The surprise opening of a pipeline between Triple-A and Top 40 is also good news for Adult Top 40 radio. It makes Hot AC a conduit to CHR again, rather than merely a slower version of Top 40. It seemed likely that a station would lean into that music in some way.
Since the arrival of new cluster SVP/Programming Mark Medina, iHeart’s KMXP (Mix 96.9) Phoenix has been moving in that direction, finally reaching the point where Radioinsight reported the segue last week. As the site’s Lance Venta notes, it pulls Mix further away from CHR sister KZZP (104.7 Kiss-FM) and flanks Hubbard’s Alternative KDKB (Alt AZ 93.3), currently at a 4.0, while many of Phoenix’s heavily fragmented pop stations are in the 2-3 share range.
Mix 96.9’s change puts it in the company of sister KTCZ (Cities 97.1) Minneapolis, which has had a Modern AC lean for more than a decade. It also draws on the heritage of the station itself. A lot of the then Jacor/Clear Channel “Mix” stations of the late ‘90s/early ‘00s anticipated Adult Hits by mixing AC and Classic Rock. I remember Phoenix having more of an Alternative lean, which included playing “Banditos” by the Refreshments (a local band, but still a provocative choice at the time).
I want to be careful about declaring a resurgence of the now 30-year-old Modern AC format. I have, ahem, done that before. It depends a lot on available product. It also depends on the health of Triple-A and Alternative as sources for the music. But it’s an interesting project. So I took a Fresh Listen to both Mix 96.9 and Cities 97.1 last week.
“I Had Some Help” and “Fast Car” (which has Modern AC credentials) are both still on Mix 96.9, but Ariana Grande and “Feather” by Sabrina Carpenter are gone, and “Espresso” has never been added. Songs in the hook promos range from “Thunder” and “Misery Business” to “Austin” and “Raise Your Glass.” Current titles all have custom-info featuring artist-drop-ins.
On the day I heard Mix, “Producer Sid” was handling middays (and seemingly also covering for morning hosts Priscilla & Joey based on some of the breaks). There were teasers for Billie Eilish and Green Day Tickets, both directing listeners to the station site. Here’s the new Mix 96.9 at 10:50 a.m., July 5:
- All-American Rejects, “Move Along”
- Billie Eilish, “Lunch”
- Calling, “Wherever You Will Go”
- AJR, “Bang!”
- Ed Sheeran, “Thinking Out Loud”—the :00 ID song
- Barenaked Ladies, “One Week”
- Maneskin, “Beggin’”
- Teddy Swims, “Lose Control”
- Imagine Dragons, “Radioactive”
- Kelly Clarkson, “Since U Been Gone”
- Michael Marcagi, “Scared to Start”
- Green Day, “Time of Your Life”
- Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things”
- Foster the People, “Sit Next to Me”
- Avril Lavigne, “Complicated”
- Twenty One Pilots, “The Craving”
- Panic! At the Disco, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”
- Zach Bryan f/Kacey Musgraves, “I Remember You”
I listened to Cities earlier in the week. Mix’s imaging doesn’t give any particular hint of the format modification. Cities continues to draw on its heritage with the “uniquely Twin Cities” positioner. (There was also another liner, a throwback to the early days of Adult Hits, declaring “it’s okay, we don’t know what’s going to happen next either.”) In the May PPMs, Cities was up 3.3.-3.8, pushing ahead of non-comm Alternative KCMP [The Current]” 3.6-3.4.
Here’s Cities 97.1 at 10 a.m., July 2, with middayer Madison:
- Vanessa Carlton, “A Thousand Miles”
- Noah Kahan, “Stick Season”
- Vertical Horizon, “Everything You Want”
- Bad Wolves, “Zombie”
- Eurythmics, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”
- Coldplay, “Feels Like I’m Falling in Love”
- Taylor Swift, “I Knew You Were Trouble (Taylor’s Version)”
- Edwin McCain, “I’ll Be”
- Teddy Swims, “The Door”
- Staind, “It’s Been Awhile”
- Dido, “Thank You”
- Good Neighbours, “Home”
And here’s the same hour on July 4, according to Mediabase, when the station was all-‘90s for the holiday:
- Smashing Pumpkins, “Tonight, Tonight”
- Live, “I Alone”
- Tom Cochrane, “Life is a Highway”
- Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories, “Stay (I Missed You)”
- Soul Asylum, “Black Gold”
- 4 Non Blondes, “What’s Up”
- Third Eye Blind, “Semi-Charmed Life”
- Better Than Ezra, “Good”
- Dave Matthews Band, “Crash into Me”
- Smash Mouth, “Walkin’ On the Sun”
- Sublime, “Santeria”
Sean, I was driving through Phoenix last Sunday and the scan stopped on KMXP. After an hour of listening, I thought, “Hey, this station sounds more Pop/Rock than the last time I listened.”
It’s not a return, but it is encouraging to see two large market stations take the chance. Well one has been, and the other one is a return to form. Honestly, it seems iHeart is the best at implementing this format. Plus, there’s that dirty little secret that they have the ability to draw from the logs of a lot of their AI custom stations that have similar formats like my personal favorite, minivan rock. I feel at least comfortable in saying, however many stations take a chance on it, it will be a much different iteration of yesterday’s modern AC format, including some other previous sounds, that weren’t available at the time. The ultimate issue is one raised here, precarious releases, and having programmed AAA last year, there are definitely up-and-down cycles. Especially at the beginning of the year, but at least, in this case, hot AC can hold onto the songs longer until the spring releases come. Beyond the music though I think it creates a conversational adult contemporary format idea, not quite join the conversation, but something where the hosts can afford to be a little more, well, direct, instead of being a CHR archetype. the good news is, if even a few more stations jump on board, the labels will push that music, which will create a healthier ecosystem for three formats that desperately need it.
I’m a Phoenix resident and a regular listener of Mix 96.9, but I would often flip through the dial because the music selection on Mix was getting a bit stale in the last few years with an overwhelming supply of generic pop songs by Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, etc. I’ve always liked the Modern AC format for the most part, and was glad when Mix started putting more alternative-leaning songs back on the playlist in the last few weeks. Walk the Moon, Green Day, Of Monsters and Men, and Red Hot Chili Peppers are now heard more frequently on Mix 96.9, along with more current songs from Michael Marcagi, Twenty One Pilots, and Billie Eilish. My only complaint is Mix still plays music from the ’90s, which should mostly be dropped because those ’90s songs can now be heard pretty frequently on the many classic hit/classic rock stations.
Interestingly backed by research from Kent Phillips and our own listener advisory board at KMBQ Wasilla, AK in 2012-13, The top testing clusters were Pop and AAA. We played Ed Sheeran and Florence and The Machine, Bruno Mars and Mumford and Sons. You can’t go over board with a lot of new AAA. it’s really the gold titles.