady Marmalade”
- Shaggy & Janet, “Luv Me Luv Me”
- Twenty One Pilots, “Ride”
- Pussycat Dolls, “Don’t Cha”
- ‘N Sync, “It’s Gonna Be Me”
- Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off,”
- Rihanna, “SOS”
- Semisonic, “Closing Time”
- Bruno Mars, “Just the Way You Are”
- Camila Cabello f/Young Thug, “Havana”
- Panic! At The Disco, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”
- Tove Lo, “Habits (Stay High)”
