How hot was it in Portland this Tuesday? “The Pacific Northwest is melting!” declared PD/PMD Dylan Salisbury on KBFF (Live 95.5). One of Live’s sweepers announced that they were “currently taking reservations for friends with a boat and central air-conditioning.” Another said, “This is the heat they had Stanley and Zero diggin’ them holes in.” On KKRZ (Z100), PD/PMD Rayne played up the air-conditioned part of a museum-ticket giveaway.
Portland was one of the earliest markets where CHR seemed to go cold. According to ratings expert Chris Huff, iHeart’s Z100 first descended into the four-share range, then a rare occurrence for a major-market heritage CHR a decade ago. Since 2018, it has typically been found in the three-shares.
So while the format’s rebound stories remain outliers, it has been gratifying to see one in Portland, where Z100 and Alpha’s Live 95.5 have added more than four shares between them since January. In the June PPM, Live was up 4.3-5.1, making it No. 4 in the market, and the contemporary music leader. Z100 was up 4.1-4.5 (and nearly two shares ahead of January).
Live 95.5 has made a few appearances in these pages over the last year thanks to the presence of middayer Ashley Elzinga, whose “AI Ashley” alter-ego became the first and heavily watched test case of AI-generated hosting. It has also been the major-market CHR most likely to acknowledge streaming’s left-field hits.
Z100 returned to my radar in February for bringing PD Tim “Rayne” Rainey back to radio after three years. Live 95.5 recently added TM Studio’s “Live in Portland” package. As the “AI Ashley” experiment enters its second year, there were plenty of reasons to take a “Fresh Listen” to both stations.
Compared to Live 95.5, Z100 has a deeper throwback component, although it’s become more reaction-record-conscious since Rayne’s arrival. There was a “before you added it to your playlist, you heard it here first on Z100” stager before “Million Dollar Baby.” (Mediabase shows the station as having been three days ahead of Live on the first spin.)
In that way, and others, you can hear Rayne working hard to reanimate even regular station business like the hourly “text-to-win” codeword teasers, or talking about the most-requested song. He had also just brought the “What’s in My Pants?” feature to the market. “We did it on Friday and got two complaints, so we have to do it again.” (The item in question that day was a HydroFlask.)
Between Rayne’s two contests, I counted nine talk breaks that hour, compared to only three that were entirely produced. That’s a ratio I haven’t heard on CHR (or most) stations in a long time.
Here’s Z100 at 3:50 p.m., Monday, July 15:
- Post Malone w/Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help”
- Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!”
- Katy Perry, “Firework”
- Ariana Grande, “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)”
- Linkin Park, “In the End”
- Tommy Richman, “Million Dollar Baby”
- David Kushner, “Daylight”
- Dua Lipa, “Illusion”
- Black Eyed Peas, “Where Is the Love”
- Hozier, “Too Sweet”
- Sabrina Carpenter, “Please Please Please”
- Miguel, “Sure Thing”
- Imagine Dragons, “Demons”
- Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso”
- Billie Eilish, “Birds of a Feather”
And here’s the station at 2:50 p.m., Tuesday, July 16:
- Ariana Grande, “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)”
- Sabrina Carpenter, “Please Please Please”
- OneRepublic, “Counting Stars”
- Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things”
- Baby Bash, “Suga Suga”
- Billie Eilish, “Lunch”
- Tate McRae, “Greedy”
- Dua Lipa, “Illusion”
- Post Malone, “Better Now”
- Gotye, “Somebody That I Used to Know”
- Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso”
- Billie Eilish, “Birds of a Feather”
I listened to both Elzinga and Salisbury on Tuesday. The only appearances of “AI Ashley” in the hour I heard that day were weather forecasts, along with three regular breaks. She teased Salisbury’s upcoming Niall Horan ticket giveaway. She also did a break about pet names before announcing, “We’re commercial free at 12:30, Buttercup!”
Salisbury was mostly talking about the weather — not a throwaway topic on a day that went into the upper 90s. “Taylor’s preaching with this one,” he said next to Swift’s “Cruel Summer.” He also asked listeners what they were ordering for Amazon Prime Day. So far, he said, it had just been dog bones. “But it’s early.”
Some other notes:
- Live’s new jingles promise “Portland’s Top Hits.” KBFF never felt low-effort to me before, but the jingles do make a definite difference in the “something’s happening” factor. There’s also a signature jingle that appears once or so an hour on Z100, meaning that the market has not just a viable CHR battle, but one with jingles on both stations to some extent.
- Z100 was giving away tickets to Throwback Hip-Hop sister KXJM (Jamn 107.5)’s “Summer Jam” concert, featuring Ice Cube, E-40, Mya, Luniz, and Ginuwine.
- Z100’s Rayne did a break about the upcoming Portland Pride Festival and Parade, particularly how much he’d heard about it as a newcomer to the market. Live 95.5 had a sweeper declaring itself “Proudly Portland.”
Here’s Live 95.5 just before 11 a.m., Tuesday, July 16:
- Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso”
- The Weeknd, “Blinding Lights”
- Tommy Richman, “Million Dollar Baby”
- Teddy Swims, “Lose Control”
- Kendrick Lamar, “Just Like Us”
- Gayle, “ABCDEFU”
- Post Malone w/Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help”
- Sabrina Carpenter, “Feather”
- Justin Bieber, “Ghost”
- Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!”
- David Kushner, “Daylight”
- Sabrina Carpenter, “Please Please Please”
- Wiz Khalifa f/Charlie Puth, “See You Again”
- Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things”
- Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
- DJO, “End of Beginning”
- Artemas, “I Like the Way You Kiss Me”
- Taylor Swift, “Cruel Summer”
And here’s the station at 4 p.m., Tuesday, July 16:
- DJO, “End of Beginning”
- Tommy Richman, “Million Dollar Baby”
- Dua Lipa, “Levitating”
- Hozier, “Too Sweet”
- Billie Eilish, “Birds of a Feather”
- Pink Pantheress & Ice Spice, “Boy’s a Liar (Pt. II)”
- Taylor Swift, “Fortnight”
- Jonas Brothers, “Sucker”
- Dua Lipa, “Dance the Night”
- Sabrina Carpenter, “Please Please Please”
- The Weeknd, “The Hills”
- Chappell Roan, “Pink Pony Club”
- Sam Smith & Normani, “Dancing With a Stranger”
- Taylor Swift, “Cruel Summer”
- Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
- Nicki Minaj f/Ice Spice w/Aqua, “Barbie World”