Sunny 93.9 Reaches Dusk

by Dana

Radio station Sunny 93.9 (WRSN) is the latest of the ClearChannel brand to change its format. The station we all know for Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow, and other soft hits has exclusively been playing Christmas music for several weeks. On December 26, however, the station will begin its new Dance format.

Commercials on the station promise a format that will "make you feel good" and tease listeners with the sounds of Christina Aguilera, Michael Jackson, Lipps Inc., Kool and the Gang, Paula Abdul, C&C Music Factory, and others. Other promotions are for the Whoopi Goldberg morning show, "Wake Up With Whoopi", from 5am to 9am.

Comments

[Lew]

More like a format change from "Bad Music" to "Even More Bad Music". XM here I come! Maybe ClearChannel has a stake in satellite radio. Business Plan = If we make the selection so awful they wil have no choice but to switch to satellite. Brilliant!

[Jason]

Lew,
IIRC clear channel has a significant stake in XM (In the neighborhood of 30%-50%)

-Jason

[Cj]

Clear channel owns many of the popular music station (as far as I understand). If you don't like what was there before or what will be on it in the future, so be it. I'm sure that and adequate amount of research was done to come up with the idea to switch to a different format (ie gaining a wider audience, incentive to advertisers, more money for clear channel).

[MikeB]

The poor state of music radio in the Triangle is exactly why my dial never leaves the AM sports stations.

[Kenny]

Even the sports satations stink.

[Lew]

So true MikeB, so true!

I completely understand the reasons why stations switch formats, I was just commenting on the fact that in my opinion (no offense to Simply Red and Paula Abdul) it's mindless garbage being played on these stations (again no offense to these "artists"). It's safe and FREE public radio and what really should I expect for free. I have to go download some iTunes ...

[Matt K]

Actually, for a station like Sunny, this would be the first instance where Clear Channel has made an improvement to a station. I wouldn't mind hearing some classic dance and disco, and that's one less spot on the dial featuring the same music the dentist's office does.

Of course, that's assuming that the new format is executed correctly. Knowing what I know about one of the new forces in charge there at Sunny, I'm willing to say it might do well. "The River" and "The Rooster" however, are pretty good examples about how to take something from bad to worse.

And good god, I wish someone in the area would pick up Bob & Tom. :(

[Kenny]

Hopefully they play some Stevie B & TKA

[RaleighRob]

Ok...let's get some accuracy here. I consider myself one of the biggest Dance Music aficionados I know, and from this description, this is NOT a "Dance Music Radio channel" in the sense of what the industry truly calls "Dance Music" today.
Instead, I'd call this a poppish/bubblegum fluff mixed with a little oldie disco. :-P

Accurately, "Dance Music" as it's defined today would be XM channels 80, 81, & 82. Or Sirius channels 33 & 36. Or Music Choice (cable) 916.
Stuff like House, Techno, Trance, Eurodance, Freestyle, HiNRG, etc.

Paula Abdul, C&C as dance? Yeah, maybe 15 years ago.
Where's the Paul van Dyk? The Deep Dish? Where's Inaya Day or Kate Ryan or Kristine W? Or even Basement Jaxx?? Geesh.
Leave it to Clear Channel to ruin something that could have potential. :-P

[Victoria]

Do you think the average listener has even heard of Pal van Dyk? If CC is looking to make a "kinder, gentler" dance station, they are better off playing songs that people recognize and can relate to. I don't think a 35 year-old female would have the same great memories when she hears Castles in the Sky by Ian van Dahl as she would hearing Baby Got Back. I'm not saying Baby Got Back is necessarily a BETTER song, but it's serving the purpose of the radio station much better than the unfamiliar techno, trance or house songs.

[RaleighRob]

^Victoria, that was sort of my point, actually. Corporate radio like CC is too scared to play anything that the vast majority of people aren't already familiar with. (Probably why the Triangle has a dozen stations that play the same type of music.) Except for college stations, you can't find FM radio that plays ANY thing unique or off the beaten path....regardless of the genre.
If they want a station to play dancy-pop-fluff stuff that's fine I suppose, but "Dance Radio" is a bit misleading of a label, considering what industry norm is today.

