Radios have been around for more than 100 years now and it has played a big role in our modern society. Through radio, news, music and advertisements have thrived. However, as technology advanced time after time, the radio stations had many other stations to compete with. For this assignment, I chose KPWR 106 which is hip-hop station to examine and learn why this station is a successful one. I think there are two types of radio personalities: those that plan an actual show, and those that have no idea what they want to talk until the station starts. A planned show keeps the listeners tuned in and makes the listeners want to come back to it often. PWR 106 is seems unplanned but maintains the good hit playlist and engaging talks. There are several things to keep in mind, which I have learned from this assignment.
The time frame was 10:30 to 11:30 in the morning on March 19th,2014. The station was called KPWR106 and it mainly played rap, hip-hop and R&B. The Format of the show kind of unique. The first 15 minutes, it played 2 music back to back and then one 30 second commercial and repeated once more. However after 15 minute mark, it had about 9 commercials non-stop 15 to 30 second playing time each. Following the unending commercials, 9 songs were played non-stop again, each one playing for about 3 minutes. So in total there were total of 18 commercials for about 11 minutes. They advertised auto insurance, school degree programs, loans, cars, sandwiches, chocolate bars and public health message about lung cancer from smoking.
They total of 15 songs which 10 of them were very recent hit songs. The time was in the morning so they were mostly playing upbeat songs. I heard couple slower songs but most of them were fast and upbeat. 9 songs were played in a row with nothing in between and I thought that was very unusual.
The DJ of this station barely did any talk. In between commercial and songs, with record intro in the background, he talked about Monster tour concert with Eminem and Rhianna for 15 seconds every time. This was not a show format so the whole hour was music and commercials. His name was Big Boi and he rarely gave the song title and artist information. The main focus of him was to advertise the upcoming Monster tour concert in Rosebowl in Pasadena. This was promoted 3 times during the hour 0f listening.
The most important thing I learned is that this station focuses on is its audience in the age group of 18-35. Typically in radio there is a targeted demographic so this station generally focused on young age group who like hip-hop and R&B. The commercial had a lot of school degree programs and cheap auto insurance so it was definitely targeting the younger crowd. The station stayed related to the format and interest of their station. If the time frame was at night I might have listened to more personality rich talk show format, however it was during the day so it was more focus on the upbeat playlist of music. The image of the station is young, hip, cool, swaggy, upbeat, modern and it definitely attracted young, popular group. I liked this station when it was playing 9 songs in a row. However, they were repeating the popular songs, so I did not like it. Also to have in mind the internet radios. Compared to internet radios where you can select your own playlist or have variety of music to listen to, this station seemed a little bit boring since it only played hip-hop. They should create a way to broaden their listener to overseas. Internet marketing will certainly reach out to many listeners. I really liked the idea that they put all the commercials together in a row and the songs together in a row. If I make my own radio station, I would do the same.
