In recent months, the once dominant Atlanta country station Kicks 101.5 has gone back to being almost exclusively current based after a foray mixing in older tunes from the 1990s.
Clearly, Kicks has decided to match up as closely as possible to 94.9/The Bull, which has been the leading country station in the ratings almost across the board since last November. This past June, the Bull had its biggest month in its eight-year history, landing at No. 5 among all radio stations with a 5.7 rating compared to a 3.5 for Kicks, tied for 14th place, based on Nielsen Audio ratings.
Among 25 to 54 year olds, the Bull ranked in third place behind only 97.1/The River and top-rated V-103. Kicks came in 13th. A year ago in June, both stations were tied for ninth place with a 4.2 rating.
When the Bull arrived in late 2006, Kicks had no trouble beating back the upstart for much of the battle. While the Bull began pulling in younger listeners over time, Kicks maintained its overall lead with only a few exceptions until late last year.
Kicks first began salting in 1990s cuts more heavily in the fall of 2011 as a way to differentiate itself from the Bull. For a time, it was playing three or four songs from the era of Faith Hill, Travis Tritt and Garth Brooks, or about 20 percent of all songs spun, according to Mediabase 24/7, which tracks radio airplay.
But starting last year, the station began trimming back the 1990s to one per hour with about 10 percent of songs spun prior to 2000. Then earlier this year, the 1990s were down to 6 percent of songs spun. By the spring, Kicks had even cut back songs from the 2000-09 era. Just 17 percent of all songs spun were more than four years old.
Now? There is just a single song per hour prior to 2010, most from the 2000s. On Thursday, the station played only four entire cuts from the 1990s: Tim McGraw's "Where the Green Grass Grows," Kenny Chesney's "How Forever Feels," Chesney's "She's Got It All" and Garth Brooks' "Two Pina Coladas."
Over the past month, the 1990s represent less than one percent of all songs with 9 percent from 2000 to 2009.
Surprisingly, Kicks is now slightly more current than the Bull, which spun 14 percent of its songs from 1990 to 2009.
Using a head-to-head comparison of each station from Thursday via Mediabase 24/7, it's clear the Bull plays more music than Kicks, usually one or two extra songs an hour. Over a given week, the Bull plays about 200 more songs than Kicks. The difference: Kicks runs more ads than the Bull.
Both stations usually have two commercial stop sets per hour but Kicks averages six to seven minutes per break while the Bull typically runs five to six.
The overlap in songs between the two stations is pretty high, which shouldn't be surprising since they are basically running the same country format.
Of the top 100 songs Kicks played last week, the Bull played 88 of them. And of the top 100 songs the Bull played, Kicks played 92 of them.
Both of their playlists are very similar in size. The Bull last week spun 331 unique titles. Kicks? 346.
Kicks in 2012 averaged a 3.7 rating compared to 3.3 for the Bull. in 2013, Kicks moved up to a 4.23 rating while the Bull closed the gap with a 4.01 rating. This year so far, the Bull has averaged a 5 share compared to a 3.6 share for Kicks.
Early last year, Kicks got rid of its long-time program director Mark Richards. Greg Frey currently runs the shop.
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