[Matt K]

It's not going to be "current" dance by any stretch of the imagination. Think more "classic" dance, like early 90's, 80's disco. The proper term would be "Rhythmic AC". So no, it won't be anything remotely close to what you hear on Satellite - I have Sirius, and the closest channel it might resemble on there might be "The Strobe", but it's going to sound even more mainstream than that does. RaleighRob, I know EXACTLY what you are referring - all of those artists and more are in my library. That's why I have satellite... lol :)

Stevie B and TKA... hmmm... remote possibility, but I don't know how they'll "tune" the playlist of the station. I'd like to hope that the station will be slanted more in that direction, and less toward Whitney Houston, Pebbles, and Paula Abdul. Think along the lines of something resembling KTU or Mix 102.7 in NYC if you know either of those stations, at all.

[Justin H.]

Here we go again. When I used to listen to FM radio/local sports talk, it always annoyed me when someone responded to my bitching about content/commercials by telling me to get Sirius or XM, but now I'm on the other side.

If you know someone who has Sirius, you can get a basic unit for your car and 6-months of prepaid subscription for $42 until December 31. XM has the same offer, but there's the whole Clear Channel thing.

[DanRNC]

XM and Sirius stink as well. How many of those stations are retro rehashed garbage or pop metal for kids with geometric hair-dos? Throw is a splash of brain dead Hollywood country and "indy" schlock (most of which is on major record labels)and magically you have satellite radio. I would prefer to listen to any of the Triangle stations to the left of 91.5FM.

[Tommy]

The day this "new" station plays Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, Tommie Sunshine, ect... is the day that it would be a "Dance Music" station. Until then, I will continue to use XM as I have for the past nearly 4 years.

[Jeff S]

There's no point in them trying to attract the people that don't listen to mainstream radio -- and you don't really want them to anyway. As soon as they did you'd have to abandon all your music because it was suddenly too "mainstream".

I still have no reason to tune to 93.9... another yawn for triangle radio.

[MrPrecedent]

I used to listen to 93.9 all day/night at work and home, but found another station when they started playing Christmas music around-the-clock (surely, that is what Hell is like). Now, with the format change, I have no reason to tune back in.

[AW]

I miss The River...I miss it bad. I know it might not have been the best station out there, but I didn't know how much I listented to it until it was gone. Radio is crappy in this town PERIOD. This dance format seems to be grasping at straws. If CC couldn't make it work with The River I can't imagine it would work with this.

[maureen]

When CC changed the format on "The River" to "classic rock", it lost me forever! It sucks - and the same songs are played over and over! Now with the new 'feel good' format on 93.9, I'm hoping to hear more of the former River music! Thank god for my ipod!

[BPM]

I am a true dance music lover myself. I have an extensive dance music library of over 600 cd's. Having said that..I don't ever expect to hear anything on any Triangle radio station that I would consider true dance music outside Afterhours on 88.1. Victoria mentioned songs like "Castles in the Sky". I find songs like that to be dance fluff. Just dancey enough to be categorized in the dance section at the local record store, but bubblegummy enough for the 13 year old teeny bopper whose favorite cd is the High School Musical soundtrack. I would prefer a station that played the likes of Dara, Dieselboy, Deep Dish, Tiesto, and so on, but outside 88.1 Mon-Thurs nights there isn't gonna be much of it on the radio waves around here. Having said all that, I will admit that I actually like the new format. Maybe its the gay gene in me that makes me keep the radio on a station that will play "I'm Every Woman" followed by "Finally" by Cece Peniston. At any rate I think it is much better than the sappy, make me wanna shoot myself in the head over and over bs that used to be played on 93.9. How many times can you hear Delilah play "Love Will Keep Us Alive" without gagging? Good riddance Sunny 93.9..hello whatever the hell they are calling themselves now! This gay guy/dance music connoisseur will be a loyal listener when afterhours on 88.1 isn't on.

[Nick]

Just another reason my dial never leaves 88.1 WKNC or AM Sports talk, even if 1050/1490 were bought out and remain dead.

[Me :-(]

I like to listen to the dance/pop crap every once in a while, but that's why I turn to 93.3. When commercials would be on every where else, I could tune into 93.9 because I could hear good music. Now it's not any better than 93.3, and I've never heard of most of the songs they're playing now. I wish they'd never changed their format... :-(

[Lee]

I don't like the new format at all. I use to wake up to this station. Guess what? I won't anymore. Have you flipped? I can't stand Whoppi Goldberg or this music. Why the change? Bye Bye 93.9!!!

[Bob Tippett]

Well, goodbye 93.9 --- you really have gone to hell now with your new "feel good" format. If you own so many damn stations, why can't you just use one to broadcast some REAL music, decent music?

I won't be setting my dial to 93.9 again!

[David]

It would take experiencing a pretty high fever to ever find Whoopi funny, and in that case I wouldn't be riding around listening to her on the radio anyway.